"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day:
SAINT GERARD OF BROGNE
Abbot
(† 959)
Saint Gerard was of a noble family of the county of Namur, France. An engaging sweetness of temper, and a strong inclination to piety and devotion, gained him from the cradle the esteem and affection of every one. Having been sent on an important mission to the Court of France, he was greatly edified at the fervor of the monks of St. Denis, at Paris, and earnestly desired to consecrate himself to God with them. Returning home he settled his temporal affairs, and went back with great joy to St. Denis'.Abbot
(† 959)
He had lived ten years with great fervor in this monastery, when in 931 he was sent by his abbot to found an abbey upon his estate at Brogne, three leagues from Namur. He settled this new abbey, and then built himself a little cell near the church, and lived in it a recluse until God called him to undertake the reformation of many monasteries, which he did successfully.
When he had spent almost twenty years in these zealous labors, he shut himself up in his cell, to prepare his soul to receive the recompense of his labors, to which he was called on the 3d of October in 959.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
St. Mother Théodore Guérin (1798-1856)
Trust in God’s Providence enabled Mother Theodore to leave her homeland, sail halfway around the world, and found a new religious congregation.
Born in Etables, France, Anne-Thérèse Guerin’s life was shattered by her father’s murder when she was 15. For several years she cared for her mother and younger sister. She entered the Sisters of Providence in 1823, taking the name Sister St. Theodore. An illness during novitiate left her with lifelong fragile health; that did not keep her from becoming an accomplished teacher.
At the invitation of the bishop of Vincennes, she and five sisters were sent in 1840 to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, to teach and to care for the sick poor. She was to establish a motherhouse and novitiate. For several months, they lived packed into the small frontier farmhouse of the local Thralls family along with a few postulants that had been waiting for them when they arrived. Only later did she learn that her French superiors had already decided the sisters in the United States should form a new religious congregation under her leadership.
Despite their humble resources, in July 1841 Guerin and the sisters opened St. Mary's Academy for Young Ladies, which later became Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Guerin did have doubts concerning the success of the institution. In her journals is written, "It is astonishing that this remote solitude has been chosen for a novitiate and especially for an academy. All appearances are against it." For more than a decade, from 1841 to 1852, this Academy was the only Catholic boarding school for girls in Indiana.
She and her community persevered despite fires, crop failures, prejudice against Catholic women religious, misunderstandings and separation from their original religious congregation. She once told her sisters, “Have confidence in the Providence that so far has never failed us. The way is not yet clear. Grope along slowly. Do not press matters; be patient, be trustful.” Another time, she asked, “With Jesus, what shall we have to fear?” Guerin proved to be a skilled businesswoman and leader as well as a beloved general superior.
She is buried in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Guerin is particularly known for her advancement of education in Indiana and elsewhere, founding numerous parish schools in Indiana. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October 1998 and finally canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic church on October 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Tne Book of Baruch 4: Poem of encouragement
5 Be confident, my people,
you who are the legacy of Israel!
6 You weren’t sold to the nations
for complete destruction,
but you were handed over
to your opponents
because you made God angry.
7 You upset your creator
when you sacrificed to demons
and not to God.
8 You forgot the eternal God
who raised you;
and you caused pain to Jerusalem,
who nurtured you.
9 Jerusalem saw the wrath of God
that came on you and said:
Neighbors of Zion, listen!
God has brought me great grief.
10 I have watched my sons and daughters taken captive,
the action of the eternal one.
11 I nursed them joyfully,
but I sent them away
with tears and mourning.
12 Don’t any of you rejoice over me,
a widow deserted by many.
My children avoided God’s Law,
so I was stripped bare
because of their sins.
27 Children, be confident!
Cry out to God,
for the one who brought this on you will remember you.
28 Just as you plotted
to stray away from God,
return with ten times as much effort
to seek him out.
29 The one who brought
these horrible things on you
will bring you eternal joy
along with your deliverance.
Psalm 69:33 (32) The afflicted will see it and rejoice;
you seeking after God, let your heart revive.
34 (33) For Adonai pays attention to the needy
and doesn’t scorn his captive people.
35 (34) Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them.
36 (35) For God will save Tziyon,
he will build the cities of Y’hudah.
[His people] will settle there and possess it.
37 (36) The descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will live there.
The Holy Gospel of Yeashua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 10:17 The seventy came back jubilant. “Lord,” they said, “with your power, even the demons submit to us!” 18 Yeshua said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Remember, I have given you authority; so you can trample down snakes and scorpions, indeed, all the Enemy’s forces; and you will remain completely unharmed. 20 Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.”
21 At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
22 “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 23 Then, turning to the talmidim, he said, privately, “How blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing! 24 Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr
Against the Heresies, IV, 6,3-7
The Word reveals God the Creator already by means of creation. Through the world, the Word reveals the Lord who put the world in order; through what has been shaped, the Word reveals the Artist who shaped it, and through the Son, the Word reveals the Father who begot him. Many agree on this, but nevertheless all do not believe. Similarly, the Word announced itself and announced the Father through the Law and the prophets: the whole people heard, but nevertheless, not all believed. Finally, through the intervention of the Word become visible and palpable (1 Jn 1:1), the Father showed himself, and even if not everyone believed in him that did not mean that the Father was less visible in the Son (Jn 14:9)…
So when the Son serves the Father, he leads all things to their perfection from the beginning until the end, and without him no one can know God… Since the beginning, the Son, who is present to the work he shaped, reveals the Father to all for whom the Father wants and when he wants and as he wants. Everywhere and always, there is only one God the Father, only one Word, only one Spirit, and only one salvation for everyone who believes in him.
