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Claire’s Corner
· Today in honor of the Holy Trinity do the Divine Office giving your day to God. To honor God REST: no shopping after 6 pm Saturday till Monday. Don’t forget the internet.
· Spirit Hour: B & B cocktail
o Let’s kick off the day by celebrating National Button Day! Go through your closet and dig out any clothing that needs a button replaced or jazzed up. Get creative with mismatched buttons for a funky look.
§ Next up, it’s Icelandic Language Day. Challenge yourself to learn a few Icelandic phrases online or listen to an Icelandic music playlist.
· Continue the fun by observing Louis Riel Day with a moment of reflection on the history and culture of the Métis people.
· For National Fast Food Day, treat yourself to a budget-friendly fast food meal of your choice. Make sure to savor every bite and maybe even try a new menu item.
o To honor International Day for Tolerance, take time to educate yourself on different cultures and traditions through online resources or documentaries.
· Then, on Have a Party with Your Bear Day, gather your teddy bear or any plush toy for a mini celebration. Enjoy a cozy picnic indoors or set up a tea party for you and your fluffy friend. Don’t forget to snap some photos for memories.
o As you wind down, mark Check Your Wipers Day by giving your car some TLC. Check your wipers for wear and tear, and if needed, replace them to ensure clear visibility on the roads.
· End the day on a musical note with Clarinet Day.
Listen to some clarinet performances online or even attempt to play a tune yourself if you have a clarinet lying around.
o Finally, pay homage to Indiana Day. Research the state’s history, famous landmarks, or whip up a classic dish like cornbread or Hoosier pie to experience a taste of Indiana.
🤠 Bucket List Trip: Around the World “Perfect Weather”
7-day Austin Stay & Reflection Itinerary, anchored at Americas Best Value Inn Austin University (~$75/night). Each day blends Eucharistic rhythm, civic hospitality, and musical joy.
🎶 Austin Stay & Reflection Itinerary
November 16–23 • Musical Joy, Eucharistic Rhythm
Lodging: Americas Best Value Inn Austin University – Koenig Lane
Day 1: Arrival & Musical Benediction (Nov 16)
• Afternoon: Visit Umlauf Sculpture Garden + Museum – touchable bronze works in a serene outdoor setting
• Symbolic act: Offer a prayer of arrival beside a sculpture of mercy or movement
• Evening Music: Austin City Limits Live – check listings for Nov 16 performances
Day 2: Eucharistic Anchoring & Civic Wonder (Nov 17)
• Morning Mass: Saint Mary Catholic Cathedral – Gothic architecture and Eucharistic clarity
• Midday Visit: Austin Nature & Science Center – fossils, tracks, and civic ecology
• Symbolic act: Leave a prayer near a replica fossil or nature exhibit
Day 3: Marian Listening & Springs Reflection (Nov 18)
• Church Visit: San Jose Catholic Church – South Austin warmth and Marian hospitality
• Springs Visit: Barton Springs Pool – swim or reflect near the leafy banks
• Symbolic act: Pour water over your hands and offer a prayer for renewal
Day 4: Creation Prayer & Artistic Reverence (Nov 19)
• Museum Visit: The Contemporary Austin - Laguna Gloria – modern art in a lakeside villa
• Midday Pause: Psalm 104 reflection near the sculpture trail
• Symbolic act: Sketch a symbol of joy or civic renewal
Day 5: Civic Hospitality & Botanical Listening (Nov 20)
• Morning Garden: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center – native plants and seasonal clarity
• Symbolic act: Write a blessing and leave it near a blooming trail or garden bench
• Evening Music: The Continental Club – blues, country, and civic rhythm
Day 6: Eucharistic Table & Illusion Communion (Nov 21)
• Museum Visit: Museum of Illusions Austin – playful reflection on perception and truth
• Symbolic act: Write a prayer for clarity and leave it near a mirrored exhibit
• Evening Meal: Tex-Mex supper with tortillas, citrus, and communal joy
Day 7: Benediction & Sending Forth (Nov 22)
• Final Walk: Texas Science & Natural History Museum – reflect on creation and civic memory
• Midday Reflection: Write a closing prayer of sending
• Benediction:
“May this city remember my reverence. May my steps echo music and mercy.”
