Daily Gospel for Monday,
24 March 2014
"Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal
life." John 6:68
Monday Third Week of
Lent
Saints of the Day:
SAINT CATHARINE OF
SWEDEN
Virgin
(1330 + 1381)
St. CatharineE was
daughter of Ulpho, Prince of Nericia in Sweden, and of St. Bridget. The love of
God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven years of
age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and educated in piety under the
care of the holy abbess of that house.
Being very beautiful,
she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to Egard, a young nobleman of
great virtue; but the virgin persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual
vow of perpetual chastity. By her discourser he became desirous only of
heavenly graces, arid, to draw them down upon his soul more abundantly, he
readily acquiesced in the proposal.
The happy couple,
having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation excited each other to
prayer, mortification, and works of charity.
After the death of her
father, St. Catharine, out of devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the
relics of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her pilgrimages and practices
of devotion and penance.
After her mother's
death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to Sweden, and died abbess of
Vadzstena, or Vatzen, on the 24th of March in 1381.
For the last
twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental
confession of her sins.
Lives of the Saints, by
Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Blessed Maria Karlowska
Religious
(1865-1935)
Maria Karlowska was
born in the territories under Prussian occupation in 1865. She worked as a true
Samaritan among women suffering great material and moral deprivation.
Her holy zeal quickly
attracted a group of disciples of Christ, with whom she founded the
Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Divine Providence. For
herself and her Sisters she set the following goal: "We must proclaim the
Heart of Jesus, that is, so to live from him, in him and for him, as to become
like him and that in our lives he may be more visible than we
ourselves".
Her devotion to the
Saviour's Sacred Heart bore fruit in a great love for people. She felt an
insatiable hunger for love. A love of this kind, according to Blessed Maria
Karlowska, will never say "enough", will never stop midway. Precisely
this happened to her, who was as it were transported by the current of love of
the Divine Paraclete.
Thanks to this love she
restored to many souls the light of Christ and helped them to regain their lost
dignity. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Monday Third Week of
Lent
2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman,
captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and
honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a
mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 The Syrians had gone out in bands,
and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she
waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “I wish that my lord were
with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would heal him of his leprosy.”
4 Someone went in, and
told his lord, saying, “The maiden who is from the land of Israel said this.”
5 The king of Syria
said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”
He departed, and took
with him ten talents[a] of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten
changes of clothing. 6 He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying,
“Now when this letter has come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to
you, that you may heal him of his leprosy.”
7 When the king of Israel
had read the letter, he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I God, to kill and to
make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy? But please
consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”
8 It was so, when
Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that
he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now
to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”
9 So Naaman came with
his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven
times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.”
11 But Naaman was
angry, and went away, and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to
me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over
the place, and heal the leper.’ 12 Aren’t Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them, and be
clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 His servants came
near, and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had asked you do
some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? How much rather then, when he says
to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”
14 Then went he down,
and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the
man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he
was clean. 15 He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came,
and stood before him; and he said, “See now, I know that there is no God in all
the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.”
Footnotes:
a. 2 Kings 5:5 A talent
is about 30 kilograms or 66 pounds
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V Naaman hears of
Elisha, ver. 1-4. The king of Syria sends him to the king of Israel, ver. 5-7.
He goes to Elisha and is healed, ver. 8-14. His grateful acknowledgment to
Elisha, ver. 15-19. Gehazi follows him, and receives gifts from him, ver.
20-24. The leprosy of Naaman entailed on Gehazi's family, ver. 25-27.
Verse 5. Go to, &c.
- It was very natural for a king to suppose, that the king of Israel could do
more than any of his subjects.
Verse 10. Elisha sent -
Which he did, partly, to exercise Naaman's faith and obedience: partly, for the
honour of his religion, that it might appear he sought not his own glory and
profit, but only God's honour, and the good of men.
Verse 11. Was wroth -
Supposing himself despised by the prophet.
Verse 12. Are not,
&c. - Is there not as great a virtue in them to this purpose? But he should
have considered, that the cure was not to be wrought by the water, but by the
power of God.
Verse 13. My father -
Or, our father. So they call him, to shew their reverence and affection to him.
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Psalm 42: 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my
food day and night,
while they continually ask me, “Where is
your God?”
