Daily Gospel for Monday, 25 May 2015

Daily Gospel for Monday, 25 May 2015

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]

Monday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Saints of the day:

SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE 
Priest & Doctor of the Church
(673-735)

Venerable Bede, the illustrious ornament of the Anglo-Saxon Church and the first English historian, was consecrated -to God at the age of seven, and intrusted to the care of St. Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth. He became a monk in the sister-house of Jarrow, and there trained no less than six hundred scholars, whom his piety, learning, and sweet disposition had gathered round him.

To the toils of teaching and the exact observance of his rule he added long hours of private prayer, and the study of every branch of science and literature then known. He was familiar with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In the treatise which he compiled for his scholars, still extant, he threw together all that the world had then stored in history, chronology, physics, music, philosophy, poetry, arithmetic, and medicine. In his Ecclesiastical History he has left us beautiful lives of Anglo-Saxon Saints and holy Fathers, while hiscommentaries on the Holy Scriptures are still in use by the Church.  

It was to the study of the Divine Word that he devoted the whole energy of his soul, and at times his compunction was so overpowering that his voice would break with weeping, while the tears of his scholars mingled with his own. He had little aid from others, and during his later years suffered from constant illness; yet he worked and prayed up to his last hour.

The Saint was employed in translating the Gospel of St. John from the Greek up to the hour of his death, which took place on Ascension Day, 735. "He spent that day joyfully," writes one of his scholars. And in the evening the boy who attended him said, "Dear master, there is yet one sentence unwritten." He answered, "Write it quickly." Presently the youth said, "Now it is written" He replied, "Good! thou hast said the truth-consummatum est; take my head into thy hands, for it is very pleasant to me to sit facing my old praying-place, and there to call upon my Father." And so on the floor of his cell he sang, "Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;" and just as he said "Holy Ghost," he breathed his last, and went to the realms above.

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

SAINT GREGORY VII
Pope 
(c. 1013 - 1085)

Gregory VII., by name Hildebrand, was born in Tuscany, about the year 1013. He was educated in Rome. From thence he went to France, and became a monk at Cluny. Afterwards he returned to Rome, and for many years filled high trusts of the Holy See.

Three great evils then afflicted the Church: simony, concubinage, and the custom of receiving investiture from lay hands. Against these three corruptions Gregory never ceased to contend. As legate of Victor II. he held a Council at Lyons, where simony was condemned.

He was elected Pope in 1073, and at once called upon the pastors of the Catholic world to lay down their lives rather than betray the laws of God to the will of princes. Rome was in rebellion through the ambition of the Cenci. Gregory excommunicated them. They laid hands on him at Christmas during the midnight Mass, wounded him, and cast him into prison. The following day he was rescued by the people.

Next arose his conflict with Henry IV., Emperor of Germany. This monarch, after openly relapsing into simony, pretended to depose the Pope. Gregory excommunicated the emperor. His subjects turned against him, and at last he sought absolution of Gregory at Canossa. But he did not persevere. He set up an antipope, and besieged Gregory in the castle of St. Angelo.

The aged pontiff was obliged to flee, and on May 25, 1085, about the seventy-second year of his life and the twelfth year of his pontificate, Gregory entered into his rest. His last words were full of a divine wisdom and patience. As he was dying, he said, "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." His faithful attendant answered, "Vicar of Christ, an exile thou canst never be, for to thee God has given the Gentiles for an inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for thy possession."

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

Blessed Mykola Tsehelskyi
Greek-Catholic Priest and Martyr 
(1896-1951)

Mykola Tsehelskyi was born on 17 December 1896 in the village of Strusiv, Ternopil District. In 1923, he completed the course in the theological faculty at Lviv University. On April 5, 1925, Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky ordained him to the priesthood.

He was a zealous priest who took care of the spirituality, education and welfare of his parishioners. He was the parish priest in the village of Soroko, where he built a new church. After World War II the era of total repressions began. Fr Mykola personally experienced intimidation, threats and beatings.

