#peter grant is me fr
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One thing I really love about the Rivers of London series is that the narrator is this guy who is canonically interested in almost everything and periodically gets distracted during stakeouts because he stops to read a plaque, so it's very natural in the course of the narration for him to be like, "Hold that thought and let me tell you the history of this very tasteful lingerie shop in Soho."
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swim good₊˚.༄ shuri udaku pt.1
titled inspired by “swim good” by frank ocean
paring: shuri udaku x blk fem! reader
summary: (a cliche) in sitcom-like fashion, an unathletic shuri udaku attempts to join the swim team to impress a girl she likes.
part summary: shuri is smitten and her lovesick ass gets into trouble.
word count: 2.5k
content will include: third person story-telling + reader goes by all pronouns, nerd!shuri, pining!shuri, athlete stem!reader, reader is aware of shuri’s efforts and finds it adorable, the reader is a huge tease, reader’s a flirt but they’re rlly sweet too, reader is shorter than shuri but stronger, college au, swim sports au, peter parker and friends cameo as her lil nerd group (???), shuriri are besties and dormates, swim teacher!namor, t’challa is alive and he’s the wrestling team coach :’), wrestling team co-coach!m’baku, fencing teacher!okoye mentioned, literature teacher!nakia mentioned, shuri’s hair is the short coily undercut in this story, I refer shuri by like six diff nicknames for fun bc it’s funny and we having fun, by “purple-clad” shuri I mean purple flannel and not the tracksuit, y’know, bc she’s a nerd /hj, I call them teens bc they’re still eightTEEN and nighTEEN, a good chunk of the story is just the other characters dogging on shuri for her sitcom ahh decisions and lines lmao, lots of banter, sitcom-like corniness and humor, sexual jokes but not rlly any content, some tension tho, pretty much fluff, just a lil fun🤷🏾♂️
a/n: i didn’t know whether to make this a college au or high school au bc technically I’m bout to leave high school but I’m also not in college yet so idk what id get right or wrong sooooo I’mma play it safe and go freshmen in college???
tags: @bellaallebbella1 for the dt @pinkwright @inmyheadimobsessed @zayswriting @generallysapphic bc they’re the pioneers and my favs fr, and @vampzxi cuz it’s lowkey inspired the shuri high school headcannons even tho it’s not rlly even close but shoutout fr
alsooooo since just getting back into writing like this outside of school direction and im not used to writing a straight shot one shot, this gon be multiple parts IM SAWRIIIIIIIIII, it’s only 2 parts tho
AGAIN THIS IS MY FIRST FF IN A WHILE AND I DIDNT HAVE ANYONE PROOFREAD IM SAWRI IF THE PACING OR THE PLOT COMES OFF INCOHERENT😭😭
#1
[MONDAY AFTERNOON]
Her smooth silk brown skin glistens
under the sunlit illuminated windows
as the water trickles
down her broad shoulders
to her god-crafted muscles,
flexing with every step they take
ever
so
slightly
out the pool.
Their chest heaving,
a slightly tired
yet heavy gaze
as they skim around the room at their peers,
eyes landing on one particular figure
with a similar look in their eye.
Her stoic demeanor is slowly replaced
with a playful smirk as she eyes...
wait…
SHE’S LOOKING AT ME-
SHIT!
Shuri snaps out of her internal monologue, jumping from the huge glass that peered into the school’s aquatic center, and quickly bolts through the double doors that lead to the hallway. When she’s out of sight, she slumps over, catching her breath. “Wow, Ms. Nakia would have either granted me an A+ or sent me to the principal’s office with the type of words I was thinking,” Shuri chuckles to herself.
After a brief pause at her words, her face heats up as she quickly facepalms in shame.
“What the hell am I saying?”
Reluctant, she trudges down the hall in embarrassment, making her way to the place she considered her third home: the science building computer lab (her second home was chemistry lab 2b).
In there resides Peter Parker and Ned Leeds, sitting around a desktop clicking away at some first-person shooter game, with an unwavering MJ Watson sitting a couple of seats away from the boisterous boys, head in a book per the usual. All three teens lined up in typical geeky fashion. Shuri slumps her book bag over a computer table, the sudden noise breaking the immersion of the boys who then looked up from their game, spotting the presence of their purple-clad friend.
“Dude, what have you been doing all this time?” Ned scowls. “We didn’t have any clubs today and we’ve been waiting for you for the past twenty minutes to walk to that new milk tea cafe MJ’s been telling us about.”
Not lifting her head from her book, MJ snarkily remarks, “She’s probably been too busy ogling the crap out of that poor girl over at the aqua center.”
Shuri’s face heats up as she’s quick to defend herself. “Cut it out! Of course I wasn’t!”
MJ smirks, still not looking up from her book. “Sorry, lemme rephrase that better: she’s probably been too busy eye fucking the crap out of that poor girl over at the aqua center.” Blood rushes through Shuri’s cheeks as she sputters incompressible excuses from her mouth, MJ giggling at her discomposure from her book.
“You’re such a mess, Shuri! When are you gonna finally buckle down and rizz her up– or at least go up and talk to the girl instead of borderline stalking her almost every afternoon?” Peter playfully pokes the purple-clad.
Shuri sucks her teeth, swatting him away. “One: the word ‘rizz’ sounds extremely uncanny coming out of your mouth. Please refrain from using that word around me again.”
Collective snorts bounce off the embarrassed white teen whose shit-eating grin twists into a poker face.
“Two: I don’t eye Y/N almost every afternoon.” Shuri pshaws and waves everyone off.
“Oh, my bad!'' Peter dramatically gasps, slapping a hand over his chest. “It’s every morning, lunch break, assembly, dinner break, class transition, and EVERY afternoon.” Collective snickers break out as Shuri backhands Peter, not harshly, but hard enough to derive a strained “ack!” out of him.
“But seriously, Shuri, it’s about time you try and get this girl’s number.” MJ goes on, finally looking up from her book and putting it on the table spine up. “It’s no use for you to keep on hopelessly pining after this girl from afar and not putting in the effort to actually pursue her.” Shuri slumps into a chair and releases an exasperated sigh.
“I do, but what would a versatile and talented girl want with a one-trick pony nerd like me?” MJ visibly cringes at the purple-clad’s words. “Ewww man, this isn’t the 80s! We are NOT living in a Disney Channel sitcom. There’s a lot of people would go for somebody as smart and intelligent as you, you know that.”
“Yeah, maybe to do their homework for them,” Shuri retorts. MJ pauses. “Hmmm, now that claim, I won’t completely disagree with...” “MJ!” Ned dramatically gasps as he lightly slaps MJ on the shoulder.
“Don’t listen to her, Shuri. You are perfectly capable of winning Y/N over just the way you are.”
The purple-clad snickers. “Now THAT was something you could’ve sworn was straight out of a Disney Channel sitcom.”
About 15 minutes later, the eccentric group of teens close up the computer lab and continue down the hallways with milk tea on their minds… except for Shuri. She trails behind the bunch, head hung low, peeping at Y/N’s Instagram.
As her walking gets slower as she’s gaping at her phone, the coil-haired nerd brushes her shoulder against what she thinks is just a wall. She lifts her head to notice the shorter, dark, and gorgeous swimmer— the same one on her phone that she still had in open view.
“Oh! Whassup, Miss Shuri!” Y/N’s eyes light up as he greets the taller.
Shuri’s breath hitches at the lovely emphasis put on her name, blood running cold as she quickly checks her peripheral to make sure the gang wasn’t around to humiliate her more than she already was.
Meanwhile, the teens heard what was going on behind them, but chose to continue on their merry way, intentionally leaving the two alone in the middle of the hallway.
She looks back at the short athlete and returns the greeting with a bashful smile. “What brings you here, Y/N?” The nerd quickly asks in a desperate attempt to carry the conversation, forgetting that people don’t need a reason to just roam the halls, something she mentally facepalms herself for right after.
“Nothin’ much,” Y/N chuckles at Shuri’s nervous efforts. “I’m just coming out of my swim practice. Mr. Namor was runnin’ me dry today.”
The athlete pauses as if she’s recalling something, the corners of her mouth slowly curling into a knowing smirk.
“I saw you peeping me over at the center earlier,” she drawls, “figured you wanted to speak to me about somethin’?” The athlete’s tongue subtly swipes across her bottom lip, as she gazes up at Shuri with a particular look in her eye, irises occasionally shifting down to the open Instagram page still on her phone, waiting for an excuse.
It was enough for the poor nerd to melt into a puddle, knees buckle and collapse, and lay sprawled across the hallway floor right then and there, but luckily for her, she still possessed a pinch of dignity left within her. With fleeting composure, gripping her backpack strap with strain, Shuri gives a weak pshaw.
“Me? I was just passing by! I just really like watching the team…”
You…
“...practice.”
As Shuri desperately attempts to form more words that can potentially save her, her eyes flicker to a *very convenient* bulletin board behind the shorter athlete. There, plastered on the brown surface was a poster: “CALLING FOR NEW MEMBERS! Swim Team Tryouts This Thursday at 5 pm! Swim Your Way To Success!”
Oh, Bast…
“In fact, I’m thinking of trying out for the swim team myself,” the nerd straightens up and states proudly, hoping she masked the way she winced at her words.
Y/N, who was expecting a different answer, gapes at the helpless girl in slight shock. “Oh, for real? That’s crazy! I never pegged you as a swimmer, Shuri.”
The nerd’s mouth forms a goofy grin. “And why is that?” She dramatically slaps a hand on her chest. “Is it because I’m of the darker persuasion?”
This derives a hearty cackle out of the shorter athlete, Shuri’s stomach fluttering from the fact that she made the girl laugh.
“Negro, please,” Y/N catches his breath and straightens up. “It’s because… I mean…” The shorter athlete trails off, eyeing Shuri up and down, the nerd’s cheeks heating up in the act.
“You know what? Nevermind. I can’t blame you for wanting to try. Hell, I’ve been swimming since 4 years old, the feeling’s exhilarating.” Y/N sighs off into the distance, as Shuri internally gushes at the shorter athlete’s passion.
Suddenly she snaps out of her trance and backtracks on the words of the other girl.
“Can’t blame me for wanting to ‘try’? Are you still assuming I can’t swim?”
Y/N waves his hands in defense. “No! I’m just saying–”
“Well I’m GOING to try out, I’m GOING to swim like a pro, and I’m GOING to get on the team!”
After a brief pause at her sudden outburst of competitiveness, Shuri reels it back in with a small “...respectfully,” and a cheeky smile.
Amused at the nerd’s sudden wave of confidence, Y/N clasps their hands together in accord. “Sounds like a plan then! I guess I’ll be seeing you Thursday then.” The shorter athlete readjusts the duffle bag strap on her shoulder and starts to walk closer to Shuri, laying an encouraging, yet, knowing hand on the taller’s shoulder, and leans into her ear.
Shuri could have sworn she was imagining what was rasped next.
“Word of advice: work on that backstroke… I know I will.”
Y/N then pulls away with an innocent grin and brushes past the appalled nerd, continuing on their merry way, but to suddenly turn around to yell one last thing:
“And your phone’s still on!”
Frozen in place, the girl slowly peers down to her cellular (one she made the mistake of changing the display settings to go into sleep mode after 5 minutes) still on Y/N’s Instagram page.
Once the athlete was out of sight, Shuri’s knees buckled as she grips the nearest wall, releasing a sigh of relief, quickly washed over with a wave of anxiousness.
What have I got myself into?
#2
“Y’know a backstroke is a type of swim move, right?”
Riri chuckles at Shuri as she clicks away on her calculator, doing her homework on her bed. The young prodigy lifts her face from it being buried in her pillow and whines.
“But she said it so… sultry like… and her voice was so… raspy… it felt INTENTIONAL!”
“Or maybe your horny ass misconstrued her words and heard ‘backshots’ instead of ‘backstrokes’!” Riri giggled as Shuri proceeded to throw a pillow at the girl.
“Regardless, either word could be used as an innuendo, she did it on purpose,” Shuri retorts.
“Okay, okay, whatever. Sooo, what are you gonna do?”
Shuri flops back on her bed with a sigh. “I will try out for the swim team, like I said I would. I mean, she sounded so intrigued when I mentioned I was interested, and the passion in the way she speaks about it— I should at LEAST try.”
“Aww, I guess that’s fair,” Riri begins to coo. “If you knew how to swim.”
“Huh?”
“Shuri, I have never seen you TOUCH water unless it was for drinking or an experiment, let alone be EMERGED in water outside of taking showers and baths in it. We’ve had campus water activities and pool days before and each time you’ve said ‘I’m busy, I’m busy.’”
“Well I was, you know I have school work as my top priority.”
“We have them during school breaks, Shuri, you don’t work on a school break!”
Riri releases an exasperated sigh. “Shuri, can you swim or not?” The prodigy gives her friend a hesitant look. “I mean, I’m not the worst at it…”
“Shuri, just say you’re shit at swimming.”
“Fucking hate it.” Shuri blurts out. “Haven’t stepped foot into a pool since I was 6.”
“Damn it, Shuri!”
“You wanted me to be honest!”
Riri chuckles in disbelief, shaking her head. “That’s not even it, Shuri! Swim team try-outs are on Thursday, that’s in THREE DAYS! You barely know how to swim, what makes you think you’ll be ready within the next three days?”
“I’ll figure it out, okay?” Shuri stresses, trying to calm herself down. “I mean, you seem to know how to swim. Why don’t you teach me?”
“One: you dug this silly lil’ hole yourself,” Riri wags her finger at the prodigy, “I’m not helping you with shit. The most I’ll do is braid your hair back the night before so it can fit better in the swim cap you’ll have to put on. Two: I couldn’t teach you even if I wanted to because I wouldn’t have time, I’m stacked up on homework for the next few days.”
Shuri groans in her pillow, flopping back down on her bed once again. The young prodigy felt hopeless with no more ideas left… except for one last hope.
“No.”
“C’mon, brother! This is my love life on the line!”
T’Challa chuckles, crossing his arms. “You got yourself into this mess when you knew you couldn’t swim.” He raises is hands in defense. “You have a death wish, I am not helping you.”
“But that’s what Riri said!” Shuri whines.
“Well Riri is a good friend, keep her around. As for me, I have a gym to organize so I am going to continue what I was doing.” T’Challa does just that as he starts to pick up idle weights off the floor.
“I’ll pay you!”
“I have a job, and you’re a broke college student.”
“But with an internship!”
“An unpaid internship.”
“I’ll be your very best friend!”
“I’m your brother, and I already have plenty of friends.”
“Oh, like that old brute that works alongside you?”
“I heard that, you oversized midget!” A snarky coach M’baku scowls from the connected office.
“I’m 5’5!”
“And I’m 6’5, midget!”
Shuri rolls her eyes waves him off. “You work with that oversized man baby,” she sneers to T’Challa.
The older chuckles as he continues to tune out his sister’s persuasions while he tidies around the ring.
“Brother, please!” Shuri drops to her knees dramatically, rubbing her hands together in impatience. “I’m becoming desperate, I REALLY need your help!”
The younger continues to plead as the older man begins to cringe at the pathetic display, checking his peripheral to make sure she wasn’t causing a scene for unwarranted pedestrians that may walk past the gym.
“Okay okay, I will help you! Just stand up, PLEASE! You’re embarrassing me!” T’Challa quickly reassures the girl on the ground.
Shuri’s pleas quickly halt as she jumps to her feet, showering her brother with “thank you”s.
“Ahh, don’t thank me yet,” the older waves the girl off. “And I’m only going to be RE teaching you the basics. Any extra stunts you want to pull for your little girlfriend besides that will be on your accord.”
“Deal,” Shuri clasps her hands together.
“Now will you please leave me be? I have a gym to attend to.”
“Whatever,” Shuri remarks as she starts to head for the exit, “But just know I will be at the gym pool, bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow morning!”
The girl slaps the doorway wall and points at her brother, who both chuckles and cringes at her enthusiasm.
Once the bubbly teen was out of sight, M’baku wheels himself to the office doorway in his rolling chair.
“You know she’s going to drown herself.”
A reluctant T’Challa sighs. “Yep.”
To be continued headass…
#shuri#mcu shuri#letitia wright#shuri udaku#letitia wright shuri#shuri fic#shuri black panther#shuri fanfic#shuri fluff#shuri imagine#shuri x reader#shuri fanfiction#shuri x fem!reader#shuri x you#shuriri#shuri angst#shuri smut#shuri x riri#black panther wakanda forever#black panther#bpwf#nerd!shuri
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30th November >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 4:18-22 for the Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle: ‘They left their nets at once and followed him’.
Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Gospel (Except USA)
Matthew 4:18-22
'I will make you fishers of men'.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they left their nets at once and followed him. Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. At once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
Gospel (USA)
Matthew 4:18-22
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
Reflections (6)
(i) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
I chose Andrew as my Confirmation name. I knew he was one of the first people that Jesus called to follow him and that he was the brother of Simon Peter. The brothers were fishermen who made a good living by catching fish on the Sea of Galilee and selling the fish on to locals. It always struck me as interesting that Jesus called two sets of brothers when he began to form a group around himself, Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Peter and Andrew must have been a support to one another as they left one way of life that was familiar to them and started a whole new way of life that was very unfamiliar to them. From now on it is people they would be catching for Jesus rather than catching fish. Jesus needed people like Peter and Andrew, James and John, and many others, women and men, to bring his compassionate, healing, presence to others. The Lord wants to work through us all to make him present to others. None of us go to the Lord on our own. We need others to bring us to the Lord. We might reflect today on those who brought us to the Lord. In my case, I think of my parents, some teachers I had at school, the local priests in the parish, friends I made who were people of faith. We all came to the Lord through others, and the Lord wants to bring others to himself through each one of us. According to the gospel of John, it was Andrew who met Jesus first, and it was Andrew who brought his brother Peter to Jesus. We can all be an Andrew to someone, just as someone has been an Andrew to us. We ask Saint Andrew today to grant us something of his willingness to bring others to the Lord, by sharing our faith in whatever way we can.
And/Or
(ii) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Andrew is always listed second in the list of the twelve apostles, after his brother, Simon Peter. On this feast of Saint Andrew we hear the story of the call of Andrew along with his brother Simon Peter and another set of brothers, James and John. There is a great simplicity about the passage. Jesus saw the two brothers, Simon and Andrew, making a cast with their net in the Sea of Galilee, going about their daily work, and he called out to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of people’. Immediately the two brothers left their nets and followed Jesus. The evangelist has perhaps streamlined an experience in the lives of these two brothers that, in reality, may have been a lot more complex. You would expect that there must have been some hesitation on their part before the call of Jesus, because it meant leaving what they were familiar with and good at, and heading out into the unknown. Becoming fishers of people, catching people, is a lot more challenging than catching fish. Gathering people into the net of God’s kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is much more complicated than gathering fish into fishing nets. Yet, if there was hesitation in Andrew and Simon, they obviously overcame it; they threw in their lot with Jesus. They responded to his invitation, his call and they went on to become great preachers of the gospel. The way the Lord works in our own lives is perhaps not all that different to the way he worked in the lives of Andrew and Simon. He often calls us out to us in the midst of our daily tasks. He frequently calls us beyond where we are, beyond the familiar, inviting us to take on some new task in the service of the coming of God’s kingdom. That call can come to us in small and subtle ways. We may find ourselves resisting it, but if we attend to it and allow it to resonate within us, and if we then respond to it, we will often discover that the Lord works through us for good in ways that surprise us. The Lord can work powerfully through our willingness and generosity of spirit.
And/Or
(iii) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter. They both earned their living by fishing on the Sea of Galilee. According to this morning’s gospel reading, they were the first whom Jesus called to become his followers and they were the first to respond to his calling, leaving their fishing business to go where Jesus went. When the Matthew, Mark and Luke list the names of the twelve, Simon Peter is always mentioned first and Andrew second, suggesting that Peter was the more significant of the two within the circle of Jesus. Indeed, Peter was clearly the leader of the twelve, the disciple whom Jesus called to be rock on which he would build his church, the shepherd to whom he entrusted the care of his flock. Yet, according to John’s gospel, Andrew was the first to spend time with Jesus and to recognize him as the Messiah, and it was Andrew who subsequently brought his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. ‘He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”’ (John 1:41). According to this gospel, Peter may have gone on to have a more prominent role in Jesus’ circle than Andrew, but it was Andrew who created the opening for Peter to meet with Jesus initially. The ministry of opening a door to the Lord for others is a very significant one. We can all enter into that task of creating a space for others to encounter the Lord. Whenever we take on this ‘Andrew role’ for others, it can have consequences for good beyond our imagining.
And/Or
(iv) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
In the first reading, Paul declares that ‘faith comes from what is preached, and what is preached comes from the word of God’. Good preaching is rooted in God’s word and nurtures faith. The preacher needs to be a good listener to God’s word if his or her preaching is to generate and nurture faith. As Christians, we recognize the New Testament as the privileged place where we hear God’s word. The Lord speaks to us through the inspired writings of what has come to be known as the New Testament. In the gospel reading, Peter and Andrew, James and John, hear the Lord’s word as they engage in their daily work as fishermen. It was while they were casting or mending their nets that they heard the Lord’s call to become his followers. The Lord speaks to us all from within the heart of our daily experience. What we might think of as purely secular activities can have a truly sacred quality. Our attentiveness to the Lord’s word in the Scriptures can make us more attuned to the many ways he communicates with us in the bits and pieces of life. According to today’s responsorial psalm, the heavens proclaim the glory of God, as does the firmament; day unto day takes up the story; night unto night makes known the message. The Lord’s glory, story, message can be heard in all of life, if we have ears to hear. Andrew, whose feast we celebrate today, had ears to hear the Lord’s word to him as he immersed himself in his day’s work. He inspires us to have something of the same contemplative attitude to life that allows us to be sensitive to what the Lord may be saying to us in all of life’s situations.
And/Or
(v) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
In the list of the twelve apostles, Andrew always comes second, after his brother Peter. He is overshadowed somewhat by his more prominent brother, who became the leading member of the church that was formed after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The gospel reading refers to Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother, Andrew. The siblings of well-known people can easily become defined by their relationship to the better known member of the family, ‘the brother or the sister of…’. Yet, according to the gospel of John, it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. According to the first chapter of that gospel, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, and he and one other disciple of John the Baptist were the first to spend time in Jesus’ company. Having spent a day with Jesus, Andrew found his brother Simon Peter and declared excitedly to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’. He then brought Simon Peter to Jesus, and looking upon Simon, Jesus said to him, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called “Peter”’. Even though Peter went on to have a more significant role in the church than Andrew, it was Andrew who had the more significant role at the beginning. Indeed, without Andrew’s role in Peter’s life at that time, Peter would not have gone on to become the great pastoral leader he was. The Lord has a role for each one of us and that role is vitally important, even if it seems less prominent than other people’s role. There is something that the Lord wants each of us to do that no one else can do. Sometimes, the role he is calling us to take on is that of the enabler, as in the case of Andrew who enabled Peter to begin his faith journey, which went on to bear such rich fruit for the church. Even though Andrew lived in the shadow of Peter somewhat, without Andrew the church would not have known Peter. The role of enabler is one of those modest, humble, roles in the Lord’s work that is, nonetheless, hugely significant. If we find ourselves being called to play that role at some point in our lives, we are indeed blessed.
And/Or
(vi) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
According to Paul in today’s first reading, ‘faith comes from what is preached’. We could extend that to say that faith comes through the preaching and teaching of those who believe. Who were the preachers and teachers in our lives through whom we came to believe? We can include among those preachers and teachers all those who spoke to us as children about the life of faith, about God, Jesus, Mary and the saints, about the church and the sacraments. The primary preachers and teachers were our parents; they spoke to us about the faith from our earliest years. We may have encountered preachers in church and teachers in school who helped to open up the riches of the faith to us. Books or articles written by people of faith may have touched us deeply. The preachers and teachers in our lives took many forms. We owe our faith to them. We don’t come to believe on our own. We need people of faith to lead us to faith. Today we celebrate one of the earliest preachers and teachers of the faith, Saint Andrew. He can easily end up in the shadow of his more famous brother, Saint Peter. Yet, according to John’s gospel, it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. In other words, Andrew was the first preacher of the faith in the life of Peter. Andrew reminds us that we all have a role in bringing others to faith. None of us goes to the Lord on our own. We need companions in faith who help to bring us to the Lord, as Andrew brought Simon to the Lord. We are all called to be preachers and teachers in that sense, people of faith who witness to our faith in ways that help others to meet the Lord for themselves.
Fr. Martin Hogan.
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𝑴𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝑲𝑬𝑲𝑬 ♛
𝘼𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝙈𝙀…
hi!! my name is MaKeyah🌷 but you can call me keke, key, keyah, allat! it’s easier anyways lmaooo, 9teen, black, a may taurus (yuhh hehe), currently in school but not really thinking abt going back, and i live in a fake state😋
𝙈𝙔 𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙎…
film
books
pop culture
plants and flowers
redecorating
𝙒𝙀 𝙎𝙄𝙈𝙋𝙄𝙉𝙂..?
the answer is always yes ☝🏽
spider-verse — peter parker (andrew and tom’s version), miles morales, hobie brown, spider-noir, miguel o’hara, and felicia hardy
aot — eren jeager, armin arlert, hange zoe, levi ackerman, jean kirstein, reiner (on occasion), and mikasa ackerman
demon slayer — uzui tengen, rengoku kyojuro, giyuu tomioka, sanemi (on occasion), yoriichi and muzan
mcu — matt murdock, wade wilson, frank castle, bucky barnes, sam wilson, bruce banner (avengers assemble series), thor, wolverine, storm, marc spector/steven grant, t’challa, steve rogers (only age of ultron and winter soldier), and druig
jjk — gojo satoru, geto suguru, nanami kento, maki zenin, megumi fushiguro, yuuji itadori, inumaki toge, and yuta okkotsu
𝙃𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙋𝙃𝙊𝙉𝙀𝙎 𝙊𝙉…🎧
my music taste varies but… sza, yeat, kaytranada, ice spice, beyoncé, tyler the creator, frank ocean, the wallows, billie eilish, playboi carti, the neighbourhood, arctic monkeys, rihanna, sade, kendrick lamar, metro boomin, megan thee stallion, normani, ariana grande, pinkpantheress, the weeknd, doja cat, miguel, odetari, chloexhalle, baby keem, childish gambino, brent faiyaz, 21 savage, cardi b, givēon, and many more…
𝙊𝙉 𝙍𝙀𝙋𝙀𝘼𝙏…🎧
deli : ice spice
got it good : kaytranada ft. craig david
flawlëss : yeat ft. lil uzi very
new jeans : newjeans
𝙎𝙄𝙍𝙀𝙉 🤍 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙎…
my girlfriend, my friends, watching youtube, baking, baking, plants, shoes (mainly crocs fr…they’re comfy), anime, scary movies, films in general, my cat zeus, marvel, sometimes dc, drawing, tattoos, discord and many more…
𝙇𝙐𝙓𝙐𝙍𝙔 𝙁𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙎…
youtubers : coryxkenshin, dashie, berleezy, kyahnextdoor, monet mcmichael, and deb smikle
movies : coraline, the conjuring series, everything, everything, it, any spider-man movie (except amazing spider-man 2)
color(s) : sage green, purple, red, black, brown, baby blue, white, pastel yellow, and baby pink
books : they both die at the end, beautiful creatures, good girl’s guide to murder, we were liars
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art heist, baby! thoughts (1)
doing this for every fic i read apparently. did i read half of this in one sitting? yes. will i finish the rest of it tonight? also probably yes.
chapter 1
i am So Excited To Read This
james! ahhhh
remus! ahhhh
remus being a bowie fan in every AU
james just being james
wait is james going to steal art because he’s Broke ?! i’m here for it honestly
ooooh is it regulus
or sirius
brazil mention!
oh! money laundering!
IT IS REGULUS!! AHHH!!!
not james already falling for regulus you haven’t even MET the man you spoke on the phone BRIEFLY this is so james of james to do. james jameses like no other
chapter 2
remus 😭😭 i mean valid. james is being very. james.
“You’re going to get murdered and wind up on some true-crime podcast” that’s the dream isn’t it
“and not because he didn’t know how to parallel park.” REAL does anyone actually know how to parallel park
is sirius the Other Man
james being In Love with regulus ALREADY still
he got the job! was there ever any doubt
ahhh i wonder who’s on their “team”
EVAN!!!!!
barty mention!
james. dear sweet james.
evan is so real.
i’m sorry the old james can’t come to the phone right now. why? oh! cause he’s dead!
appreciation for these end notes
“Regulus: Do this art heist with me or I will kill you and not feel bad abt it at all
James: You're so lovely. So pretty. So beautiful.”
chapter 3
new hampshire ?! (🎶i’m mean because i grew up in new england🎶) (sincere apologies to the amount of times i break into song in my ‘[fanfic] thoughts’ things i genuinely cannot help myself i’m a stereotypical choir kid and a former theater kid)
no way james is just gonna abandon remus. he doesn’t have it in him.
ok remus (?)
GRANT MENTION!!!!!!
THE DRIVER IS NAMED KREACHER 😭
REMUS?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE this is hilarious
lily!!!!!!!! i would know that red hair anywhere
“James was panicking. Why was everyone so hot?” this is the best line that has ever and will ever be written
marlene!!!
james is so lovestruck (🎶got lovestruck went straight to my head got lovesick all over my bed🎶)
“Alright, so what have you two been in jail for,” i’m in love with you marlene mckinnon
remus and marlene
PETER i lowkey forgot about peter
“James wasn’t sure what he thought of Regulus other than that he felt general splendour whenever they made eye contact.”
chapter 4
the summary: “James just stares at Regulus, like a lot. Like A LOT a lot.”
remus not being able to sleep on planes is so real
i love new england so much (i have never been)
“No relationships were permitted among group members. Absolutely no sex either.” yeah there’s no way this rule will be broken. nope.
“Remus believed it to be a cardinal sin to write in the margins of books and kept a separate journal to document his thoughts while reading.” remus it’s okay to be wrong sometimes
THEYRE LEARNING AMERICAN ACCENTS 😭😭
“Remus was already teasing him mercilessly claiming he had the ‘hots for teacher’” i love remus
james being a little exhibitionist
james 😭😭
the art history is art historying
the jegulus is jegulusing
i was gonna stop here but the end notes say we get sirius in the next chapter so now i HAVE to read it
chapter 5
oh hanky panky in this chapter ?!
frank!!!
omg are they detectives ahhhh enemies to lovers wolfstar ?!
PANDORA!!!!
wolfstar?! wolfstar.
ahhhhhhhhhh (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
moony!
oh, remus.
peter being a helpful icon
chapter 6
everyone helping james pick an outfit for his ‘date’ ahhhh
“you do look nice” AHHHH
regulus likes oranges!!!!!!! he’s just like me fr
REGULUS BEING A CHILDHOOD DIRECTIONER HELP
james would like harry best
their favorite colors being red and green <3
of course regulus would like that painting
james: “i would steal that painting for you”
regulus just. forgetting he’s driving.
the jegulus is jegulusing
chapter 7
“It’s not even cooking, you literally had to put the bread in the toaster and remember to pull it out,” Remus fumed again.
“Your father should’ve remembered to pull it out.”
james being a teachers pet
eeeee wolfstar
they’re both david bowie fans AS THEY SHOULD BE
oh no 😟
peter and james being lifesavers
eeeee they’re throwing a party
“I want a nice house, a house with a family and enough money for that house to be on the tropical beach somewhere. I want enough money so that nothing will go wrong that can’t be fixed.” peter’s just like me fr
them bonding >>>
dorlene!
JAMES WHAT ARE YOU DOING
not james ratting everyone out to regulus
eeeeee jegulus
KISS GUYS COME ON
chapter 8
sirius!
sirius is down bad
i love fralice
sirius making The Joke will never not be funny
their date <3
pandora!
