"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Frances of Rome, religious (1384-1440)
SAINT FRANCES OF ROME
Religious
(1384-1440)
Frances was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents were, of high rank. They overruled her desire to become a nun, and at twelve years of age married her to Rorenzo Ponziano, a Roman noble. During the forty years or their married life they never had a disagreement. While spending her days in retirement and prayer, she attended promptly to every household duty, saying, "A married woman must leave God at the altar to find Him in her domestic cares;" and she once found the verse of a psalm in which she had been four times thus interrupted completed for her in letters of gold. Her ordinary food was dry bread. Secretly she would exchange with beggars good food for their hard crusts; her drink was water, and her cup a human skull.Religious
(1384-1440)
During the invasion of Rome, in 1413, Ponziano was banished, his estates confiscated, his house destroyed, and his eldest son taken as a hostage. Frances saw in these losses only the finger of God, and blessed His holy name. When peace was restored Ponziano recovered his estate, and Frances founded the Oblates.
After her husband's death, barefoot and with a cord about her neck she begged admission to the community, and was soon elected Superioress. She lived always in the presence of God, and amongst many visions was given constant sight of her angel guardian, who shed such brightness around him that the Saint could read her midnight Office by this light alone. He shielded her in the hour of temptation, and directed her in every good act. But when she was betrayed into some defect, he faded from her sight; and when some light words were spoken before her, he covered his face in shame.
She died on the day she had foretold, March 9, 1440.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Book of Isaiah 49:8 Here is what Adonai says:
“At the time when I choose, I will answer you;
on the day of salvation, I will help you.
I have preserved you, and I have appointed you
to be the covenant for a people,
to restore the land and distribute again
its ruined inheritances to their owners,
9 to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out!’
to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’
They will feed along the paths,
and all the high hills will be their pastures.
10 They will be neither hungry nor thirsty;
neither scorching wind nor sun will strike them;
for he who has mercy on them will lead them
and guide them to springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into a road,
my highways will be raised up.
12 There they come, some from far away,
some from the north, some from the west,
and some from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, heaven! Rejoice, earth!
Break out in song, you mountains!
For Adonai is comforting his people,
having mercy on his own who have suffered.
14 “But Tziyon says, ‘Adonai has abandoned me,
Adonai has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her child at the breast,
not show pity on the child from her womb?
Even if these were to forget,
I would not forget you.
Psalms 145:8 Adonai is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger and great in grace.
9 Adonai is good to all;
his compassion rests on all his creatures.
13 Your kingship is an everlasting kingship,
your reign continues through all generations.
14 Adonai supports all who fall
and lifts up all who are bent over.
17 Adonai is righteous in all his ways,
full of grace in all he does.
18 Adonai is close to all who call on him,
to all who sincerely call on him.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 5:17 But he answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I too am working.” 18 This answer made the Judeans all the more intent on killing him — not only was he breaking Shabbat; but also, by saying that God was his own Father, he was claiming equality with God. 19 Therefore, Yeshua said this to them: “Yes, indeed! I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does; and he will show him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 Just as the Father raises the dead and makes them alive, so too the Son makes alive anyone he wants. 22 The Father does not judge anyone but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever fails to honor the Son is not honoring the Father who sent him. 24 Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life! 25 Yes, indeed! I tell you that there is coming a time — in fact, it’s already here — when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen will come to life. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son life to have in himself. 27 Also he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be surprised at this; because the time is coming when all who are in the grave will hear his voice 29 and come out — those who have done good to a resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to a resurrection of judgment. 30 I can’t do a thing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is right; because I don’t seek my own desire, but the desire of the one who sent me.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Tractate 49 on the Gospel of John, 1-3
You have just heard that the Lord Jesus raised a dead man to life; and that is sufficient to let you know that, were he so pleased, he might raise all the dead to life. And, indeed, this is the very work he has kept in his own hands untll the end of the world. For while you have heard that by a great miracle he raised someone from the tomb who had been dead four days, "the hour is coming," as he himself says, "when all who are in the grave shall hear his voice and come forth." He raised up a body that was putrid, and yet in that putrid carcase there was still the form of human limbs. But at the last day he will reconstitute ashes into human flesh with a word . At that time, however, there was only a need to do a few such deeds so that we, receiving them as tokens of his power, might put our trust in him and prepare for that resurrection which is to be to life and not to judgment. So, indeed, he says: "The hour is coming when all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth; those who have done good to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."...
If we turn our thoughts to the still more wonderful works of Christ, every one who believes rises again. If we all consider and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who sins dies. But everyone is afraid of the death of the flesh; few of the death of the soul. With regard to the death of the flesh, which must certainly come sometime, all are on their guard against its approach: this is the origin of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but, if he refrains from sinning, his toil will cease and he shall live for ever. Oh that we could rouse people - and ourselves be aroused along with them - to be as great lovers of the life that abides as people are of that which passes away!
---------------------If we turn our thoughts to the still more wonderful works of Christ, every one who believes rises again. If we all consider and understand that more horrifying kind of death, every one who sins dies. But everyone is afraid of the death of the flesh; few of the death of the soul. With regard to the death of the flesh, which must certainly come sometime, all are on their guard against its approach: this is the origin of all their labor. Man, destined to die, labors to avert his dying; and yet man, destined to live for ever, labors not to cease from sinning. And when he labors to avoid dying, he labors to no purpose, for its only result will be to put off death for a while, not to escape it; but, if he refrains from sinning, his toil will cease and he shall live for ever. Oh that we could rouse people - and ourselves be aroused along with them - to be as great lovers of the life that abides as people are of that which passes away!
Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 08 March 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. John of God, religious (1495-1550)
SAINT JOHN OF GOD
Religious
(1495-1550)
Religious
(1495-1550)
Nothing in John's early life foreshadowed his future sanctity. He ran away as a boy from his home in Portugal, tended sheep and cattle in Spain, and served as a soldier against the French, and afterwards against the Turks.
When about forty years of age, feeling remorse for his wild life, he resolved to devote himself to the ransom of the Christian slaves in Africa, and went thither with the family of an exiled noble, which he maintained by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices.
At length the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one mad. There he employed himself in ministering to the sick.
On leaving he began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by begging. One night St. John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he knelt to kiss them, and started with awe: the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails bright with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes to look, and heard the words, "John, to Me thou doest all that thou doest to the poor in My name: I reach forth My hand for the alms thou givest; Me dost thou clothe, Mine are the feet thou dost wash." And then the gracious vision disappeared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion and consolation.
The bishop became the Saint's patron, and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amidst the flames until he had rescued all his poor.
After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed. He plunged into the river Xenil to save a drowning boy, and died, 1550, of an illness brought on by the attempt, at the age of fifty-five.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of LentBook of Ezekiel 47:1 Then he brought me back to the entrance of the house, and I saw water flowing eastward from under the threshold of the house, for the house faced east. The water flowed down from under the right side of the house, south of the altar. 2 Next he led me out through the north gate and took me around outside to the outer gate, by way of the east gate, where I saw water trickling from the south side. 3 With a line in his hand the man went out toward the east and measured a thousand cubits [one-third of a mile] and had me wade across the stream; the water came up to my ankles. 4 He measured another thousand and had me wade through the water, which reached my knees. He measured another thousand and had me wade through water up to my waist. 5 Finally he measured a thousand, and it was a river I couldn’t cross on foot, because the water was so deep one would have to swim across; it was a river that could not be waded through. 6 He asked me, “Human being, have you seen this?” Then, guiding me, he got me back to the riverbank. 7 After being returned, I saw on the bank of the river a great number of trees on the one side and on the other. 8 He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and continues down to the ‘Aravah. When it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant water, [the Dead Sea,] its water will become fresh. 9 When this happens, swarms of all kinds of living creatures will be able to live in it wherever the streams flow; so that there will be a vast number of fish; for this water is flowing there, so that, wherever the river goes, everything will be restored and able to live.
12 On both riverbanks will grow all kinds of trees for food; their leaves will not dry up, nor will their fruit fail. There will be a different kind of fruit each month, because the water flows from the sanctuary, so that this fruit will be edible, and the leaves will have healing properties.”
Psalms 46:2 (1) God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
3 (2) Therefore we are unafraid,
even if the earth gives way,
even if the mountains tumble
into the depths of the sea,
5 (4) There is a river whose streams
gladden the city of God,
the holy habitation of ‘Elyon —
6 (5) God is in the city.
It will not be moved —
when daybreak comes, God will help it.
8 (7) Adonai-Tzva’ot is with us,
our fortress, the God of Ya‘akov. (Selah)
9 (8) Come and see the works of Adonai,
the astounding deeds he has done on the earth.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 5:1 After this, there was a Judean festival; and Yeshua went up to Yerushalayim. 2 In Yerushalayim, by the Sheep Gate, is a pool called in Aramaic, Beit-Zata, 3 in which lay a crowd of invalids — blind, lame, crippled. 4 [John 5:4 Some manuscripts have verses 3b–4: . . . , waiting for the water to move; 4 for at certain times an angel of Adonai went down into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever stepped into the water first after it was disturbed was healed of whatever disease he had.] 5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. 6 Yeshua, seeing this man and knowing that he had been there a long time, said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered, “I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I’m trying to get there, someone goes in ahead of me.” 8 Yeshua said to him, “Get up, pick up your mat and walk!” 9 Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and walked.
Now that day was Shabbat, 10 so the Judeans said to the man who had been healed, “It’s Shabbat! It’s against Torah for you to carry your mat!” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me — he’s the one who told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who it was, because Yeshua had slipped away into the crowd.
14 Afterwards Yeshua found him in the Temple court and said to him, “See, you are well! Now stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you!” 15 The man went off and told the Judeans it was Yeshua who had healed him; 16 and on account of this, the Judeans began harassing Yeshua because he did these things on Shabbat.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 124
"Do you want to be healed ?"
--------------------
Daily Gospel for Monday, 07 March 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Saints of the day: Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyr - Mémorial
and a new earth;
past things will not be remembered,
they will no more come to mind.
18 So be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy,
and her people a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Yerushalayim
and take joy in my people.
The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in it,
no longer the sound of crying.
20 No more will babies die in infancy,
no more will an old man die short of his days —
he who dies at a hundred will be thought young,
and at less than a hundred thought cursed.
21 They will build houses and live in them,
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Psalms 30:2 (1) I will exalt you, Adonai, because you drew me up;
you didn’t let my enemies rejoice over me.
4 (3) Adonai, you lifted me up from Sh’ol;
you kept me alive when I was sinking into a pit.
5 (4) Sing praise to Adonai, you faithful of his;
and give thanks on recalling his holiness.