On 28 October 1946, he was arrested. On 27 January 1947, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Although he had a wife, two sons and two daughters, he was deported to labour camps in Mordovia. He lived in extremely horrid conditions, in a camp that was notoriously strict and cruel.

He suffered from severe pain and died on 25 May 1951 as a martyr for the faith. He is buried in the camp cemetery.

He was beatified with twenty four other Greek-Catholics by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001 at Lliv. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Monday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Book of Sirach 17:20 None of their sins are hidden from him; he is aware of them all.[a] 22 When we give to the poor, the Lord considers it as precious as a valuable ring. Human kindness is as precious to him as life itself. 23 Later he will judge the wicked and punish them; they will get what they deserve. 24 But the Lord will allow those who repent to return to him. He always gives encouragement to those who are losing hope.[Footnotes:

Sirach 17:20 Some manuscripts add verse 21: But the Lord is gracious and knows his creatures; so he has spared them rather than abandon them.]

Psalms 32: (0) By David. A maskil:

(1) How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven,

those whose sin is covered!

2 How blessed those to whom Adonai imputes no guilt,

in whose spirit is no deceit!

5 When I acknowledged my sin to you,

when I stopped concealing my guilt,

and said, “I will confess my offenses to Adonai”;

then you, you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Selah)

6 This is what everyone faithful should pray

at a time when you can be found.

Then, when the floodwaters are raging,

they will not reach to him.

7 You are a hiding-place for me,

you will keep me from distress;

you will surround me

with songs of deliverance. (Selah)

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:17 As he was starting on his way, a man ran up, kneeled down in front of him and asked, “Good rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?” 18 Yeshua said to him, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good except God! 19 You know the mitzvot — ‘Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, don’t defraud, honor your father and mother, . . .’”[a] 20 “Rabbi,” he said, “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” 21 Yeshua, looking at him, felt love for him and said to him, “You’re missing one thing. Go, sell whatever you own, give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me!” 22 Shocked by this word, he went away sad; because he was a wealthy man.

23 Yeshua looked around and said to his talmidim, “How hard it is going to be for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” 24 The talmidim were astounded at these words; but Yeshua said to them again, “My friends, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! 25 It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” 26 They were utterly amazed and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Yeshua looked at them and said, “Humanly, it is impossible, but not with God; with God, everything is possible.”[Footnotes:

Mark 10:19 Exodus 20:12–13(16); Deuteronomy 5:16–17(20)]

Monday of the Eighth week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day:

Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407), priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church 

Homily on the man who owed ten thousand talents, 3; PG 51,21 

"Then who can be saved?"

A rich man came to Christ and questioned him about eternal life, but on learning the high cost of attaining perfection, he went away in sorrow because of his great wealth. Then, when Christ said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a person of wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven, Peter, although he had stripped himself of everything and no longer owned even a fishing hook, since he had abandoned his fishing tackle and his boat, went up to Christ and asked: “Who then can be saved?”

Notice both the restraint of the disciple and his zeal. He did not say: “You are commanding the impossible. This requirement is too difficult; this law is too hard." Neither did he remain silent, but with the respect owed by a disciple to his master he asked: “Who then can be saved?” Even before he was made a shepherd he had the heart of a shepherd; even before he was entrusted with authority... his concern was for the whole world. If Peter had been a wealthy man endowed with great possessions, one might have said his concern was not for others but for himself and his own interests when he asked this question. In fact, however, his poverty clears him of any such suspicion, and proves that it was concern for the salvation of others that made him reflect upon the way of salvation and anxiously inquire about it, desiring to learn about it from the Master. 

And so to encourage him Christ answered that what was impossible for human nature was possible for God. He said: "Do not think you have been abandoned. In a matter of such importance I myself will be your helper, and I will make what is difficult simple and easy.” 

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