Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you.
1 Samuel 12:23 KJV The Word for Today.
A quote from the Saints:
St. Ignatius of Loyola
In times of deep discouragement you should never make a change, but stand firm in the resolution and decision that guided you the day before you had the discouragement.
A Christian’s goal should be to create the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in Heaven. Not only, to get to Heaven.
To finish the Bible in one year, Read Proverbs 5-8 and John 8 : 1-11.
Verses for today – Listen here:
Reflection for Today.
Also read the verses, if you like.
Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know;
2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,
3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;
6 far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.
7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:
8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,
9 or she will hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,
10 and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,
11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan
12 and exclaim, ‘Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction;
13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.
14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.’
15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.
16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:
17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,
19 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.
20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else’s wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another?
21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey all human paths.
22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.
23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.
Proverbs 6
1 My child, if you have gone surety for your neighbour, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,
2 if you have committed yourself with your lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped,
3 do this, my child, to extricate yourself — since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbour: go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbour,
4 give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest,
5 break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the fowler’s clutches.
6 Idler, go to the ant; ponder her ways and grow wise:
7 no one gives her orders, no overseer, no master,
8 yet all through the summer she gets her food ready, and gathers her supplies at harvest time.
9 How long do you intend to lie there, idler? When are you going to rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to lie back,
11 and poverty comes like a vagrant and, like a beggar, dearth.
12 A scoundrel, a vicious man, he goes with a leer on his lips,
13 winking his eye, shuffling his foot, beckoning with his finger.
14 Trickery in his heart, always scheming evil, he sows dissension.
15 Disaster will overtake him sharply for this, suddenly, irretrievably, he will be broken.
16 There are six things that Yahweh hates, seven that he abhors:
17 a haughty look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that weaves wicked plots, feet that hurry to do evil,
19 a false witness who lies with every breath, and one who sows dissension among brothers.
20 Keep your father’s precept, my child, do not spurn your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them ever to your heart, tie them round your neck.
22 While you are active, they will guide you, when you fall asleep, they will watch over you, when you wake up, they will converse with you.
23 For the precept is a lamp, the teaching is a light; correction and discipline are the way to life,
24 preserving you from the woman of bad character, from the wheedling talk of a woman who belongs to another.
25 Do not covet her beauty in your heart or let her captivate you with the play of her eyes;
26 a prostitute can be bought for a hunk of bread, but a married woman aims to snare a precious life.
27 Can a man carry fire inside his shirt without setting his clothes alight?
28 Can you walk on red-hot coals without burning your feet?
29 Just so, the man who makes love to his neighbour’s wife: no one who touches her will get off unpunished.
30 People attach but little blame to a thief who steals only to satisfy his hunger;
31 yet even he, if caught, will have to repay sevenfold and hand over all his family resources.
32 But the adulterer has no sense; he works his own destruction.
33 All he will get is blows and contempt, and dishonour never to be blotted out.
34 For jealousy inflames the husband who will show no mercy when the day comes for revenge;
35 he will not consider any compensation; lavish what gifts you may, he will not be placated.
Proverbs 7
1 My child, keep my words, and treasure my precepts,
2 keep my precepts and you will live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind these to your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to Wisdom, ‘You are my sister!’ Call Understanding your relation,
5 to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.
6 While I was at the window of my house, I was looking out through the lattice
7 and I saw, among the callow youths, I noticed among the lads, one boy who had no sense.
8 Going along the lane, near the corner where she lives, he reaches the path to her house,
9 at twilight when day is declining, at dead of night and in the dark.
10 And look, a woman is coming to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, false of heart.
11 She is loud and brazen; her feet cannot rest at home.
12 Once in the street, once in the square, she lurks at every corner.
13 She catches hold of him, she kisses him, the bold-faced creature says to him,
14 ‘I had to offer a communion sacrifice, I have discharged my vows today;
15 that is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and now I have found you.
16 I have spread coverlets over my divan, embroidered stuff, Egyptian material,
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come on, we’ll make love as much as we like, till morning. Let us enjoy the delights of love!
19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a very long journey,
20 taking his moneybags with him; he will not be back till the moon is full.’
21 With her persistent coaxing she overcomes him, lures him on with her wheedling patter.
22 Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,
23 until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.
24 And now, son, listen to me, pay attention to the words I have to say:
25 do not let your heart stray into her ways, or wander into her paths;
26 she has done so many to death, and the strongest have all been her victims.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, the descent to the courts of death.
Proverbs 8
1 Is not Wisdom calling? Is not Understanding raising her voice?
2 On the heights overlooking the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;
3 by the gates, at the entrance to the city, on the access-roads, she cries out,
4 ‘I am calling to you, all people, my words are addressed to all humanity.
