Daily Gospel for Thursday, 6 March 2014
"Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to
whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life." John 6:68
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary
Time
Saint(s) of the day:
SAINT COLETTE
Virgin
(+ 1447)
After a holy childhood, Colette joined a
society of devout women called the Beguines; but not finding their state
sufficiently austere, she entered the Third Order of St. Francis, and lived in
a hut near her parish church of Corbie in Picardy.
Here she had passed four years of
extraordinary penance when St. Francis, in a vision, bade her undertake the
reform of her Order, then much relaxed. Armed with due authority, she
established her reform throughout a large part of Europe, and, in spite of the
most violent opposition, founded seventeen convents of the strict observance.
By the same wonderful prudence she
assisted in healing the great schism which then afflicted. the Church. The
Fathers in council at Constance were in doubt how to deal with the three
claimants to the tiara-John XXIII., Benedict XIII., and Gregory XII. At this
crisis Colette, together with St. Vincent Ferrer, wrote to the Fathers to
depose Benedict XIII., who alone refused his consent to a new election. This was
done, and Martin V. was elected, to the great good of the Church.
Colette equally assisted the Council of
Basle by her advice and prayers; and when, later, God revealed to her the
spirit ' of revolt that was rising, she warned the bishops and legates to
retire from the council.
St. Colette never ceased to pray for the
Church, while the devils, in turn, never ceased to assault her. They swarmed
round her as hideous insects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. They
brought into her cell the decaying corpses of public criminals, and assuming
themselves monstrous forms struck her savage blows; or they would appear in the
most seductive guise, and tempt her by many deceits to sin. St. Colette once
complained to Our Lord that the demons prevented her from praying. "Cease,
then," said the devil to her, "your prayers to the great Master of
the Church, and we will cease to torment you; for you torment us more by your
prayers than we do you." Yet the virgin of Christ triumphed alike over
their threats and their allurements, and said she would count that day the
unhappiest of her life in which she suffered nothing for her God.
She died March 6, 1447, in a transport of
intercession for sinners and the Church.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler,
Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary
Time
Deuteronomy 30: 15 Behold, I have set
before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. 16 For I command you
today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his
commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply,
and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess
it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away,
and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce to you today, that you
will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass
over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness
against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and
the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants;
20 to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is
your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which
Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Psalm 1: 1 Blessed is the man who doesn’t
walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand on the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in Yahweh’s[a] law.
On his law he meditates day and night.
3 He will be like a tree planted by the
streams of water,
that produces its fruit in its season,
whose leaf also does not wither.
Whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 1:2 “Yahweh” is God’s proper
Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.
6 For Yahweh knows the way of the
righteous,
but the way of the wicked shall perish.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to
Saint Luke 9: 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be
rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the
third day be raised up.”
23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross,[a] and follow me. 24
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his
life for my sake, the same will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he
gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self?
Footnotes:
a. Luke 9:23 TR, NU add “daily”
Thursday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary
Time
Commentary of the Day:
Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013
General Audience of 17/02/2010 (trans. ©
copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
Following him
The “favourable moment” (2Cor 6,2) of
grace in Lent also reveals its spiritual significance to us in the ancient
formula: "Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return"
which the priest says as he places a little ash on our foreheads. Thus we are
referred back to the dawn of human history when the Lord told Adam, after the
original sin: "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you
return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust
you shall return" (Gen 3,19; 2,7)...
Man is dust and to dust he shall return,
but dust is precious in God's eyes because God created man, destining him to
immortality. Hence the Liturgical formula... finds the fullness of its meaning
in reference to the new Adam, Christ. The Lord Jesus also chose freely to share
with every human being the destiny of weakness, in particular through his death
on the Cross; but this very death, the culmination of his love for the Father
and for humanity, was the way to the glorious Resurrection, through which
Christ became a source of grace, given to all who believe in him, who are made
to share in divine life itself.
This life that will have no end has
already begun in the earthly phase of our existence but it will be brought to
completion after "the resurrection of the flesh". The little action
of the imposition of ashes reveals to us the unique riches of its meaning. It
is an invitation to spend the Lenten Season as a more conscious and intense
immersion in Christ's Paschal Mystery in his death and Resurrection, through
participation in the Eucharist and in the life of charity, which is born from
the Eucharist in which it also finds its fulfilment. With the imposition of
ashes we renew our commitment to following Jesus, to letting ourselves be
transformed by his Paschal Mystery, to overcoming evil and to doing good, in
order to make our former self, linked to sin die and to give birth to our
"new nature" (Eph 4,22f.), transformed by God's grace.
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