Today in 10 Seconds
Gospel: Paralyzed man healed by radical forgiveness, not medicine Rosary: Luminous Mysteries Pope: Gaza bleeds while world turns away, Church warns TechCrunch: Apple's planned obsolescence machine churns on relentlessly CBS News: Brooklyn bodegas become black market weight-loss clinics Saint: Lawyer-turned-priest dies as city begs his blessing
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Matthew 9:1-8
"Jesus got in the boat, crossed the water and came to his own town. Then some people appeared, bringing him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, my child, your sins are forgiven."
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Test Your Faith IQ |
Scripture |
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In today's Gospel, Jesus heals a paralytic. According to the Gospel of Mark's version of this same event (Mark 2:1-12), how did the man's friends get him to Jesus?
- A) They carried him through the front door of the synagogue
- B) They lowered him through a hole they dug in the roof
- C) They brought him on a stretcher through a window
- D) They waited outside until Jesus came to them
Answer at the bottom of this newsletter.
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| Rosary Mystery of the Day | |
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Today's Mysteries |
Thursday: Luminous Mysteries |
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Luminous Mysteries
- 1. The Baptism of Christ in the Jordan
- 2. The Wedding Feast at Cana
- 3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
- 4. The Transfiguration
- 5. The Institution of the Eucharist
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The Objection
"Why do Catholics baptize babies? Infants can't choose to believe. The Bible says you need faith first, then baptism."
The Catholic Response
Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me' (Matthew 19:14) and never set a minimum age for grace. In Acts 16:15 and Acts 16:33, entire households were baptized, which in the ancient world included infants and children. The early Church practiced infant baptism from the beginning; Origen wrote in the third century that 'the Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants' (Commentary on Romans 5:9). The Catechism teaches that baptism is not a reward for personal faith but a free gift of God's grace, which is why the faith of the parents and the Church stands in for the child (CCC 1250-1252).
CCC 1250-1252 | Acts 16:15 | Acts 16:33 | Matthew 19:14
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 Photo: Vatican News
VATICAN NEWS
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, speaking after receiving a peace prize, calls Gaza a disaster and urges the world not to abandon the Holy Land. His words reflect the Church's urgent moral stance on one of today's gravest crises.
 Photo: TechCrunch
TechCrunch
Apple is preparing new iPad Pro tablets and a budget MacBook Pro for early 2027, signaling another cycle of planned obsolescence for millions of devices.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
Ecclesiastes 1:9 |
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"What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!"
Laudato Si' 203-204
Pope Francis warned in Laudato Si' that a "throwaway culture" trains us to discard not just devices but people (LS 22). Every upgrade cycle asks the same spiritual question: are you building your life on tools that serve you, or are you serving the next release date?
Reflect → When was the last time you bought something new not because you needed it, but because you were bored with what still worked?
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 Photo: CBS News
CBS News
An unapproved experimental weight-loss drug called retatrutide is being sold over the counter at Brooklyn convenience stores, bypassing FDA oversight entirely.
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FAITH & THE WORLD |
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 |
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"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price."
CCC 2288-2289
The Catechism is blunt: the virtue of temperance requires us to avoid "every kind of excess" regarding our bodies, including reckless self-medication (CCC 2290). Desperation to reshape our bodies with unregulated chemicals isn't self-care; it's treating the temple like a fixer-upper you can gut without a permit.
Reflect → Have you ever taken a shortcut with your health because you couldn't accept your body the way it was?
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 Photo: Good News Network
Good News Network
A three-year-old boy was pulled alive from earthquake rubble in Caracas after six days, as international rescue teams continue searching for survivors.
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FAITH & GOOD NEWS |
Psalm 34:19 |
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"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, saves those whose spirit is crushed."
CCC 1844 (Theological Virtue of Hope)
Six days under concrete and a child still breathes. Today's Gospel shows friends carrying a paralyzed man to Jesus because they refused to accept that the situation was hopeless. Those rescuers in Caracas carried the same faith: that life is worth digging for, even when the odds say stop.
Reflect → Who in your life needs you to keep digging for them, even when it seems too late?
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DAILY WORD GAME
Test your Catholic vocabulary
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Saint of the Day |
July 2 |
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Saint Bernardino Realino
Bernardino was a successful lawyer and magistrate in Naples before becoming a Jesuit priest at age 34. When he was dying in 1616, the city council of Lecce sent a delegation to his deathbed to ask him to be their patron saint. He reportedly nodded yes. The cause for his canonization was supported by testimony that vials of his blood remained liquid for years after his death.
His feast is July 2, and his radical career change from law to priesthood echoes today's first reading, where Amos insists he was no professional prophet but answered God's call anyway.
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Trivia Answer
B . Mark 2:4 says the friends couldn't get through the crowd, so they went up on the roof, dug through it, and lowered the paralytic on his mat. First-century Palestinian homes had flat roofs made of mud and branches, making this dramatic but physically possible.
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