Daily Gospel for Monday, 16 March 2015

Daily Gospel for Monday, 16 March 2015

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]Monday of the Fourth week of Lent
Saints of the day:

SAINT ABRAHAM, Hermit 
(+ c. 360)
and SAINT MARY
(+ c. 355)

Abraham was a rich nobleman of Edessa. At his parents' desire he married, but escaped to a cell near the city as soon as the feast was over. He walled up the cell-door, leaving only a small window through which he received his food. There for fifty years he sang God's praises and implored mercy for himself and for all men. The wealth which fell to him on his parents' death he gave to the poor.

As many sought him for advice and consolation, the Bishop of Edessa, in spite of his humility, ordained him priest. St. Abraham was sent, soon after his ordination, to an idolatrous city which had hitherto been deaf to every messenger. He was insulted, beaten, and three times banished, but he returned each time with fresh zeal. For three years he pleaded with God for those souls, and in the end prevailed. Every citizen came to him for Baptism.

After providing for their spiritual needs he went back to his cell more than ever convinced of the power of prayer. His brother died, leaving an only daughter, Mary, to the Saint's care. He placed her in a cell near his own, and devoted himself to training her in perfection. After twenty years of innocence she fell, and fled in despair to a distant city, where she drowned the voice of conscience in sin. The Saint and his friend St. Ephrem prayed earnestly for her during two years. Then he went disguised to seek the lost sheep, and had the joy of bringing her back to the desert a true penitent. She received the gift of miracles, and her countenance after death shone as the sun.

St. Abraham died five years before her, about 360. All Edessa came for his last blessing and to secure his relics.

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

Saint Heribert
Archbishop 
(c. 970-1021)

Heribert was born in Worms and he was the son of Hugo, count of Worms. He was educated in the school of Worms Cathedral and at the Benedictine Gorze Abbey in Lorraine, France. He returned to Worms Cathedral to beprovost and was ordained a priest in 994.

In the same year Otto III appointed him chancellor for Italy and four years later also for Germany, a position which he held until Otto's death on 23 January 1002. Heribert was made an archbishop of Cologne on 998. Then, he also served Emperor St. Henry.

Heribert built the monastery of Deutz, on the Rhine and performed miracles, including ending a drought. He is thus invoked for rains.

He died in Cologne on March 16, 1021 and was buried at Deutz.

He was already honoured as a saint during his lifetime and was canonized by Pope St. Gregory VII about 1074.

Saint Finnian Lobhar 
Abbot
(+ c. 560)

Finnian was born in Bregia, Leinster, Ireland. He was ordained to the priesthood by the bishop Fathlad.

Finnian's holiness and the miracles wrought through his prayers drew many of the faithful to seek his assistance. When the mother of a leprous boy came to Finnian in the hope of a cure, the priest prayed intently for him. He then experienced a revelation that he could only obtain the child's healing by consenting to take the leprosy upon himself. Finnian readily accepted this sacrifice, and the boy was cured, while he himself became leprous from head to foot. Then, he was called Lobhar, "the Leper".

Tradition credits him with founding a church at Innisfallen and a monastery there as well. After a stay in Clonmore, Finnian Lobhar became abbot of Swords Abbey near Dublin. He may have returned to Clonmore in his later years.

He fell asleep in the Lord about the year 560.

Saint Agapito

Feastday: August 6
Death: 258
Martyr, deacon, and companion of Pope Sixtus II in death. He was with the pope when seized during the persecutions of Emperor Valerian. Agapitus and five other deacons-Felicissimus, Januarius, Magnus, Stephen, and Vincent- were martyred.

Monday of the Fourth week of Lent
Readings:
Book of Isaiah 65:17 “For, look! I create new heavens

and a new earth;

past things will not be remembered,

they will no more come to mind.

18 So be glad and rejoice forever

in what I am creating;

for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy,

and her people a delight.

19 I will rejoice in Yerushalayim

and take joy in my people.

The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in it,

no longer the sound of crying.

20 No more will babies die in infancy,

no more will an old man die short of his days —

he who dies at a hundred will be thought young,

and at less than a hundred thought cursed.

21 They will build houses and live in them,

they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Psalms 30:2 (1) I will exalt you, Adonai, because you drew me up;

you didn’t let my enemies rejoice over me.

4 (3) Adonai, you lifted me up from Sh’ol;

you kept me alive when I was sinking into a pit.

5 (4) Sing praise to Adonai, you faithful of his;

and give thanks on recalling his holiness.

6 (5) For his anger is momentary,

but his favor lasts a lifetime.

Tears may linger for the night,

but with dawn come cries of joy.

11 (10) Hear me, Adonai, and show me your favor!

Adonai, be my helper!”

12 (11) You turned my mourning into dancing!

You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

13 (12) so that my well-being can praise you and not be silent;

Adonai my God, I will thank you forever!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 4:43 After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. 44 Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” 45 But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.

46 He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. 47 This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” 49 The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive 52 So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. 54 This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil

Monday of the Fourth week of Lent

Commentary of the day:

Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407), priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church Homilies on the Gosepl of Saint John, no.35
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe!” The royal official seems not to believe that Jesus has the power to raise the dead. “Come down before my son dies!” He seems to believe that Jesus does not know how serious his child’s illness is. That is why Jesus reproaches him, to show him that miracles are done above all in order to win and heal souls. Thus, Jesus heals the father, who is no less spiritually ill than the son who is physically ill, and he does so in order to teach us that we must be attached to him, not because of miracles, but because of his teaching which the miracles confirm. For he does not work miracles for those who believe, but for those who do not believe...
When the man returned home, “he and his whole household became believers.” People who had neither seen nor heard Jesus…believed in him. What teaching can we draw from this? We must believe in him without demanding miracles; we must not demand of God that he prove his power. In our own day, how many people show greater love of God when their children or wife have received some sort of relief in their illness. But even if our wishes are not heard, we must persevere just as much in thanksgiving and praise. Let us remain attached to God in adversity as much as in prosperity.

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