Gospel

Mt 15: 21-28

At that time Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,

"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!

My daughter is tormented by a demon."

But he did not say a word in answer to her.

His disciples came and asked him,

"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."

He said in reply,

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

But the woman came and did him homage, saying, "Lord, help me."

He said in reply,

"It is not right to take the food of the children

and throw it to the dogs."

She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps

that fall from the table of their masters."

Then Jesus said to her in reply,

"O woman, great is your faith!

Let it be done for you as you wish."

And her daughter was healed from that hour.

TODAYS READINGS



LISTEN

CLICK HERE FOR THE LITURGY OF THE HOURS

Reflect

 “Do not worry” or “fear not” is a sentiment found often in scripture. Some of us can’t seem to help it though, can we? When that is the case, wisdom, which is a gift from the Lord, might urge us on to therapy or even medication. The Lord is gracious, and his desire is for us to live peacefully and freely in his love, even if we need a little help along the way.

Pray

Lord, when we are overcome with anxiety, give us wisdom to know when it is a matter of trust or something more.

Our minds, like our bodies, are gifts from you.

However, sometimes we feel trapped in our thoughts, seemingly unable to heal the invisible hurts there.

Please, open up doors for mental health services to all who need them.

Give us the strength to fight the stigma of mental illness and build compassion and understanding in our communities.

Amen.

Act

Make an appointment for therapy if you have silently been struggling with depression or anxiety. Or, if a friend, loved one, or coworker is dealing with mental health issues, sometimes simply being present and listening to him/her is just what that person needs in the moment.

Todays Petitions

Lord please hear our petitions along with petitions of the Pope and all the petitions at daily masses around the world.

Let us pray for all the LONELY.

Let us pray for PEACE, and an end to Violence.

Let us pray for LOVE, and an end to Hate.

Let us pray for an increase in CHARITY, let it be about we and not about me.

Let us pray for the protection of LIFE from conception until natural death.

Let us pray for MERCY for all those that have gone before us.

Let us pray for FREEDOM and an end to human trafficking, persecution and slavery.

Let us pray for the pursuit of JOY, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray for OUR COUNTRY that we may once again become one nation under god.

Let us pray for THE CHURCH and all those who serve it and pray for proper worship, evangelization, charity and for an increase in vocations.

Let us pray for the CONVERSION of souls by spreading the Gospel,Catholic Tradition and Catholic Teaching where ever we go.

Amen

TODAYS CATECHISM

1581 This sacrament configures the recipient to Christ by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ's instrument for his Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king.



CLICK HERE FOR CATECHISM IN A YEAR DAY 217

THE BIBLE IN A YEAR

Proverbs

Proverbs is an anthology of collections of sayings and instructions. Many of the sayings and perhaps some instructions were composed in the monarchic period (late eleventh to the early sixth centuries). Editing of the whole book was done in the early postexilic period, in the view of most scholars; at that time chaps. 1–9 would have been added as the introduction. Whether the material originated among royal scribes (as 25:1 seems to suggest) imitating common literary genres, or whether it arose among tribal elders inculcating traditional ways, is disputed. The origin of the material, however, need not be imagined in an either/or scenario. Folk wisdom and observations could surely have been elaborated and re-expressed by learned scribes: “What oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed” (Alexander Pope). There can be no doubt, however, that Proverbs is sophisticated literature by talented writers, winning readers with its compelling portrait of wisdom and inviting them to see life afresh, “wisely,” through its wit, originality, and shrewd observation.

The primary purpose of the book is to teach wisdom, not only to the young and inexperienced (1:2–4) but also to the advanced (1:5–6). Wisdom in the ancient Near East was not theoretical knowledge but practical expertise. Jewelers who cut precious stones were wise; kings who made their dominion peaceful and prosperous were wise. One could be wise in daily life, too, in knowing how to live successfully (having a prosperous household and living a long and healthy life) and without trouble in God’s universe. Ultimately wisdom, or “sound guidance” (1:5), aims at the formation of character.

In the ancient Near East, people assumed that wisdom belonged to the gods, who were wise by reason of their divinity; human beings needed to have wisdom granted them by the gods. Creation accounts of neighboring cultures depict creation in two stages. In the first stage, human beings lived an animal-like existence, without clothes, writing, or kingship (proper governance). Over time, the gods came to realize that such a low grade of existence made the human race inadequate as their servants, so they endowed the race with “wisdom,” which consisted of culture (e.g., kingship) and crafts (e.g., knowledge of farming, ability to weave). Such wisdom elevated the race to a “human” level and made them effective servants of the gods. Furthermore, divine wisdom was mediated to human beings through earthly institutions—the king, scribes (who produced wise writings), and heads of families (fathers, sometimes mothers). These traditional mediators appear in Proverbs: the book is credited to King Solomon, and kings are respectfully mentioned as pillars of society (e.g., 16:12–15); writings are a source of wisdom (1:1–7); the father instructing his son is the major paradigm of teaching. Proverbs differs, however, from other wisdom books in concentrating on wisdom itself, treating it as a virtually independent entity and personifying it as an attractive woman. Other books urge readers to perform wise acts, but Proverbs urges them to seek wisdom itself and portrays wisdom as a woman seeking human beings as disciples and companions.

