“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

“Jesus, master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13)

Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

“It is not difficult for an observer who operates solely on the level of psychology and experience to discover that degradation in the area of pleasure and love is in proportion to the void left in man from the false and deceptive joys sought in those things which St. Paul called the ‘ works of the flesh’: ‘ immorality, impurity, licentiousness . . . drinking bouts, orgies and the like’ (Gal.5:19,21). One can add to these false joys—and there are many connected with them—those sought in the possession and immoderate use of wealth, in luxury, in ambition for power, in short, in that passion for an almost frantic
search for earthly goods which can easily produce a darkened mind, as St. Paul mentions (cf. Eph. 4:18-19), and Jesus laments (cf. Mk. 4:19).”

(Pope Saint John Paul II, General Audience of June 19, 1991)

Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

“You may count certain others among those able to say to the judge of all, ‘We have eaten and drunk in your presence, and you have taught in our streets.’ Who again are these? Many have believed in Christ and have celebrated the holy festivals in his honor. Frequenting the churches, they also hear the doctrines of the gospel, but they remember absolutely nothing of the truths of Scripture. With difficulty, they bring with them the practice of virtue, while their heart is quite bare of spiritual fruitfulness. These will also weep bitterly and grind their teeth, because the Lord will also deny them. He said, ‘Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’” (Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke, Homily 99)

Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

“Granted that a man’s sanctity is measured by his conformity to Christ, it follows that the closer I resemble my model, the more will I be called upon to suffer. Not only will the amount of suffering depend upon my fidelity to the likeness of Christ, but so also will the nature of the suffering. The outward features may bear little resemblance to the Passion; it is in the inward features that there is likely to be a parallel.”

(Dom Hubert van Zeller, How to Find God, p.107)

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

“If things are not seen, how can you be convinced that they exist? Where do the things come from, if not from the one whom you cannot see? The reason faith is greatly rewarded is that it does not see and yet believes. Faith does not falter, because it is supported by hope; if you take away hope, faith falters. If, from faith and hope, you withdraw love, what is the point of believing; what is the point of hoping, if you do not love? Indeed, you cannot even hope for anything you do not love.” (Saint Augustine)

Nineteenth Sunday Ordinary Time

“If everything that God made is very good, then how can everything be vanity—and not only vanity, but even vanity of vanities?”
(Saint Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes)

Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

“What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which the Son, who is Truth, uttered with His own lips?” (Saint John Chrysostom)

SeventeenthSundayofOrdinaryTime

“Brothers and sisters: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, . . .” (Colossians 1:24)

Sixteenth Sunday of OT

“Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.” (Colossians 1:15-16)

Fifteenth Sunday in OT

“He said to them, ‘The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.’” (Luke 10:2)

Fourteenth Sunday OT