📖 Introduction to Acts: A Catholic Perspective
The Acts
of the Apostles, written by St. Luke, is a continuation of his Gospel and
serves as a bridge between the life of Christ and the life of the Church. It
chronicles the birth and expansion of the early Christian community, empowered
by the Holy Spirit and led by apostles like Peter and Paul.
From a
Catholic viewpoint, Acts is not merely historical—it’s theological and
pastoral. It reveals how the Church, under divine guidance, confronts fear,
persecution, and uncertainty with faith, courage, and communal strength.
😨
Lessons of Fear in Acts: Catholic Reflections
Fear in
Acts is not condemned—it’s transformed. Here are key episodes and their
spiritual lessons:
1.
Pentecost and the Fear of Speaking Truth (Acts 2)
- Context:
The apostles, once timid and hiding, are emboldened by the Holy Spirit.
- Lesson:
Fear is overcome through divine empowerment. Catholics see Pentecost as
the birth of the Church and a reminder that the Spirit gives courage to
witness truth.
2.
Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11)
- Context:
This couple lies about their offering and dies suddenly.
- Lesson:
Holy fear—a reverent awe of God—is essential. This passage teaches that
deceit within the Church community has spiritual consequences. It's a
call to integrity and reverence.
3.
Persecution of the Apostles (Acts 4–5)
- Context:
Peter and John are arrested and threatened.
- Lesson:
Fear of worldly power is secondary to fear of God. Catholics are reminded
that suffering for faith is a form of participation in Christ’s passion.
4.
Stephen’s Martyrdom (Acts 6–7)
- Context:
Stephen preaches boldly and is stoned to death.
- Lesson:
Fear of death is transcended by hope in eternal life. His final words
mirror Christ’s forgiveness, showing that love casts out fear.
5.
Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9)
·
Context: Saul is struck blind and
terrified on the road to Damascus.
o Lesson:
Fear can be the beginning of transformation. Catholics see Saul’s fear as the
gateway to grace—his blindness leads to spiritual sight.
🙏
Catholic Themes on Fear in Acts
- Holy
Fear vs. Worldly Fear: Holy fear is a gift of the Spirit (Isaiah 11:2)
and leads to wisdom. Worldly fear, when unchecked, leads to denial or
betrayal.
- Communal
Support: The early Church faced fear together—through prayer,
Eucharist, and shared possessions. This models Catholic parish life.
- Martyrdom and Witness: Fear is not avoided but embraced as part of the Christian journey. Saints and martyrs echo the courage of Acts.
Rachel’s Corner
o If you’re looking to celebrate a day that’s all about honoring different aspects of life, why not start by spending some quality time with a senior citizen in your life? Listen to their stories and wisdom, and perhaps even treat them to a meal at a local restaurant. To pay tribute to the victims of terrorism, take a moment to reflect and remember those who have been affected by such tragedies. Consider lighting a candle in their memory or making a donation to a relevant cause.
§ For a sweet and comforting touch, indulge in some delicious spumoni ice cream. Whether you make it yourself or buy it from a store, this treat is sure to bring a smile to your face. National Finance Brokers Day could be a great opportunity to review your finances and set some goals for the future. Perhaps educate yourself on investment options or seek advice from a financial expert.
· It is Happiness Happens Month!
o What makes you happy? Happiness Happens Month is a whole month dedicated to celebrating what makes you happy. The holiday is based on the premise that happiness is unlimited and contagious and that sharing one’s happiness and can bring a lot of joy in other people’s lives.
§ Even though Happiness Happens Month sounds silly, it does have a very important purpose. “The month reminds us that happiness happens one small moment at a time and it’s our job to recognize those moments when they happen. It reminds us that sometimes a small action boosts our happiness. It reminds us that happiness is a personal experience and it’s also contagious!”
· August 21-Happy Birthday, Hawaii!
o Do your patriotic duty and honor the Aloha State with a visit this month -- August 21 marks Hawaii’s admittance as the 50th state. Lap up the waves on Oahu's North Shore; and for culinary fare, we've got the inside scoop on 4 ways to eat like a local on Oahu.