REGULUS ?! what are you doing here babe
REGULUS STOLE SIRIUS’ FAVORITE PAINTING OMG
oooh they’re arguing
SIRIUS GOT SHOT?!
gasp
chapter 9
i like that the chapters are short
“nothing much, just 1.2 million” yeah regulus that’s nothing…
ooooh dorlene i love them
regulus just drowning the bathroom
the painting
jegulus ❤️🩹
THEYRE HUGGING
“Oh, James thought. So this is what he was supposed to do. This is what his arms were made for, to hold Regulus Black for as long as he wanted. Until the last day. Until forever.”
a hug from james fleabag potter would solve all of my problems
chapter 10
barty calling everyone criminals and common whores
guns this is so america core
“mary mary quite contrary” mention
i love barty and evan so much
oh my god. did james make regulus orange muffins AHHHHH i love james so much omg
ahhhh jegulus
pinky promise ❤️🩹
ok i need to read another. i would not be surprised if i read this all in one sitting.
chapter 11
sirius pov!
their childhood ☹️
wolfstar ❤️🩹
not remus reading anna karenina 😭
😧
remus just. lying. to regulus
i love james.
nooo he and sirius have to be sneaky now ☹️
oh no remus and james are fighting ☹️
ok they aren’t fighting anymore.
james potter, defender of love and lovers everywhere.
chapter 12
another short chapter! i actually love short chapters so much
this fic is lowkey making me want to steal art
james and peter passing notes i love them
oh my 😭
chapter 13
will this be the chapter james and regulus kiss (pleaseeee)
ahhhhh their date
james can’t ride a bike 😭
minor spelling mistake 🤬
james and regulus bonding
ahhhh jegulus is jegulusing
LUCIUS?! boooo get outta here
the paddle
ahhh i’m nervous for the auction
ahhh regulus not moving his hand
they’re flirting
aghhhhh they need to kiss
chapter 14
wolfstar is so illicit affairs
ahhhhhhhh (!!!!!!!!!)
yeah sirius would have a motorcycle tattoo
chapter 15
HANKY PANKY IN THIS CHAPTER?! PLEASE LET IT BE JEGULUS OH MY GOD
guys my heart is beating omg
omg they’re painting each other that’s so cute
brazil mention! i love brazil
THEYRE KISSING!!!!!!!!
oh.
oh!!!
AHHHH!!!!!!!
giggling my feet so hard rn
chapter 16
jegulus is JEGULUSING
guys does this fic actually get sad or
because i’m almost halfway done and i have not felt one emotion other than HAPPINESS
regulus ☹️
oh no lily what’s happening
remus ?!
regulus being jealous of lily 😭 please sweetie lily is very obviously a lesbian and i love her and MARYLILY
regulus being a donna tartt lover
chapter 17
i’m getting nervous (hamilton ref ?!)
what is regulus yapping about
oh ?!
a coffee shop ?! the wolfstar coffee shop perchance ?!
so it seems
oh me oh my
oh ?!
WHAT
oh. my. god.
trojan horse ?!
ok yeah
guys i’m scared
chapter 18
remus ?!
guys i’m scared
ahh
evan 😭
nooooo why is this not only happiness anymore
regulus just being a hypocrite
oh me oh my
the lack of question marks in this dialogue is absolutely heinous but i’m willing to look past it because this fic is so good
marlene 😭😭
“Then, the sun peaked above the horizon and the tea went cold and Regulus was alone.” ☹️☹️
i can’t do this anymore i need a break and it isn’t even getting BAD yet
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Reflection: God Calls; We Say ‘Yes’
Simon and his companions were expert fishermen. They knew the sea like the palm of their hands. They knew the behavior of the fish more than anyone else. They also knew where and what time to fish. Who was Jesus to command them what to do? Jesus was not one of them. That was why Peter initially doubted Jesus’ command for them to fish again. But Jesus, just like in the previous Gospel passages, spoke and moved with authority. Something in Him prodded them to follow Him. And Jesus revealed Himself more to them when they had a big catch.
The message is clear. God calls. We obey. A big catch results. Something good would come out. God knows best. Our own intelligence, instinct, and experience always fight for our patronage. Simon went through the same process. It was harder for him because he was good at what he does. The temptation to take control of things is strong. At times, we believe, mistakenly, that we can do things on our own. Later, we realize our weakness, limitation, and inability. It is indeed a challenge to let go and let God. It is a test of faith. It is a measure of trust.
Simon and the other disciples left their work. It was a bold and radical decision. So much was at stake. From fishing for fish, they were called to fish for men. These two calls are so different from each other. But it was Jesus who called. When He calls, it is hard to resist. When He calls, He provides. If the one called is open and obedient, the Good News will be proclaimed effectively. Priests, nuns, and lay people know that. I can testify to that fact. Deciding to become a priest was hard, especially when you have a family relying on your support. But like Simon and the disciples, I could not resist the Lord. In my prayers, He assured me that He will take care of me and my family. And He did. He was faithful to His promise. Almost everyone He called will confess to being unworthy. Surely, God will work on our unworthiness. He will make us worthy. With our openness and obedience to God, things will go according to His divine plan. And we will just be glad He made us a part of it.
~Fr. Benny Tuazon
Where is God calling you? How did you respond? Did your response make you more peaceful and happy?
I heard Your call, Lord God. Grant me the courage to obey and go wherever You lead me. Amen.
Prayer
… for a deep and profound respect for life, especially for the unborn.
… for the strength and healing of the sick.
… for the healing and peace of all families.
Finally, we pray for one another, for those who have asked our prayers and for those who need our prayers the most.
GOD BLESS!
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ATTENTION - Nigerians Beware!!! Reno Omokri, the Manipulative Emotional Blackmailer! “Who first shared Peter Obi's picture printed on a Muslim mat and made it go viral? - Reno Who used the mat and picture and tried to instigate a Muslim Vs Christian fight with arguments on tolerance and intolerance that even led to Peter Obi making a disclaimer? - Reno Who started the false story of Peter Obi leaving PDP to join NNPP? - Reno Who edited a picture of Peter obi and Kwankwaso and came up with the false story that Peter Obi is trying to sideline Kwankwaso in "his own party"? - Reno Who is trying so hard to make Peter Obi look merely like an Igbo project? - Reno Who is the one trying to gaslight Peter Obi's supporters by emotionally blackmailing them and accusing them of Cyberbullying? - Reno Just this recent interview that Peter Obi granted with Arise news in which he used a driver-pilot analogy to explain how we need to start hiring the right and qualified candidate for the job without the primitive consideration of tribe and religion. . . who is trying to turn his analogy upside down to cause tension and division between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South by playing a mind game on the Northerners even to the extent of making the post in the Hausa language? - Reno Who will come out to still post pictures of himself and Peter Obi and make videos claiming to be Peter Obi's friend? - Reno Who is the man that claims to be a Christian Pastor yet does not believe that Jesus is God? - Reno What is the best word that we can use to describe the person and actions of Reno Omokri? Please, if you have an idea, help me. . .” — Fr Kelvin Ugwu 🖋 #NigeriaDeservesBetter #NigeriaNeedsPeterObi #wemusttakebackourlandnow #GetYourPVCnow #PeterObiisaMovement #votethenlp #peterobiisthebest #peterobiforpresident2023 https://www.instagram.com/p/CfupWpAjLDk/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#nigeriadeservesbetter#nigerianeedspeterobi#wemusttakebackourlandnow#getyourpvcnow#peterobiisamovement#votethenlp#peterobiisthebest#peterobiforpresident2023
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Anna's August Fic Recs
Welcome to my August fic recommendations masterpost!! This has been quite a busy month for me but I'm holding onto last weeks of freedom. I am trying to read as much before uni starts and I had a pleasure of reading some brilliant fics this month. I am so excited to share them with you all! I hope your summer is going amazing and to those, who have just started classes - good luck!
To all the writers - I love you and I appreciate you so much!
To all the readers - please, share the fics you read and love. The reblog really makes the change! It’s the least we can do to show our gratitude.
HOLLAND & Co.
✨ Tom Holland
revenges is sweet by @t-lostinworlds
series, social media au, college!au, football player!tom, fake dating, idiots to lovers, all of our fave tropes, i am invested in this series more than i am in my own life, it's just that good
sunkissed by @duskholland
one-shot, 18+, surfer!tom x lifeguard!tom, exes to lovers, h's great mind at its finest 👏
souvenirs of the heart by @veryholland
one-shot, brought me to tears no joke, such a beutiful story, mila did such an amazing job!!
heartbreak girl by @lauras-collection
one-shot, 18+, lead singer!tom, based on 5SOS song, this is so goooood 😫😫 this story lives in my heart rent free right nextdoor to laura!!
act 1: scene 5 and 6 by @youandtom
one-shot, best friends to lovers, helping tom with learning lines, i loved this very much!
happier than ever by @vendettaparker
one-shot, tom being the great lad he is comes to save an awful date and we stan
the trial of the eldest holland by @reawritesthings
one-shot, ex!tom, welcome to the angst town! this is so deeply heartbreaking but so beautifully written!
lucky to be in love by @hollandsvogue
one-shot, rose is going staright for my silly little heart :')
slide in by @uglypastels
one-shot, frat!tom, i fall in love with this story time and time again
white winged dove by @muhollands
one-shot, 18+, conuntry!tom, insert country boy i love you vine here (also, i'd like to take this moment to kindly invite you all to go through d's whole masterlist cause it's brilliant. this mj blurb has sent me straight to hell but it's so worth it)
abide by @hazofmyheart
one-shot, 18+, mob!au, tom x reader x harrison, this made me feel some type of way 👁👄👁
getting ahead of ourselves by @/hazofmyheart
one-shot, 18+, college! lacrosse player!tom holland x tutor!reader, this is soft, this is cute, this is hot, this is everything! 12/10 would recommend
✨ Harrison Osterfield
little lune by @dovenymph
one-shot, celebrating your birthday with haz, made me want a refund for my birthday cause it's so lovely 🥺🥺
it will come back by @greenorangevioletgrass
one-shot, part of the rich kid!au series, 18+, richkid!haz x richkid!reader x actor!tom, there are no words in any language that would let me express how much i love ava and this au
✨ Harry Holland
wild side by @softholand
one-shot, 18+, best friends to lovers, that trope was made to be written about mister harry holland, i swear
lost in your light by @spider-barnes
one-shot, 18+, best friends to lovers, bloody lovely 💛
falling in love at a coffee shop by @/spider-barnes
one-shot, college!au, oh to fall in love with harry holland at a coffee shop 😫
hope is frightening thing by @peterplanet
one-shot, writer!reader x first da!harry, her book gets a film adaptation and harry is being is wonderful self 🥰
my forever by @unsaidholland
blurb, talking about your future with him, it's just 🥰🥰
circles by @farfromharry
one-shot, rich kid!au, enemies to lovers, so wonderful!
MARVEL
🎂 Suz's birthday fics
this total babe @samwilsons-pillowpecs gave us four beautiful gift on her birthday! we adore you, lovely 🥰 these stories are all wonderful anddeserve their own category 💛
you're the glitter in the dark
one-shot, 18+, mob!bucky
if i could touch you...
one-shot, 18+, boxer!steve
love you in a thousand ways
one-shot, 18+, ceo!sam
miss your kiss
one-shot, 18+, biker!thor
🎂@rodrikstark ’s 1.5k follower celebration!
collecion of headcanons with our favourite marvel boys as well as some other characters, i bloody love them all but my numer one has got to be joaquin teaching you spanish 😌
✨ Sam Wilson
book smart by @indyluckycharlie
one-shot, librarian!sam x PhD student!reader, such a warm and comfy little story by my dearest cate who i love very much 😌
he we go again by @/xbuchananbarnes
one-shot, idiots in love 🥰🥰
adventures in babysitting captain america and winter solider by @princessmisery666
one-shot, reader takes the boys to disneyland and it's just so amazing!
stay awhile by @lacapucharoja
one-shot, black!reader, a saturday morning with sam 😌😌
slow motion by @ambrosiase
one-shot, 18+, sam in baggy grey sweatpants and no underwear, need i say more?
✨ Steve Rogers
bullies, bullied by @anika-ann
one-shot, my main babe is blessing us with protective steve and i love her 🥰
there's a peace in dreaming by @babycap
one-shot, i don't have the words to tell you how stunning this story is, please go read it
✨ Bucky Barnes
timer by @xbuchananbarnes
series, soulmate!au based on the movie TiMER (2009). i could go on and on about how incredible that series is but with dani it's a given, sooo 🤷♀️
the kids will be alright by @imaginationintowords
series, social media au, lawyer!bucky x interior designer!reader, single dad!bucky, single mom!reader raising their kid together as friends, also reader x clark kent. honestly this is one of my fave social media aus of all time. and it's got a sequel is coming!!
quick fix by @ocean-bucky
one-shot, tfatws!bucky x ofc, vidra is the queen of ofc's, you simply can't not love her characters!
grant (part 2) by @coffeecatsandsarcasm
two-shot, bucky's in a relationship with a single mom with a little boy, it's so soft, i love this little family!
before sunset, i fell by @buckysbiota
one-shot, modern!au, when i get drunk i get myself cake, when reader got drunk, she got herself a husband. a very fine husband 😏
alcohol you later by @/xbuchananbarnes
one-shot, is it the 4th of dani's fics on this list? yes, she's just that powerful
three flags up by @starbuckie
one-shot, 18+, campcounselor!bucky x campcounselor!reader, best friends to lovers, buck being a cute little puppy in love and i adore him very much
and he kissed me right there by @sunmoonandbucky
one-shot, veteran!bucky, age gap, this is so full of feelings and it's gonna steal your heart!
lost and found by @sunshinebuckybarnes
two-shot, neighbour!bucky, alpine being the matchmaker of the year and we love that for her
hazy dreams and good mornings by @angrythingstarlight
one-shot, 18+, firefighter!bucky, i think that's enough encouragement to read this gem 😏
✨ Joaquin Torres
red by @remmysbounty
one-shot, a truly exceptional story!!
hold my words, keep us together by @/xbuchananbarnes
one-shot, soulmate!au, just simply stunning!
✨Peter Parker
love lies by @rosyparkers
series, social media au, y/n is silk but peter doesn't know it, peter is spiderman but y/n doesn't know it, sarah is the brightest star in the universe and everyone knows it
sunset lovers by @duskholland
one-shot, college! au, soulmate!au where what your soulmate writes on their skin, appears on yours. i don't think i have to tell you that eveything written by h, my beloved is pure gold. the softest thing!
always waiting (for you to come home) by @peterbenjiparker
one-shot, reader comes to peter cause she needs him to patch her up after patrol, it's so funny and sweet and i just love it so much, m is the bestest!!
perfectly a little late by @/t-lostinworlds
one-shot, college!au, reader forgets about peter's birthday. or does she 👀 please, give a round of applause for this wonderful writer who's been feeding us so well this month 👏👏
this fic by @peeterparkr
one-shot, last kiss with peter :') nancy knows all the most beautiful ways to break someone's heart
the plan by @spideyyeet
series, aveneger!reader, reader likes peter, peter likes mj, mysterio shows up, lots of angsty things happen. it's so bloody good, my mates, go read it!!
burning red by @spideyspeaches
one-shot, avenger!reader who who describes people's personalities as colors, it's just a stunning story with wonderful writing and i love it!!
this fic by @mcumendes
blurb, peter brings y/n flowers and is very very adorable!!
kiss me more by @celestialholland
one-shot, first make out with peter and i'm just 😫😫 in love
the reveal by @cloudybarnes
one-shot, best friends!reader where she finds out about him being spiderman, so lovely!!
always by @ptersmj
one-shot, an absolutely adorable best friends to lovers moment
red-handed by @/vendettaparker
one-shot, stark!reader, morgan interrupts y/n and peter's alone time 😏😂
OTHERS
✨ Spencer Reid
as told by flowers by @reidingmelodies
one-shot, story about the progress of the relationship with spencer told by flowers (duh 😂), it's just wonderful!!
✨ Frank Adler
thnks fr th mmrs by @wiypt-writes
one-shot, 18+, reader goes to frank the night before his wedding, i love this with everything i have
will you hold on my love by @writerwrites
one-shot, don't come anywhere near this piece without tissues!!
✨ Ransom Drysdale
undercover boss by @chase-your-dreams-away
series, reader's working at drysdales' company and hooks up with ransom not knowing who he is. this series is so bloody good! i love the reader in here so much!!
a/n: if you catch some kind of mistake or if you see that i miscredited someone - please let me know so i can change that!
#anna's fic recs#august fic recs#fic recs#marvel fic recs#tom holland x reader#harrison osterfield x reader#harry holland x reader#sam wilson x reader#bucky barnes x reader#steve rogers x reader
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Saints&Reading: Thu, May, 13, 2021
April 30/May 13
The Holy Apostle James, Son of Zebedee
The Holy Apostle James, Son of Zebedee, one of the 12 Apostles, was called by our Lord Jesus Christ for apostolic service together with his brother, the Apostle John the Theologian. It was to them and to the holy Apostle Peter pre-eminently over the other Apostles that Jesus Christ revealed His Divine Mysteries: at the Resuscitation of the Daughter of Jairus, on Mount Tabor (at the Transfiguration), and in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Saint James, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, preached in Spain and in other lands, and then he returned to Jerusalem. He openly and boldly taught about Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, and with the words of Holy Scripture he denounced the Pharisees and the Scribes [scholars], reproaching them with malice of heart and unbelief. The Jews had not the ability to refute the apostolic discourse and for money they hired the pseudo-philosopher and sorcerer Hermogenes, so that he would enter into a disputation with the apostle and confute his arguments about Christ as the Promised Messiah having come into the world. The sorcerer sent to the apostle his student Philip, who was converted to belief in Christ. Then Hermogenes himself became persuaded of the power of God, he burnt his books on magic, accepted holy Baptism and became a true follower of Christ.
