10 Catholic Things that Caught My Eye Today as the Pope Lifts Off for Cuba (Sept. 19, 2015)

1. Has anyone mistaken you for Jesus lately?

2.

As the Holy Father @pontifex flies to the Americas today may the Patroness of the Americas keep him safe https://t.co/FJqFfROfC8

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) September 19, 2015

3. Pray for the pope as he travels to Cuba and then the United States, pray for all bishops. Today, on the Memorial of St. Januarius, St. Augustine seems to be imploring this:

The day I became a bishop, a burden was laid on my shoulders for which it will be no easy task to render an account. The honors I receive are for me an ever present cause of uneasiness. Indeed, it terrifies me to think that I could take more pleasure in the honor attached to my office, which is where its danger lies, than in your salvation, which ought to be its fruit. This is why being set above you fills me with alarm, whereas being with you gives me comfort. Danger lies in the first; salvation in the second.

To be honest with you, my obligations involve me in so much turmoil that I feel as though I were tossed by storms on a great ocean. When I remember by whose blood I have been redeemed, this thought brings me peace, as though I were entering the safety of a harbor; and I am consoled, as I carry out the arduous duties of my own particular office, by the blessings which we all have in common. By finding my chief joy therefore in the redemption, which I share with you, and not in my office, which has placed me over you, I shall the more truly be your servant; and so not only fulfill the Lord’s command, but also show myself not ungrateful to him for making me your fellow servant. For my Redeemer has a claim upon my love, and I do not forget how he questioned Peter, and asked: Do you love me, Peter? Then feed my sheep. He asked this once, then again and then a third time. He inquired about his love, and then he gave him work to do; for the greater one’s love is, the easier is the work.

How shall I repay the Lord for all the blessings he has given me? I could say perhaps that I repay him by feeding his sheep, but even though I do this, it is not really I who do it, but the grace of God within me. So when all that I do is the gift of God’s grace, how can I possibly repay him? As a matter of fact, I hope to be repaid myself, and this for the very reason that I love him freely and feed his sheep. But, you may ask, if I feed his sheep because I love him freely, how can I demand payment for feeding them? It is indeed unthinkable to ask for a recompense for love freely given unless that recompense is the loved one himself.

But even if feeding his sheep could repay him for redeeming me, what could repay him for having made me his shepherd? To be a good shepherd I depend entirely on his grace, for without his help I should be a very bad one, there is so much evil in me. Pray, then, that I may not be a bad shepherd, but a good one.

And for you, my brothers, I also pray and warn you against failing to cooperate with the grace you receive from God. Make my ministry a fruitful one. You are God’s garden, and you should therefore welcome the laborer who does the visible work of planting and watering the seed, even though the growth comes from one who works invisibly within you. Help me both by your prayers and by your obedience, for then it will be a pleasure for me, not to preside over you, but to serve you.

4. Today’s Mass readings.

5. Fr. Lawrence Lew:

whenever we get impatient – whether it is waiting in a traffic jam or for the Papal Mass to begin next Wednesday – or if we get impatient with ourselves because our hearts still seem, all too often, like “rocky ground”, let us turn to Our Lady and pray the Rosary. Like dew that softens the soil, so the Rosary graciously softens our hearts, makes us patiently receptive to God’s Word, and makes fruitful our contemplation.

6. Today is also a day dedicated to Our Lady of La Salette. Some background from the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary here.

7. John Paul II: “La Salette is a message of hope, for our hope is nourished by the intercession of her who is the Mother of mankind”

#prayforus #OurLadyofLaSalette pic.twitter.com/3YpCsUfSft

— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) September 19, 2015

8. From the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception:

And:

At St. Martin of Tours in Sint Maarten #LaSalette pic.twitter.com/YVji1Lv8oz

— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) September 19, 2015

9. From Magnificat today:

10. Something for the end of the day:

Singing the Salve Regina at the end of the day makes everything better. #MammaMary #MaterMisericordiae #VirginMaryMotherofJesusMakeUsSaints

— Sr. Theresa Aletheia (@pursuedbytruth) September 18, 2015

10.

PLUS: Pray for priests.