Catholics are blessed! Today’s Readings begin when Colossians 3:12-17 opens This Catholic Door:
“Brothers and sisters, put on, as God’s Chosen ones (who are) holy and beloved: heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. . . Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly . . . And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of The Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God The Father through Him.”
Today’s Psalm 150:1-6 tells us: “Let everything that breathes praise The Lord.”
Our “Alleluia” today is from 1 John 4:12: “If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is brought to perfection.”
That connects Catholics with Today’s Reading from Jesus, Luke 27-38, and tells every person on earth how each one of us may get “the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” that He Who Fulfilled The Prophecies left to His First Pope in Mt. 16:18-20; “And I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
“Jesus said to His Disciples: (Catholics recognize the simple fact that they were His First Catholic Bishops, establishing Catholic Dioceses and parishes from Italy to India.) ‘To you who hear, I say ‘love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well; and from the person who takes your cloak do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not demand it back.”
No person on earth had ever given That Advice!
Catholics learn how we get “the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” that Jesus died to leave on earth. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning, and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you. . . . For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
Catholics can barely imagine the “gifts” that will be “measured out” to His, and our Catholic priests and religious in Heaven, because they chose celibacy, obedience, and poverty and “gave up” gratification, independence, and riches.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “We are blessed to learn from our Catholic Creed / The more we have, the more we need: / ‘The keys to The Kingdom of Heaven’!”
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