First Friday Archive
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December First Friday Reflection: Feast of the Immaculate Conception
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free from Original Sin in the womb of her mother, St. Ann (the patron saint of Detroit). As one of the most important Marian feasts, it is universally celebrated in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church on each December 8th, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8th.
The feast was first solemnized as a Holy Day of Obligation on December 6, 1708, by Pope Clement XI, and was defined as a dogma of Catholic faith on December 8, 1854, by Pope Pius IX. At Mass on December 8th, following Communion, we will pray:
“O Lord our God, heal in us the wounds of that fault from which in a singular way you preserved Blessed Mary in her Immaculate Conception. Through Christ our Lord.”
November First Friday Reflection: Veterans DayBy CLSMD President Robert Gazall
Thursday is Veterans Day. A few years ago, my wife and I visited our nephews who were cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. While on post, we were fortunate enough to attend Mass at the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Chapel. Before departing the beautiful service, the cadets and their visitors prayed to St. Michael the Archangel to bless, heal and give peace to our veterans, and for the strength of our soldiers. On Veterans Day, let's offer a prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel for our Veterans.
Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits
who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
October First Friday Reflection: St. Thérèse of Lisieux
St. Thérèse of Lisieux was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. She became a Carmelite nun whose service to the order was recognized for its exemplary spiritual accomplishments. She is affectionately known as the "Little Flower," and is the patron saint of missions and of florists.
St. Thérèse was the youngest of nine children, five of whom survived childhood. After her mother died of cancer in 1877, Thérèse moved with her family to Lisieux. In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, her piety developed early and intensively. All four of her elder sisters became nuns, and at the age of 15 Thérèse entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux. Although she suffered from depression, she maintained a smiling, pleasant, and unselfish manner. She died from tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at age 24.The story of Thérèse’s spiritual development was related in a collection of her essays, written in 1898 under the title Histoire d’une âme (“Story of a Soul”). Her popularity is largely a result of this work, which conveys her loving pursuit of holiness in ordinary life. St. Thérèse defined her doctrine of the Little Way as “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.” She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925, and was named a doctor of the church by Pope John Paul II in 1997. St. Thérèse is the youngest person to receive the doctor of the church designation.In 2015, St. Thérèse’s parents, Saints Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin, were canonized by Pope Francis I. They were the first spouses to be canonized together as a couple.
September First Friday Reflection: Prayer for the Victims of Terrorism
It seems like yesterday that the violence and heartache of September 11th took our breath away. Now, a generation later, the events at Kabul airport have once again shaken us to our core. We offer a prayer for the victims of terrorism.
Loving God,
Welcome into your arms the victims of violence and terrorism.
Comfort their families and all who grieve for them.
Help us in our fear and uncertainty,
And bless us with the knowledge that we are secure in your love.
Strengthen all those who work for peace,
And may the peace the world cannot give reign in our hearts.
Amen.
August First Friday Reflection: The Feast of the Transfiguration
Both the Roman and Eastern rite Catholics celebrate the Church's feast of the Transfiguration today. The feast commemorates one of the pinnacles of Jesus' earthly life, when he revealed his divinity to three of his closest disciples by means of a miraculous and supernatural light.
Before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ climbed to a high point on Mount Tabor with his disciples Peter, James, and John. While Jesus prayed upon the mountain, his appearance was changed by a brilliant white light which shone from him and from his clothing. During this event, the Old Testament figures of Moses and the prophet Elijah also appeared, and spoke of how Christ would suffer and die after entering Jerusalem, before his resurrection.
Today's Gospel from St. Mark reads:
Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John, and led them up to a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.
Mark 9:2-10July First Friday Reflection: A Prayer for Independence Day
God, source of all freedom,
this day is bright with the memory
of those who declared that life and
liberty are your gift to every human
being.
Help us to continue a good work
begun long ago. Make our vision clear and our will
strong: that only in human solidarity will
we find liberty, and justice only in the honor that
belongs to every life on earth.
Turn our hearts toward the family
of nations: to understand the ways of others,
to offer friendship, and to find safety only in the
common good of all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
From Catholic Currents: U.S. Conference of Bishops
June First Friday Reflection: Gratitude
As summer nears, the days lengthen and we feel the sun's embrace. Let us give thanks for each new summer day.
Morning Prayer
Gracious God,
Thank you for the gift of today.
Refresh me. Invite me to discover your presence
In each person that I meet
And every event that I encounter.
Teach me when to speak and when to listen
When to ponder and when to share.
In moments of challenge and decision
Attune my heart to the whisperings of your Wisdom.
As I undertake ordinary and unnoticed tasks,
Gift me with simple joy.
When my day goes well, may I rejoice.
When it grows difficult, surprise me with
New possibilities.
When life is overwhelming, call me to
Sabbath moments
To restore your Peace and Harmony.
May my living today reveal your Goodness.
- Pat Bergen, C.S.J.
May First Friday Reflection: Mary's Month
The month of May has long been associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary. As St. Paul VI noted in his 1965 encyclical Mense Maio , May "is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne."The abundance of flowers this month recalls the fruitfulness of Mary's "Fiat" to God's will in her life. While many flowers are associated with Mary in art, devotion, and folklore, two appear most often: The lily and the rose.
Lilies were taken to symbolize Mary's perpetual virginity and freedom from original sin. Artists depicting the Annunciation very often included a pot of white lilies in the scene, or showed St. Gabriel presenting a white lily to Mary in token of her purity. A lily species has the popular name "Madonna lily" because it was so often shown in artistic works with Mary. There are other flowers called "lily" which are not really lilies but are closely associated with Mary -- for example, the "Assumption Lily" (a type of hosta) that blooms about the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August and the "Sword Lily" (Iris) that symbolizes Mary's Seven Sorrows. The fleur-de-lys is said to symbolize Mary because it resembles both the Madonna lily and the iris.
