The Daily Gospel for Friday, 2 October 205

The Daily Gospel for Friday, 2 October 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." [John 6:68]
The Guardian Angels, memorial
Feast of the Church:

The Holy Guardian Angels - Memorial

THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS

God does not abandon to mere chance any of His handiworks; by His providence He is everywhere present; not a hair falls from the head or a sparrow to the ground without His knowledge.

Not content, however, with yielding such familiar help in all things, not content with affording that existence which He communicates and perpetuates through every living being, He has charged His angels with the ministry of watching and safeguarding every one of His creatures that behold not His face. Kingdoms have their angels assigned to them, and men have their angels; these latter it is whom religion designates as the Holy Guardian Angels.

Our Lord says in the Gospel, "Beware lest ye scandalize any of these little ones, for their angels in heaven see the face of my Father." The existence of Guardian Angels is, hence, a. dogma of the Christian faith: this being so, what ought not our respect be for that sure and holy intelligence that is ever present at our side; and how great should our solicitude be, lest, by any act of ours, we offend those eyes which are ever bent upon us in all our ways!

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

The Guardian Angels, memorial

The Book of Baruch 1: Sins of the community

15 You will say:

Justice is on the side of the Lord God, but public shame is upon us today, upon everyone in Judah, upon those living in Jerusalem, 16 and upon our rulers, leading officials, priests, prophets, and ancestors, 17 upon all of us who have sinned against the Lord.

18 We have disobeyed the Lord. We have not listened to the Lord God’s voice so as to keep the commandments that he gave to us. 19 From the day when the Lord brought our ancestors from the land of Egypt until today, we have been disobedient to the Lord our God and have acted carelessly by not listening to his voice. 20 Therefore, to this day horrible things have come upon us, even the curse that the Lord ordered through Moses his servant in the day when he brought our ancestors out of Egypt to give us a prosperous land full of milk and honey. 21 But we didn’t listen to the Lord God’s voice through the prophets whom he sent to us. 22 All of us went off in the direction of our own evil hearts, serving other gods and doing horrible things in the presence of our Lord God.

Psalm 79:(0) A psalm of Asaf:

(1) God, the pagans have entered your heritage.

They have defiled your holy temple

and turned Yerushalayim into rubble.

2 They have given the corpses of your servants

as food for the birds in the air,

yes, the flesh of those faithful to you

for the wild animals of the earth.

3 All around Yerushalayim

they have shed their blood like water,

and no one is left to bury them.

4 We suffer the taunts of our neighbors,

we are mocked and scorned by those around us.

5 How long, Adonai?

Will you be angry forever?

How long will your jealousy burn like fire?

Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

8 Don’t count past iniquities against us,

but let your compassion come quickly to meet us,

for we have been brought very low.

9 Help us, God of our salvation,

for the sake of the glory of your name.

Deliver us, forgive our sins,

for your name’s sake.

The Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 18:1 At that moment the talmidim came to Yeshua and asked, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” 2 He called a child to him, stood him among them, 3 and said, “Yes! I tell you that unless you change and become like little children, you won’t even enter the Kingdom of Heaven! 4 So the greatest in the Kingdom is whoever makes himself as humble as this child. 5 Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me;

10 See that you never despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually seeing the face of my Father in heaven.
The Guardian Angels, memorial
Commentary of the day :
Saint Albert the Great (c.1200-1280), Dominican
Sermon for the feast of Saint Michael

"Their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father"

Watch that you don’t despise one of these little ones for, I tell you, their angels see the face of my Father in heaven. » With these words Christ is saying to us something like this : « Be vigilant, take care that you don’t despise people who are simple, poor or weak. As for me, I esteem them greatly to the extent that, to protect them from all evil, I have placed my angels at their service. And what angels! Don’t think they are to be compared to the scullery boys working my kitchen. No. They are equal to the officers in my own palace, for” “they constantly see the face of my heavenly Father”…
Now, these angels see the face of God for several reasons. First, angels must offer and present our good works to God. To this we have a testimony in the words Raphael addressed to Tobias: “I have presented your prayer before the Lord” (Tb 12,12). In the Book of Revelation, too, we read: “An angel with a golden censer came and stood before the altar. He was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne of God,” (8,3). Let us note that this altar is the heart of whoever is truly faithful to God; before this altar the angels stand. Their censer represents the feelings of joy with which they gather up our thoughts, prayers, words and actions so as to offer them, all aflame with the fire of charity, on the golden altar that stands before the throne of God. And the offering rises up to the Son who is in the bosom of the Father. Therefore it would be good for us always to have some good thing to place in the angels’ censer.

____________________________