· Foodie:
o Iwakuni Sushi (岩国寿司): A layered sushi unique to the region, often served in a wooden box. It features vinegared rice, lotus root, cooked fish, and thin omelet slices—symbolizing harmony and seasonal abundance.
· Bucket List: Military Hop
· do a personal eucharistic stations of the cross.
· Spirit Hour: Iwakuni Local Sake
Best Place to visit in August: Block Island, Rhode Island
· My dad and mom were married in Rhode Island after he returned from Antarctica and for a time rented an apartment over the transportation museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island
· Block Island is situated south of Rhode Island, this serene resort island offers a beautiful setting for a summer getaway. Primarily a nature reserve with a population of only 1,000 residents, this island remains uncrowded even at the peak of summer, offering tranquil beaches and landscapes.
· As well as fabulous restaurants, charming independent stores and accommodation ranging from quaint hotels to quirky Airbnb’s, there’s over 25 km of beautiful sandy beaches to explore.
· There are also hiking and biking trails, wildlife-spotting opportunities, two historic lighthouses and awesome outdoor activities such as sailing, swimming, kayaking and paddle-boarding.
· I just suggest booking your ferry trip in advance, especially if you plan to take your car.
Visitor’s Center Address:4 Center Rd, New Shoreham, RI 02807
Map Location
Average temperatures – 77 degrees
· My highlights…
o Hiking up to Mohegan Bluffs for a magnificent view overlooking the beautiful ocean and landscape.
o Checking out the Spring Street Art Gallery. I especially loved the photographs and the ceramics.
o Hiring an e-bike and heading out onto the scenic Clay Head Trail, the views of the scenic rocky beach and the bluffs were amazing!
o Discovering the rocky and serene Cow Cove and spotting birds and seals there.
Seafood Gumbo
Fried Green Tomatoes
Fried Catfish
Peach Ice Cream
30 DAY TRIBUTE TO MARY 7th ROSE: The Extraordinary Preacher, St Louis de Montfort, on the Rosary
30 Days of Women and Herbs – Frauendreissiger
Watercress (Nasturtium officinalis)
MEDICINAL PLANTS Day 7 SKIN DISEASES-Revealed by Heaven to Luz De María
My people, the suffering of humanity will be fiercer for all; disease continues and then the skin will be the nesting-place for another disease. Our Lord Jesus Christ, 07.22.2021
Pray, People of God, pray tirelessly so that the human skin disease would be promptly overcome when treated with Heaven’s medicines. Saint Michael the Archangel, 12.15.2020
ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL OIL
Instructions:
To half a liter of coconut oil, add 5 ml of geranium essential oil and 5 ml of lavender essential oil. Stir and keep in small, preferably amber-colored bottles. If amber-colored bottles are not available, it can be stored in transparent bottles in a cool place, away from direct light. For topical use only: Put on the skin lesion moderately 1 to 2 drops 3 to 4 times a day depending on the severity of the skin lesion. Coconut oil is used as the base oil, adding geranium essential oil and lavender essential oil.
A PRAYER BEFORE MASS (THURSDAY)
(By Saint Ambrose)
For Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord, and hatest nothing that Thou hast made. Remember how frail our nature is, and that Thou art our Father and our God. Be not angry with us forever and shut not up Thy tender mercies in displeasure. For it is not for our just works that we present our prayers before Thy face, but for the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Take away from us, O Lord, our iniquities, and mercifully kindle in us the fire of Thy Holy Spirit. Take away from us the heart of stone, and give us a heart of flesh, a heart to love and adore Thee, a heart to delight in, to follow, and to enjoy Thee. And we entreat Thy mercy, O Lord, that Thou wouldst look down graciously upon Thy family, as it pays its vows to Thy most holy name; and that the desire of none may be in vain, and the petitions of none unfulfilled, do Thou inspire our prayers, that they may be such as Thou delightest to hear and answer.
AUGUST 21 Thursday-Saint Pius X, Pope
Our Lady of Knock
Acts, Chapter 5,
verse 5
When Ananias heard
these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all
who heard of it.
Piety, Generosity and Holiness cannot be pretended.
Ananias’s story is a lesson in honesty. You cannot fool God, who knows your
heart and mind.
The problem with pretending[1]
True leaders give of themselves liberally. Being a
liberal does not make one generous. Nor does pretending to be thus comes the
sad story of Ananias and Sapphira.
