The virtues of gratitude, confidence and love, stimulated and motivated by the Holy Eucharist, are especially necessary in the modern world. Today gratitude has become a forgotten virtue; confidence in God has been replaced by arrogant self-reliance; love for God and for mankind has been driven from the hearts of many by a spirit of pagan selfishness.

Catholics must strive to revive these virtues and shall have the special help of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. If we cultivate a deep and persevering devotion to Him who dwells among us under the humble appearances of bread and wine, particularly if we receive Holy Communion frequently and fervently, we cannot but make progress in the spirit of gratitude, in unwavering confidence in God’s assistance, and in ardent love both for God and for our fellowmen.

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Ephrem. His feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on June 9. It is also the feast of the martyrs, Sts. Mark and Marcellianus.

Sts. Mark & Marcellianus
Saint Marcus and Saint Marcellianus were twin brothers of an illustrious family in Rome, who had been converted to the Faith in their youth and were honorably married.

When Diocletian ascended the imperial throne in 284, the pagans raised persecutions; the brothers were then thrown into prison and condemned to be beheaded. Their friends obtained a delay of the execution for thirty days, that they might prevail on them to worship the false gods. Tranquillinus and Martia, their afflicted pagan parents, accompanied by their sons’ wives and their little babes, endeavored to move them by the most tender entreaties and tears. But Saint Sebastian, an officer of the emperor’s household, arriving in Rome soon after their confinement, daily visited and encouraged them.

The issue of the conferences was the happy conversion of the father, mother, and wives, also of Nicostratus, the public stenographer, and soon afterwards of Chromatius, the judge, who set the Saints at liberty and abdicating the magistracy, retired into the country. Marcus and Marcellianus were concealed by a Christian officer of the imperial household, in his apartments in the palace, but they were betrayed by an apostate and reimprisoned. Fabian, a judge who had succeeded Chromatius, condemned them to be bound to two pillars, their feet nailed to them. In this posture they remained a day and a night, and on the following day were stabbed with lances. Their martyrdom occurred in the year 286. Their tomb and that of their father, Saint Tranquillinus, was found in Rome, in 1782, in the church of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, adjoining that of the martyred pope, Saint Felix II. They are honored particularly in Spain, where the city of Badajoz escaped destruction by their intercession.

Excerpted from Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, strength of those who hope in you, graciously hear our pleas, and, since without you mortal frailty can do nothing, grant us always the help of your grace, that in following your commands we may please you by our resolve and our deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2019-06-18

Meditation: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

11th Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus Christ . . . became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

In a surprising headline in 2010, Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder announced that he was selling all of his properties and businesses. At age forty-seven, he had become convinced that he needed to stop what he was doing and begin his real life. His goal was to “have nothing left, absolutely nothing.” So he set up an organization to help people in developing countries and transferred all his money to its accounts. Rabeder, a rich man, made himself poor in order to enrich the lives of the needy.

That’s not a bad image to consider today. Like Karl Rabeder, Jesus emptied himself for us so that we could be filled with his spiritual riches.

Jesus was seated with the Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven. He felt no need or shortage at all—only perfect harmony, love, majesty, and holiness. Not only that, but at his word, glorious things came to be. It’s hard to imagine any greater richness than that.

And yet as rich as he was, he gave it all up when he came to earth. He was born in a stable to a poor carpenter and his wife. He spent his childhood in simplicity, learning his father’s trade. He became a wandering rabbi, traveling the countryside and healing the broken and the sick. He spent sleepless nights in prayer and endless days ministering to the needy. And in the end, when he most needed their support, all his friends abandoned him, leaving him to die a shameful death alone.

Why did he go through all of that? Simply to make you rich. He set aside his glory so that he could give you unlimited forgiveness, access to heaven, and the ability to know God in a personal way. Because of the riches of his grace, you can walk with him and love other people as fully as he did.

Why live like a pauper when Jesus has made you rich? Don’t be afraid to ask him for more—more mercy, more forgiveness, more wisdom, more joy. Jesus doesn’t want to see you living like you’re bankrupt. He gave everything up to make you spiritually rich!

“Lord Jesus, thank you for your immense generosity. Help me accept all the riches you have offered me.”

Psalm 146:2, 5-9
Matthew 5:43-48