🍽️ Traditional 7-Course Meal for November 16
🧵1. Hors d’Oeuvre – Button Day Bites
Dish: Puff pastry pinwheels with herbed goat cheese and edible flowers
Symbol: Celebrate National Button Day with bite-sized beauty and mending grace
🧊2. Soup – Icelandic Skyr & Cucumber Chill
Dish: Cold cucumber-dill skyr soup with rye croutons
Prep: Icelandic Provisions – Skyr Soup
Symbol: Honor Icelandic Language Day with cool clarity and ancient depth
🪶3. Fish – Métis River Offering
Dish: Smoked trout with Saskatoon berry glaze and bannock crisps
Prep: Bannock Recipe + Saskatoon Berry Sauce
Symbol: Reflect on Louis Riel Day and Métis resilience through river and berry
🍟4. Entrée – Fast Food Elevated
Dish: Gourmet sliders with heirloom tomato jam and sweet potato hay
Prep: Serious Eats – Smashed Burgers + Tomato Jam
Symbol: Indulge in National Fast Food Day with slow savoring and civic gratitude
🧸5. Salad – Bear’s Garden Picnic
Dish: Chamomile-poached pear salad with honey vinaigrette and candied walnuts
Prep: Chamomile Pear Salad
Symbol: Celebrate Have a Party with Your Bear Day with childlike joy and garden whimsy
🌽6. Cheese – Hoosier Hearth Plate
Dish: Cornbread wedges with sage-infused goat cheese and maple pecans
Symbol: Honor Indiana Day with rustic warmth and regional pride
🎶7. Dessert – Clarinet Crescendo Finale
Dish: Black licorice panna cotta with dark chocolate clarinet reeds
Prep: Licorice Panna Cotta + Clarinet Mold
Symbol: End with Clarinet Day—bittersweet, melodic, and unexpected
NOVEMBER 16 Twenty-Third
Sunday after Pentecost
St Gertrude
John, Chapter 15, Verse 17-19
This I command you: LOVE one another. “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.
Rejoice if you love and no one loves you in return; for He has chosen you! Yet, there is also the danger that you may have so much love for yourself: that there is no room to love anyone, but yourself, and people are avoiding you out of respect for the love affair you have with yourself. Remember the story of the Grinch are you more like the Grinch or Cindy Lou Who.
The model of love for all true discipleship is extreme, limitless life for your friends as Jesus modeled, the price of discipleship will be high. Just as Christ was hated so it will be for those of us who follow Him. You will be hated, persecuted, unaccepted. Yet, know that the deep-down crime is that the secular world, the culture of death, has seen the evidence and refused to believe. Jesus has spoken to them, he has performed works never done before and they really know nothing about the Father who sent Jesus and in hating Him they hate the Father also.[1]
Who are hypocrites?
Those who, in order to deceive their neighbors, show themselves outwardly pious, while within they are full of evil dispositions and malice; who have honey on the tongue, but gall in the heart; who, like scorpions, sting when one least expects it. Such men are cursed by God (Mai. i. 14). The Lord hateth a mouth with a double tongue (Prov. viii. 13). “Assumed sanctity, says St. Jerome, “is a double maliciousness.”[2]
Sounds like career Politician’s to me. Yet, this too
shall pass love endureth all things.
Copilot Take
On this Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, as we honor St. Gertrude
and reflect on John 15:17–19, we are reminded that true discipleship is marked
not by comfort but by costly love. Christ commands us to love one another—not
as a sentiment, but as a sacrificial act that sets us apart from the world. If
we are hated, misunderstood, or rejected, it is because we do not belong to the
world; we belong to Him. Yet this love must not collapse into self-absorption.
