DAILY GOSPEL for Monday, 9 February 2015

DAILY GOSPEL for Monday, 9 February 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day:

SAINT APOLLONIA
Virgin and martyr 
and the Martyrs of Alexandria
(+ 249)

        At Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury against the Christians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden worship. She replied by cursing the false god again and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy.

        St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out; she was led outside the city, a huge fire was kindled, and she was told she must deny Christ, or else beburned alive. She was silent for a while, and then, moved by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she leaped into the fire and died in its flames.

        The same courage showed itself the next year, when Decius became emperor, and the persecution grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen. To the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers: he was proof against torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared onaccount of his tender years; yet the Christians could not bear to think that he had been deprived of the martyr's crown, except to receive it afterwards more gloriously. "Dioscorus," writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, "remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat."

        There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with horror at the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed over torture, till at last the judges were glad to execute them at once and put an end to the ignominy of their own defeat.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
St. Teilo

Feastday: February 9
Birth: 500
Death: 560
Welsh bishop, also called Eliud, Issell, Teillo, Teilou, Dub, and Theliau. A native of Penally, Pembrokshire, Wales, he studied under Sts. Dyfrig and Dubricius. He accompanied the famed St. David ofWales to Jerusalem and was a friend and assistant to St. Samson in Brittany, France, for seven years. Returning to Wales in 554, he was quite successful as a preacher and founded and served as abbot-bishop of Llandaff monastery in Dyfed, Wales. He was buried in Llandaff Cathedral.Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Genesis 1: World’s creation in seven days
1 When God began to create[a] the heavens and the earth— 2 the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters— 3 God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. 4 God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God named the light Day and the darkness Night.
There was evening and there was morning: the first day.
6 God said, “Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters to separate the waters from each other.” 7 God made the dome and separated the waters under the dome from the waters above the dome. And it happened in that way. 8 God named the dome Sky.
There was evening and there was morning: the second day.
9 God said, “Let the waters under the sky come together into one place so that the dry land can appear.” And that’s what happened. 10 God named the dry land Earth, and he named the gathered waters Seas. God saw how good it was. 11 God said, “Let the earth grow plant life: plants yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind throughout the earth.” And that’s what happened. 12 The earth produced plant life: plants yielding seeds, each according to its kind, and trees bearing fruit with seeds inside it, each according to its kind. God saw how good it was.
13 There was evening and there was morning: the third day.
14 God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will mark events, sacred seasons, days, and years. 15 They will be lights in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth.” And that’s what happened. 16 God made the stars and two great lights: the larger light to rule over the day and the smaller light to rule over the night. 17 God put them in the dome of the sky to shine on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was.
19 There was evening and there was morning: the fourth day.[Footnotes:
Genesis 1:1 Or In the beginning, God created]
Psalms 104:1 Let my whole being[a] bless the Lord!
    Lord my God, how fantastic you are!
    You are clothed in glory and grandeur!
2 You wear light like a robe;
    you open the skies like a curtain.[Footnotes:
Psalm 104:1 Or soul; also in 104:35]
5 You established the earth on its foundations
    so that it will never ever fall.
6 You covered it with the watery deep like a piece of clothing;
    the waters were higher than the mountains!
10 You put gushing springs into dry riverbeds.
    They flow between the mountains,
12 Overhead, the birds in the sky make their home,
    chirping loudly in the trees.
24 Lord, you have done so many things!
    You made them all so wisely!
The earth is full of your creations!
35 Let sinners be wiped clean from the earth;
    let the wicked be no more.
But let my whole being bless the Lord!
    Praise the Lord!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6: Healings at Gennesaret

53 When Jesus and his disciples had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret, anchored the boat, 54 and came ashore. People immediately recognized Jesus 55 and ran around that whole region bringing sick people on their mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went—villages, cities, or farming communities—they would place the sick in the marketplaces and beg him to allow them to touch even the hem of his clothing. Everyone who touched him was healed.

Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church
Commentary on Psalm 50[51] ; PL 75,581
"As many as touched it were healed"
Let us set before our interior consideration someone gravely wounded who is about to breathe his last… Now, the soul’s wound is sin, of which Scripture speaks in these terms: “Wound and welt and gaping gash, not drained or bandaged or eased with salve” (Is 1,6). Oh you who are wounded, recognise your physician within you and show him the wounds of your sins. May he understand your heart’s groaning who already knows its secret thoughts. May your tears move him. Go as far as a little shamelessness in your beseeching (cf Lk 11,8). Ceaselessly bring forth deep sighs to him from the depth of your heart.
May your grief reach him so that he may say to you also : “The Lord has pardoned your sin” (2Sam 12,13). Cry out with David, who said: “Have mercy on me, O God, in… the greatness of your compassion” (Ps 50[51],3). It is as though one were to say: “I am in great danger because of an enormous wound that no doctor can cure unless the all-powerful physician comes to help me.” For this all-powerful physician nothing is incurable. He heals without charge: with one word he restores to health. I would have despaired of my wound were it not that I placed my trust in the Almighty.
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