Saint Casimir Parish

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Lietuviškai

    

MINISTRY OF PRAISE
 

, 2014
 
St. Casimir Parish
 

Almighty God,
grant that with the help of St. Casimir’s intercession
we may serve you in holiness and justice.

 

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING INTENTIONS

 

  • That refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights.                   (August Papal intention)

  • That God bless all families gathered together for reunions or for a welcome time of rest.
     

  • That our parish will grow in holiness so that we will always love one another in the way that Christ commands us.
     

  • That God bless Father Bacevice and the Pastoral and Finance Councils in their efforts to secure the future of St. Casimir Parish.

  • That all parishioners recognize their responsibility to St. Casimir Parish's future through financial support, fund-raising efforts, commitment to parish activities, sharing ideas and, most importantly, prayer.

  • That we find the strength and courage to live our lives in accordance with what truly matters to God.
     

  • That adults recognize their responsibility to help the new generation develop an upright conscience.
     

  • That we recognize Jesus in the ordinary circumstances of our daily life.
     

  • That those beset with any sort of trial will find within themselves the inner strength necessary to persevere.
     

  • That our Ministers of Praise be validated in their belief in the power of prayer.

 

WHAT’S HAPPENING                           AT ST. CASIMIR PARISH?

 

First Friday Holy Hour for Life:  Friday, August 1st  after 7:30am Mass and until 9:00am

Eucharistic Adoration: Wednesday, August 13th  from 6:00pm to 9:00pm in the Church

Pancake Breakfast:  Sunday, August 17th  after all Sunday Masses in the Lower Hall

 

SAINT FOR AUGUST

St. Clare

Virgin
(1193-1253)

 August 11th

 

     We become what we love, and who we love shapes what we become.  If we love things, we become a thing,  If we love nothing, we become nothing.  Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ; rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.           (words of St. Clare of Assisi)

      The beginning of Clare’s religious life was movie material.  Having refused to marry at 15, she was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis of Assisi.  He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide. At 18, she fled her father’s home and was met by friars carrying torches.  In Portiuncula chapel she received a rough woolen habit, exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots, and sacrificed her long hair to Francis’ scissors.  Francis placed her in a Benedictine convent which her father and uncles soon stormed in rage.  She clung to the altar of the church, threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair and remained adamant.

       Eventually she was joined by two of her sisters and her mother.  Francis charged her to accept the office of abbess, which she held until her death.  Clare spent the rest of her life following a regimen of strict poverty as described in the Rule of the Poor Clare Nuns.  She was a respected religious person of her time.  Clare is described as exemplary in prayer and loving, kind and charitable towards  her sisters.  She was patient in suffering from a thirty year illness, yet a spirited, energetic leader and spiritual guide.  She was motivated by her love of the gospel ideal of simplicity of life after the example of Jesus.  She was canonized two years after her death.

Sources:  IN HIS LIKENESS by Rev. Charles E. Yost, SCJ, STL, SAINT OF THE DAY, Leonard Foley, Ed., “Catholic Digest”, June/July/Aug 2014, pp91-92

 

THOUGHTS FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Transfiguration

#568  Christ’s Transfiguration aims at strengthening the apostles’ faith in anticipation of his Passion:  the ascent onto the “high mountain” prepares for the ascent to Calvary.  Christ, Head of the Church, manifests what his Body contains and radiates in the sacraments:  “the hope of glory” (Col 1:27; cf. St. Leo the Great, Sermon 51, 3: PL 54, 310c).

 

Assumption

#974  The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was completed, was taken up body ad soul into the glory of heaven, where she already shares in the glory of her Son’s Resurrection, anticipating the resurrection of all members of his Body.

 

REFLECTION

Behold, I make all things new
(Rev. 21:5)

      Mary, Virgin and Mother, you who, moved by the Holy Spirit, welcomed the word of life in the depths of your humble faith: as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One, help us to say our own “yes” to the urgent call, as pressing as ever, to proclaim the good news of Jesus.

     Filled with Christ’s presence, you brought joy to John the Baptist, making him exult in the womb of his mother. Brimming over with joy, you sang of the great things done by God.  Standing at the foot of the cross with unyielding faith, you received the joyful comfort of the resurrection, and joined the disciples in awaiting the Spirit so that the evangelizing Church might be born.

     Obtain for us now a new ardor born of the resurrection that we may bring to all the Gospel of life which triumphs over death. Give us a holy courage to seek new paths, that the gift of unfading beauty may reach every man and woman.

      Virgin of listening and contemplation, Mother of love, Bride of the eternal wedding feast, pray for the Church, whose pure icon you are, that she may never be closed in on herself or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.

     Star of the new evangelization, help us to bear radiant witness to communion, service, ardent and generous faith, justice and love of the poor, that the joy of the Gospel may reach to the ends of the earth, illuminating even the fringes of world.

     Mother of the living Gospel, wellspring of happiness for God’s little ones, pray for us.

     Amen. Alleluia!

 

 

by Pope Francis “Evangelii Gaudium”, Prayer at the end of #288.