Like the Grinch, we risk shrinking our hearts through self-love, leaving no
room for others. Instead, we are called to be like Cindy Lou Who—innocent,
generous, and open to redemption. Hypocrisy, with its sweet words and bitter
heart, is a spiritual poison that corrodes community and mocks holiness. But
love—true, cruciform love—endures all things. It is the fire that purifies, the
balm that heals, and the light that exposes the darkness. Let us rejoice if we
love and are unloved in return, for in that ache, we are chosen.
ON
KEEPING THE LORD'S DAY HOLY[3]
CHAPTER I
DIES DOMINI
The Celebration of the Creator's Work
"Shabbat":
the Creator's joyful rest
12.
In the Creator's plan, there is both a distinction and a close link between the
order of creation and the order of salvation. This is emphasized in the Old
Testament, when it links the "shabbat" commandment not only
with God's mysterious "rest" after the days of creation (cf. Ex
20:8-11), but also with the salvation which he offers to Israel in the
liberation from the slavery of Egypt (cf. Dt 5:12-15). The God who
rests on the seventh day, rejoicing in his creation, is the same God who
reveals his glory in liberating his children from Pharaoh's oppression.
Adopting an image dear to the Prophets, one could say that in both cases God
reveals himself as the bridegroom before the bride (cf. Hos 2:16-24;
Jer 2:2; Is 54:4-8).
As
certain elements of the same Jewish tradition suggest, to reach the heart of
the "shabbat", of God's "rest", we need to recognize
in both the Old and the New Testament the nuptial intensity which marks the
relationship between God and his people. Hosea, for instance, puts it thus in
this marvelous passage: "I will make for you a covenant on that day with
the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the
ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I
will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever; I will
betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in
mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the
Lord" (2:18-20).
Twenty-Third
Sunday after Pentecost[4] The focus of this
Sunday is a reminder of the Book of Life and the resurrection of the body.
THE Introit of the Mass consoles us, and encourages
us to confidence in God, who is so kind to us, and will not suffer us to be
always in tribulation. “The Lord saith, I think thoughts of peace, and not of
affliction. You shall call upon Me, and I will hear you, and I will bring back
your captivity from all places. Lord, thou hast blest Thy land, Thou hast
turned away the captivity of Jacob.”
Prayer.
Absolve, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the sins of Thy
people, that we may be delivered by Thy goodness from the bonds of sin which,
by our frailty, we have committed.
EPISTLE.
Phil. iii. 17-21; iv. 1-3.
Be followers of me, brethren, and observe them who
walk so as you have our model. For many walk, of whom I have told you often
(and now tell you weeping) that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose
end is destruction: whose God is their belly: and whose glory is in their
shame: who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in heaven: from whence
also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will reform the body of
our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation
whereby also He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. Therefore, my dearly
beloved brethren, and most desired, my joy and my crown: so, stand fast in the
Lord, my dearly beloved. I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche to be of one
mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, my sincere companion, help those
women that have labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement and the rest of my
fellow- laborers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
Explanation.
In these words, the Apostle gives warning against
the false teachers of his day, who, although outwardly receiving and preaching
Christianity, in heart hated the strict requirements of Christian morals, and
lived according to their sensual lusts. He therefore cautions the faithful not
to take them for patterns, for they are only hastening to eternal perdition,
but rather to be followers of him, and of those who imitate his life. These
warnings and admonitions apply also to us. For are there not among us enemies
of the cross of Christ, who are called Christians, but who will have nothing to
do with self-denial, mortification, chastity, and such like virtues? who indeed
despise them, and count those who practice them fools? Let us not be led astray
by them. For what will be the end of them? Everlasting destruction. For he who
does not crucify his flesh does not belong to Christ (Gal. v. 24); whoever does
not bear about his body the dying of Christ, in his body the life of Christ,
will never be made manifest (n. Cor. iv. 10). Whoever does not already walk in
heaven, that is, direct his thoughts and desires to heavenly goods, will not
find admission there after death.
Ejaculation.
O my God would that I might say, with St. Paul, the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. vi. 14).
