Meditation: Tuesday, July 16, 2002

[Joachim]

Title: Meditation: Tuesday, July 16, 2002

The Catholic Calendar for Tuesday, July 16, 2002     The Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time     Our Lady of Mount Carmel Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:     Isaiah 7:1-9     Psalm 48:2-8     Matthew 11:20-24 A reflection on today's Scripture . . . . Flos Carmeli O beautiful flower of Carmel, most fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, holy and singular, who brought forth the Son of God still ever remaining a pure Virgin, assist us in our necessities. O star of the sea help and protect us. Show us that you are our Mother. "Do not fear and do not let your heart be faint. . ." (Isaiah 7:4) Today is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and the epigraph above is doubly or trebly appropriate. Do not fear. Do not fear because God is with you in everything. St. Paul tells us time and again not to fear, for if God is with us, who can be against. But not only do we have God with us, we have in a very special, very powerful, very comforting way, His wonderful Mother. Called in the Eastern Church "Theotokos," God-bearer, she is our mother as well. We are made part of God's family through His Son, and thus we have the same mother. And what mother does not intercede constantly for her children? What mother can know that her child suffers and not reach out and do something? Perhaps it is possible with earthly brothers, but certainly not for the Queen of Heaven, for this most blessed among women. So when God says 'do not fear', listen. We have in Jesus a strong defender, and in His mother a great comforter and a further advocate before the throne of grace. Her prayers strengthen us, her hands intercede for us, and through her hands come all the graces God has chosen to shower upon us. He has blessed Her and us by allowing her the wonderful privilege of shedding His Grace upon each and every one of us. So to rephrase as Jesus told His disciples, "Be not afraid." Do not fear, because your name is being spoken in heaven every moment of your life by the Queen of Saints and her entire entourage. You are constantly lifted into the shower of grace. Be not afraid. - JuandelaCruz, T.O.Carm. ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) YOU CAN HELP to evangelize the Word of God: Please recommend our website to your friends and Catholic webmasters. The meditations are in English & Spanish at http://www.borg.com/~joachim/DailyMeds.html (case sensitive). ARCHIVED Meditations: http://www.abcsoffaith.com/quiet/quietplace.html and at: http://www.mail-archive.com/dailymed@saturn.nibcomp.com For ALL communications, including subscribe/unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (c)2002 The Way, The Truth, The Life. Permission granted to make reprints of the meditations or to post on any web page, except for profit. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament and Revised Psalms (c)1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner. Full text from the New American Bible: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm Lives of the Saints: http://www.christdesert.org/public_texts/martyrology/