In the early church in Jerusalem a group of
believers were so filled with the Holy Spirit that they were of one heart and
one mind. So knit together were the hearts of the people that they held all
their possessions loosely and willingly shared them with one another, not
because they were coerced but because they loved one another. Those who sold
land and houses gave of their profits to the apostles, who distributed the
gifts to those in need. Ananias and his wife, Sapphira also had sold a field.
Part of the profit from their sale was kept back by the couple and only laid a
part of the money was laid at the apostles’ feet. Ananias made a pretense of
having given all the proceeds. Peter, who was filled with the power of the
Spirit knew instantly that Ananias was lying—not just to him but to God—and
exposed his hypocrisy then and there. Ananias fell down and died. When Sapphira
showed up, she, too, lied to Peter and to God, saying that they had donated the
entire proceeds of the sale of the land to the church. When her lie had been
exposed, she also fell down and died at Peter’s feet. This was the sin of
hypocrisy. It can be easy today to gloss over the holiness of God, to forget
that He is righteous and pure and that He hates sin wholeheartedly.[2]
Here God removed a spiritual cancer from the church
by taking their lives and as Luke states in the Acts, “Fear (holy) came upon
all the church.” Looking more closely at the problem we can see Ananias and
Sapphira:
1. Clung
to their possessions.
2. Agreed
to lie about their giving.
3.
Pretended to be someone they were not.
4.
Thought they could get by with appearing to be generous.
5. Felt
more concerned with their image than their relationship to God.
Copilot
Comments
This
reflection on Acts 5:5, paired with the feast of Our Lady of Knock and Saint
Pius X, offers a powerful meditation on authenticity, holiness, and the
danger of spiritual pretense. Let’s unpack the layers and draw out some deeper
insights:
🌿 The Sin of Hypocrisy: A Spiritual Cancer
The
story of Ananias and Sapphira is not just about money—it’s about integrity.
Their downfall wasn’t in withholding part of the proceeds, but in pretending to
give everything. They wanted the appearance of generosity without the sacrifice
it required.
Key
Lessons:
·
God
sees the heart: No amount of outward piety can mask inward deceit.
o
Community
matters: Their lie disrupted the sacred unity of the early church.
§
Holiness
is serious: The swift judgment reminds us that God’s holiness is not to be
taken lightly.
This
wasn’t about punishment—it was about purification. God was protecting the
fledgling church from a rot that could have spread: the rot of spiritual
performance without substance.
🕊️ Our Lady of Knock: A Vision of Silent Holiness
In
contrast, the apparition at Knock in 1879 was marked by silence. Mary, St.
Joseph, and St. John appeared in quiet reverence, with the Lamb of God on the
altar. No words were spoken—only presence, purity, and peace.
What
Knock Teaches:
·
Holiness
doesn’t need to boast.
·
True
spiritual encounters are often quiet, humble, and deeply transformative.
·
Mary’s
presence reminds us to be receptive, not performative.
✝️
Saint Pius X: Reform Through Authenticity
Pope
Pius X, known for his deep piety and liturgical reforms, emphasized frequent
communion and the importance of catechesis. He sought to bring people closer to
God—not through spectacle, but through sincere devotion.
His
Legacy:
·
“Restore
all things in Christ” was his motto.
·
He
fought against modernism not out of fear, but out of a desire to preserve the
truth of the Gospel.
·
He
reminds us that leadership in the Church must be rooted in humility and truth.
🔍 Reflection Points for Today
Let
this trio—Ananias and Sapphira, Our Lady of Knock, and Saint Pius X—guide a
personal examination:
·
Am
I more concerned with how I appear than who I truly am before God?
·
Do
I give from a place of love, or from a desire to be seen?
·
Where
in my life might I be tempted to spiritual pretense?
·
How
can I cultivate silent, authentic holiness like Mary at Knock?
