Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 19 May 2015

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

Tuesday of the Seventh week of Easter

Saints of the day:

SAINT PETER CELESTINE V
Pope 
(1221-1296)

As a child, Peter had visions of our blessed Lady, and of the angels and saints. They encouraged him in his prayer, and chided him when he fell into any fault. His mother, though only a poor widow, put him to school, feeling sure that he would one day be a Saint.
At the age of twenty, he left his home in Apulia to live in a mountain solitude. Here he passed three years, assaulted by the evil spirits and beset with temptations of the flesh, but consoled by angels' visits. After this his seclusion was invaded by disciples, who refused to be sent away; and the rule of life which he gave them formed the foundation of the Celestine Order. Angels assisted in the church which Peter built; unseen bells rang peals of surpassing sweetness, and heavenly music filled the sanctuary when he offered the Holy Sacrifice.
Suddenly he found himself torn from his loved solitude by his election to the Papal throne. Resistance was of no avail. He took the name of Celestine, to remind him of the heaven he was leaving and for which he sighed, and was consecrated atAquila. After a reign of four months, Peter summoned the cardinals to his presence, and solemnly resigned his trust.
St. Peter built himself a boarded cell in his palace, and there continued his hermit's life; and when, lest his simplicity might be taken advantage of to distract the peace of the Church, he was put under guard, he said, "I desired nothing but a cell, and a cell they have given me." There he enjoyed his former loving intimacy with the saints and angels, and sang the Divine praises almost continually.
At length, on Whit-Sunday, he told his guards he should die within the week, and immediately fell ill. He received the lastsacraments; and the following Saturday, as he finished the concluding verse of Lauds, "Let every spirit bless the Lord!" he closed his eyes to this world and opened them to the vision of God.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

SAINT YVO
Priest
(1253-1303)

St. Yvo Helori, descended from a noble and virtuous family near Treguier, in Brittany, was born in 1253. At fourteen years of age he went to Paris, and afterwards to Orleans, to pursue his studies. His mother was won frequently to say to him that he ought so to live as became a Saint, to which his answer always was, that he hoped to be one. This resolution took deep root in his soul, and was a continual spur to virtue, and a check against the least shadow of any dangerous course.
His time was chiefly divided between study and prayer; for his recreation he visited the hospitals, where he attended the sick with great charity, and comforted them under the severe trials of their suffering condition. He made a private vow of perpetual chastity; but this not being known, many honorable matches were proposed to him, which he modestly rejected as incompatible with his studious life.
He long deliberated whether to embrace a religious or a clerical state; but the desire of serving his neighbor determined him at length in favor of the latter. He wished, out of humility, to remain in the lesser orders; but his bishop compelled him to receive the priesthood,-a step which cost him many tears, though he had qualified himself for that sacred dignity by the most perfect purity of mind and body, and by a long and fervent preparation.
He was appointed ecclesiastical judge for the diocese of Rennes. St. Yvo protected the orphans and widows, defended the poor, and administered justice to all with an impartiality, application, and tenderness which gained him the good-will even of those who lost their causes. He was surnamed the advocate and lawyer of the poor. He built a house near his own for a hospital of the poor and sick; he washed their feet, cleansed their ulcers, served them at table, and ate himself only the scraps which they had left. He distributed his corn, or the price for which he sold it, among the poor immediately after the harvest.
When a certain person endeavored to persuade him to keep it some months, that he might sell it at a better price, he answered, "I know not whether I shall be then alive to give it." Another time the same person said to him, "I have gained a fifth by keeping my corn." "But I," replied the Saint, "a hundredfold by giving it immediately away."
During the Lent of 1303 he felt his strength failing him; yet, far from abating anything in his austerities, he thought himself obliged to redouble his fervor in proportion as he advanced nearer to eternity. On the eve of the Ascension he preached to his people, said Mass, being upheld by two persons, and gave advice to all who addressed themselves to him. After this he lay down on his bed, which was a hurdle of twigs plaited together, and received the last sacraments. From that moment he entertained himself with God alone, till his soul went to possess Him in His glory.
His death happened on the 19th of May, 1303, in the fiftieth year of his age.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Tuesday of the Seventh week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles 20:17 But he did send from Miletus to Ephesus, summoning the elders of the Messianic community. 18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, I was with you the whole time, 19 serving the Lord with much humility and with tears, in spite of the tests I had to undergo because of the plots of the unbelieving Jews. 20 You know that I held back nothing that could be helpful to you, and that I taught you both in public and from house to house, 21 declaring with utmost seriousness the same message to Jews and Greeks alike: turn from sin to God; and put your trust in our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.
22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Yerushalayim. I don’t know what will happen to me there, 23 other than that in every city the Ruach HaKodesh keeps warning me that imprisonment and persecution await me. 24 But I consider my own life of no importance to me whatsoever, as long as I can finish the course ahead of me, the task I received from the Lord Yeshua — to declare in depth the Good News of God’s love and kindness.
25 “Now, listen! I know that none of you people among whom I have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I testify on this day that I am innocent of the blood of all. 27 For I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the whole plan of God.
Psalm 68:10 (9) You rained down showers in plenty, God;
when your heritage was weary, you restored it.
11 (10) Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, God, you provided for the poor.
20 (19) Blessed be Adonai!
Every day he bears our burden,
does God, our salvation. (Selah)
21 (20) Our God is a God who saves;
from Adonai Adonai comes escape from death.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint John 17:1 After Yeshua had said these things, he looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you — 2 just as you gave him authority over all mankind, so that he might give eternal life to all those whom you have given him. 3 And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah.
4 “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me alongside yourself. Give me the same glory I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I made your name known to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 because the words you gave me I have given to them, and they have received them. They have really come to know that I came from you, and they have come to trust that you sent me.
9 “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given to me, because they are yours. 10 Indeed, all I have is yours, and all you have is mine, and in them I have been glorified. 11 Now I am no longer in the world. They are in the world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, guard them by the power of your name, which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are.
Tuesday of the Seventh week of Easter
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermons on St. John, no. 106 
“I have given you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” “I have made your name known to those you gave me.” In the Savior’s thinking, these words include all who were to believe in him as members of the Great Church, which is made up of all nations and of which the psalmist said: “I will utter praise in the vast assembly.” (Ps22:26) So it is truly this glorification by which the Son gives glory to the Father, spreading knowledge of his name among the nations and to the countless generations of human beings. Thus, when he said: “I have made your name known to those you gave me”, this refers to what precedes it: “I have given you glory on earth…” 

“I have made your name known to those you gave me”: not his name as God, but as Father. That name could not be made known without the manifestation of the Son. For even before believing in Jesus Christ, there was not a single people that did not have a certain knowledge of God as the God of all of creation. For such is the power of the true God that he could not be absolutely hidden to a creature with reason who wants to make use of his mind. Except for a small number of individuals whose nature has really become depraved, the whole human race recognizes God as the author of this world… But the name "Father of Jesus Christ," through whom he takes away the sin of the world, was not known at all, and that is the name the Lord makes known to those whom the Father gave him.

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