The Daily Gospel for Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Daily Gospel for Thursday, December 3, 2015

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

Thursday of the First week of Advent
Saints of the day:

St. Francis Xavier, Priest (1506-1552) - Memorial

SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER
Priest
(1506-1552)

Young Spanish gentleman, in the dangerous days of the Reformation, was making a name for himself as a Professor of Philosophy in the University of Paris, and had seemingly no higher aim, when St. Ignatius of Loyola won him to heavenly thoughts.

After a brief apostolate amongst his countrymen in Rome he was sent by St. Ignatius to the Indies, where for twelve years he was to wear himself out, bearing the Gospel to Hindostan, to Malacca, and to Japan. Thwarted by the jealousy, covetousness, and carelessness of those who should have helped and encouraged him, neither their opposition nor the difficulties of every sort which he encountered could make him slacken his labors for souls.

The vast kingdom of China appealed to his charity, and he was resolved to risk his life to force an entry, when God took him to Himself, and on the 2d of December, 1552, he died, like Moses, in sight of the land of promise.

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

Thursday of the First week of Advent

The Book of Isaiah 26:1 On that day this song will be sung

in the land of Y’hudah:

“We have a strong city!

He has built walls and ramparts for our safety.

2 Open the gates! Let the righteous nation enter,

a nation that keeps faith!

3 “A person whose desire rests on you

you preserve in perfect peace,

because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in Adonai forever,

because in Yah Adonai,

is a Rock of Ages.”

5 For he has humbled those in high places,

levelling the lofty city,

levelling it to the ground,

laying it in the dust.

6 It is trampled underfoot by the feet of the poor,

by the footsteps of the needy.

Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,

for his grace continues forever.

8 It is better to take refuge in Adonai

than to trust in human beings;

9 better to take refuge in Adonai

than to put one’s trust in princes.

19 Open the gates of righteousness for me;

I will enter them and thank Yah.

20 This is the gate of Adonai;

the righteous can enter it.

21 I am thanking you because you answered me;

you became my salvation.

25 Please, Adonai! Save us!

Please, Adonai! Rescue us!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.

We bless you from the house of Adonai.

27 Adonai is God, and he gives us light.

Join in the pilgrim festival with branches

all the way to the horns of the altar.

The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants.

24 “So, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on bedrock. 25 The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the winds blew and beat against that house, but it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the rivers flooded, the wind blew and beat against that house, and it collapsed — and its collapse was horrendous!”

Thursday of the First week of Advent

Commentary of the day:
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] (1891-1942), Carmelite, martyr, co-patron of Europe 
Das Weihnachtsgeheimnis, 1/31/1931  “It is not enough to say to me: ‘Lord, Lord’ … but you must do the will of my Father”

“Thy will be done.” In all its fullness, this act of abandonment must be the rule of Christian life. It must rule over the day, from morning to night, over the course of the year, over all of life. This must be the Christian’s only concern; all the others are taken care of by the Lord, but this one remains ours until our last day. That is an objective fact. We are not definitively assured of always remaining on the Lord’s path… During our spiritual childhood, when we have just begun to let ourselves be led by God, we feel his strong and firm hand guiding us. We see in an obvious way what we must do and what we must not do. But it will not always be like that. The person who belongs to Christ must live Christ’s whole life. That person must ripen to the point of attaining Christ’s adult age, and one day must start out on the way of the cross… Thus united with Christ, the Christian will persevere even in the dark night… That is why, even and precisely in the midst of the darkest night, “thy will be done.”

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