OXYGEN

25 Aug – Memorial for St Louis of France, Married Man; Memorial for St Joseph Calasnz, Priest, Religious Founder

As king of France, St. Louis (1214-1270) made numerous judicial and legislative reforms. He promoted Christianity in France; established religious foundations, aided mendicant orders, propagated synodal decrees of the Church, built leper hospitals, and collected relics.

“In prosperity, give thanks to God with humility and fear lest by pride you abuse God’s benefits and so offend him.” – Saint Louis IX

St. Joseph Calasanz (1556-1648) and two fellow priests opened a small, free school for poor children. He was supervising several teachers and hundreds of students. When the school moved to larger quarters, the teaching priests were reorganized into a community recognized as a religious order called Le Sciole Pie (Religious Schools), also known as the Piarists, or Scolopii or Ordo Clericorum Regularium Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum or Order of Poor Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools; Joseph acted as superior of the Order.

The community encountered many obstacles. It was dissolved, then reorganized after St Joseph’s death. They were restored as a religious order in 1669, and continue their good work today.

- Patron Saint Index
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1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

You know yourselves, my brothers, that our visit to you has not proved ineffectual.

We had, as you know, been given rough treatment and been grossly insulted at Philippi, and it was our God who gave us the courage to proclaim his Good News to you in the face of great opposition. We have not taken to preaching because we are deluded, or immoral, or trying to deceive anyone; it was God who decided that we were fit to be entrusted with the Good News, and when we are speaking, we are not trying to please men but God, who can read our inmost thoughts. You know very well, and we can swear it before God, that never at any time have our speeches been simply flattery, or a cover for trying to get money; nor have we ever looked for any special honour from men, either from you or anybody else, when we could have imposed ourselves on you with full weight, as apostles of Christ.

Instead, we were unassuming. Like a mother feeding and looking after her own children, we felt do devoted and protective towards you, and had come to love you so much, that we were eager to hand over to you not only the Good News but our whole lives as well.
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Matthew 23:23-26

Jesus said, ‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practiced, without neglecting the others! You blind guides! Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!

‘Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You who clean the outside of the cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that the outside may become clean as well.’
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… [W]e were eager to hand over to you not only the Good News but our lives as well.

On Aug 5, I was on holidays with dad in Sydney. We visited St. Mary’s Cathedral and happened to drop in on a Mass in celebration of the 100th year anniversary of the death of Blessed Mary McKillop (Mary of the Cross). The Australians are waiting for their first canonized Saint and it is very exciting for the possibility of canonization to take place in this generation.  Blessed Mary McKillop was just a simple girl who had a heart of gold to serve the Lord. She began a mission of building Homes and Schools for girls.

Many other men and women, like Blessed Mary McKillop and St. Paul, had been fine examples of what it is like to be filled with the Holy Spirit. They share with us the graces of God, not only through the Good News, but living it. They have indeed handed their lives to the Lord and to us, so that we may experience the love of our Lord. Today, the media focus so much on the Church’s teachings conflicting with the secular thoughts and no matter how much Good News is being preached, there is a constant wave of reaction towards them.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus criticised the Pharisees of being hypocrites. They did not grasp the spirit of the law and have their focus on the wrong issues. Once again, the Gospel emphasized that we are to cleanse what is ‘inside’ in order for the ‘outside’ to be clean as well, otherwise, we are just hypocrites.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Austin Leong)
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Prayer: Remind me, O Lord, that I constantly am aware of what is within me, so that I may be of clean instrument to you.

Thanksgiving: O Lord, You search me and You know me, I thank You for looking out for me.

Upcoming Readings:
Wed, 26 Aug – 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13; Matthew 23:27-32
Thu, 27 Aug – 1 Thessalonians 3:7-13; Matthew 23:42-51; Memorial for St Monica, Married Woman
Fri, 28 Aug – 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; Matthew 25:1-3; Memorial for St Augustine, Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Sat, 29 Aug – Jeremiah 1:17-19; Mark 6:17-29; Memorial of the Beheading of St John the Baptist
Sun, 30 Aug – Deuteronomy 4:1-2.6-8; James 1.17-18.21-22.27; Matthew 7:1-8.14-15.21-23; Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time