5th Sunday after Pentecost

Before I start about tomorrow's readings, I'd like to mention two saints of the Catholic Church from England, John Fisher and Thomas More.

These two saints were up against the infamous king, Henry VIII. Because they would NOT give him consent to divorce his current wife to marry another, and since they would NOT bow to him as 'sovereign of the church in England', he had them beheaded days apart, proudly mounting their heads in plain sight to show others what would happen if they fought against him. Sts. John and Thomas, please pray for our clergy, that they might not abandon the Faith during these trying times. John Fisher did have these words to say, knowing full well that many under him had abandoned him in his trials, had this to say: "The fort is betrayed even by them that should defended it."

And now, on to thoughts for tomorrow. The Jews have killed Jesus, but He has risen from the tomb. After weeks, He has now sent the Holy Ghost to teach the world of their sin, and hopefully to bring them to within the fold of Christ. However, they, for the most part, will reject His teachings, Him, and whosoever He has sent. While Jesus was still walking the earth, according to our beloved Abbot Gueranger, 'He never lost an opportunity of denouncing, and castigating those hypocritical scribes and pharisees who took such pains to be ever cleaning the outside of the dish, but within were full of impurities, murder, and the like. the Divine Word, Who had come down from heaven to sanctify men in Truth, that is, in Himself, had to make this His first care: to restore what time had tarnished, to restore all the original brightness to the changeless principles of justice and right, which rest in Him as in their center. No sooner had He called disciples around Him, and chosen twelve out of their number as Apostles, than He began, with all possible solemnity, His Divine work of moral restoration. (Remember St. Pope Pius X, whose motto was to 'Restore all things in Christ? He tried. ) The passage from the Sermon on the Mount, which the Church has selected for the Gospel of this 5th Sunday, follows immediately after His declaring that He had come, not to find fault with, or to destroy, the Law, but to restore it to its true meaning, of which the scribes had deprived it. He had come that He might give it all the fullness, which the very contemporaries of Moses were too hard to take in.'

Remember what I said the other day, of course copying Christ in a way, that by their fruits you shall know them. We hope and pray that one day, maybe in our lifetimes, will see beautiful fruit from the Tree of Life, Christ. This, of course, is after much pain and suffering. She had said that there would be peace some day, but only after more people prayed the Rosary. I don't think it is so much about how many rosaries we pray each day, but rather how many people pray it. Last week, we heard about Peter and the disciples fishing, and when Jesus had them put out their nets again, they broke. Another time, these same caught in their full nets catch 153 fish. Think about it, that number is the same number of Aves we say in an entire Rosary. Just saying I don't think it's just a coincidence.

We also hope and pray that our current Holy Father, Francis, along with all the of the world, finally get around to teaching us the whole Truth which comes to us from the Apostles, with Peter as its earthy head. AND, maybe they could even get around to consecrating Russia to our Our blessed Mother and to her Immaculate Heart, in the way she requested at Fatima 95 years ago. Or, actually, from Tuy, Spain in 1929, when she appeared to Sister Lucy. We need all the help we can get.

Kyrie, Eleison