6 (5) For his anger is momentary,
but his favor lasts a lifetime.
Tears may linger for the night,
but with dawn come cries of joy.
11 (10) Hear me, Adonai, and show me your favor!
Adonai, be my helper!”
12 (11) You turned my mourning into dancing!
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
13 (12) so that my well-being can praise you and not be silent;
Adonai my God, I will thank you forever!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 4:43 After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. 44 Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” 45 But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.
46 He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. 47 This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” 49 The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive 52 So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. 54 This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Baldwin of Ford (?-c.1190), Cistercian abbot, then Bishop
Tractate 6, on Heb 4,12 (©Cistercian publications)
"The man believed what Jesus said to him"
“The word of God is living and effective, more piercing than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4,12). What greatness of power, what wealth of wisdom in the Word of God is shown by these words of the Apostle to those that seek Christ, who is himself the word, the power, and the wisdom of God. In the beginning, this word was with God, coeternal with him; in his time he was revealed to the prophets, proclaimed by them, and received humbly in the faith of his believing people.
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 20 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Eucherius, Bishop (+ 743)
St. Wulfric
St. Wulfric
Feastday: February 20
Birth: 1080
Death: 1154
Wulfric (d. 1154) + hermit and miracle worker. Born at Compton Martin, near Bristol, England, he became a priest and was excessively materialistic and worldly. After meeting with a beggar, he underwent a personal conversion and became a hermit at Haselbury; Somerset, England. For his remaining years, he devoted himself to rigorous austerities and was known for his miracles and prophecies. While he was never formally canonized, Wulfric was a very popular saint during the Middle Ages, and his tomb was visited by many pilgrims. Feast day: February 20.
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:(iii) 16 “Today Adonai your God orders you to obey these laws and rulings. Therefore, you are to observe and obey them with all your heart and all your being. 17 You are agreeing today that Adonai is your God and that you will follow his ways; observe his laws, mitzvot and rulings; and do what he says. 18 In turn Adonai is agreeing today that you are his own unique treasure, as he promised you; that you are to observe all his mitzvot; 19 and that he will raise you high above all the nations he has made, in praise, reputation and glory; and that, as he said, you will be a holy people for Adonai your God.”
Psalm 119: א (Alef)
1 How happy are those whose way of life is blameless,
who live by the Torah of Adonai!
2 How happy are those who observe his instruction,
who seek him wholeheartedly!
4 You laid down your precepts
for us to observe with care.
5 May my ways be steady
in observing your laws.
7 I thank you with a sincere heart
as I learn your righteous rulings.
8 I will observe your laws;
don’t completely abandon me!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor[Matthew 5:43 Leviticus 19:18] — and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. 46 What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! 47 And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! 48 Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-532), Bishop in North Africa
Sermon 5; PL5, 737
"But I say to you, love your enemies"
“Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another,” (Rom 13,8). What an unusual debt is this, my brethren, the love the apostle Paul teaches us we should always pay, without ever ceasing to be debtors. O happy debt, holy debt, bearer of our claims over heaven, filled with eternal riches!… Let us remember, too, some of the Lord’s words: “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; pray for those who mistreat you and curse you” (cf. Lk 6,27f.). And what reward will there be for this endeavour?… “Then you will be children of the Most High.”
--------------------
Daily Gospel for Friday, 19 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Barbatus, Bishop (+ 682)
February 19
St. Conrad of Piacenza
(1290-1350)
Born of a noble family in northern Italy, Conrad as a young man married Euphrosyne, daughter of a nobleman.
One day while hunting he ordered attendants to set fire to some brush in order to flush out the game. The fire spread to nearby fields and to a large forest. Conrad fled. An innocent peasant was imprisoned, tortured to confess and condemned to death. Conrad confessed his guilt, saved the man’s life and paid for the damaged property.
Soon after this event, Conrad and his wife agreed to separate: she to a Poor Clare monastery and he to a group of hermits following the Third Order Rule. His reputation for holiness, however, spread quickly. Since his many visitors destroyed his solitude, Conrad went to a more remote spot in Sicily where he lived 36 years as a hermit, praying for himself and for the rest of the world.
Prayer and penance were his answer to the temptations that beset him. Conrad died kneeling before a crucifix. He was canonized in 1625.
Comment:
Francis of Assisi was drawn both to contemplation and to a life of preaching; periods of intense prayer nourished his preaching. Some of his early followers, however, felt called to a life of greater contemplation, and he accepted that. Though Conrad of Piacenza is not the norm in the Church, he and other contemplatives remind us of the greatness of God and of the joys of heaven.
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage: "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
Book of Ezekiel 18:21 “However, if the wicked person repents of all the sins he committed, keeps my laws and does what is lawful and right; then he will certainly live, he will not die. 22 None of the transgressions he has committed will be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done, he will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim. “Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
24 “On the other hand, when the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness by acting in accordance with all the disgusting practices that the wicked person does, will he live? None of the righteous deeds he has done will be remembered; for the trespasses and sins he has committed, he will die.
25 “So now you say, ‘Adonai’s way isn’t fair.’ Listen, house of Isra’el! Is it my way that is unfair? or your ways that are unfair? 26 When the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness, he will die for it — for the wickedness he commits he will die. 27 And when the wicked person turns away from all the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he will save his life. 28 Because he thinks it over and repents of all the transgressions he committed, he will certainly live, not die.