The unbelieving among the Jews persuaded Herod Agrippa (40-44) to arrest the Apostle James and sentence him to death. Saint James calmly heard out the death sentence and continued to bear witness about Christ. One of the false-witnesses against the apostle by the name of Josiah was struck by the courage of Saint James. He came to believe in the truth of the words about the coming of Christ the Messiah. When they led forth the apostle for execution, Josiah fell at his feet, repenting his sin and asking forgiveness. The apostle hugged him, gave him a kiss and said: "Peace and forgiveness be unto thee". Then Josiah confessed before everyone his faith in Christ, and he was beheaded together with Saint James in the year 44 at Jerusalem.
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Bishop of the Caucasus and Stavropol (1867)
He was born in 1807 into Russian aristocracy — his father was a wealthy provincial gentleman. From a very early age he felt strongly called to monastic life, but at that time it was almost unheard of for a nobleman to take such a path, and Dimitri (as he was called in baptism) entered the Pioneer Military School in St Petersburg. There he distinguished himself, and even attracted the attention of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, an event which would profoundly affect his later life.
Despite his excellent record at the academy, young Dimitri still longed only for the things of God. In 1827 he graduated from the school and was commissioned as an officer in the army, but soon fell critically ill, and was granted a discharge. This proved to be providential: when he recovered his health, he immediately became a novice, living at several different monasteries and coming under the spiritual care of Starets Leonid, one of the celebrated fathers of the Optina monastery. In 1821 he took his monastic vows and received the name Ignatius. Soon afterwards he was ordained to the priesthood.
Soon after the newly-professed Fr Ignatius had entered the seclusion that he sought, Tsar Nicholas I — the former Grand Duke Nicholas — visited the Pioneer Military School and asked what had become of the promising cadet he had met a few years before. When the Tsar learned that the former Dimitri was now a monk, he sought him out, had him elevated to the rank of Archimandrite (at age 26!) and made him Superior of the St Sergius Monastery in St Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas instructed him to make the monastery a model fo all Russian religious communities. Though he had desired only a life of solitude and prayer, the new Archimandrite devoted himself conscientiously to fulfilling the Tsar's charge. The monastery did in fact become a kind of standard for Russian monasticism, and its abbot acquired many spiritual children, not only among his monks but among the laity in the capital.
After twenty-four years as superior of the monastery, St Iganatius was elevated to the episcopate in 1857, first as Bishop of Stavropol, then as Bishop of Kavkaz. Only four years later (aged 54) he resigned and spent the rest of his life in reclusion at the Nicolo-Babaevsky Monastery in the diocese of Kostromo. There he continued the large body of spiritual writings for which he is well known. His printed Works fills five volumes; of these, at least two major works have been translated into English: On the Prayer of Jesus and The Arena: an offering to contemporary monasticism. Both are gems of spiritual writing, profitable to every serious Orthodox Christian.
St Ignatius reposed in peace in 1867. He was glorified in 1988 by the Moscow Patriarchate, during the millennial celebrations in that year. Saints Andrei Rublev, Xenia of Petersburg, Theophan the Recluse and others were glorified in the same observances.
All texts© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
ICON: Mother of God “Of the Passion”
The icon received its name because on either side of the Mother of God are two angels with the implements of the Lord’s suffering: the Cross, the lance, and the sponge.
There was a certain pious woman, Katherine, who began to suffer seizures and madness after her marriage. She ran off into the forest and attempted suicide more than once.
In a moment of clarity she prayed to the Mother of God and vowed that if she were healed, she would enter a monastery. After recovering her health, she only remembered her vow after a long time. Afraid and mentally afflicted, she took to her bed. Three times the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to her, commanding the sick woman to go to Nizhni-Novgorod and to buy Her icon from the iconographer Gregory.
After she had done this, Katherine received healing. From that time on, miracles have occurred from this icon. The Feast day of this icon is on August 13, commemorating its transfer from the village of Palitsa to Moscow in 1641. A church was built at the place where it was met at the Tver gates, and in 1654, the Strastna monastery was built.
The icon is also commemorated on April 30, and on the sixth Sunday after Pascha (the Sunday of the Blind Man) in memory of the miracles which occurred on this day. Other “Passion” icons of the Mother of God have been glorified in the Moscow church of the Conception of Saint Anna, and also in the village of Enkaeva in Tambov diocese.
John 5:24-30
24Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth-those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
Acts 12:1-11
1Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. 5 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. 6 And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. 7 Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, "Arise quickly!" And his chains fell off his hands. 8 Then the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and tie on your sandals"; and so he did. And he said to him, "Put on your garment and follow me." 9 So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 And when Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people."
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Fr. Troy Beecham
Sermon, Pentecost 2021
Today the Church celebrates the great Feast of Pentecost. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God promised that in the “last days”, inaugurated by the coming of the Messiah, he would pour out his Spirit upon all people. In Acts (2:14 to 18) the apostle Peter quotes this promise to explain what is happening when the disciples of Jesus are suddenly, miraculously able to speak and understand multiple foreign languages starting on the day of Pentecost (Pentecost is the name given to the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot in Hebrew, by the Jewish scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek some three centuries before Jesus’ birth). This outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost marks the beginning of the age of the Messiah promised so many centuries before.
But why would God mark this great new beginning, the beginning of the Messianic promise, the start of the Church, by giving Jesus’ disciples the supernatural ability to speak in all the many languages of the world of their time? Why this gift as the first mark of the new Church, and its mission in the world? Later, filled with the Spirit, the apostles would also heal the lame, cure the sick, and cast out demons, as a Jesus said. But why would God mark the beginning of the outpouring of his Spirit by the ability to communicate with others in their own language? Just as he is ascending into the heavenly realm, Jesus commands his disciples, saying “As you go into the world, make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
There it is, the Church’s reason for being, its essential identity, and it is all is about making disciples of all peoples and nations, bringing them into communion with God through Jesus. And this requires language, communication. This is why the first manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Jesus’ disciples has to do with the communication of truth.
Language, communication, is about so much more than simply understanding words. Language, spoken or otherwise, conveys the totality of a person’s identity, be it cultural, religious, economic, class, sex, and every other kind of social and physical identity. At the surface level, language depends primarily upon the spoken word, and that word is always in a particular language: Hebrew, Greek, Chinese, Sign Language, etc. At this level words can express true things, but they can also deceive and lie. Beyond the spoken word, we communicate through body language, tone of voice, and volume of voice. Our bodies, through posture, eye contact, gestures, and all other forms of unspoken communication, often speak louder and more honestly than our words.
When the truth of our lives speak through our words, actions, affiliations….we are revealing what is true about us, truths that sometimes are not congruent with our words. Words can fail us just when we need them most, especially in situations where tragedy, death, and betrayal render us mute, especially in times of civil unrest as we are witnessing today in our country and around the world. In times of crisis, we may be using the same words, but they have lost their shared meanings. And so we communicate with mass gatherings, riots, burnings, violence, to communicate with force. What will our mouths and our lives say in the midst of such fear, rage, hopelessness, and yes, for some, exultation in taking advantage of this maelstrom, stoking it to further their dark ambitions?
This is why God gives us his Holy Spirit, that we might continuously be born again, sanctified moment to moment, so that our lives and our words are not only congruent, full of integrity, but especially made full of God’s love. It is only through the Holy Spirit that we have still yet a deeper language. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God we are equally able to communicate with each other true things like compassion, humility, generosity of spirit, joy, peace, patience, goodness, long-suffering, fidelity, gentleness, and chastity, even if we do no speak a common language. These speak through us more loudly and clearly, either in their presence or their absence, than do all our words and gestures. This is the language of God given to us by grace, a language that the human family so desperately needs to hear spoken with fluency by the Church, by each disciple of Jesus. We deceive ourselves if we think that we are not fooled by each other. We all hear beyond spoken words, bodily gestures, and beyond what we believe that we intend to say to each other. The heart reads the heart and we feel the spark when the Holy Spirit recognizes itself wherever it sees itself as manifest in us.
Many of us talk passionately about our love for those who suffer: the poor, the alien in our midst, those living under generations of prejudice and violence. But they do not hear us, understand us, or gather round us, even when we think that we speak perfectly in their native tongue. Unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God, our words and our lives cannot speak as one of the love of God in Jesus. This is the language, the gift, given at Pentecost by God to all who will receive him through his Son, Jesus. God offers all people salvation from their sin, individually and corporately, through his Son Jesus, and empowerment to be his witness by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In this age of the Spirit-filled church, all people are invited into communion with the Lord and with each other, first communicated through God’s language of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope.
As we become part of the earthly Body of Jesus, his Church, through grace by faith and through the waters of Holy Baptism, we can discover the gift of mutual love, forgiveness, humility, and reconciliation. What God is asking for are people like you and me to be willing to give our lives wholeheartedly to him, that the Holy Spirit might live in us and through us, speaking the language of God through our lives and our lips. As we are witnessing the violence in our own country, or violence in Israel, anti-Semitism on our streets, the ongoing plague of civil war and mass disease and starvation in Yemen, the continuous but unacknowledged mass killing of Christians by Islamic militias in Nigeria, the plague of abortion…wherever we see the desecration of human life, we need disciples who fluently speak and live the language of God more than ever. I pray that God will touch your heart, and mine, and help us with his grace that we might be filled with his Holy Spirit for the sake of our human family that is so lost in the babble of our brokenness. Pray with me that God’s Holy Spirit will be felt, heard, and received by all who live, that we might truly come to love, respect, and honor each other.
O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, to speak only the language of your Spirit, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
#christianity#jesus#god#salvation#father troy beecham#troy beecham episcopal#father troy beecham episcopal
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Story About The Second Sunday after Easter. (Latin Calendar)
by Fr. Raphael Frassinetti, 1900
Gospel. John x. 11-16. At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd: and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.
“I Am the Good Shepherd.” This Our Lord says of Himself. Our Lord had other titles, as Jesus, Saviour, Redeemer, Master, Advocate, King of peace, Our Reconciliation, all signifying His love for mankind. Are you, my dear young people, glad of the title of good Shepherd, which Our Lord gives Himself? Yes, the title is a beautiful one; it is full of consolation and of love. He gives Himself this title in order to gain our affection and our entire heart. How good Jesus is to us, His lambs and sheep!–What care does He not take of us? He speaks to our hearts words of eternal life, and His holy inspiration illumines our mind and makes us know His goodness. He takes us up tenderly, and brings us to delightful pastures. He nourishes our souls with His holy word, by the words of His priests; He feeds us with bread which is not of this world, the Bread of angels, His sacred body and blood. Was there ever a shepherd who gave his body and blood for food to his flock? Generally the flock is a source of revenue, support, and sustenance to the shepherd; but not so in the case of this Good Shepherd. He supports and sustains His flock.
Of course the shepherd will fight for his flock, he will use every means in his power to protect it from ravage, but the Good Shepherd gives His life for His flock. O, infinite love! What pains and suffering didst Thou not endure for Thy sheep! Just think of Jesus crucified; look at Him nailed to the cross; see that face all covered with bruises; those eyes half closed with blood; those shoulders torn by stripes; that side opened by a lance; those hands and feet pierced with nails, and that head crowned with sharp thorns. All this, all these wounds, the Good Shepherd suffered for His poor lost sheep. Then what should we do on our part? Oh, give Him at least a little recognition, gratitude, obedience, and love– if nothing more than to receive Him on the great festivals of the year. This good Shepherd will love you with all affection and give you His choicest blessings.
There are, on the contrary, many restless, ill-regulated, sickly, plague-stricken sheep who have to be thrown out of the flock, because they continually disobey Him and make Him feel the sadness of having shown kindness in vain. He would like to bring them to good pastures that they might recover from their maladies, and become useful members of the flock again, but they will not listen to His voice. He calls them to the use of the sacraments, but it is in vain; He calls them about Him to be His escort and companions, but they would rather be far away from Him; they want to feed their souls on poisonous food; they do not like the restraint of being near the holy Jesus. They have left the fountains of living water which ran to eternal life. They have looked for water and found filthy broken cisterns.
Among you, my dear youthful friends, there are many wayward sheep also. This Good Shepherd seeks to bring them back to the fold, but many are obstinate, blind, and wicked, and will not hear His voice. He invites them with sweet and coaxing words; He makes them feel the qualms of conscience; He embitters the cup of vice from which they are drinking and takes peace and happiness away from them. But these wicked sheep will not listen and continually say by their works, “No, I will have nothing to do with you.” What more should this Good Shepherd do to gain them and to bring them back to His flock? Can you suggest something? Is it possible that God will not succeed in attracting them to Him? Will He not succeed when He promises them the kingdom of paradise? He must and will get angry some time; He will abandon them and deny them the help of His grace, and then they will fall from one sin to another. How many young people, my dear friends, are in such a state. In early youth they become vessels of wrath, and if God still tolerates them, the day of vengeance will come, the day on which God will separate the bad from the good. And to the bad He will say, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”
Now, there is still time to change your way of living; you can become the well-loved lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ, instead of being the despised rams that the Shepherd does not tolerate near Him. Go to Him and show your sorrow, and He will take you on His shoulders, for He is waiting and looking for you. He is watching you in your wanderings, and at the first sign of repentance, of weakness, or of fainting, He hastens to your side, He raises you on His shoulders, and carries you back to the fold which you would not have been able to reach with your wasted strength.
My young friends, we are all sheep of the flock of Christ; we are His by redemption and by the grace of almighty God. Be always obedient to Him, hear His voice, and walk continually in His footsteps. Would you walk securely in the midst of this world, so full of danger and snares? The only means is to allow yourselves to be guided by God. If you would please the divine Shepherd, imitate Him in His divine virtues, in His kindness and obedience, like good sheep who are willing to be led. The divine Shepherd having loved His flock on this earth, will call them all to the enjoyment of heavenly pastures and will quench their thirst “At the torrents of joy” which He provides for us in heaven.
by Leonard Goffine, 1871
Because of the joyous resurrection of Christ, and the graces flowing to us on account of it, the Church sings at the Introit of Mass: The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord, Alleluia, by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, Alleluia, Alleluia. Rejoice in the Lord O ye just: praise becometh the upright. (Ps. xxxii.) Glory, &c.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O God, who, by the humiliation of Thy Son, hast raised up the fallen world: grant to Thy people perpetual joy: that They whom thou hast delivered from the danger of everlasting death, may arrive at eternal happiness. Through, &c.
EPISTLE. (i. Peter ii. 21 – 25) Dearly Beloved: Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who when He was reviled, did not revile: when He suffered, he threatened not: but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly: who His own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree: that we being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the shepherd and bishop of your souls.
EXPLANATION St. Paul teaches the Christians patience in misery and afflictions, even in unjust persecution, and for this purpose places before them the example of Christ who though most innocent, suffered most terribly and so patiently. Are we true sheep of the good shepherd if at the smallest cross, at every word, we become so angry and impatient?
ASPIRATION. O Lord Jesus! grant me the grace to follow Thee, my good Shepherd, and not to complain and make threats whenever I am reprimanded, reviled, or for justice's sake am persecuted.
GOSPEL. (John x. 11 – 16.) At That Time: Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flieth, and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling; and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd: and I know mine, and mine know me, as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
In what way has Christ proved Himself a good shepherd?
In this that He sacrificed His life for those who did not yet love Him, and could not reward Him, even for His enemies (John iv. 30.; Rom. v. 8.), and has besides given Himself to them for their food.
How are we to know if we are among the sheep of Christ, that is, His chosen ones?
By this, if we willingly listen to the voice of the shepherd in sermons and instructions, in spiritual books and conversations, are obedient to it, and especially give ear and follow the rules of the Church through which the good Shepherd speaks to us (Luke x. 16.), “for he,” says St. Augustine, “who has not the Church for his mother, will not have God for his father;” if we gladly receive the food of the good Shepherd, that is, His sacredbody and blood in holy Communion; if we are patient and meek as a lamb, freely forgiving our enemies; if we love all men from our heart, do only good to them, and seek to bring them to Jesus.
