"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church:
OUR LADY OF LOURDES
(1858)
(1858)
In the fourth year after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, when a certain girl named Bernadette asserted that she had seen the Immaculate Mother of God many times in a rock cavern, on the banks of the river Gave, near the town of Lourdes, in the diocese of Tarbes, in France, so many and great wonders took place that every prudent and devoted follower of Christ could easily know that the finger of God was there. The most famous among these is that sick people who took the water from a spring that had miraculously originated in the grotto were ever so often restored to health.
Before long a church was built, and innumerable crowds of the faithful have come there every year, and in time the name of the Immaculate Mother of God has become renowned everywhere in the world; the more so each year, as the procession of the most blessed Sacrament takes place, during which some of the sick who are brought there from allparts of the world seeking health from God through the intercession of his Immaculate Mother, grow well.
Because of all this, Pope Pius X officially extended to the Universal Church this feast which Leo XIII had permitted to be celebrated only in certain places.
Roman breviarySaints of the day:
SAINT SEVERINUS
Abbot of Agaunum
(+ 507)
St. Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic King Sigismund built there the great abbey of St. Maurice.
St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court; for it was said that the sick from all parts recovered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, Bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb; also a leper, at the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms to the poor and released all his prisoners.
St. Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Château-Landon in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened shortly after, in 507.
The place is now an abbey of reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the greater part of his relics when they plundered this church.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Genesis 2:4 That’s how God created the heavens and the earth.
Commentary of the day:
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), monk and Bishop
Homélie 6 sur les Béatitudes ; PG 44, 1269 (trans. Breviary 12th Saturday rev.)
«A pure heart create for me, O God» (Ps 51,12)
…If, therefore, you wash by a good life the filth that has been stuck on your heartl like plaster, the divine beauty will again shine forth in you. It is the same as happens in the case of iron. If freed from rust by a whetstone, that which but a moment ago was black will shine and glisten brightly in the sun. So it is also with the inner man, which the Lord calls “the heart”. When he has scraped off the rustlike dirt which dank decay has caused to appear on his form, he will once more recover the likeness of the archetype (Gn 1,27) and be good. For what is like to the Good is certainly itself good.
Hence, if a man who is pure of heart sees himself, he sees in himself what he desires; and thus he becomes blessed, because when he looks at his own purity, he sees the archetype in the image.
To give an example. Though men who see the sun in a mirror do not gaze at the sky itself, yet they see the sun in the reflection of the mirror no less than those who look at its very orb: So, he says, it is also with you. Even though you are too weak to perceive the light itself, ye if you but return to the grace of the image with which you were informed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves.
…For the godhead is purity, freedom from passion, and separation from all evil. If therefore these things be in you, God is indeed in you. Hence, if your thought is without any alloy of evil, free from passion, arid alien from all stain, you are blessed because you are clear of sight.
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The Garden of Eden
When the Lord God made the heavens and the earth, 5 no grass or plants were growing anywhere. God had not yet sent any rain, and there was no one to work the land. 6 But streams[a] came up from the ground and watered the earth.
7 The Lord God took a handful of soil and made a man.[b] God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing. 8 The Lord made a garden in a place called Eden, which was in the east, and he put the man there.
9 The Lord God placed all kinds of beautiful trees and fruit trees in the garden. Two other trees were in the middle of the garden. One of the trees gave life—the other gave the power to know the difference between right and wrong.[Footnotes:
2.6 streams: Or “mist.”
2.7 man: In Hebrew “man” comes from the same word as “soil.”]
15 The Lord God put the man in the Garden of Eden to take care of it and to look after it. 16 But the Lord told him, “You may eat fruit from any tree in the garden, 17 except the one that has the power to let you know the difference between right and wrong. If you eat any fruit from that tree, you will die before the day is over!”
Psalms 104: The Lord Takes Care of His Creation
1 I praise you, Lord God,
with all my heart.
You are glorious and majestic,
dressed in royal robes
2 and surrounded by light.
You spread out the sky
like a tent,
27 All of these depend on you
to provide them with food,
28 and you feed each one
with your own hand,
until they are full.
29 But when you turn away,
they are terrified;
when you end their life,
they die and rot.
30 You created all of them
by your Spirit,
and you give new life
to the earth.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7: What Really Makes People Unclean
14 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Pay attention and try to understand what I mean. 15-16 The food that you put into your mouth doesn’t make you unclean and unfit to worship God. The bad words that come out of your mouth are what make you unclean.”[a]
17 After Jesus and his disciples had left the crowd and had gone into the house, they asked him what these sayings meant. 18 He answered, “Don’t you know what I am talking about by now? You surely know that the food you put into your mouth cannot make you unclean. 19 It doesn’t go into your heart, but into your stomach, and then out of your body.” By saying this, Jesus meant that all foods were fit to eat.
20 Then Jesus said:
What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. 21 Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, 22 unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. 23 All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God.[Footnotes:
7.15,16 unclean: Some manuscripts add, “If you have ears, pay attention.”]
Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary TimeCommentary of the day:
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-395), monk and Bishop
Homélie 6 sur les Béatitudes ; PG 44, 1269 (trans. Breviary 12th Saturday rev.)
«A pure heart create for me, O God» (Ps 51,12)
…If, therefore, you wash by a good life the filth that has been stuck on your heartl like plaster, the divine beauty will again shine forth in you. It is the same as happens in the case of iron. If freed from rust by a whetstone, that which but a moment ago was black will shine and glisten brightly in the sun. So it is also with the inner man, which the Lord calls “the heart”. When he has scraped off the rustlike dirt which dank decay has caused to appear on his form, he will once more recover the likeness of the archetype (Gn 1,27) and be good. For what is like to the Good is certainly itself good.
Hence, if a man who is pure of heart sees himself, he sees in himself what he desires; and thus he becomes blessed, because when he looks at his own purity, he sees the archetype in the image.
To give an example. Though men who see the sun in a mirror do not gaze at the sky itself, yet they see the sun in the reflection of the mirror no less than those who look at its very orb: So, he says, it is also with you. Even though you are too weak to perceive the light itself, ye if you but return to the grace of the image with which you were informed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves.
…For the godhead is purity, freedom from passion, and separation from all evil. If therefore these things be in you, God is indeed in you. Hence, if your thought is without any alloy of evil, free from passion, arid alien from all stain, you are blessed because you are clear of sight.
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