Psalm 130:(0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
21 “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not murder,’[Matthew 5:21 Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17] and that anyone who commits murder will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you that anyone who nurses anger against his brother will be subject to judgment; that whoever calls his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Sanhedrin; that whoever says, ‘Fool!’ incurs the penalty of burning in the fire of Gei-Hinnom! 23 So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift. 25 If someone sues you, come to terms with him quickly, while you and he are on the way to court; or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer of the court, and you may be thrown in jail! 26 Yes indeed! I tell you, you will certainly not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Friday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 211, 5-6 (SC 116)
"Go, be reconciled with your brother"
Brethren, let no disagreement remain amongst you seeing that these are the holy days [of Lent]… Maybe you begin to say to yourselves in thought: “I want to make peace but my brother is the one who has offended me… and doesn’t want to come to terms”. What then?... In that case some third parties who are friends of peace should come between you… As for you, be at the ready to pardon, be wholly ready to forgive him his offence with all your heart. If you are prepared to forgive, you have already forgiven.
Daily Gospel for Thursday, 18 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thursday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Flavian, Bishop and Martyr (+ 449)
Thursday of the First week of Lent
Book of Esther C: Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish,
had recourse to the LORD.
She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids,
from morning until evening, and said:
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.
“And now, come to help me, an orphan.
Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion
and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy,
so that he and those who are in league with him may perish.
Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”
Psalm 138:(0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7:7 “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who keeps asking receives; he who keeps seeking finds; and to him who keeps knocking, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone here who, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? 10 or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will your Father in heaven keep giving good things to those who keep asking him!
12 “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.
Thursday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
An anonymous 4th century homily (wrongly attributed to St. John Chrysostom)
“Ask, and you will receive… Knock, and it will be opened to you.”
“Hearken to my words, O Lord.” (Ps 5:2) You came not only to have mercy on your people Israel, but to save all the nations…, not only to restore a part of the earth, but to renew the whole world. Therefore, “hearken to my words, O Lord.”… Do not reject my supplication as being unworthy; do not dismiss my prayer. I am not asking for gold or riches… It is with the desire for love and respect that I constantly cry out: “Hearken to my words, O Lord.”
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 13 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: Bl. Jordan of Saxo, Dominican Priest (c. 1190-1237)
Book of Isaiah 58:9 Then you will call, and Adonai will answer;
you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you will remove the yoke from among you,
stop false accusation and slander,
10 generously offer food to the hungry
and meet the needs of the person in trouble;
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your gloom become like noon.
11 Adonai will always guide you;
he will satisfy your needs in the desert,
he will renew the strength in your limbs;
so that you will be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
12 You will rebuild the ancient ruins,
raise foundations from ages past,
and be called “Repairer of broken walls,
Restorer of streets to live in.”
13 “If you hold back your foot on Shabbat
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call Shabbat a delight,
Adonai’s holy day, worth honoring;
then honor it by not doing your usual things
or pursuing your interests or speaking about them.
14 If you do, you will find delight in Adonai —
I will make you ride on the heights of the land
and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Ya‘akov,
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.”
Psalm 86:(0) A prayer of David:
(1) Listen, Adonai, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am faithful;
save your servant,
who puts his trust in you
because you are my God.
3 Take pity on me, Adonai,
for I cry to you all day.
4 Fill your servant’s heart with joy,
for to you, Adonai, I lift my heart.
5 Adonai, you are kind and forgiving,
full of grace toward all who call on you.
6 Listen, Adonai, to my prayer;
pay attention to my pleading cry.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:27 Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; and he said to him, “Follow me!” 28 He got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Levi gave a banquet at his house in Yeshua’s honor, and there was a large group of tax-collectors and others at the table with them. 30 The P’rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?” 31 It was Yeshua who answered them: “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but rather to call sinners to turn to God from their sins.”
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
Catechesis before baptism, no.1 (trad. Migne 1993, p. 36 rev.)
"Leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him": Lent leads to baptism
You are catechumens, those who are preparing for baptism, disciples of the New Covenant and sharers in Christ's mysteries. Already - now by your call and soon also by grace - you have been made «a new heart and a new spirit» (Ez 18,31) to the joy of the dwellers in heaven. For if, according to the Gospel, the conversion of one sinner stirs up this joy (Lk 15,7), how much more will the salvation of so many souls not stir up the heavenly inhabitants to rejoicing?
Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: Martyrs of Abitene
St. Damian
Feastday: April 12
Death: 710
Bishop of Pavia, in Lombardy, Italy. He was elected to that see in 680. Damien served as a mediator between the Lombards and the emperors of the Byzantine Empire. He also opposed the heretical Monothelite.
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:1 Shout out loud! Don’t hold back!
Raise your voice like a shofar!
Proclaim to my people what rebels they are,
to the house of Ya‘akov their sins.
2 “Oh yes, they seek me day after day
and [claim to] delight in knowing my ways.
As if they were an upright nation
that had not abandoned the rulings of their God,
they ask me for just rulings
and [claim] to take pleasure in closeness to God,
3 [asking,] ‘Why should we fast, if you don’t see?
Why mortify ourselves, if you don’t notice?’
“Here is my answer: when you fast,
you go about doing whatever you like,
while keeping your laborers hard at work.
4 Your fasts lead to quarreling and fighting,
to lashing out with violent blows.
On a day like today, fasting like yours
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 “Is this the sort of fast I want,
a day when a person mortifies himself?