Who are the other sheep of Christ?
The gentiles who were not of the fold of Israel, whom Christ sought to bring by His disciples, and now by their successors, into His fold.–Among these sheep we also, through our ancestors, belonged. O how grateful we should be to God, that He has brought us into the fold of His Church, and how diligently we should conduct ourselves as good sheep!
When will there be but one fold and one shepherd?
When by the Church's prayers and by her missionaries all nations shall be converted to the only saving Church, constituting then one Church under one head. Let us pray that this may soon come to pass.
PRAYER O Lord Jesus! Thou good Shepherd who on the cross didst give Thy life for Thy sheep, grant us, we beseech Thee, by Thy death, the grace to bear upon ourselves all the signs of Thy lambs, that we may be one day numbered among Thy chosen ones in heaven.
DOCTRINE OF HOPE
I give my life for my sheep. (John x. 15.)
What has Christ won for us by His death?
The remission of our sins, the grace to lead a god-pleasing life, and eternal happiness, for which we now firmly hope, with secure confidence may now expect, and most assuredly will obtain, if we do not ourselves let it go.
In what does eternal happiness consist?
In the clear vision of God, which includes the most perfect love of Him, by which those who are saved, become, as it were, one with Him, possessing in this union everything that they could possibly desire.
What are the necessary means of obtaining eternal happiness?
The grace of God, that is, His continual assistance; the practice of the three divine virtues: faith, hope, and love; the keeping of God's commandments; the frequent use of the holy Sacraments, and constant prayer. These means must be diligently employed, for “God who,” as St. Augustine says, “created us without us, will not save us without us,” that is, without our cooperation.
What may especially enable us to hope for eternal happiness?
The infinite mercy and goodness of God, who from all eternity has loved us more than an earthly mother, and because of this love did not even spare His only begotten Son, but gave Him up, for our sake, to the bitterest death. Will He then deny us heaven, who in giving us His Son, has given us more than heaven itself?
The fidelity of God: He has so often promised us eternal happiness, and in so many texts of Scripture so clearly explained, that He wishes us to be saved, that He must keep His promise, for He is eternal truth and cannot possible lie or deceive. (Hebr. vi. 18.) He says not yes today, and no tomorrow, there is no change in Him, nor shadow of alteration. (James i. 17.) The omnipotence of God, who can do “all that He pleases, whom no one can oppose or prevent from doing what He will; if now we have confidence in a rich and honest man who assures us, he will assist us in need, how much more should we hope in the best, most faithful, and all powerful God!
When should we make acts of hope?
As soon as we come to the use of reason and are sufficiently instructed concerning this virtue and its motives; in time of trouble or of severe temptation against this virtue; when receiving the holy Sacraments; every day in the morning or evening, and especially at the hour of death. The same things are to be observed in making acts of faith and of love.
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Confession
ENDGAME SPOILERS!! READ AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE, SIS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT A GAME. I’VE WARNED YOU!!
PETER PARKER X READER
Summary: It’d been five years since you disappeared in Peter’s hands right after he’d broken your heart. Now, after so long, there’s a chance to get you back and Peter will stop at nothing to ensure so. He has to get you back, has to tell you that he was lying. That he did want to be with you and he’d never throw away the opportunity again. But the question is, will you let him?
Warnings: Uh... none? Some swearing
Word Count: 3k
FEELING CREATIVE.. IDK MIGHT DELETE LATER (BUT ALSO FR MIGHT MAKE A SMUTTY PART 2)
“Kid, get out of here, I don’t want you to be a part of this,” Mr. Stark hollered to me when I walked up from behind to see what they were looking at.
“But Mr. Stark, I’m already a part of this,” I said back, trying to still be respectful. I didn’t want Tony to get mad at me but if he thought I was just going to leave when we were so close to getting them back . . . to getting her back, he thought wrong.
“Listen, kid, I know how much this means to you but I‘m not letting you get squashed like a... well, like a bug,” he responded.
My head snapped in his direction at the comparison, Really, Mr. Stark? Really?
“Mr. Stark I’m not going anywhere,” I repeated, a little more edge to my voice.
“Queens, Tony’s got a point. This is gonna get really ugly, really fast,” Cap tried to reason but I wasn’t hearing any of it.
I took a deep breath, an anger starting to brew in me that I’d never felt for Cap or Stark, “And I said-”
“Let him fight,” Thor interrupted.
I looked up at him from behind, my mouth still hanging open from my defense.
Thor shrugged his shoulder, never once taking his eyes off the man that killed his brother and then half of his people, “Those who fight for others and not themselves fight valiantly,”
My eyes shifted from Thor to Tony and Cap, they barely glanced at each other before nodding.
“Alright, kid, but from a distance only,” Mr. Stark ordered and I nodded.
If that was all he was going to give me then I wasn’t going to push it.
Thanos had been a nightmare in my head for five consecutive years now but it’s not his face that haunts me when I close my eyes, it’s hers. The look she gave me when I spoke the words that felt like acid in my mouth, that heart-wrenching image is what keeps me up at night. I should have told her the truth.
But if Banner’s snap worked, like really worked, and she was back then nothing was going to stop me from confessing. Not even this purple titan.
“You know it’s a trap, right?” I asked, the boyish tone in my voice long gone, for about five years now.
“Yup,” Cap mumbled, his glare piercing through the man they’d already killed once, “But we don’t really have any other choice. Keep the stones away from him,”
Lightning and thunder clouded from nearby and a blast of white surrounded Thor for a second, changing his garments and hair.
I didn’t hear what he said after that, too focused on where I should hit Thanos first, but then they sprinted at him. One right after the other they attempted to land a grave blow but Thanos was too strong, too fast, too smart. It appeared that he knew what they were going to do next and deflected all of their attacks.
I stepped down from the rock and ran towards the scene of the battle, my heart in my throat and my mind racing with pictures. Her (h/c) hair, her (e/c) eyes, her soft skin, her beautiful smile and her immersive mind. Just her. She was all that ran through my head as I charged at the man that took her away from me. The man that turned her to dust just hours after I hurt her. She was in my arms those last seconds of my life, clinging to me as tightly as she tried to hold onto life but she vanished all the same. I wasn’t sure if she heard what I said to her as she turned to dust but I was hoping, praying, that she knew. That she knew I was lying to her, that she somehow figured it out while she’d been gone. But she couldn’t and I knew that.
You can’t think if you don’t exist.
I threw a few webs at the enemy, pulling his arm back when he was going to land a fatal hit to Tony. He grabbed the web attached to him and tried to throw me around but I cut it off and kicked him in the face with the momentum he tried to use against me.
“What did I say, kid? From a distance!” Tony yelled as Thanos grabbed my calf and chucked me straight towards a ragged rock.
“Karen!” Tony yelled and activated the legs from my suit to catch my fall.
The metallic legs pierced into the rock, smashing it into smaller, more jagged pieces. A few of which stabbed my back. The pain shot from my back to my head and I hunched over, gripping my stomach as the air was forced out of my body from the impact.
“Kid!” Mr. Stark shouted as he ran towards me and Thanos grabbed him by his arm, hitting him square in the face and sending him flying.
I tried getting up, I really did, but my eyelids grew heavy and my vision began to blur at the edges.
Get up.
My arm, heavy from exhaustion, barely moved at my side despite my command.
Get up.
Thanos’ blade cut through Cap’s shield and continued to destroy it, breaking it until it could only be considered scrap metal. My chest grew heavy and any anger I had for the titan was diminishing, not because I was no longer angry but because it was replaced with fear. Fear that we would lose again. That I would lose again.
Then, even from this distance, I could see a strange look come across Cap’s face. He shook his head, as if hearing a voice in his ear or trying to fight pestering wind. His hand slowly came up and rested on his head and he looked around as if looking for where the interference was coming from.
The sight of the familiar yellowish circle appearing out of thin air made my heart stop and my jaw went slack, hoping beyond hope that it was who I thought it was.
Figures began to emerge from the portals and I was walking towards them without a single registration of the pain in my body.
Y/N.
One by one they exited the portal. Dr. Strange. The antenna lady. Quill. Bucky. Sam. Scarlet Witch. Even a tree thing.
But Y/N was nowhere to be seen.
“Please,” I choked out, the knot in my throat tightening as my legs carried me towards their exit. “Please, God,” my legs burned with exhaustion but my will won out and I was lost in the crowd of our army looking for the familiar sight of (Y/N)’s (h/c) hair.
“Avengers . . .” I heard Cap order, “ . . . Assemble,”
The sounds of thousands of warriors shouting overwhelmed me and I knew she wouldn’t be able to hear me if I shouted her name.
But that didn’t stop me from trying.
“(Y/N)!” I yelled, my eyes scanning the running bodies. “(Y/N)!”
A single figure, just one, hesitated before taking their next step. The (h/c) hair of a girl moved as her head turned, looking for the source of my calls.
“Here!” I shouted, my arms flailing in the air to catch her attention, “(Y/N)! God, please just look at me! See me!” I shouted over the sounds of war.
She turned towards my direction and the sight of her face hit me harder than any force ever has. Fuck, I miss her.
My steps faltered despite wanting to do the exact opposite. “(Y/N)!”
She scanned the battlefield. I knew she couldn’t hear me but her ability allows her to hear thoughts in her vicinity and it gives her an advantage in battle. Her eyes flickered to every moving figure, one by one, until finally, finally, her eyes landed on mine.
And she looked away.
No, please, please don’t.
She faced the war ahead of her and ran directly into it upon seeing the familiar red glow of Wanda’s power. (Y/N) jumped into the air and gracefully landed next to the witch who had her sister power. (Y/N)’s power was almost identical to Wanda’s and it helps her feel stronger when she fights alongside her but they’re not the same. Wanda was made of an infinity stone while (Y/N) was granted her power by something called The Raven. She claimed it was a force identical to that of another celestial power and was meant to subdue it if it ever got out of hand.
I wanted to chase after her, to grab her by the shoulders and force her to look at me while I confessed that I lied to her. That I tried to make the decision I thought was best. But I was wrong.
I was gonna get to her if it was the last thing I did, literally.
My legs pumped with adrenaline and incentive. I had to reach her. To tell her. Then the cries of pain rang through the air and I saw T’Challa being wrapped in rock. I looked back at (Y/N) who was throwing bad guys left and right and tearing them apart. She was fine. She was strong. And she wasn’t the one that needed help.
I changed my direction and grabbed the Gauntlet that was thrown in the air before slinging my web closer to the van that Cap said it should go so we could put the stones back in their rightful time.
I’ve just gotta put the stones back and then I’ll talk to her.
“Karen, activate instant kill,” I said to the AI built into my suit as the beastly aliens swarmed around me.
“Peter!” I heard my name being shouted and the voice was angelic. Scared and in pain but angelic all the same.
The beasts were blasted away by a surrounding purple light and I knew it had been her. She still cared. Or maybe it was just a courtesy, she would’ve done the same thing for any other teammate. And that’s a fact.
“Queens!” Came another shout followed by Mjolnir flying past my head.
I shot a web at the hammer and was pulled out of the remainder of the swarm just for a blast from above to cut the strand, sending me hurtling straight for the ground.
“I got you, kid,” yelled Mrs. Stark in a suit of her own before sending me towards a girl flying a . . . a Pegasus?
I didn’t get to observe the horse for too long as I was yet again being tossed to the ground because of a cut web. Colors flashed by my vision while I clashed against the debris of the destroyed property.
A groan of pain escaped my lips and the laser blasts hitting the ground next to my body made me curl into a fetal position with the gauntlet in my grasp. I plastered myself as close to the boulder behind me as possible, using it for a makeshift barrier of sorts. My arms burned with the blasts that landed a little too close to me, causing cuts to my limbs and side.
This was it, this was how I was gonna go. Without ever speaking to (Y/N) again, without saying good-bye to Aunt May or Ned. No one. I was going to die on the battlefield protecting a glove that had six of the most powerful forces ever to exist on each knuckle.
(Y/N), I know you can hear me, I wasn’t sure if it was going to work, but I had to try, I wanted to let you know... I just... you should know that I- I’m... I’m sorry, I thought, my body now racking with each sob as I said my good-bye, (Y/N), I lo-
“Peter,” she called my name. “Peter, get up,”
I opened my eyes and rested my gaze on the glowing colors of the gauntlet, too ashamed to look up at her. It’d been five years since I let her down. Since I broke her heart. And now, here she was, waiting for me to look up at her just as I wanted her to look up at me,
“Peter, give me the gauntlet,” she ordered, her hand coming into view as she latched onto it.
The gauntlet?
I looked up at her then, confusion etched in my features as I wondered why she even came up to me in the first place. “The gauntlet?” I asked incredulously, “Didn’t you hear what I was thinking? What I was trying to let you know?”
Her grip on the gauntlet tightened just as mine did, “I heard,” was all she responded. “And I don’t need your pity,”
“Pity? (Y/N), I-”
“Give me the gauntlet, Peter!” She shouted, her eyes beginning to glow a purple hue as she attempted to pry it from my hold.
“(Y/N), please I just . . . I just want to look at you,” I begged, my voice faltering by the end.
Her pull on the gauntlet slacked and she looked me in my eyes for the first time in five years. Those mesmerizing (e/c) eyes of hers. The whites of her eyes were red with oncoming tears. And suddenly it was like I was looking at the same face of heartbreak I caused her to have so long ago.
“Look at me?” She pulled away, dropping the gauntlet completely.
A glowing figure landed next to her and I hesitated to pry my eyes off of (Y/N), fearing that if I did, she would disappear again.
I handed the gauntlet over to the glowing lady, earning a sad smile from her. She seemed strong and merciless but also caring and understanding. She was letting us have a moment as she continued the gauntlet’s journey to the time travelling van. She flew off with an army of women to back her up and I had to grab (Y/N)’s wrist as she tried to leave with them.
“Stay,” I whimpered, “Just for a second. Stay,”
She shook her head, no longer facing me and tried, in a half-assed manner, to pry her hand from my grip. “Let me go, Peter,”
“(Y/N)!” I shouted, making her freeze in her stance, “I can’t! I couldn’t! These past five years all I could think about was YOU. Your face was the one that haunted me every night. Your voice, your smile, our talks, all those memories kept me going for five years. Years, (Y/N).”
“Stop,” she whispered under her breath, her head now facing me but her eyes still glued to the ground.
“I lied to you, (Y/N), okay? I lied! That day where everything went to hell and you told me how you felt? I lied! And that’s all I‘ve wanted to tell you since you were . . . gone.” I gripped her wrist tighter and pulled her to the ground with me.
“You lied?” she reiterated.
“Yes. I lied.” My hand trailed up to her face as our surroundings changed into one of a glass like structure. We were in Dr. Strange’s mirror dimension. He had given us a minute alone. And I knew a minute was all we truly had.
“I thought that if I died, it would help you to move on, that you wouldn’t feel guilty. That you could... you could love someone else happily.” I tried to explain, “But then . . . then it was me who survived, who had to move on without you and I couldn’t because I know I broke your heart and I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry, (Y/N),”
“Stop!” She shouted, shoving me away. “Stop doing this! It might’ve been five years for you but it’s only been hours for me and the pain is just as raw as when you told me that you didn’t care for me that way. Don’t you get it? I love you, Peter Parker! And if you even remotely cared about me you wouldn’t have lied to me,”
“I lied to you because I care about you!” I shot up off the ground and followed her, “Because I thought it’d be selfish if I made you wait for me or confessed that I loved you too only for me to die! I wanted you to move on! I wanted you happy!”
She stopped mid-pace and lifted her gaze towards me, “You what?”
I huffed and blew a loose strand of hair out of my face, “Fuck this,” I mumbled and glided over to her, grabbing her by the waist and pressing my chapped lips onto her soft ones.
She froze for a second, fighting the urge to let me in, to believe me, but all I’ve been waiting for again is to see her. Even if she never forgave me for being so cruel or decided that her confession was only a heat of the moment thing, I just wanted her alive again. Alive and back in my life, one way or the other.
And she knew. She could feel it. She was an empath after all, and she knew that I was telling the truth.
And she kissed me back and I could’ve cried with joy. Her lips pushed up against mine, melding together and divulging in it. My grip on her body tightened as I brought her close to me. I’ve missed her warmth, her smell, her hold. Especially her hold. I’ve just missed her.
“I love you, (Y/N),” I confessed, finally confessed.