St. Pius X, Pope (1835-1914)[3]. Joseph Sarto was born in humble
circumstances at Riese, a small village in Venetia, on June 2, 1835. He was
successively curate, parish priest, bishop of Mantua, Patriarch of Venice —
offices to which his keen intelligence, hard work, and great piety caused him
to be quickly promoted. He was elected Pope on August 4, 1903, and took the
name of Pius X. As chief pastor of the Church he displayed untiring
self-sacrifice and great energy; he was an intrepid defender of the purity of
Christian doctrine. He realized to the full the value of the liturgy as the
prayer of the Church and the solid basis that it furnishes for the devotion of
Christian people; he worked for the restoration of the worship of the Church,
especially plainchant, so that Christian people, as he put it, might find
beauty in their public prayer. He spared no effort to propagate the practice,
so great an aid to holiness, of early, frequent and daily communion. He died on
August 20, 1914, and was canonized on May 29, 1954.
Our Lady of Knock[4]
On August 21, 1879, Margaret Beirne, a resident of Cnoc Mhuire, was sent by her
brother to lock up the church for the evening. When she was ready to leave, she
noticed a strange brightness hovering over the church. Margaret had other
things on her mind and didn't tell anyone what she saw. Around the same time,
another member of the Beirne family, Mary, was leaving from a visit to the
church's housekeeper, and stopped with the housekeeper at the gables, where
they could see the church. Mary replied:
"Oh, look at
the statues! Why didn't you tell me the priest got new statues for the
chapel?"
The
housekeeper responded that she knew nothing of the priest getting new statues.
So, they both went for a closer look, and Mary Beirne said:
"But they
are not statues, they're moving. It's the Blessed Virgin!"
Thirteen
others also came and saw the beautiful woman, clothed in white garments,
wearing a brilliant crown. Her hands were raised as if in prayer. All knew that
it was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Queen of Angels. On the right of Our Lady
stood St. Joseph, his head inclined toward her. On her left stood St. John, the
Evangelist, dressed as a bishop. To the left of St. John stood an altar which
had a lamb and a cross surrounded by angels on it. The vision lasted about two
hours. People who were not at the apparition site reported that they saw a
bright light illuminating the area where the church was. Many of the sick were
healed upon visiting the church at Knock.
Things to Do:
·
See
the website of the Shrine of the Our Lady of Knock.
·
For
further information see Catholic Saints Info on Our Lady of Knock.
·
In
the vision, Mary stood in the middle, wearing a long gown and a crown of
pulsating brilliance, with a golden rose over her forehead. A golden rose is
often the symbol of this Marian apparition.
·
Pope
St. John Paul II presented a golden rose to the Shrine on his visit on September 30,
1979. Read his Mass homily.
·
Because
the 4th Sunday of Lent or Laetare Sunday is often referred as the Golden
Rose Sunday, the Simnel Cake could incorporate the Rose tradition. See Laetare,
Jerusalem! Rejoice!
by Jennifer Gregory Miller for more information.
South Pole Discovery of the Eternal[5]
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The work of researchers who reported detecting the signal left behind by the rapid expansion of space billions of years ago is rooted in the efforts of a Belgian priest whose mathematical computations in the 1920s laid the groundwork for the Big Bang theory. Msgr. George Lemaitre, a mathematician who studied alongside leading scientists of the first half of the 20th century exploring the origins of the universe, suggested that the cosmos began as a super-dense "primeval atom" that underwent some type of reaction that initiated the expansion of the universe which continues today. The priest's conclusions challenged the conventional hypothesis proposed by luminaries such as Albert Einstein and Fred Hoyle that the universe was in a steady state. Researchers in cosmology over the decades refined Msgr. Lemaitre's idea, leading to what became widely known as the Big Bang theory and later ideas that signs of the Big Bang can be detected. The most recent evidence supporting the Big Bang emerged March 17 when a team of scientists announced they detected polarization in light caused by primordial gravitational waves originating from the Big Bang. The measurements were made with the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization experiment, or Biceps2, located near the South Pole.
Bible in a Year Day 65 Revolt against Moses
Fr. Mike dives into the recurring issue of the Israelites rebelling against God and remaining stuck in their past as we read about the revolt of Korah, Dathan and Abiram against Moses and Aaron. Today's readings are Numbers 16, Deuteronomy 15-16, and Psalm 97.
Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: For
the intercession of the angels and saints
·
Religion
in the Home for Preschool: August
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
[1] John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership
Bible.
[4]https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2020-08-21