Is the object to hang your head like a reed
and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day that pleases Adonai?
6 “Here is the sort of fast I want —
releasing those unjustly bound,
untying the thongs of the yoke,
letting the oppressed go free,
breaking every yoke,
7 sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you see them,
fulfilling your duty to your kinsmen!”
8 Then your light will burst forth like the morning,
your new skin will quickly grow over your wound;
your righteousness will precede you,
and Adonai’s glory will follow you.
9 Then you will call, and Adonai will answer;
you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you will remove the yoke from among you,
stop false accusation and slander,
Psalm 51:3 (1) God, in your grace, have mercy on me;
in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.
4 (2) Wash me completely from my guilt,
and cleanse me from my sin.
5 (3) For I know my crimes,
my sin confronts me all the time.
6 (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil from your perspective;
so that you are right in accusing me
and justified in passing sentence.
18 (16) For you don’t want sacrifices, or I would give them;
you don’t take pleasure in burnt offerings.
19 (17) My sacrifice to God is a broken spirit;
God, you won’t spurn a broken, chastened heart.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9:14 Next, Yochanan’s talmidim came to him and asked, “Why is it that we and the P’rushim fast frequently, but your talmidim don’t fast at all?” 15 Yeshua said to them, “Can wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then they will fast.Friday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Sermon 1 for the first day of Lent, 1,3,6
"Then they will fast"
Why should Christ’s fast not be common to all Christians? Why should the members not follow their Head? (Col 1:18). If we have received good things from this Head, should we not bear with the bad? Do we want to reject his sorrow but share in his joys? If that is how it is then we show ourselves unworthy of being one body with this Head. For everything he has suffered has been for our sakes. If we refuse to participate in the work of our salvation, in what are we showing ourselves to be his helpers? Fasting with Christ is little enough for one who is to sit with him at his Father’s table. Happy the member who will have held fast to this Head in everything and followed it wherever it goes (Rv 14:4). If not, if it chanced to be cut off and separated, it will necessarily be at once deprived of the breath of life…
Daily Gospel for Thursday, 11 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: St. Severinus of Agaunum, Abbot (+ 507)
Deuteronomy 30:(RY: iv, LY: vii) 15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; (LY: Maftir) 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
19 “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, 20 loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.”
Psalm 1:1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9:22 adding, “The Son of Man has to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and he has to be put to death; but on the third day, he has to be raised to life.”
23 Then to everyone he said, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake daily and keep following me. 24 For whoever tries to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life on my account will save it. 25 What will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but destroys or forfeits his own life?
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Theodore of Mopsuestia (?-428), Bishop and theologian
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel; CSCO 116
Way of the cross, way of glory
“The hour has come for the Son of the Man to be glorified” (Jn 12:23)… When he had made known his amazing glorification, incompatible with his Passion as it seemed, Jesus added: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (v.24). “Therefore, do not let my death trouble you. The grain of wheat is alone before it falls to the earth but, once it has fallen and died, it springs up for abundant glory and bears a double quantity of fruit, it displays its abundance before all and shows off its stunning beauty. Imagine it to be the same with me. For now I am alone and without glory, unknown amongst the featureless crowd of others. But when I have undergone the sufferings of the cross I shall rise up with great glory. Then I will bear much fruit”…
Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 10 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” says Adonai,
“turn to me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping and lamenting.”
13 Tear your heart, not your garments;
and turn to Adonai your God.
For he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger, rich in grace,
and willing to change his mind about disaster.
14 Who knows? He may turn, change his mind
and leave a blessing behind him,
[enough for] grain offerings and drink offerings
to present to Adonai your God.
15 “Blow the shofar in Tziyon!
Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly.”
16 Gather the people; consecrate the congregation;
assemble the leaders; gather the children,
even infants sucking at the breast;
let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride the bridal chamber.
17 Let the cohanim, who serve Adonai,
stand weeping between the vestibule and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Adonai!
Don’t expose your heritage to mockery,
or make them a byward among the Goyim.
Why should the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then Adonai will become jealous for his land
and have pity on his people.
Psalm 51:3 (1) God, in your grace, have mercy on me;
in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.
4 (2) Wash me completely from my guilt,
and cleanse me from my sin.
5 (3) For I know my crimes,
my sin confronts me all the time.
6 (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil from your perspective;
so that you are right in accusing me
and justified in passing sentence.
12 (10) Create in me a clean heart, God;
renew in me a resolute spirit.
13 (11) Don’t thrust me away from your presence,
don’t take your Ruach Kodesh away from me.
14 (12) Restore my joy in your salvation,
and let a willing spirit uphold me.
17 (15) Adonai, open my lips;
then my mouth will praise you.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God! 21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”
6:1 As God’s fellow-workers we also urge you not to receive his grace and then do nothing with it. 2 For he says,
“At the acceptable time I heard you;
in the day of salvation I helped you.”[2 Corinthians 6:2 Isaiah 49:8]
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to parade your acts of tzedakah in front of people in order to be seen by them! If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 So, when you do tzedakah, don’t announce it with trumpets to win people’s praise, like the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 3 But you, when you do tzedakah, don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Then your tzedakah will be in secret; and your Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.