“How are you so certain that you love me?” She asked, making sure I still wasn’t lying despite the emotional certainty.
“Because I know what it’s like to lose you,” I pulled her into me again, resting my head on her shoulder, “And I’m never doing that again,”
#spider-man x reader#spider-man x you#spiderman#spider-man#peter parker#peter parker x reader#peter parker x you#peter parker x y/n#reader insert#x reader#captain america#steve rogers#tony stark#iron man#iron man x reader#iron man x you#iron man x y/n#captain America x reader#bucky barns x reader#imagine#avengers#mcu#marvel#mcu x you#avengers x reader#avengers x you#avengers x y/n#stephen strange x you#dr strange#black widow
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30th November >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 4:18-22 for the Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle: ‘They left their nets at once and followed him’.
Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Gospel (Except USA)
Matthew 4:18-22
'I will make you fishers of men'.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ And they left their nets at once and followed him. Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. At once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
Gospel (USA)
Matthew 4:18-22
Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen. He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
Reflections (6)
(i) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
I chose Andrew as my Confirmation name. I am not sure why, but I knew he was one of the first people that Jesus called to follow him and that he was the brother of Simon Peter. The brothers were fishermen who made a good living by catching fish on the Sea of Galilee and selling the fish on to locals. It always struck me as interesting that Jesus called two sets of brothers when he began to form a group around himself, Peter and Andrew, and James and John. Peter and Andrew must have been a support to one another as they left one way of life that was familiar to them and started a whole new way of life that was very unfamiliar to them. From now on it is people they would be catching for Jesus rather than catching fish. Jesus needed people like Peter and Andrew, James and John, and many others, women and men, to bring his compassionate, healing, presence to others. The Lord wants to work through us all to make him present to others. None of us go to the Lord on our own. We need others to bring us to the Lord. We might reflect today on those who brought us to the Lord. In my case, I think of my parents, some teachers I had at school, the local priests in the parish, friends I made who were people of faith. We all came to the Lord through others, and the Lord wants to bring others to himself through each one of us. According to the gospel of John, it was Andrew who met Jesus first, and it was Andrew who brought his brother Peter to Jesus. We can all be an Andrew to someone. We ask Saint Andrew today to grant us something of his willingness to bring others to the Lord, by sharing our faith in whatever way we can.
And/Or
(ii) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Andrew is always listed second in the list of the twelve apostles, after his brother, Simon Peter. On this feast of Saint Andrew we hear the story of the call of Andrew along with his brother Simon Peter and another set of brothers, James and John. There is a great simplicity about the passage. Jesus saw the two brothers, Simon and Andrew, making a cast with their net in the Sea of Galilee, going about their daily work, and he called out to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of people’. Immediately the two brothers left their nets and followed Jesus. The evangelist has perhaps streamlined an experience in the lives of these two brothers that, in reality, may have been a lot more complex. You would expect that there must have been some hesitation on their part before the call of Jesus, because it meant leaving what they were familiar with and good at, and heading out into the unknown. Becoming fishers of people, catching people, is a lot more challenging than catching fish. Gathering people into the net of God’s kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is much more complicated than gathering fish into fishing nets. Yet, if there was hesitation in Andrew and Simon, they obviously overcame it; they threw in their lot with Jesus. They responded to his invitation, his call and they went on to become great preachers of the gospel. The way the Lord works in our own lives is perhaps not all that different to the way he worked in the lives of Andrew and Simon. He often calls us out to us in the midst of our daily tasks. He frequently calls us beyond where we are, beyond the familiar, inviting us to take on some new task in the service of the coming of God’s kingdom. That call can come to us in small and subtle ways. We may find ourselves resisting it, but if we attend to it and allow it to resonate within us, and if we then respond to it, we will often discover that the Lord works through us for good in ways that surprise us. The Lord can work powerfully through our willingness and generosity of spirit.
And/Or
(iii) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter. They both earned their living by fishing on the Sea of Galilee. According to this morning’s gospel reading, they were the first whom Jesus called to become his followers and they were the first to respond to his calling, leaving their fishing business to go where Jesus went. When the Matthew, Mark and Luke list the names of the twelve, Simon Peter is always mentioned first and Andrew second, suggesting that Peter was the more significant of the two within the circle of Jesus. Indeed, Peter was clearly the leader of the twelve, the disciple whom Jesus called to be rock on which he would build his church, the shepherd to whom he entrusted the care of his flock. Yet, according to John’s gospel, Andrew was the first to spend time with Jesus and to recognize him as the Messiah, and it was Andrew who subsequently brought his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. ‘He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”’ (John 1:41). According to this gospel, Peter may have gone on to have a more prominent role in Jesus’ circle than Andrew, but it was Andrew who created the opening for Peter to meet with Jesus initially. The ministry of opening a door to the Lord for others is a very significant one. We can all enter into that task of creating a space for others to encounter the Lord. Whenever we take on this ‘Andrew role’ for others, it can have consequences for good beyond our imagining.
And/Or
(iv) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
In the first reading, Paul declares that ‘faith comes from what is preached, and what is preached comes from the word of God’. Good preaching is rooted in God’s word and nurtures faith. The preacher needs to be a good listener to God’s word if his or her preaching is to generate and nurture faith. As Christians, we recognize the New Testament as the privileged place where we hear God’s word. The Lord speaks to us through the inspired writings of what has come to be known as the New Testament. In the gospel reading, Peter and Andrew, James and John, hear the Lord’s word as they engage in their daily work as fishermen. It was while they were casting or mending their nets that they heard the Lord’s call to become his followers. The Lord speaks to us all from within the heart of our daily experience. What we might think of as purely secular activities can have a truly sacred quality. Our attentiveness to the Lord’s word in the Scriptures can make us more attuned to the many ways he communicates with us in the bits and pieces of life. According to today’s responsorial psalm, the heavens proclaim the glory of God, as does the firmament; day unto day takes up the story; night unto night makes known the message. The Lord’s glory, story, message can be heard in all of life, if we have ears to hear. Andrew, whose feast we celebrate today, had ears to hear the Lord’s word to him as he immersed himself in his day’s work. He inspires us to have something of the same contemplative attitude to life that allows us to be sensitive to what the Lord may be saying to us in all of life’s situations.
And/Or
(v) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
In the list of the twelve apostles, Andrew always comes second, after his brother Peter. He is overshadowed somewhat by his more prominent brother, who became the leading member of the church that was formed after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The gospel reading refers to Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother, Andrew. The siblings of well-known people can easily become defined by their relationship to the better known member of the family, ‘the brother or the sister of…’. Yet, according to the gospel of John, it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. According to the first chapter of that gospel, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, and he and one other disciple of John the Baptist were the first to spend time in Jesus’ company. Having spent a day with Jesus, Andrew found his brother Simon Peter and declared excitedly to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’. He then brought Simon Peter to Jesus, and looking upon Simon, Jesus said to him, ‘You are Simon, son of John. You are to be called “Peter”’. Even though Peter went on to have a more significant role in the church than Andrew, it was Andrew who had the more significant role at the beginning. Indeed, without Andrew’s role in Peter’s life at that time, Peter would not have gone on to become the great pastoral leader he was. The Lord has a role for each one of us and that role is vitally important, even if it seems less prominent than other people’s role. There is something that the Lord wants each of us to do that no one else can do. Sometimes, the role he is calling us to take on is that of the enabler, as in the case of Andrew who enabled Peter to begin his faith journey, which went on to bear such rich fruit for the church. Even though Andrew lived in the shadow of Peter somewhat, without Andrew the church would not have known Peter. The role of enabler is one of those modest, humble, roles in the Lord’s work that is, nonetheless, hugely significant. If we find ourselves being called to play that role at some point in our lives, we are indeed blessed.
And/Or
(vi) Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
According to Paul in today’s first reading, ‘faith comes from what is preached’. We could extend that to say that faith comes through the preaching and teaching of those who believe. Who were the preachers and teachers in our lives through whom we came to believe? We can include among those preachers and teachers all those who spoke to us as children about the life of faith, about God, Jesus, Mary and the saints, about the church and the sacraments. The primary preachers and teachers were our parents; they spoke to us about the faith from our earliest years. We may have encountered preachers in church and teachers in school who helped to open up the riches of the faith to us. Books or articles written by people of faith may have touched us deeply. The preachers and teachers in our lives took many forms. We owe our faith to them. We don’t come to believe on our own. We need people of faith to lead us to faith. Today we celebrate one of the earliest preachers and teachers of the faith, Saint Andrew. He can easily end up in the shadow of his more famous brother, Saint Peter. Yet, according to John’s gospel, it was Andrew who brought Peter to Jesus. In other words, Andrew was the first preacher of the faith in the life of Peter. Andrew reminds us that we all have a role in bringing others to faith. None of us goes to the Lord on our own. We need companions in faith who help to bring us to the Lord, as Andrew brought Simon to the Lord. We are all called to be preachers and teachers in that sense, people of faith who witness to our faith in ways that help others to meet the Lord for themselves.
Fr. Martin Hogan.
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14th April >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 22:14-23:56 for Palm Sunday, Cycle C: ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’.
Palm Sunday, Cycle C
Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)
Luke 22:14-23:56
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke
Key: N. Narrator. ✠ Jesus. O. Other single speaker. C. Crowd, or more than one speaker.
N. When the hour came, Jesus took his place at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them,
✠ I have longed to eat this passover with you before I suffer; because, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
N. Then, taking a cup, he gave thanks and said,
✠ Take this and share it among you, because from now on, I tell you, I shall not drink wine until the kingdom of God comes.
N. Then he took some bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and gave it to them, saying,
✠ This is my body which will be given for you; do this as a memorial of me.
N. He did the same with the cup after supper, and said,
✠ This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you.
And yet, here with me on the table is the hand of the man who betrays me. The Son of Man does indeed go to his fate even as it has been decreed, but alas for that man by whom he is betrayed!
N. And they began to ask one another which of them it could be who was to do this thing.
A dispute arose also between them about which should be reckoned the greatest, but he said to them,
✠ Among pagans it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor. This must not happen with you. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves. For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table, surely? Yet here am I among you as one who serves!
You are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials; and now I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me: you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
Simon, Simon! Satan, you must know, has got his wish to sift you all like wheat; but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and once you have recovered, you in your turn must strengthen your brothers.
N. He answered,
O. Lord, I would be ready to go to prison with you, and to death.
N. Jesus replied,
✠ I tell you, Peter, by the time the cock crows today you will have denied three times that you know me.
N. He said to them,
✠ When I sent you out without purse or haversack or sandals, were you short of anything?
N. They answered,
C. No.
N. He said to them,
✠ But now if you have a purse, take it; if you have a haversack, do the same; if you have no sword, sell your cloak and buy one, because I tell you these words of scripture have to be fulfilled in me: He let himself be taken for a criminal. Yes, what scripture says about me is even now reaching its fulfilment.
N. They said,
C. Lord, there are two swords here now.
N. He said to them,
✠ That is enough!
N. He then left to make his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, with the disciples following. When they reached the place he said to them,
✠ Pray not to be put to the test.
N. Then he withdrew from them, about a stone’s throw away, and knelt down and prayed, saying,
✠ Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.
N. Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength. In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
When he rose from prayer he went to the disciples and found them sleeping for sheer grief. He said to them,
✠ Why are you asleep? Get up and pray not to be put to the test.
N. He was still speaking when a number of men appeared, and at the head of them the man called Judas, one of the Twelve, who went up to Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said,
✠ Judas, are you betraying the son of Man with a kiss?
N. His followers, seeing what was happening, said,
C. Lord, shall we use our swords?
N. And one of them struck out at the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. But at this Jesus spoke:
✠ Leave off! That will do!
N. And touching the man’s ear he healed him.
Then Jesus spoke to the chief priests and captains of the Temple guard and elders who had come for him. He said,
✠ Am I a brigand, that you had to set out with swords and clubs? When I was among you in the Temple day after day you never moved to lay hands on me. But this is your hour; this is the reign of darkness.
N. They seized him then and led him away, and they took him to the high priest’s house. Peter followed at a distance. They had lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and Peter sat down among them, and as he was sitting there by the blaze a servant-girl saw him, peered at him, and said,
O. This person was with him too.
N. But he denied it.
O. Woman, I do not know him.
N. Shortly afterwards someone else saw him and said,
O. You are another of them.
N. But Peter replied,
O. I am not, my friend.
N. About an hour later another man insisted, saying,
O. This fellow was certainly with him. Why, he is a Galilean.
N. Peter said,
O. My friend, I do not know what you are talking about.
N. At that instant, while he was still speaking, the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered what the Lord had said to him, ‘Before the cock crows today, you will have disowned me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Meanwhile the men who guarded Jesus were mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and questioned him, saying,
C. Play the prophet. Who hit you then?
N. And they continued heaping insults on him.
When day broke there was a meeting of the elders of the people, attended by the chief priests and scribes. He was brought before their council, and they said to him,
C. If you are the Christ, tell us.
N. He replied,
✠ If I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I question you, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Power of God.
N. Then they all said,
C. So you are the Son of God then?
N. He answered:
✠ It is you who say I am.
N. They said,
C. What need of witnesses have we now? We have heard it for ourselves from his own lips.
N. The whole assembly then rose, and they brought him before Pilate.
They began their accusation by saying,
C. We found this man inciting our people to revolt, opposing payment of the tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ, a king.
N. Pilate put to him this question:
O. Are you the king of the Jews?
N. He replied,
✠ It is you who say it.
N. Pilate then said to the chief priests and the crowd,
O. I find no case against this man.
N. But they persisted,
C. He is inflaming the people with his teaching all over Judaea; it has come all the way from Galilee, where he started, down to here.
N. When Pilate heard this, he asked if the man were a Galilean; and finding that he came under Herod’s jurisdiction he passed him over to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
Herod was delighted to see Jesus; he had heard about him and had been wanting for a long time to set eyes on him; moreover, he was hoping to see some miracle worked by him. So he questioned him at some length; but without getting any reply. Meanwhile the chief priests and the scribes were there, violently pressing their accusations. Then Herod, together with his guards, treated him with contempt and made fun of him; he put a rich cloak on him and sent him back to Pilate. And though Herod and Pilate had been enemies before, they were reconciled that same day.
Pilate then summoned the chief priests and the leading men and the people. He said,
O. You brought this man before me as a political agitator. Now I have gone into the matter myself in your presence and found no case against the man in respect of all the charges you bring against him. Nor has Herod either, since he has sent him back to us. As you can see, the man has done nothing that deserves death, So I shall have him flogged and then let him go.
N. But as one man they howled,
C. Away with him! Give us Barabbas!
N. (This man had been thrown into prison for causing a riot in the city and for murder.)
Pilate was anxious to set Jesus free and addressed them again, but they shouted back,
C. Crucify him! Crucify him!
N. And for the third time he spoke to them,
O. Why? What harm has this man done? I have found no case against him that deserves death, so I shall have him punished and then let him go.
N. But they kept on shouting at the top of their voices, demanding that he should be crucified. And their shouts were growing louder.
Pilate then gave his verdict: their demand was to be granted. He released the man they asked for, who had been imprisoned for rioting and murder, and handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they pleased.
As they were leading him away they seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and made him shoulder the cross and carry it behind Jesus. Large numbers of people followed him, and of women too, who mourned and lamented for him. But Jesus turned to them and said,
✠ Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children. For the days will surely come when people will say, ‘Happy are those who are barren, the wombs that have never borne, the breasts that have never suckled!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’; to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if men use the green wood like this, what will happen when it is dry?
N. Now with him they were also leading out two other criminals to be executed.
When they reached the place called The Skull, they crucified him there and the two criminals also, one on the right, the other on the left. Jesus said,
✠ Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.
N. Then they cast lots to share out his clothing.
The people stayed there watching him. As for the leaders, they jeered at him, saying,
C. He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.
N. The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said,
C. If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
N. Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
One of the criminals hanging there abused him, saying,
O. Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as well.
N. But the other spoke up and rebuked him:
O. Have you no fear of God at all? You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
N. He replied,
✠ Indeed, I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.
N. It was now about the sixth hour and, with the sun eclipsed, a darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The veil of the Temple was torn right down the middle; and when Jesus had cried out in a loud voice, he said,
✠ Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
N. With these words he breathed his last.
All kneel and pause a moment
When the centurion saw what had taken place, he gave praise to God and said,
O. This was a great and good man.
N. And when all the people who had gathered for the spectacle saw what had happened, they went home beating their breasts.
