When we honor St. Augustine, whose mother’s prayers led him to renounce his sins, become Catholic, and be ordained a Catholic priest and Bishop, we may be sure this Daily Reading was chosen carefully!
1 Thessalonians 3:7-13 connects Catholics with St. Monica and her similarly blessed son, St. Augustine: “For we now live, if you stand firm in The Lord.”
Because Saints Monica and Augustine “stood firm The Lord”, souls in later generations would be in Heaven.
Those who leave the Church deprive their immortal souls, and those who might have followed them, from God’s priests, religious, and The Seven Catholic Sacraments: “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.”
Lost souls praise all who reject The Church. They love those who praise them.
Catholics pray that our families, friends, enemies, and neighbors are blessed to be among: “Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may The Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts and be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His holy ones. Amen.”
Those who reject God’s Power to leave His Church the “keys to The Kingdom of Heaven” keep themselves from the joy Today’s Psalm 90:14 promises, “Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!”
Catholics are blessed to obey Mt. 24:42 in Today’s “Alleluia”: “Stay awake! For you do not know when The Son of Man will come.”
May every Catholic understand: the multi-generational punishment for “lapsing” is as clear as it needs to be for “wicked servants” who say “‘My master is long delayed and begins to eat and drink with drunkards. The servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish him severely and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “May all be blessed to see and seize / The ‘Catholic keys’ Christ died to leave.”
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