5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners, so that people can see them. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
16 “Now when you fast, don’t go around looking miserable, like the hypocrites. They make sour faces so that people will know they are fasting. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 17 But you, when you fast, wash your face and groom yourself, 18 so that no one will know you are fasting — except your Father, who is with you in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Commentary of the day:
Saint John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
Homily for Ash Wednesday 1983 - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
In the secret of the heart
Lent is the time to come back to our self. It is a time of particular intimacy with God, in the secret of the heart and of the conscience. It is in this private intimacy with God that the essential work of Lent is accomplished: the work of conversion.
Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 09 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr (+ 249)
St Teilo, riding a white stag
(image from 15th century glass, Plogonnec, Finistere, Brittany)
1 Kings 8:22 Then Shlomo stood before the altar of Adonai in the presence of the whole community of Isra’el, spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and said, “Adonai, God of Isra’el, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant with your servants and show them grace, provided they live in your presence with all their heart.
27 “But can God actually live on the earth? Why, heaven itself, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain you; so how much less this house I have built? 28 Even so, Adonai my God, pay attention to your servant’s prayer and plea, listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying before you today, 29 that your eyes will be open toward this house night and day — toward the place concerning which you said, ‘My name will be there’ — to listen to the prayer your servant will pray toward this place. 30 Yes, listen to the plea of your servant, and also that of your people Isra’el when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven where you live; and when you hear, forgive!
Psalm 84:3 (2) My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing
for the courtyards of Adonai;
my heart and body cry for joy
to the living God.
4 (3) As the sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young,
[so my resting-place is] by your altars,
Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.
5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
10 (9) God, see our shield [the king];
look at the face of your anointed.
11 (10) Better a day in your courtyards
than a thousand [days elsewhere].
Better just standing at the door of my God’s house
than living in the tents of the wicked.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:1 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua 2 and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. 3 (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. 4 Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)
5 The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” 6 Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7 Their worship of me is useless,
because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’[Mark 7:7 Isaiah 29:13]
8 “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. 9 Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[Mark 7:10 Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’[Mark 7:10 Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9] 11 But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”
Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity
Prayer: Seeking the Heart of God, with Bro. Roger
"Their hearts are far from me"
Let God’s love take entire possession of a heart; let this become like second nature to that heart; let that heart not allow anything opposed to it to enter in; let it constantly strive to nurture this love of God by seeking to please Him in everything and not refusing Him anything He asks; let it accept everything that happens to it as coming from God’s hand.
Daily Gospel for Monday, 08 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947)
This African flower, who knew the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, bloomed marvelously in Italy, in response to God's grace, with the Daughters of Charity.
At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance.
The angel again appeared, and they then set out for Rome, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries.
The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, over- i powered his vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud." Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis.
Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 8:1 Then Shlomo assembled all the leaders of Isra’el, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the paternal clans of the people of Isra’el, to King Shlomo in Yerushalayim, to bring the ark for the covenant of Adonai out of the City of David, also known as Tziyon. 2 All the men of Isra’el assembled before King Shlomo at the festival in the month of Etanim, the seventh month. 3 All the leaders of Isra’el came. The cohanim took the ark 4 and brought up the ark of Adonai, the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; these are what the cohanim and L’vi’im brought up. 5 King Shlomo and the whole community of Isra’el assembled in his presence were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers beyond counting or recording.
6 The cohanim brought the ark for the covenant of Adonai in to its place inside the sanctuary of the house, to the Especially Holy Place, under the wings of the k’ruvim. 7 For the k’ruvim spread out their wings over the place for the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above.
9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moshe put there at Horev, when Adonai made the covenant with the people of Isra’el at the time of their leaving the land of Egypt.
10 When the cohanim came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of Adonai, 11 so that, because of the cloud, the cohanim could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of Adonai filled the house of Adonai.
12 Shlomo said, “Adonai said he would live in thick darkness. 13 But I have built you a magnificent house, a place where you can live forever.”
Psalms 132:6 We heard about it in Efrat,
we found it in the Fields of Ya‘ar.
7 Let’s go into his dwelling
and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.
8 Go up, Adonai, to your resting-place,
you and the ark through which you give strength.
9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness;
may those loyal to you shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:53 After they had made the crossing, they landed at Ginosar and anchored. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized him 55 and began running around throughout that whole region and bringing sick people on their stretchers to any place where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed.
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Exclamation 16 (©Institute of Carmelite Studies)
"As many as touched the tassel on his cloak were healed"
O true God and my Lord! It is a great consolation for the soul wearied by the loneliness of being separated from you to see that you are everywhere. But when the vehemence of love and the great impulses of this pain increase, there's no remedy, my God. For the intellect is disturbed and the reason is so kept from knowing the truth of Your omnipresence that it can neither understand nor know. It only knows it is separated from You and it accepts no remedy. For the heart that greatly loves receives no counsel or consolation except from the very one who wounded it, because from that one it hopes its pain will be cured.
Daily Gospel for Sunday, 07 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Saints of the day: Bl. Rosalie Rendu, (1786-1856)
St. John of Matha, Priest (1169-1213)
Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King ‘Uziyahu’s death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 S’rafim stood over him, each with six wings — two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying. 3 They were crying out to each other,
“More holy than the holiest holiness
is Adonai-Tzva’ot!
The whole earth is filled
with his glory!”
4 The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! —
because I, a man with unclean lips,
living among a people with unclean lips,
have seen with my own eyes
the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”
6 One of the s’rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Here! This has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is gone,
your sin is atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying,
“Whom should I send?
Who will go for us?”