____________________________
Trust in God’s Providence enabled Mother Theodore to leave her homeland, sail halfway around the world, and found a new religious congregation.Born in Etables, France, Anne-Thérèse Guerin’s life was shattered by her father’s murder when she was 15. For several years she cared for her mother and younger sister. She entered the Sisters of Providence in 1823, taking the name Sister St. Theodore. An illness during novitiate left her with lifelong fragile health; that did not keep her from becoming an accomplished teacher.
At the invitation of the bishop of Vincennes, she and five sisters were sent in 1840 to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, to teach and to care for the sick poor. She was to establish a motherhouse and novitiate. For several months, they lived packed into the small frontier farmhouse of the local Thralls family along with a few postulants that had been waiting for them when they arrived. Only later did she learn that her French superiors had already decided the sisters in the United States should form a new religious congregation under her leadership.
Despite their humble resources, in July 1841 Guerin and the sisters opened St. Mary's Academy for Young Ladies, which later became Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Guerin did have doubts concerning the success of the institution. In her journals is written, "It is astonishing that this remote solitude has been chosen for a novitiate and especially for an academy. All appearances are against it." For more than a decade, from 1841 to 1852, this Academy was the only Catholic boarding school for girls in Indiana.
She and her community persevered despite fires, crop failures, prejudice against Catholic women religious, misunderstandings and separation from their original religious congregation. She once told her sisters, “Have confidence in the Providence that so far has never failed us. The way is not yet clear. Grope along slowly. Do not press matters; be patient, be trustful.” Another time, she asked, “With Jesus, what shall we have to fear?” Guerin proved to be a skilled businesswoman and leader as well as a beloved general superior.
She is buried in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Guerin is particularly known for her advancement of education in Indiana and elsewhere, founding numerous parish schools in Indiana. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October 1998 and finally canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic church on October 15, 2006, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Tne Book of Baruch 4: Poem of encouragement
5 Be confident, my people,
you who are the legacy of Israel!
6 You weren’t sold to the nations
for complete destruction,
but you were handed over
to your opponents
because you made God angry.
7 You upset your creator
when you sacrificed to demons
and not to God.
8 You forgot the eternal God
who raised you;
and you caused pain to Jerusalem,
who nurtured you.
9 Jerusalem saw the wrath of God
that came on you and said:
Neighbors of Zion, listen!
God has brought me great grief.
10 I have watched my sons and daughters taken captive,
the action of the eternal one.
11 I nursed them joyfully,
but I sent them away
with tears and mourning.
12 Don’t any of you rejoice over me,
a widow deserted by many.
My children avoided God’s Law,
so I was stripped bare
because of their sins.
27 Children, be confident!
Cry out to God,
for the one who brought this on you will remember you.
28 Just as you plotted
to stray away from God,
return with ten times as much effort
to seek him out.
29 The one who brought
these horrible things on you
will bring you eternal joy
along with your deliverance.
Psalm 69:33 (32) The afflicted will see it and rejoice;
you seeking after God, let your heart revive.
34 (33) For Adonai pays attention to the needy
and doesn’t scorn his captive people.
35 (34) Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them.
36 (35) For God will save Tziyon,
he will build the cities of Y’hudah.
[His people] will settle there and possess it.
37 (36) The descendants of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will live there.
The Holy Gospel of Yeashua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 10:17 The seventy came back jubilant. “Lord,” they said, “with your power, even the demons submit to us!” 18 Yeshua said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Remember, I have given you authority; so you can trample down snakes and scorpions, indeed, all the Enemy’s forces; and you will remain completely unharmed. 20 Nevertheless, don’t be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your names have been recorded in heaven.”
21 At that moment he was filled with joy by the Ruach HaKodesh and said, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you because you concealed these things from the sophisticated and educated, yet revealed them to ordinary people. Yes, Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
22 “My Father has handed over everything to me. Indeed, no one fully knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” 23 Then, turning to the talmidim, he said, privately, “How blessed are the eyes that see what you are seeing! 24 Indeed, I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.”
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr
Against the Heresies, IV, 6,3-7
“Everything has been given over to me by my Father.”
No one can know the Father without the Word of God, that is to say, unless the Son reveals him, nor can anyone know the Son without the Father wanting it. The Son fulfills this desire of the Father’s, for the Father sends him, whereas the Son is sent and comes. The Father is utterly invisible and unlimited in relationship to us, and his Word makes him known. And as inexpressible as he is, his Word expresses him. Reciprocally, only the Father knows the Word… The Word reveals God the Creator already by means of creation. Through the world, the Word reveals the Lord who put the world in order; through what has been shaped, the Word reveals the Artist who shaped it, and through the Son, the Word reveals the Father who begot him. Many agree on this, but nevertheless all do not believe. Similarly, the Word announced itself and announced the Father through the Law and the prophets: the whole people heard, but nevertheless, not all believed. Finally, through the intervention of the Word become visible and palpable (1 Jn 1:1), the Father showed himself, and even if not everyone believed in him that did not mean that the Father was less visible in the Son (Jn 14:9)…
So when the Son serves the Father, he leads all things to their perfection from the beginning until the end, and without him no one can know God… Since the beginning, the Son, who is present to the work he shaped, reveals the Father to all for whom the Father wants and when he wants and as he wants. Everywhere and always, there is only one God the Father, only one Word, only one Spirit, and only one salvation for everyone who believes in him.
____________________________
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