GOSPEL. Matt, ix. 18-26[5]
At that time, as Jesus was speaking to the multitudes, behold a certain ruler came up, and adored Him, saying: Lord, my daughter is even now dead; but come, lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus rising up, followed him with His disciples. And behold a woman who was troubled with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment. For she said within herself: If I shall touch only His garment I shall be healed. But Jesus turning and seeing her, said: Be of good heart, daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus was come into the house of the ruler and saw the minstrels and the multitude making a rout, he said: Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed Him to scorn. And when the multitude was put forth, He went in, and took her by the hand. And the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that country.
Explanation
The ruler and the woman here mentioned teach us that in diseases of body or of mind we should have recourse to Jesus with faith and confidence; and even when the malady continues, and seems to be incurable, we should not suffer our courage to sink.
ON MOCKERY AND RIDICULE
When Jesus entered the house of Jairus, and said, the girl is not dead, but sleepeth, the multitude laughed Him to scorn, because they understood neither the meaning of His words nor what He was about to do. Similar treatment sensual-minded men of the world often give to those servants of God who, by word and example, preach the contempt of honors, riches, pleasures, and the love of poverty, humility, and mortification. Permit not yourself to be led astray by those who ridicule your zeal for virtue; pay no heed to them, according to the example of Jesus, and trust in Him Who was Himself derided for your sake. Say to yourself: I know, O dearest Jesus, that the servant is not greater than his master. When Thou wast so often mocked, why should it appear strange to me to be jeered at and called senseless for endeavoring to practice devotion and virtue? I would not fare differently from Thee, my Lord and my God.
St. Gertrude[6]
St. Gertrude the Great, a Cistercian nun, is one of the most lovable German saints from medieval times, and through her writings she will remain for all ages a guide to the interior life. When she was twenty-five years old (1281), Christ began to appear to her and to disclose to her the secrets of mystical union. Obeying a divine wish, she put into writing the favors of grace bestowed upon her. Her most important work, Legatus Divinae Pietatis, "The Herald of Divine Love,".
The Gift of Frequent Communion[7]
All too few of us are blessed with the opportunity for daily Mass and Communion. Even St. Gertrude herself had trouble doing that (primarily due to her illnesses). In one of her writings, she relates a conversation with Jesus in which they talked about the graces given to daily communicants…with a surprising statement about when graces are NOT given.
Here’s an excerpt from St. Gertrude’s writings:
Gertrude said, “How far above me in
beatitude will those priests be who communicate every day to fulfill the duties
of their ministry!”
“It is true,” replied Our Lord, “that
those who celebrate worthily shall shine in great glory, but the love of him
who communicates with pleasure should be judged of very differently from the
exterior magnificence that appears in this mystery. There will be one reward
for him who has
approached with desire and love.
There will be another for him who
approaches with fear and reverence.
and another for him who is very diligent
in his preparation.
But those who habitually celebrate through
custom only shall have no share in My gifts.”
–The Life and Revelations of St. Gertrude the Great
How many of us Catholics judge our sanctity by the numbers of Masses and Communions we experience? Holiness is not a numbers game, but a “heart game.” The most eloquent prayers–even the Mass itself–are of little value without engagement of the heart. But prayers fueled by love, devotion and confidence will move the highest mountains.
Reflection: At Communion time, we must always be aware of the awesome significance of what we are about to do. Our hearts must be in the game. It is Christ Himself, Creator of the Universe, whom we receive in the form of the Host.
Before approaching the table of the Lord,
we pray to be worthy; we pray to be in the moment when God blesses us with this
indescribable Eucharistic miracle. We pray to be prepared.
Bible in a Year Day 134 The Counsel of Hushai
Fr. Mike explains the events of today's readings, breaking down Hushai's advice to Absalom, David's warning and charge of Solomon, and the theme of centralized worship. We all desire to be temples of the Holy Spirit, and we bring this prayer to God through today's episode. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 17, 1 Chronicles 22, and Psalm 36.
Daily
Devotions/Practices
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: The
poor and the suffering.
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary.
[1]
The Collegeville Bible Commentary
[2]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896.
[5]Goffines
Devout Instructions, 1896
