Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 September 2014

Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 September 2014
"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'" (John 6:68-69)
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordianry Time
Saints of the Day:
SAINT GUY OF ANDERLECHT
(† c. 1012)
As a child Guy had two loves, the Church and the poor. The love of prayer growing more and more, he left his poor home at Brussels to seek greater poverty and closer union with God. He arrived at Laeken, near Brussels, and there showed such devotion before Our Lady's shrine that the priest besought him to stay and serve the Church. Thenceforth his great joy was to be always in the church, sweeping the floor and ceiling, polishing the altars, and cleansing the sacred vessels. By day he still found time and means to befriend the poor, so that his almsgiving became famous in all those parts.
A merchant of Brussels, hearing of the generosity of this poor sacristan, came to Laeken, and offered him a share in his business. Guy could not bear to leave the church; but the offer seemed providential, and he at last closed with it. Their ship, however, was lost on the first voyage, and on returning to Laeken Guy found his place filled. The rest of his life was one long penance for his inconstancy. About the year 1012, finding his end at hand, he returned to Anderlecht, in his own country.
As he died, a light shone round him, and a voice was heard proclaiming his eternal reward.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
First Letter to the Corinthians 9:15-18 Still, I want it made clear that I’ve never gotten anything out of this for myself, and that I’m not writing now to get something. I’d rather die than give anyone ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives. If I proclaim the Message, it’s not to get something out of it for myself. I’m compelled to do it, and doomed if I don’t! If this was my own idea of just another way to make a living, I’d expect some pay. But since it’s not my idea but something solemnly entrusted to me, why would I expect to get paid? So am I getting anything out of it? Yes, as a matter of fact: the pleasure of proclaiming the Message at no cost to you. You don’t even have to pay my expenses!
19-23 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
24-25 You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
26-27 I don’t know about you, but I’m running hard for the finish line. I’m giving it everything I’ve got. No sloppy living for me! I’m staying alert and in top condition. I’m not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else all about it and then missing out myself.
Psalms 84:3-4 Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,
    sparrows and swallows make nests there.
They lay their eggs and raise their young,
    singing their songs in the place where we worship.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!
    How blessed they are to live and sing there!
5-7 And how blessed all those in whom you live,
    whose lives become roads you travel;
They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,
    discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!
God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and
    at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
10-12 One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,
    beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.
I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God
    than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.
All sunshine and sovereign is God,
    generous in gifts and glory.
He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.
    It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6:39-40 He quoted a proverb: “‘Can a blind man guide a blind man?’ Wouldn’t they both end up in the ditch? An apprentice doesn’t lecture the master. The point is to be careful who you follow as your teacher.
41-42 “It’s easy to see a smudge on your neighbor’s face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, ‘Let me wash your face for you,’ when your own face is distorted by contempt? It’s this I-know-better-than-you mentality again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your own part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.
Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time 
Commentary of the day:
Saint Ephrem (c.306-373), Deacon in Syria, Doctor of the Church 
Sermon 3, 2.4-5 (trans. breviary 09/06)
"Then you will see clearly"
O Lord, drive away the darkness from our minds 
with the light of your wisdom, 
so that enlightened in this way 
we may serve you with renewed purity. 
The beginning of the sun's passage through the sky 
marks the beginning of the working-day for us mortals: 
we ask you, Lord, to prepare in our minds 
a place where the day that knows no end may give its light.
Grant that we may have within us this light, 
the life of the resurrection, 
and that nothing may take away our delight in you. 
Mark us with the sign of that day that does not begin 
with the movement and the course of the sun, 
by keeping our minds fixed on you.
In your sacraments we welcome you every day 
and receive you in our bodies. 
Make us worthy to experience within us 
the resurrection for which we hope. 
Be the wings for our thoughts, O Lord,
Drawing us lightly to the heights
And bearing us up to our true home.
By the grace of baptism we conceal within our bodies 
the treasure of your divine life... 
Let us appreciate the great beauty that is ours 
through the spiritual beauty that your immortal will 
arouses in our mortal nature…
May your resurrection, Jesus, 
cause the spiritual man to grow in us (cf Eph 3,16)
and may the contemplation of your mysteries
become the mirror in which we come to recognise you (1Cor 13,12).
Grant, Lord, that we may hasten to our true home, 
and, like Moses on the mountain-top
seeing the promised Land, (Dt 34,1)
let us possess it even now through contemplation.
____________________________