Roses are another Marian floral symbol, as explained by John S. Stokes in his 1996 book Mary's Garden: "In the medieval period, the rose was adopted as the flower symbol of the Virgin Birth, as expressed in Dante's phrase, 'The Rose wherein the Divine Word was made flesh,' and depicted in the central rose windows of the great gothic cathedrals -- from which came the Christmas carol, 'Lo, How a Rose 'ere Blooming.'" In the Litany of Loreto, one of Mary's titles is "Mystical Rose." St. John Henry Newman said that Mary is called a rose because it is the most beautiful of flowers and she is the most beautiful of women. Mary is sometimes referred to as the "rose without thorns," the rose representing the beauty of holiness without the thorns of original sin. The word "Rosary" -- the most popular Marian devotion -- means "a crown of roses," or spiritual bouquet presented to Mary.
April First Friday Reflection: Good Friday
March First Friday Reflection: Forgive and you will be forgiven
"But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punshiment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed." Isaiah 53:5
And, although not a Holy Week reading, we may want to recall John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that wghoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you wil not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." Luke 6:37-38
February First Friday Reflection: The RosaryThe word Rosary means a crown of roses, a spiritual bouquet given to the Blessed Mother. Pope John Paul II placed the Rosary at the very center of Christian spirituality and called it "among the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation. The first historical reference to the Rosary is from the life of St. Dominic (1170-1221).The prayers that compose the Rosary are arranged in sets of ten Hail Marys, called decades. Each decade is preceded by one Lord's Prayer ("Our Father") and traditionally followed by one Glory Be. During recitation of each set, thought is given to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and of Mary.Pope Pius V (1566–1572) established the standard 15 Mysteries of the Rosary. This groups the mysteries into three sets: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. In 2002 Pope John Paul II added a set of five new Mysteries termed the Luminous Mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to 20.The Glorious Mysteries are prayed on Sunday and Wednesday, the Joyful on Monday and Saturday, the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, and the Luminous on Thursday. The Feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary is October 7th.
CLSMD will host a "Zoom Rosary" every First Friday at noon. Sign up via our "Contact Us" page or e-mail catholiclawyerssociety@gmail.com.
January First Friday Reflection: The Work of Christmas Begins
When the carols have been stilled,
When the star-topped tree is taken down,
When family and friends are gone home,
When we are back to our schedules
The work of Christmas begins:
To welcome the refugee,
To heal a broken planet,
To feed the hungry,
To build bridges of trust, not walls of fear,
To share our gifts,
To seek justice and peace for all people,
To bring Christ’s light to the world.
- by Michael Dougherty, a variation on Howard Thurman’s ‘When the Song of the Angels is Stilled’
The Catholic Lawyers Society of Metropolitan Detroit sends out a short First Friday reflection every month, composed with help from our Spiritual Advisor, Msgr. Ronald Browne.
December First Friday Reflection: The Immaculate Conception
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the belief that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived free from Original Sin in the womb of her mother, St. Ann (the patron saint of Detroit). As one of the most important Marian feasts, it is universally celebrated in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church on each December 8th, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary on September 8.
The feast was first solemnized as a Holy Day of Obligation on December 6, 1708 by Pope Clement XI, and was defined as a dogma of Catholic faith on December 8, 1854, by Pope Pius IX. At Mass on December 8, we will pray:
"O Lord our God, heal in us the wounds of that fault from which in a singular way you preserved Blessed Mary in her Immaculate Conception. Through Christ our Lord."
November First Friday Reflection: Pause to Give Thanks
In less than three weeks, we will celebrate Thanksgiving Day. A day to pause and give thanks for our many blessings. At Mass on Thanksgiving Day, one of the prayers reads:Almighty God, you have entrusted to us the great gift of freedom, a gift that calls forth responsibility and commitment to the truth that all have a fundamental dignity before you. In Jesus, through his Death and Resurrection, we find ultimate redemption, freedom from sin, and every blessing. For all this, we thank you, almighty Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
October First Friday Reflection: Archangels Around Us
This week the Church celebrated the Feast of the Holy Archangels. Although there are believed to be seven archangels (based on Tobit 12:15 and Rev. 8:2), only three are mentioned by name in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
Michael is identified as the angel protector of Israel in the Book of Daniel (10:13). In Revelation, Michael leads the faithful angels to victory over Satan and his angels (12:7-9). Gabriel, in the Gospel of Luke, announces the forthcoming births of John the Baptist and Jesus (1:19 and 1:26). Raphael is sent by God to answer Tobit's prayer for healing (12:15).Because of his battle with Satan, Michael is known as a protecting angel. When we fear for ourselves, our family, or our country, we can turn to him. He is able to mediate God's protection to us. Gabriel, because of his role in Jesus' birth, is seen as an announcing angel. When we are confused about what God wants from us or when we face a difficult decision, we can ask Gabriel to help us. He knows how to communicate God's will. Raphael, because of his role in curing Tobit's blindness, is recognized as a healing angel. When we face sickness or are trapped in a habit of sin, we can call out to Raphael for help. He is able to direct God's healing power to us.
-Adapted from Fr. George M. Smiga's letter in the September 2020 prayer book, Give Us This Day
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The Catholic Lawyers Society of Metropolitan Detroit sends out a short First Friday reflection every month, composed with help from our Spiritual Advisor, Msgr. Ronald Browne. To be added to the First Friday list, please e-mail catholiclawyerssociety@gmail.com.
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