5 Simpletons, learn how to behave, fools, come to your senses.
6 Listen, I have something important to tell you, when I speak, my words are right.
7 My mouth proclaims the truth, for evil is abhorrent to my lips.
8 All the words from my mouth are upright, nothing false there, nothing crooked,
9 everything plain, if you can understand, straight, if you have acquired knowledge.
10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, and knowledge of me in preference to finest gold.
11 For Wisdom is more precious than jewels, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.
12 ‘I, Wisdom, share house with Discretion, I am mistress of the art of thought.
13 (Fear of Yahweh means hatred of evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behaviour and a lying mouth.
14 To me belong good advice and prudence, I am perception: power is mine!
15 By me monarchs rule and princes decree what is right;
16 by me rulers govern, so do nobles, the lawful authorities.
17 I love those who love me; whoever searches eagerly for me finds me.
18 With me are riches and honour, lasting wealth and saving justice.
19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.
20 I walk in the way of uprightness in the path of justice,
21 to endow my friends with my wealth and to fill their treasuries.
22 ‘Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works.
23 From everlasting, I was firmly set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being.
24 The deep was not, when I was born, nor were the springs with their abounding waters.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;
26 before he had made the earth, the countryside, and the first elements of the world.
27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a circle on the surface of the deep,
28 when he thickened the clouds above, when the sources of the deep began to swell,
29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries — and the waters will not encroach on the shore — when he traced the foundations of the earth,
30 I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
31 at play everywhere on his earth, delighting to be with the children of men.
32 ‘And now, my children, listen to me. Happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Listen to instruction and become wise, do not reject it.
34 Blessed, whoever listens to me, who day after day keeps watch at my gates to guard my portals.
35 For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains the favour of Yahweh;
36 but whoever misses me harms himself, all who hate me are in love with death.’
John 8 : 1-11
1 and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in the middle
4 they said to Jesus, ‘Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery,
5 and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of this kind. What have you got to say?’
6 They asked him this as a test, looking for an accusation to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
7 As they persisted with their question, he straightened up and said, ‘Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.’
8 Then he bent down and continued writing on the ground.
9 When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until the last one had gone and Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained in the middle.
10 Jesus again straightened up and said, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’
11 ‘No one, sir,’ she replied. ‘Neither do I condemn you,’ said Jesus. ‘Go away, and from this moment sin no more.’
Sermons by various teachers regarding the verses above.
Catholic Daily Readings and Reflections
Reading 1, Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!
21 For here is one who has laboured wisely, skilfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;
22 for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun-
23 since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
1 Come, let us cry out with joy to Yahweh, acclaim the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music.
6 Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yahweh who made us!
7 For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today!
8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert,
9 when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!
Gospel, Luke 12:13-21
13 A man in the crowd said to him, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’
14 He said to him, ‘My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’
15 Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.’
16 Then he told them a parable, ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land,
17 thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.”
18 Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them,
19 and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.”
20 But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”
21 So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God.’
Reading 2, Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
1 Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.
2 Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,
3 because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.
4 But when Christ is revealed — and he is your life-you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.
5 That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly: sexual vice, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god;
9 and do not lie to each other. You have stripped off your old behaviour with your old self,
10 and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator;
11 and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
Audio Drama: Old Testament New Testament Each book is read in its entirety. You can listen to the bible, one book at a time in contemporary English.
Dr. Myles Munroe
I am including a video by Dr. Myles Munroe, I’ve listened to him back in the nineties, and rediscovered him recently. Now his perspective seems to be a good way to also look at scripture. In Pursuit of Purpose – Book Highlights
Sermons Rosary Prayers Catholic Answers
Did Mary have other children? No, Listen here
Called to Communion
Pray the Rosary
Rosary Mysteries
The following 4 videos are the 4 Mysteries that we pray on certain days of the week. I like these videos, because I can pray it alone, with only the images, or go along with the sound. The images help me to focus on the particular mystery that I am contemplating as I say the Hail Mary on each bead.
Joyful Mysteries
Luminous Mysteries
Sorrowful Mysteries
Glorious Mysteries
Prayers of the Rosary
Links to “How to pray the rosary” Popular Catholic Prayers
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,
He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
(this prayer is optional and may be said after all Glory Be to the Fathers…..)
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of thy mercy.
Console the souls in Purgatory, particularly those most abandoned. Amen
Hail Mary,
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
The Hail, Holy Queen
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
That we maybe made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Closing Prayer
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death, and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal salvation.
Grant, we beseech Thee, that while meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
that we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(The Fatima Prayer:)
Most Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – I adore thee profoundly. I offer Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference’s whereby He is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of Thee the conversion of poor sinners.
Prayer to St. Michael
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Thurzo Gizella Bible Study 
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