Chapters 1–9 introduce the book, drawing attention to wisdom itself and its inherent value rather than exhorting to particular wise actions. The chapters personify wisdom as a woman and draw an extended analogy between finding a wife, or founding and maintaining a house(hold), and finding wisdom. The collections following chap. 9 consist largely of independent, two-line sayings, yielding their often indirect or paradoxical meaning only to readers willing to ponder them. To reflect on the sayings is perhaps what chaps. 1–9 mean by living with Wisdom and dwelling in her house.

The Book of Proverbs can make an important contribution to Christians and Jews today. First, it places the pursuit of wisdom over the performance of individual wise acts. To seek wisdom above all things is a fundamental option and a way of life. Second, it portrays the quest as filled with obstacles. There are men and women who offer a substitute for the real thing; discernment is required. Third, the book teaches that acquiring wisdom is both a human task and a divine gift. One can make oneself ready to receive by discipline, but one cannot take so divine a gift. Fourth, wisdom is in the world but it is not obvious to people entirely caught up with daily activities. The instructions and the aphorisms of the book can free the mind to see new things. Christians will see in personified Wisdom aspects of Jesus Christ, who they believe is divine wisdom sent to give human beings true and full life. Yet there is a universal dimension to Proverbs, for in its attention to human experience it creates a link to all people of good will.

The genres and themes of Proverbs continued on in Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, and the later Pirqe Abot (The Sayings of the Fathers), a treatise in the Mishnah, which became the object of commentary in Abot de Rabbi Nathan. The New Testament saw Jesus as a wisdom teacher and employed the tradition of personified wisdom of chaps. 2 and 8 to express his incarnation. The Letter of James is an instruction resembling those in Proverbs. Wisdom traditions influenced the Gospels of Matthew and Luke through a common source (see, e.g., Mt 11:25–27 and Lk 10:21–22, which seem to derive their father-son language, at least in part, from the parental language of Proverbs). The Gospel of John regards Jesus as incarnate wisdom descended from on high to offer human beings life and truth and make disciples of them, a view largely reflected in Proverbs 1–9. In later Judaism, Hebrew ethical wills, in which parents hand on to their children their wisdom, borrowed from the genre of instruction.

The original audience of the instructions and sayings seems to have been male. The father addresses his son, marriage is finding a wife, success often is serving the king or farming effectively. The book itself, however, expands the traditional audience of youths (1:4) to include older, more experienced, people (1:5). It broadens the father-son language by mentioning the mother, and incorporates sayings on human experience generally. The father teaching his son becomes a model for anyone teaching a way of life to another person. The canonical process furthered such inclusiveness, for Proverbs was made part of the Bible that addresses all Israel.

The Book of Proverbs has nine sections:

1. Title and Introduction (1:1–7)
2. Instructions of Parents and of Woman Wisdom (1:8–9:18)
3. First Solomonic Collection of Sayings (10:1–22:16)
4. Sayings of the Wise (22:17–24:22)
5. Further Sayings of the Wise (24:23–34)
6. Second Solomonic Collection, Collected Under King Hezekiah (25:1–29:27)
7. Sayings of Agur and Others (30:1–33)
8. Sayings of King Lemuel (31:1–9)
9. Poem on the Woman of Worth (31:10–31)

CLICK HERE FOR THE BIBLE IN A YEAR DAY 217

SAINT OF THE DAY

Saint of the Day for August 9

(October 12, 1891 – August 9, 1942)

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross’ Story

A brilliant philosopher who stopped believing in God when she was 14, Edith Stein was so captivated by reading the autobiography of Teresa of Avila that she began a spiritual journey that led to her baptism in 1922. Twelve years later she imitated Saint Teresa by becoming a Carmelite, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

Born into a prominent Jewish family in Breslau, Germany—now Wroclaw, Poland—Edith abandoned Judaism in her teens. As a student at the University of Göttingen, she became fascinated by phenomenology–an approach to philosophy. Excelling as a protégé of Edmund Husserl, one of the leading phenomenologists, Edith earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1916. She continued as a university teacher until 1922, when she moved to a Dominican school in Speyer; her appointment as lecturer at the Educational Institute of Munich ended under pressure from the Nazis.

After living for four years in the Cologne Carmel, Sister Teresa Benedicta moved to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands, in 1938. The Nazis occupied that country in 1940. In retaliation for being denounced by the Dutch bishops, the Nazis arrested all Dutch Jews who had become Christians. Teresa Benedicta and her sister Rosa, also a Catholic, died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.

Pope John Paul II beatified Teresa Benedicta of the Cross in 1987 and canonized her 12 years later.

Reflection

The writings of Edith Stein fill 17 volumes, many of which have been translated into English. A woman of integrity, she followed the truth wherever it led her. After becoming a Catholic, Edith continued to honor her mother’s Jewish faith. Sister Josephine Koeppel, O.C.D., translator of several of Edith’s books, sums up this saint with the phrase, “Learn to live at God’s hands.”

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross is a Patron Saint of:

Converts to Christianity

Europe

Music to Reflect On

TODAYS REFLECTION

"A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil."

–St. Dominic de Guzman

PRAY THE ROSARY

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen."

Reflect In Gods Glory

While reflecting, ponder your place in this vast universe and be humble.