Daily Gospel for Monday, 2 June 2014

Daily Gospel for Monday, 2 June 2014
"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.'"(John 6:68)
Monday of the Seventh week of Easter
Saints of the Day:

SAINTS MARCELLINUS, PETER 

Martyrs 

(+ c. 304)

Pope Damasus received the information about the martyrdom of Saints Marcellinus and Peter during the Diocletian persecution from the executioner himself. They were beheaded.
The saints are happy in heaven because they followed Christ.
They rejoice with him for ever because they shed their blood for love of him.

(Entrance antiphon)

SAINTS POTHINUS, Bishop, 

SANCTUS, ATTALUS, BLANDINA, 

and the other Martyrs of Lyons

(+ 177)

After the miraculous victory obtained by the prayer; of the Christians under Marcus Aurelius, in 174, the Church enjoyed a kind of peace, though it was often disturbed in particular places by popular commotions, or by the superstitious fury of certain governors. This appears from the violent persecution which was raised three years after the aforesaid victory, at Vienne and Lyons, in 177, whilst St. Pothinus was Bishop of Lyons, and St. Irenæus, who had been sent thither by St. Polycarp out of Asia, was a priest of that city.
Many of the principal Christians were brought before the Roman governor. Among them was a slave, Blandina: and her mistress, also a Christian, feared that Blandina lacked strength to brave the torture. She was tormented a whole day through, but she bore it all with joy till the executioners gave up, confessing themselves outdone.
Red-hot plates were held to the sides of Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, till his body became one great sore, and he looked no longer like a man; but in the midst of his tortures he was "bedewed and strengthened by the stream of heavenly water which flows from the side of Christ."
Meantime, many confessors were kept in prison and with them were some who had been terrified into apostasy. Even the heathens marked the joy of martyrdom in the Christians who were decked for their eternal espousals, and the misery of the apostates. But the faithful confessors brought back those who had fallen, and the Church, "that Virgin Mother," rejoiced when she saw her children live again in Christ.
Some died in prison, the rest were martyred one by one, St. Blandina last of all, after seeing her younger brother put to a cruel death, and encouraging him to victory.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Monday of the Seventh week of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. 2 He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They said to him, “No, we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 He said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Paul said, “John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus.”
5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. 7 They were about twelve men in all. 8 He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning God’s Kingdom.
Psalms 68:2 As smoke is driven away,
    so drive them away.
As wax melts before the fire,
    so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad.
    Let them rejoice before God.
    Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.
4 Sing to God! Sing praises to his name!
    Extol him who rides on the clouds:
to Yah, his name!
    Rejoice before him!
5 A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows,
    is God in his holy habitation.
6 God sets the lonely in families.
He brings out the prisoners with singing,
    but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
7 God, when you went out before your people,
    when you marched through the wilderness...
Selah.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 16:29 His disciples said to him, “Behold, now you speak plainly, and speak no figures of speech. 30 Now we know that you know all things, and don’t need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”
Commentary of the Day:
Monday of the Seventh week of Easter

Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk 

Spiritual writings, 20/01/1937 (trans. Mairin Mitchell)

"I have told you this so that you might have peace in me"

“Lord God, I see that I have great need of patience: for my wishes are often contradicted as long as I live. However I arrange to be at peace, my life cannot escape from war and grief. True, my son. But I do not wish you to be looking for a peace that is free from trials or immune to contradictions. Think rather that you have found peace when you have been well tested in plenty of trials, and proved in many adversities” (Imitation of Christ 3,12)...
How mistaken at times are those of us who are looking for the real peace of God... What we are seeking is often not the peace of God but of the world... When the world talks of peace, that is how it thinks of it. When the world looks for peace, that is how it imagines it - silence, quietude, love without tears, much hidden selfishness. Man seeks that peace in order to rest, to avoid suffering; he looks for the human peace that is experienced through the senses, that peace which the world depicts in a sunny cloister with cypresses and birds, a peace without temptations and the Cross...
Today I bless from the depths of my soul that God who loves me so much... He loves me with all my miseries, sins, my tears and my joys; He loves me in that peace of which A Kempis speaks [in the Imitation of Christ]... How great God is! My peace of soul is the peace of one who expects nothing, no one; all that the soul hopes for in the world is to live united to his will, and the hope is a calm one, attended by peace in spite of the fact that the inability to see God yet is a grief, that tears are sometimes shed in taking the way of the Cross, and in seeing that we still have self-will, and in spite of the fact that with so many miseries, defects and sins, there is no respite from the burden of sorrow... Everything is strife and sorrow, but in the midst of it is Jesus nailed to a Cross, encouraging the soul to persevere; in the midst of the battle which we wage in the world is Jesus who with serene countenance tells us that" he who follows him does not walk in darkness " (Jn 8,12).
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