Daily Gospel for Friday,
21 March 2014
"Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal
life." John 6:68
Friday of the Second Week
of Lent
Saints of the Day:
SAINT BENEDETTA
CAMBIAGIO FRASSINELLO
(1791 - 1858)
Saint Benedetta
Cambiagio Frasinello was born on 2 October 1791 in Langasco (Genoa) Italy; she
died on 21 March 1858 in Ronco Scrivia in Liguria. She was wife, religious and
foundress. She let the Holy Spirit guide her through married life to the work
of education and religious consecration. She founded a school for the formation
of young women and also a religious congregation, and did both with the
generous collaboration of her husband. This is unique in the annals of
Christian sanctity. Benedetta was a pioneer in her determination to give a high
quality education to young women, for the formation of families for a "new
Christian society" and for promoting the right of women to a complete
education.
Call to marriage, then
to religious life
From her parents
Benedetta received a Christian formation that rooted in her the life of faith.
Her family settled in Pavia when she was a girl. When she was 20 years old,
Benedetta had a mystical experience that gave her a profound desire for a life
of prayer and penance, and of consecration to God. However, in obedience to the
wishes of her parents, in 1816, she married Giovanni Frassinello and lived
married life for two years. In 1818, moved by the example of his saintly wife,
Giovanni agreed that the two should live chastely, "as brother and
sister" and take care of Benedetta's younger sister, Maria, who was dying
from intestinal cancer. They began to live a supernatural parenthood quite
unique in the history of the Church.
Congregation founded
by wife, who is supported by her husband
Following Maria's
death in 1825, Giovanni entered the Somaschi Fathers founded by St Jerome
Emiliani, and Benedetta devoted herself completely to God in the Ursuline
Congregation of Capriolo. A year later she was forced to leave because of ill
health, and returned to Pavia where she was miraculously cured by St Jerome
Emiliani. Once she regained her health, with the Bishop's approval, she
dedicated herself to the education of young girls. Benedetta needed help in
handling such a responsibility, but her own father refused to help her. Bishop
Tosi of Pavia asked Giovanni to leave the Somaschi novitiate and help
Benedettain her apostolic work. Together they made a vow of perfect chastity in
the hands of the bishop, and then began their common work to promote the human
and Christian formation of poor and abandoned girls of the city. Their
educational work was of great benefit to Pavia. Benedetta became the first
woman to be involved in this kind of work. The Austrian government recognized
her as a "Promoter of Public Education".
She was helped by
young women volunteers to whom she gave a rule of life that later received
ecclesiastical approval. Along with instruction, she joined formation in
catechesis and in useful skills like cooking and sewing, aiming to transform
her students into "models of Christian life" and so assure the
formation of families.
Benedictine Sisters of
Providence
Benedetta's work was
considered pioneering for those days and was opposed by a few persons in power
and by the misunderstanding of clerics. In 1838 she turned over the institution
to the Bishop of Pavia. Together with Giovanni and five companions, she moved
to Ronco Scrivia in the Genoa region. There they opened a school for girls that
was a refinement on what they had done in Pavia.
Eventually, Benedetta
founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence. In her rule
she stressed the education of young girls. She instilled the spirit of
unlimited confidence and abandonment to Providence and of love of God through
poverty and charity. The Congregation grew quickly since it performed a needed
service. Benedetta was able to guide the development of the Congregation until
her death. On 21 March 1858 she died in Ronco Scrivia.
Her example is that of
supernatural maternity plus courage and fidelity in discerning and living God's
will.
Today the Benedictine
Nuns of Providence are present in Italy, Spain, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Peru and
Brazil. They are at the service of young people, the poor, the sick and the
elderly. The foundress also opened a house of the order in Voghera. Forty years
after the death of Benedetta, the bishop separated this house from the rest of
the Order. The name was changed to the Benedictines of Divine Providence who
honour the memory of the Foundress.
She was canonized by
John Paul II on May 19, 2002. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Saint Euda
Friday of the Second
Week of Lent
Genesis 37: 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his
children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many
colors. 4 His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his
brothers, and they hated him, and couldn’t speak peaceably to him.