I answered, “I’m here, send me!”
Psalm 138:(0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Adonai,
when they hear the words you have spoken.
5 They will sing about Adonai’s ways,
“Great is the glory of Adonai!”
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now, brothers, I must remind you of the Good News which I proclaimed to you, and which you received, and on which you have taken your stand, 2 and by which you are being saved — provided you keep holding fast to the message I proclaimed to you. For if you don’t, your trust will have been in vain. 3 For among the first things I passed on to you was what I also received, namely this: the Messiah died for our sins, in accordance with what the Tanakh says; 4 and he was buried; and he was raised on the third day, in accordance with what the Tanakh says; 5 and he was seen by Kefa, then by the Twelve; 6 and afterwards he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Later he was seen by Ya‘akov, then by all the emissaries; 8 and last of all he was seen by me, even though I was born at the wrong time. 9 For I am the least of all the emissaries, unfit to be called an emissary, because I persecuted the Messianic Community of God. 10 But by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain; on the contrary, I have worked harder than all of them, although it was not I but the grace of God with me. 11 Anyhow, whether I or they, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:1 One day, as Yeshua was standing on the shore of Lake Kinneret, with the people pressing in around him in order to hear the word of God, 2 he noticed two boats pulled up on the beach, left there by the fishermen, who were cleaning their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Shim‘on, and asked him to put out a little way from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Shim‘on, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Shim‘on answered, “We’ve worked hard all night long, Rabbi, and haven’t caught a thing! But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” 6 They did this and took in so many fish that their nets began to tear. 7 So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both boats to the point of sinking. 8 When he saw this, Shim‘on Kefa fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, “Get away from me, sir, because I’m a sinner!” 9 For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and likewise both Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Shim‘on’s partners. “Don’t be frightened,” Yeshua said to Shim‘on, “from now on you will be catching men — alive!” 11 And as soon as they had beached their boats, they left everything behind and followed him.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 43, 5-6 ; CCL 41, 510-511 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
"Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch"
How great was Christ’s courtesy! This Peter who spoke these words was once a fisherman and in our day a public speaker deserves high praise if he is able to converse with a fisherman! Addressing the first Christians the apostle Paul says: “Brothers and sisters, remember what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise according to human standards; not many of you were influential or of noble birth. But God chose what the world regards as weak in order to disconcert the strong; God chose what the world regards as foolish in order to abash the wise; God chose what the world regards as common and contemptible, of no account whatever, in order to overthrow the existing order” (1Cor 1:26-28).
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 06 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Paul Miki & his companions, Martyrs (+ 1597) - Memorial
Among the Jesuits was Paul Miki, still a Jesuit scholastic [Jesuit in training]. He was born about 1565 in Japan. He entered the Society of Jesus and was a successful preacher. From the cross he preached to the people inviting them to conversion. Miki was also the first Japanese religious to be martyred.
Finally soldiers pierced each prisoner's chest with a lance. The hill on which they died became known as "Martyrs' Hill."
They were all canonized as the Martyrs of Japan in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied that "Christ was her only Spouse, and death her desire." She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope that they might pervert her; but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and asked her the cause of her joy. "Because," she said, "I have brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing with the angels." Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with plates of red-hot iron. "Blessed be Thou," she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,-"blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! Who dost call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber."
St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him "apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse." The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Psalm 119:ב (Bet)
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
don’t let me stray from your mitzvot.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Adonai!
Teach me your laws.
13 I proclaim with my mouth
all the rulings you have spoken.
14 I rejoice in the way of your instruction
more than in any kind of wealth.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:30 Those who had been sent out rejoined Yeshua and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 There were so many people coming and going that they couldn’t even take time to eat, so he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a place where we can be alone, and you can get some rest.” 32 They went off by themselves to an isolated spot; 33 but many people, seeing them leave and recognizing them, ran ahead on foot from all the towns and got there first. 34 When Yeshua came ashore, he saw a huge crowd. Filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he began teaching them many things.
Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Zeno of Verona (? – c.380), Bishop
Sermon 'De spe, fide et caritate', 9; PL 11, 278
"His heart was moved with pity for them"
O charity, how good, how bountiful you are! They possess nothing who do not possess you. You it was who could make of God a man. You caused him to humble himself and forsake, for a while, his great majesty. You held him captive for nine months in the Virgin's womb. You healed Eve in Mary, renewed Adam in Christ. For the salvation of this fallen world you prepared the cross...
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 124
Christ’s miracles are symbols of the different events of our eternal salvation…, this pool is the symbol of the precious gift the Lord’s Word gives us. To sum up, this water is the Jewish people; the five porticos are the Law that Moses wrote in five books. And so this pool was surrounded by five porticos like the people enclosed by the Law. The water that was stirred and troubled is the Savior’s Passion in this people’s midst. Whoever went down into this water was healed - but only one person so as to express unity. Those who were unable to bear anyone speaking to them about the Passion are the proud; they do not want to go down and are not healed. “What!” says that arrogant man: “Believe a God to be incarnate, that a God was born of a woman, that a God has been crucified, scourged, covered in wounds, that he died and has been buried? No, I would never believe in these humiliations of a God, they are unworthy of him.”