All his friends stood at a distance; so also did the women who had accompanied him from Galilee, and they saw all this happen.
Then a member of the council arrived, an upright and virtuous man named Joseph. He had not consented to what the others had planned and carried out. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and he lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He then took it down, wrapped it in a shroud and put him in a tomb which was hewn in stone in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day and the sabbath was imminent.
Meanwhile the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus were following behind. They took note of the tomb and of the position of the body.
Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. And on the sabbath day they rested, as the Law required.
Gospel (USA)
Luke 22:14—23:56
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When the hour came, Jesus took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it again until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you that from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.
“And yet behold, the hand of the one who is to betray me is with me on the table; for the Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.” And they began to debate among themselves who among them would do such a deed.
Then an argument broke out among them about which of them should be regarded as the greatest. He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as ‘Benefactors’; but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant. For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves. It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” He said to him, “Lord, I am prepared to go to prison and to die with you.” But he replied, “I tell you, Peter, before the cock crows this day, you will deny three times that you know me.”
He said to them, “When I sent you forth without a money bag or a sack or sandals, were you in need of anything?” “No, nothing,” they replied. He said to them, “But now one who has a money bag should take it, and likewise a sack, and one who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me, namely, He was counted among the wicked; and indeed what is written about me is coming to fulfillment.” Then they said, “Lord, look, there are two swords here.” But he replied, “It is enough!”
Then going out, he went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived at the place he said to them, “Pray that you may not undergo the test.” After withdrawing about a stone’s throw from them and kneeling, he prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” And to strengthen him an angel from heaven appeared to him. He was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he rose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not undergo the test.”
While he was still speaking, a crowd approached and in front was one of the Twelve, a man named Judas. He went up to Jesus to kiss him. Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” His disciples realized what was about to happen, and they asked, “Lord, shall we strike with a sword?” And one of them struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said in reply, “Stop, no more of this!” Then he touched the servant’s ear and healed him. And Jesus said to the chief priests and temple guards and elders who had come for him, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? Day after day I was with you in the temple area, and you did not seize me; but this is your hour, the time for the power of darkness.”
After arresting him they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest; Peter was following at a distance. They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter sat down with them. When a maid saw him seated in the light, she looked intently at him and said, “This man too was with him.” But he denied it saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” A short while later someone else saw him and said, “You too are one of them”; but Peter answered, “My friend, I am not.” About an hour later, still another insisted, “Assuredly, this man too was with him, for he also is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “My friend, I do not know what you are talking about.” Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed, and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.” He went out and began to weep bitterly. The men who held Jesus in custody were ridiculing and beating him. They blindfolded him and questioned him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?” And they reviled him in saying many other things against him.
When day came the council of elders of the people met, both chief priests and scribes, and they brought him before their Sanhedrin. They said, “If you are the Christ, tell us,” but he replied to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I question, you will not respond. But from this time on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied to them, “You say that I am.” Then they said, “What further need have we for testimony? We have heard it from his own mouth.”
Then the whole assembly of them arose and brought him before Pilate. They brought charges against him, saying, “We found this man misleading our people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Christ, a king.” Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He said to him in reply, “You say so.” Pilate then addressed the chief priests and the crowds, “I find this man not guilty.” But they were adamant and said, “He is inciting the people with his teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee where he began even to here.”
On hearing this Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean; and upon learning that he was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod who was in Jerusalem at that time. Herod was very glad to see Jesus; he had been wanting to see him for a long time, for he had heard about him and had been hoping to see him perform some sign. He questioned him at length, but he gave him no answer. The chief priests and scribes, meanwhile, stood by accusing him harshly. Herod and his soldiers treated him contemptuously and mocked him, and after clothing him in resplendent garb, he sent him back to Pilate. Herod and Pilate became friends that very day, even though they had been enemies formerly. Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people and said to them, “You brought this man to me and accused him of inciting the people to revolt. I have conducted my investigation in your presence and have not found this man guilty of the charges you have brought against him, nor did Herod, for he sent him back to us. So no capital crime has been committed by him. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.”
But all together they shouted out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us.” —Now Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder.— Again Pilate addressed them, still wishing to release Jesus, but they continued their shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate addressed them a third time, “What evil has this man done? I found him guilty of no capital crime. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.” With loud shouts, however, they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed. The verdict of Pilate was that their demand should be granted. So he released the man who had been imprisoned for rebellion and murder, for whom they asked, and he handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they wished.
As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?” Now two others, both criminals, were led away with him to be executed.
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” They divided his garments by casting lots. The people stood by and watched; the rulers, meanwhile, sneered at him and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.” Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine they called out, “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.” Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.”
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, “Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The centurion who witnessed what had happened glorified God and said, “This man was innocent beyond doubt.” When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts; but all his acquaintances stood at a distance, including the women who had followed him from Galilee and saw these events.
Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph, who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come from Galilee with him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which his body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the sabbath according to the commandment.
Reflections (5)
(i) Palm Sunday
We have just been listening to Luke’s account of Jesus’ final journey. Like any human being, Jesus recoiled at the prospect of crucifixion. It is only Luke who tells us that on the Mount of Olives, while praying intensely, his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. Jesus did not choose to be crucified. He choose to be faithful even if that meant being crucified. He choose to be faithful to God’s love for all of humanity. Although we have just heard a very tragic story, we consider it good news, gospel, because it is a story that proclaims the triumph of a truly life giving love. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ passion and death, Jesus refers to himself as the ‘green wood’. The cross, which was an instrument of torture, came to be venerated as the tree of life, because it is the place where love triumphed over hatred and life over death.
Calvary was a very dark place, an expression of human brutality at its worst. Yet, in the light of the resurrection of Jesus, the early church came to recognize that what happened on Calvary was more than just a monument to human brutality. There was already a light shining in that darkness, the light of God’s unconditional love for all humanity, including those who crucified Jesus. The church came to see that God was present in that place which seemed to proclaim the absence of God, God’s abandonment of Jesus and of humanity. There was a recognition ever after that God could be present in a loving way in the darkest of human situations. When faced with the cross, we can either renounce our faith in God, or open our hearts to God present in our suffering, loving us with a love we will never fully comprehend in this life. Just as God was present to Jesus and to all of humanity on Calvary, God is present in every experience of the cross, suffering with those who suffer, loving them into a new and fuller life.
The story we have just heard reveals both the worst and the best of the human spirit. The worst of the human spirit, the brutality of the absolute power of the Roman Empire, is there for all to see. Yet, as is often the way, the worst instincts of some drew forth the best instincts of others. It is above all Jesus who reveals the best of the human spirit in this hour. He dies as he lived, standing in loving solidarity with sinners, praying for those responsible for his death, promising paradise to a condemned criminal who turned to him for support. Those best instincts of human nature in the story we have heard can inspire us. We all struggle to forgive those who have hurt or damaged us, but, like Jesus, we may find it in us to pray for them, asking God to forgive them. We can all be a Joseph of Arimathea to others, working to take the wounded body of Christ, our suffering sisters and brothers, off their crosses. In the story of Jesus’ passion and death, we not only hear the good news of the Lord’s tremendous love for us, but we also hear the call to become that good news for others.
And/Or
(ii) Palm Sunday
Some of us may have accompanied loved ones on their last journey, as they passed from this life to the next. The stages of the final journey of a loved one can remain etched in our memories. Their journey was, in a sense, our journey. We travelled it with them. Very often, it is only some time after the death of our loved that the true significance of that final journey becomes clear to us. We come to see it in a new light; we come to understand what was going on in a way that was not possible at the time.
The final journey of Jesus was etched in the memory of his disciples. They too came to understand the full significance of that final journey only afterwards, in the light of Easter and with the coming of the Spirit. What they initially regarded as a great tragedy came to be seen as good news. A story of brokenness and failure came to be recognized as a story full of promise and hope. That is how we read and listen to Luke’s story of Jesus’ last journey this Palm Sunday. We hear this story, not as a depressing word, but as a word that nourishes us and strengthens our faith and hope.
Luke emphasizes that Jesus died as he lived. He lived prayerfully and he died prayerfully, praying to God that Simon’s faith would not fail, praying for forgiveness for his executioners, praying that his Father’s will would be done in his life and, with his final breath, praying himself into the welcoming hands of his Father. Jesus lived compassionately and he died compassionately, healing the wounded ear of one of his enemies, granting Peter a look of acceptance at the very moment that Peter denied him, promising Paradise to the condemned man who turned to him in his hour of need. The experience of his passion and death did not change Jesus. He remained in death all he was in life, a person in prayerful communion with God and in compassionate communion with all men and women, including those who rejected him and failed him.
The Jesus who lived and died is also the Jesus who is risen. As risen Lord, he remains in prayerful communion with God, interceding for us, and he remains in compassionate communion with ourselves. He joins us on our own life’s journey, as he joined the two sorrowful disciples on the road to Emmaus. As the Lord journeys with us, he pours out his Spirit into our hearts, so that we can journey in the same prayerful and compassionate way that he journeyed. His Spirit enables us to be prayerful and compassionate people as he was, in good times and in bad, when the path of life is easy and effortless and when it is painful and difficult. The portrait of Jesus that Luke gives us in his passion story is also intended as our portrait. We are being invited to identify with Jesus, to follow him, to become, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the person he was and is.
As we listen to Luke’s passion story we might find it easier to identify with the other characters in the story. We might recognize something of ourselves in the disciples who, at the last Supper, argued as to which of them was the greatest, in the followers of Jesus who, at the moment of his arrest, resorted to physical force when a different response was called for, in Peter who lacked the courage of his convictions under pressure. We might even recognize something of ourselves in Judas who turned a sign of affection into a signal of betrayal. I suspect many of us could also recognize something of ourselves in those who responded well, in Simon who helped to carry Jesus’ burden, in the good thief who confessed his sin and turned to Jesus in trusting prayer, in the centurion who saw more deeply than any other Roman, in Joseph of Arimathea who did not go along with his peers in the Jewish council but stood apart. Wherever we locate ourselves in the story, the prayerful and compassionate Saviour opens his arms to receive us. That is why this story is good news for us all.
And/Or
(iii) Palm Sunday
We have just heard the story of the last hours of Jesus as Nazareth as told for us by St. Luke. It is this story that we will be reflecting upon in the coming week. The passion narrative is a preview of the whole of this week, the only week in the church’s year that is called Holy Week. The story we have just heard is in one sense a tragic story, the story of the cruel execution of an innocent man. Luke’s telling of the story goes out of its way to declare the innocence of Jesus. Pilate declares Jesus innocent no less than three times, ‘I have found no case against him’. One of those crucified with Jesus declares, ‘This man has done nothing wrong’. The centurion, seeing how Jesus died, proclaims, ‘This was a great and good man’. Jesus dies as the innocent victim of a grave injustice. Therein lies the tragedy of the story we have just heard.
There have been many innocent victims of grave injustices since then, even close to home and in recent times. There may have been times in our own lives when we felt that we were unjustly treated. Such experiences can leave us feeling angry and our anger can turn to bitterness and resentment. The unfair and unjust treatment that we believed we received leaves us diminished. One of the extraordinary features of the story we have just heard is that the injustice done to its main character, to Jesus, did not diminish him in that sense. He retained his goodness, his love for others right to the end, even as the unjust forces were doing their worst to him. It is Luke who again brings out this dimension of the story more than the other evangelists. Luke portrays Jesus as healing the ear of those who came to arrest him, turning to look compassionately at Peter at the moment Peter denied him for the third time, praying aloud to God for forgiveness for those who were executing him, and in his last communication with a fellow human being, promising paradise to one of the criminals who were being crucified with him. Here was the triumph in the midst of the tragedy, the triumph of goodness over evil, of love and mercy over sin and injustice. This triumph would become visible to all when God raised his Son from the dead on the third day.
Luke’s story of the last journey of Jesus reminds us that our greatest triumph lies in how we respond to others, regardless of how they have treated us. We sometimes have little control over how others treat us or regard us. We have some control over how we respond to others. If we respond in the way Jesus did, then we share in his triumph. When we retain our goodness, our integrity, in the midst of forces that threaten to diminish it, then the Lord’s triumph, the triumph of this Holy Week, takes flesh in our lives. The story of Jesus becomes our story. That is the call this Holy Week makes on us.
And/Or
(iv) Palm Sunday
We have just heard the story of the last hours of Jesus as Nazareth as told for us by St. Luke. It is this story that we will be reflecting upon in the coming week, the only week in the church’s year that is called Holy Week. The story we have just heard is in one sense a tragic story, the story of the cruel execution of an innocent man. Luke’s telling of the story goes out of its way to declare the innocence of Jesus. Pilate declares Jesus innocent no less than three times, ‘I have found no case against him’. One of those crucified with Jesus declares, ‘This man has done nothing wrong’. The centurion, seeing how Jesus died, proclaims, ‘This was a great and good man’. Jesus dies as the innocent victim of a grave injustice. Therein lies the tragedy of the story we have just heard.
There have been many innocent victims of grave injustices since then. There may have been times in our own lives when we felt that we were unjustly treated. Such experiences can leave us feeling angry and resentful. One of the extraordinary features of the story we have just heard is that the injustice done to Jesus did not fundamentally change him. He retained his goodness, his love for others, right to the end. He remained the person he had been all his life, even as he unjustly endured so much hostility and hatred. Luke portrays Jesus as healing the ear of one of those who came to arrest him, turning to look compassionately at Peter at the moment Peter denied him for the third time, praying aloud asking God to forgive those who were executing him, and in the final words he spoke to another human being, promising paradise to one of the criminals crucified alongsie him. Here was the triumph in the midst of the tragedy, the triumph of goodness over evil, of love and mercy over sin and injustice. I am reminded of Saint Paul’s words in his letter to the church in Rome. ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’.
Luke’s story of the last journey of Jesus reminds us that our greatest triumph lies in how we relate to others, regardless of how they relate to us. We sometimes have little control over how others treat us or regard us. We have some control over how we respond to the way others relate to us. If, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we respond in the way Jesus did, then we share in his triumph. When we retain our goodness, our integrity, in the face of forces that threaten to diminish us and violate our dignity, then the Lord’s triumph, the triumph of this Holy Week, takes flesh in our own lives. The story of Jesus becomes our story, and the love of God which Jesus revealed most fully in the hour of his passion and death is revealed in our lives.
And/Or
(v) Palm Sunday
According to Luke’s version of the passion and death of Jesus which we have just heard, three groups mocked Jesus as he hung from the cross. Each group called on him to save himself. The leaders jeered at him saying, ‘He saved others. Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One’. The soldiers mocked him, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself’. One of the criminals hurled abuse at him, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as well’. They all wanted Jesus to come down from the cross. Otherwise, he could not be taken seriously as the Christ of God, the king of the Jews.
The notion of a crucified king, a crucified Christ or Messiah, was a scandal. As Paul declares in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles’. If the notion of a crucified Messiah was a scandal and foolishness, a crucified God would have been even more scandalous. Yet, we believe that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us, not only when he was preaching and performing miracles in Galilee but when he was hanging powerlessly and silently on the cross. We believe that Jesus was God in human form from the first moment of his earthly life to the last. When we look upon the cross we are looking at a crucified God. Here is a God who is not removed from human suffering but who, in Jesus, enters fully and deeply into our suffering, not just our physical suffering, but our emotional, mental and spiritual suffering. Jesus suffered in all those ways on the cross; God suffered in all those ways on Calvary. We believe in a God who is with us in our darkest moments. We believe in a God who suffers with us whenever we suffer, which is the true meaning of compassion. Whenever we find ourselves undergoing our own Golgotha, our own Calvary, we can be certain that God is with us, that the Lord is with us, as one who knows that experience from within, and, so, can be our strength in weakness. When Saint Paul was experiencing his own Golgotha in a Roman prison he wrote to the church in Philippi, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’. We can all make those words of Paul our own.
Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.
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The Big Empty
Summary: Castiel is gone and you’re all alone. You decide on a whim to do a stupid thing. It’s stupid, but it might just work. You’d do anything just to see Cas again.
Warnings: Canon violence
WC: 3128
Feedback is GOLD. If you like it, reblog it! Don’t be afraid to leave a comment.
As always my work is unbeta’d so all mistakes are mine.
“Bring him back!” you yelled at Jack after watching Castiel die.
You didn’t wait for him to answer before you screamed again.
“Bring him back!!! Now!!” The tears cracked your voice, your throat ripping in pain as you relentlessly screamed.
You grabbed hold of his shoulders, tears rimming your eyes, your chest tightening, heart palpitating. “Do it!!!!