12 His brothers went
to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 13 Israel said to Joseph, “Aren’t your
brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He
said to him, “Here I am.”
17 The man said, “They
have left here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’”
Joseph went after his
brothers, and found them in Dothan. 18 They saw him afar off, and before he
came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one
another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. 20 Come now therefore, and let’s kill
him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, ‘An evil animal has
devoured him.’ We will see what will become of his dreams.”
21 Reuben heard it,
and delivered him out of their hand, and said, “Let’s not take his life.” 22
Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the
wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their
hand, to restore him to his father. 23 When Joseph came to his brothers, they
stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him; 24 and
they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no
water in it.
25 They sat down to
eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of
Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm
and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers,
“What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, and
let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is
our brother, our flesh.” His brothers listened to him. 28 Midianites who were
merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and
sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph
into Egypt.
Psalm 105: 16 He called for a famine on the land.
He destroyed the food supplies.
17 He sent a man
before them.
Joseph was sold for a slave.
18 They bruised his
feet with shackles.
His neck was locked in irons,
19 until the time that
his word happened,
and Yahweh’s word proved him true.
20 The king sent and
freed him;
even the ruler of peoples, and let him go
free.
21 He made him lord of
his house,
and ruler of all of his possessions;
Holy Gospel of Jesus
Christ according to Saint Matthew 21: 33 “Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household,
who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a wine press in it, built a
tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34 When the
season for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive
his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and
stoned another. 36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they
treated them the same way. 37 But afterward he sent to them his son, saying,
‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But the farmers, when they saw the son, said
among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and seize his
inheritance.’ 39 So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and
killed him. 40 When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do
to those farmers?”
41 They told him, “He
will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to
other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season.”
42 Jesus said to them,
“Did you never read in the Scriptures,
‘The stone which the
builders rejected,
the same was made the head of the corner.
This was from the
Lord.
It is marvelous in our eyes?’[a]
43 “Therefore I tell
you, God’s Kingdom will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation
producing its fruit.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 21:42 Psalm
118:22-23
45 When the chief
priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke
about them. 46 When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes,
because they considered him to be a prophet.
Friday of the Second
Week of Lent
Commentary for Today:
Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
The Mystical Vine, ch. 3, § 5-10
"They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him"
“I am the true vine,” Jesus says (Jn 15,1)... People dig trenches around
this vine; that is to say, cunningly dig traps. When they plot to make someone
fall into a snare it is as if they dug a pit in front of him. That is why he
mourns about it, saying: “They have dug a pit before me” (Ps 56[57],7)... Here
is one example of these snares: “They brought a woman who had been caught in
adultery” to our Lord Jesus, “saying: 'Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?' ” (Jn 8,3f.)... And here is another: “Is it lawful to pay
the census tax to the Emperor or not?” (cf. Mt 22,17)...
However they discovered that these traps caused no harm to the vine. To
the contrary, in digging these pits they themselves fell into them (Ps
56[57],7)... Then they kept on digging: not just his hands and his feet (Ps
21[22],17) but they pierced his side with a lance (Jn 19,34) and uncovered the
interior of that sacred heart, which had already been wounded by the spear of
love. The Bridegroom says in the song of his love that: “You have wounded my
heart, my sister, my spouse” (Sg 4,9 Vg.). O Lord Jesus, your heart has been
wounded with love by your spouse, your friend, your sister. Why, then, was it
necessary for your enemies to wound you again? O you enemies, what are you
doing?... Do you not know that this heart of our Lord Jesus', already pierced,
is already dead, already open and cannot be touched by any other suffering? The
heart of the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, has already received the wound of
love, the death of love. What other death could touch him?... The martyrs also
laugh when they are threatened, rejoice when they are struck, triumph when they
are killed. Why? Because they have already died through love in their hearts,
“dead to sin” (Rm 6,2) and to the world...
Thus Jesus' heart has been wounded and put to death for our sake...
Physical death triumphed for a moment but only to be conquered forever. It was
blotted out when Christ rose from the dead because “death has no power over him
any more” (Rm 6,9).
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