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Verse 2. Thirsteth -
Not after vain useless idols, but after the only true and living God. Appear -
In the place of his special presence and publick worship.
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Psalm 43: 3 Oh, send out your light and your truth.
Let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy hill,
To your tents.
4 Then I will go to the
altar of God,
to God, my exceeding joy.
I will praise you on
the harp, God, my God.
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Verse 3. Send out -
That is, actually discover them. Truth - Thy favour, or the light of thy
countenance, and the truth of thy promises made to me; or the true-light, the
illumination of thy spirit, and the direction of thy gracious providence,
whereby I may be led in the right way, to thy holy hill. Hill - Of Zion, the
place of God's presence and worship.
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Holy Gospel of Jesus
Christ according to Saint Luke 4: 24 He said, “Most certainly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his
hometown. 25 But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days
of Elijah, when the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great
famine came over all the land. 26 Elijah was sent to none of them, except to
Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 There were many
lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was
cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian.”
28 They were all filled
with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things. 29 They rose up, threw
him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was
built on, that they might throw him off the cliff. 30 But he, passing through
the middle of them, went his way.
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Verse 24. No prophet is
acceptable in his own country - That is, in his own neighbourhood. It generally
holds, that a teacher sent from God is not so acceptable to his neighbours as
he is to strangers. The meanness of his family, or lowness of his
circumstances, bring his office into contempt: nor can they suffer that he, who
was before equal with, or below themselves, should now bear a superior
character.
Verse 25. When the
heaven was shut up three years and six months - Such a proof had they that God
had sent him. In 1 Kings xviii, 1, it is said, The word of the Lord came to
Elijah in the third year: namely, reckoning not from the beginning of the
drought, but from the time when he began to sojourn with the widow of Sarepta.
A year of drought had preceded this, while he dwelt at the brook Cherith. So
that the whole time of the drought was (as St. James likewise observes) three
years and six months. 1 Kings xvii, 19; xviii, 44.
Verse 27. 2 Kings v,
14.
28. And all in the
synagogue were filled with fury - Perceiving the purport of his discourse,
namely, that the blessing which they despised, would be offered to, and
accepted by, the Gentiles. So changeable are the hearts of wicked men! So
little are their starts of love to be depended on! So unable are they to bear
the close application, even of a discourse which they most admire!
Verse 30. Passing
through the midst of them - Perhaps invisibly; or perhaps they were overawed;
so that though they saw, they could not touch him.
Monday Third Week of
Lent
Commentary for Today:
William of Saint-Thierry (c.1085-1148), Benedictine, then a Cistercian
monk
The Contemplation of God, 12 ; SC 61 bis (trans. ©Cistercian publications)
"There were many widows in Israel"
My wretched soul is naked and cold and benumbed, it longs to warm itself
at the fIre of your love... Out of my wide wilderness and the great emptiness
of my heart I have collected only these few tiny twigs like the widow of
Sarepta; so that, when I do come to the tabernacle of my house, 161 I may have
a handful of flour and a vessel of oil to eat before I die (1Kgs 17,10f.). Or
maybe, Lord, I shall not die as quickly as all that! It may be rather that “I
shall not die at all, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Ps
117[118],17).
So I stand in the house of solitude... I open my mouth in your direction,
Lord; I breathe in the Spirit. And sometimes, Lord,... you do put something in
my heart's mouth, but you do not permit me to know just what it is. A savor I
perceive, so sweet, so gracious, and so comforting that... I should seek
nothing more. But when I receive this thing, neither by bodily sight nor by
spiritual sense nor by understanding of the mind do you allow me to discern
what it is. When I receive it, then I want to keep it, and think about it, and
assess its flavor; but forthwith it has gone... But every time this happens I
hear the Lord say to me: "The Spirit blows whither he will. " And I
know even in myself that he breathes not when I will, but when he himself
wills...
I know that it is to you alone, O Fount of life, that I must lift up my
eyes, that “in your light I may see light” (Ps 35[36],10). Towards you, then,
Lord, are all things turned... But in the meantime, Lord, how much longer are
you going to put me off? How often must my wretched, harassed, gasping soul
trail after you? “Hide me,” I beseech you, “in the secret place of your face
away from the troubles of men, protect me in your tabernacle from the strife of
tongues!” (Ps 30[31],21).
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