Sam came in and wrapped his arm around your stomach and pulled you away from Jack. You grabbed at Sam’s arm, struggling to get free, screaming for Jack to bring back Castiel.
In the end, you fell lax against Sam, your hands holding his plaid shirt and you cried against his solid chest. You shook, gripping him tight, your heart shredding all over again.
He picked you up and carried you out.
* * * * *
“I can’t do that.”
“Billie, please…” your hope vanquishing fast.
“I’m Death. I reap souls, human souls. I don’t reap angels.”
“Then who does. Somebody must.”
Billie crossed her arms. “Angels don’t have souls. They have always existed, after being part of God’s creation, that is.”
“Where do angels go when they die?”
“Nowhere. They go into nothingness. Before God, there was-”
“Nothing,” you interrupted. “Take me there.”
Billie laughed once. “That ain’t my domain.”
“I need to go there.”
“And honey, I need a long vacation in the Bahamas, but it looks like we both ain’t getting what we want.”
“I need to say goodbye. Let me grieve.”
“Why can’t you grieve like a normal human?”
“No normal human would even know Death existed.” you stated.
“Touché,” Billie agreed. “But I still can’t grant what you want.”
“I’ll do anything.”
She quirked a brow. “When people say that they usually don’t mean anything.”
“Well, I mean it.”
She nodded, and began to walk a circle around you.
“You were always his favourite. Many times he’d beg to spare your life. ‘Just this once, Billie.’ he’d say. I’d agree, with a consequence of course. Nothing in this life gets you anything for free. He’d comply, as always, loyal to you.” she sighed. “He made you the most perfect heaven. Why couldn’t you have waited? You would have gotten everything you wanted. Castiel. And you would have been so happy. You realize you’re throwing all that away, right?”
Your mind reeled. Castiel had already prepared you a room in Heaven. Where he would always accompany you. Forever. He loved you.
“Why did you tell me that?”
“Because that’s what you’ll give up. You’ll give up your perfect heaven Castiel so lovingly prepared for you. Because there’s no way for you to return from the Emptiness.”
“But if Castiel’s there…” you started and petered off.
“There’s no way of knowing for sure, if he’ll wake.”
“He’s still there.”
“If you sleep, you sleep for eternity.”
You nodded.
“What about the Winchesters, do they know you came to seek me? do they know about your suicidal stint?”
You shook your head. “No. They’re much too busy these days, with Jack.”
“Ah, Lucifer’s son.”
You nodded.
“They don’t know I’m doing this.”
“Do you think they’ll miss you?”
They wouldn’t. You knew it. They had way too much on their plate at the moment. You wouldn’t even be a wisp of a thought. You shook your head.
“You’re wrong. Dean will hate himself. He thinks of you as his little sister, someone he must protect. At all costs. He’ll blame himself and he might not be able to cope with another loss. He’ll drown his sorrows. And Sam, he loved you, but he knew of your affections for Castiel. You were his best friend. Someone he could have a laugh with and talk for hours on end with. With you gone that won't happen and neither will he comfort you in your loss and hope that maybe one day you return his affections. Your death will rip them apart, Y/N. Dean will forever be bitter, full of hatred and angry, losing all hope. Michael will get his true vessel, thanks to the girl who loved Castiel so much she killed herself. And Sam will drift away, trying to cope, trying to manage and who knows the fate of Jack? Does this change your mind knowing this?”
You closed your eyes. Dammit Sammy. Dammit Dean. Dammit, dammit, dammit. You pinched the bridge of your nose between your fingers, inhaling a deep breath.
“Y/N?”
You exhaled and looked at her. The sad thing was it didn’t change your mind.
“That won’t happen if they stick together. They’re better together. Stronger.”
“Maybe, I’m just telling you. You won’t know. It’s a risk you’ll have to take. Does it change your mind?”
You shook your head.
“I can't guarantee it will work. It’s never happened before. You’ll know its worked, and if it hasn’t.”
“Can you send them a message from me?”
“Honey, I ain’t no messenger.”
“Anybody will do.”
“You ain’t picky are you?”
You shook your head and fired a quick prayer to the boys in hope they stay together.
“I’m ready when you are.”
You were going to see Castiel. Your heart brimmed at the possibility.
You woke up on the ground, your cheek sticking to the cold floor. It was a strange feeling, opening your eyes and seeing nothing. You sat up, disoriented and a sudden panic at your throat, claustrophobia clawing your chest, feeling the blankness close in around you. You heaved ragged breaths in and out.
“Castiel!!!” you yelled.
You hoped he was awake. Hoped he heard you. This was your eternity. You would live here forever.
You heard distant voices. You whipped your head to the direction they came from and stood up. You strained your ears again, hope burning your heart, wanting to hear them again.
“Castiel?!!”
You waited.
You saw two tiny pinpricks ahead of you. You smiled and began to run. The floor beneath you whizzed you along at breakneck speed and you stood in front of Castiel. And Castiel. You looked between the two, confusion etched on your face. Shock registered on one and a mad grin on the other.
“Castiel?” you looked at the two.
One laughed, a little nasally and entirely crazy.
“You. You’re not supposed to be here. You’re no angel. You’re just a little mud monkey.”
You blanched at the voice. God, he looked like Cas, but he didn’t sound like Cas. He had an odd accent and his nasally voice gave a vicious bite at the end of his words. His eyes held no love for you, they held annoyance and anger at you being here.
You turned to the real Castiel. He was looking at you in awe, sadness tinting his expression.
“How did you get here?” The other Castiel pronounced every word scathingly.
“I know someone.”
“You killed yourself for him. Aw,” he mocked you. He looked at Cas, pushing you slightly away.
Castiel growled when he noticed you stumble back.
“Don’t touch her.”
“You have a, a fondness for that? You fell for the amoeba. You had no idea she had this planned, did you?” The other Castiel chuckled darkly. “And now she’s stuck here, just like you.”
Castiel looked at you and something inside you gave a pang. You averted your gaze, fearing what he’d say. He didn’t know you had sacrificed everything just for a chance.
“Look at her. Hmmm, a low little scum of the Earth, in love with a divine entity. It really doesn’t get any more messed up than that.”
“Don’t call her that.”
The other Cas strode up to him and stood face to face.
“You’re both in my territory now, I can say or do whatever I like. Thanks to you, I am awake. And I. Don’t. Like. Being. Awake. I want to go back to sleep. In all of forever, nothing. Ever wakes up here. And I mean, ever. Ever.”
Somehow Cas had woken up.
“What are you?” you asked.
The other Cas, spun on his heel and headed straight for you, he came at such a speed you wanted to run. You gasped in a breath, eyes wide. He tipped your chin up with a flick of his wrist.
“I’m a friendly neighbourhood Cosmic Entity.”
“Why do you look like Castiel?”
He bent down, pushing his face to yours. You wanted to shrink away but he held you fast.
He smiled, teeth bared.
“It wouldn’t be no fun if I showed up in my true form now, would it. You’ll scream and tear out your eyes. It’ll be embarrassing for all of us.”
“So you’re the Empty?”
His smile widened. “You’re smart,” he turned to Cas. “She’s smart.”
He stroked your cheek.
“What did you do, Y/N?” Castiel questioned from behind Empty!Cas.
“Yes. What did you do? I too, would like to know the answer to that question.”
“I made a deal.”
Castiel’s face crumpled.
“What. Kind. Of deal?”
“I gave up my heaven and my life for a chance to come here.”
“So you gave up your slice of heaven for a chance, a very slim one in fact.”
You nodded.
“Hmm, and what would have happened if it had not have worked?”
“My soul would be reaped. I knew exactly what I was heading into.”
“No, no, no, no.” Castiel pined.
He pulled you away from the Cosmic Entity and cupped your face with his large hands. You leaned into his touch, smiling a little.
“Why? Y/N, you didn’t- God this was reckless of you.”
Your fingers curled round his hands. Seeing Cas, feeling Cas made you whole and happy, but thinking about and remembering his death saddened you.
“You died, Cas…” you whispered, a tear making its way down your cheek.
“You should have waited. Your heaven. Y/N, do you realise what you gave up?”
You nodded.
“I know. You would have been in my Heaven.”
“And we would have had a beautiful forever.” He wiped the rest of your tears away.
“I had to.” you hiccuped, looking into his sapphire eyes.
“And now, you’re stuck here. Forever,” the Cosmic Entity spoke. And I want to know why you’re awake.”
He poked Cas.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, think.”
“The Winchesters must have made a deal-”
“No, no, no, no,” He interrupted shaking his head. “Not with me and I’m the only one that has any pull here. Not heaven, not hell, not G.O.D himself, so. Think. Harder,” he sneered. “Wrack that perky little brain of yours.” He tapped Castiel’s forehead.
“Hey!”
“Stay away from me.” Cas warned.
“Okay, fine, I’ll wrack it for you.”
The Cosmic Entity taking on Cas’ form put his hand on Castiel’s head. You rushed forward as Castiel started yelling in pain, falling to his knees. Empty!Cas gripped your head and you went down in pain as you felt your brain surge. Your hands gripped his arm, but he wouldn’t let go and you screamed in agony, the pressure in your head building.
Then it was gone. You were on your hands and knees breathing heavily, stars in your eyes, head hurting. Beside you, you heard Castiel.
“What did, what did you do to me?”
“I read your mind, such as it is, and hers.”
You groaned on the ground. Castiel slowly sat on his knees.
“What do you want?”
“What do I want? I want you to shut! Up! I want, hmmmm having you awake, it’s like a gnat flew right up here, and it’s trapped and it’s buzzing.” he said, tapping his head.
“Having me awake, it’s causing you pain.”
“Cas…” you groaned.
“If you can’t sleep, I can't sleep. Yeah. And I like sleep. I need sleep.”
“Then get rid of me.” Cas grunted.
“No!” you shouted. You were scared the Empty would throw Cas deep into the Emptiness.
“Oh I should, should I?”
“Send me back to Earth.”
“Or I throw you so far deep into the Empty that you can't bother me anymore, hmm.”
“No. No, no, no, no. Send him back to Earth. He belongs there.”
The Empty crouched down to you.
“He belongs here. Asleep,” His hand cradled your head. His hand was in essence Castiel’s but you didn’t lean in to his touch. “What about you, hmmm. How do I get you to sleep?” He stroked your hair.
“Send. Him. Back.”
“That’s not part of the deal. Mm-mm, no, no. Besides, you don’t want him to go back.”
“I do. Sam and Dean need him.”
“Ohh save it! I have tiptoed through all your little tulips,” His fingers danced on your head. “Your memories, your little feelings, yes. I know what you hate. I know who you love,” He looked to Castiel. “What you fear. There is nothing for him back there.”
“That’s not true!!”
“It is, mmm-mmm. Oh it is. He was such a constant festering disappointment.”
“He wasn’t. Not to me.”
The Empty shoved you further on the ground.
“No. Don’t you touch her.” Castiel crawled over to you and The Cosmic Entity kicked him back. Castiel grunted hitting the floor.
“If I can get you both to sleep then I can sleep. Just let’s lay down and and try and sleep.” He said stroking your back.
“Hmmm, think about it. Infinite peace, yes, no regrets, no pain.” You were beginning to feel quite tired until he tapped you. “Kiddo save. Yourself.”
“She’s already saved.” A voice close by growled. You turned and saw Cas on his knees.
The Empty kicked him hard in the stomach and he fell, groaning.
“Stop!” you yelled loud enough to wake every sleeping demon and angel.
“You can prance, and you can preen, and you can scream, and yell, and remind me of my failings, but somehow I am awake, and I will stay awake, and I will keep you awake until we both go insane.”
The truth hurt for Empty!Cas. He punched Castiel in the face, his head whipping to one side. You made your way over.
“I will fight you,” Cas slowly stood up.”I will fight you. I will fight you forever. For eternity. ”
The Empty shook his head. “No. No.”
“Release me.”
Castiel stepped closer to him, getting up in his face. “Release. Me. Release Y/N.”
Empty Cas smiled a twisted wolfish grin.
“Sorry, buddy. No can do.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
“It’s okay, Cas. You can go. You don’t have to wait for me.” you said behind him.
Castiel turned back around and embraced you.
“She knew this would happen. Oh boy, did she.”
He hugged you tight and you inhaled his scent for one last time.
“I don’t want to go back without you.”
“That’s not how it works, Cas.” you said.
“One life for a life.” Empty!Cas stated.
“I will find a way for you. I will. I will get you out of here. You don’t deserve this eternity. I will give you your heaven.”
“Cas… I already have my heaven. It was seeing you again. Here. That’s all I wanted. To get to say goodbye. You gave me a great couple of years. And I loved every single minute of it. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
He let the tear fall down his cheek. You gave a sad smile.
“Oh enough with the sentimental crap.”
You cupped his cheek, ignoring the Empty. “Tell them I died happy. And that I’m fine. Tell them it’s not their fault. Not Sam’s. Not Dean’s, especially not Jack’s.”
Castiel nodded then leant down, pressing his lips to yours, giving you a small kiss.
“In death, I promise you. I will bring you back.”
“Time’s up.” The Cosmic Entity pulled Castiel away.
“Y/N… I-” He never got to finish the sentence as he vanished from your existence back to Earth.
Castiel Fic Tags:
@greenappleeyes @sugarcookiedean @one-to-beam-up @mypassionsarenysins
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Thought for the Day – 5 January – the Memorial of St Charles of Mount Argus C.P. (1821-1893)
Excerpt from a letter to his brother, Father Peter Joseph Houben
Written at Blessed Paul’s Retreat, Harold’s Cross, Dublin.
20 November 1862.
“My dear Reverend Brother,
I was delighted to hear that you and our brothers and sisters are keeping well, also our uncle, the mayor, (2) and our niece (3). I too am very well, thank God. It seems to me that our niece is a very devout and humble girl and I hope that she remembers to pray for me from time to time (child of Mary, would you be willing to say a little prayer for me?) I want to pray for you that you may come to a complete understanding of your state in life.
I have now been away from you for 17 years; this time has passed so quickly that to me it seems but a moment. I am very far away from you all but what does it matter how far we are from each other in this life, so long as we are united for all eternity with Jesus and Mary.
I think of you, my brother, everyday during Mass – I think and think again of you, my good Peter Joseph; also dear Mary Sibyl, Mary Christine, John Matthew, Godfrey, Anne Mary and Mary Helen, my dearest uncle, the mayor and my good niece Mary Philomena. Remember me sometimes in your prayers. I wish my brother John Matthew and my sister Anne Mary (4) much happiness in married life – my best wishes to their families. I pray for them, that if God grants them children, they will bring them up to know His peace, have them pray every morning and every night and teach them to recite the rosary in the evening and that the welfare of their souls will be the most important thing in life for them. We should be thankful to God for having given us such good parents and for our aunts, uncles, etc.
I now find it quite difficult to write and speak in my own native tongue. Here in Dublin we have built a huge monastery which cost about eight thousand pounds. The Irish gave us this money; they are very generous when it comes to their Catholic faith. However, here in the city of Dublin and in the surrounding districts there are also thousands of people who neither go to confession nor make their Easter communion.
With all my heart I implore you to pray for them, to offer your evening rosary for the conversion of so many great sinners; go to Mass and offer your communions for this intention. I shudder when I think of how often our Lord is offended in this large city, crucified by serious sins. Ah, pray that these sinners may turn back to God. In Dublin and the surrounding districts there are about 300 thousand Catholics and 50 thousand Protestants.
In our monastery there is a religious, John Joseph Renon from Hoensbrock, who was in London for twelve years; we have a monastery there, too.
…I must finish now. I give my priestly blessing to everyone, let us try to please God in all that we do and suffer and let us think often of the Passion of Christ and the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
My best wishes to my dear uncle J. N. Luyten, the mayor and to all my family and friends.
Your affectionate brother,
Fr Charles Houben, Passionist
St Charles of Mount Argus, Pray for Us!
Letter 5-Notes
1. Summ. p. 333, L.13.
2. Mayor Luyten of Munstergeleen was Charles’ mother’s brother.
3. Mary Philomena Houben, John Peter’s daughter, who was fifteen years of age.
4. Anne Mary had married John Peter Lenssen on 14th January, 1862.
(via Thought for the Day - 5 January - The Loves of St Charles - His family and the Faith)
#mypic#thoughtforthedayjanuary5#january5stcharlesofmountargus#stcharlesofmountargus#letterofstcharlesofmountargus#catholic#catholicism#passionist
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