Let your heart speak here rather than your head. The humiliations of a God seem unworthy to the arrogant and that is why they are very far from a cure. So protect yourself from this pride; if you desire your healing, accept to go down. There would be something to be worried about if someone said to you that Christ had undergone some sort of change in becoming incarnate. But no… your God remains what he was, have no fear; he does not perish and he prevents you yourselves from perishing. Yes, he remains what he is; he is born of a woman but according to the flesh… it is as man that he has been seized, bound, scourged, mocked and finally crucified and put to death. Why be afraid? The Word of the Lord remains forever. Anyone who refuses these humiliations of a God does not want to be cured of the mortal swelling of his pride.
By his incarnation our Lord Jesus Christ has therefore restored hope to our flesh. He assumed the fruits of this earth that are only too well known and common: birth and death. Birth and death: here indeed are goods that the earth possesses in abundance! But in them were found neither resurrection nor eternal life. He found here the unfortunate fruits of this unfruitful earth and gave us in exchange
the possessions of his heavenly kingdom.Let your heart speak here rather than your head. The humiliations of a God seem unworthy to the arrogant and that is why they are very far from a cure. So protect yourself from this pride; if you desire your healing, accept to go down. There would be something to be worried about if someone said to you that Christ had undergone some sort of change in becoming incarnate. But no… your God remains what he was, have no fear; he does not perish and he prevents you yourselves from perishing. Yes, he remains what he is; he is born of a woman but according to the flesh… it is as man that he has been seized, bound, scourged, mocked and finally crucified and put to death. Why be afraid? The Word of the Lord remains forever. Anyone who refuses these humiliations of a God does not want to be cured of the mortal swelling of his pride.
By his incarnation our Lord Jesus Christ has therefore restored hope to our flesh. He assumed the fruits of this earth that are only too well known and common: birth and death. Birth and death: here indeed are goods that the earth possesses in abundance! But in them were found neither resurrection nor eternal life. He found here the unfortunate fruits of this unfruitful earth and gave us in exchange
--------------------
Daily Gospel for Monday, 07 March 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Saints of the day: Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyr - Mémorial
Saint Perpetua and
Saint Felicity
Martyrs
(+ 203)
Saint Felicity
Martyrs
(+ 203)
Perpetua was 22, of a patrician family; Felicity was a slave: both were martyred in the public stadium at Carthage, in 203, during the persecution of Septimus Severus.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Book of Isaiah 65:17 “For, look! I create new heavensand a new earth;
past things will not be remembered,
they will no more come to mind.
18 So be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for look! I am making Yerushalayim a joy,
and her people a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Yerushalayim
and take joy in my people.
The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in it,
no longer the sound of crying.
20 No more will babies die in infancy,
no more will an old man die short of his days —
he who dies at a hundred will be thought young,
and at less than a hundred thought cursed.
21 They will build houses and live in them,
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Psalms 30:2 (1) I will exalt you, Adonai, because you drew me up;
you didn’t let my enemies rejoice over me.
4 (3) Adonai, you lifted me up from Sh’ol;
you kept me alive when I was sinking into a pit.
5 (4) Sing praise to Adonai, you faithful of his;
and give thanks on recalling his holiness.
6 (5) For his anger is momentary,
but his favor lasts a lifetime.
Tears may linger for the night,
but with dawn come cries of joy.
11 (10) Hear me, Adonai, and show me your favor!
Adonai, be my helper!”
12 (11) You turned my mourning into dancing!
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
13 (12) so that my well-being can praise you and not be silent;
Adonai my God, I will thank you forever!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 4:43 After the two days, he went on from there toward the Galil. 44 Now Yeshua himself said, “A prophet is not respected in his own country.” 45 But when he arrived in the Galil, the people there welcomed him, because they had seen all he had done at the festival in Yerushalayim; since they had been there too.
46 He went again to Kanah in the Galil, where he had turned the water into wine. An officer in the royal service was there; his son was ill in K’far-Nachum. 47 This man, on hearing that Yeshua had come from Y’hudah to the Galil, went and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Yeshua answered, “Unless you people see signs and miracles, you simply will not trust!” 49 The officer said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Yeshua replied, “You may go, your son is alive.” The man believed what Yeshua said and left. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him with the news that his son was alive 52 So he asked them at what time he had gotten better; and they said, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 The father knew that that was the very hour when Yeshua had told him, “Your son is alive”; and he and all his household trusted. 54 This was a second sign that Yeshua did; he did it after he had come from Y’hudah into the Galil.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Baldwin of Ford (?-c.1190), Cistercian abbot, then Bishop
Tractate 6, on Heb 4,12 (©Cistercian publications)
We have, therefore, the word in the Father, the word in the mouth, and the word in the heart. The word in the mouth is the expression of the word that is in the Father and also the expression of the word that is in the heart of man. The word in the heart of man is either the understanding of the word or faith in the word or the love of the word when the word is either understood or believed or loved. When these three are united in one heart so that the word of God is at one and the same time understood, believed and loved, then Christ, who is the word of the Father... dwells in the heart by faith. And with wonderful condescension he who is God in the heart of the Father descends even to the heart of men...
This Word of God... is living, and the Father granted to him that he should have life in himself as the Father has life in himself (Jn 5,26). On this account he is not only living, but life; as he says of himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14,6).Because he is life, he lives in such a way that he is able to give life, for “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (Jn 5,21).
--------------------This Word of God... is living, and the Father granted to him that he should have life in himself as the Father has life in himself (Jn 5,26). On this account he is not only living, but life; as he says of himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14,6).Because he is life, he lives in such a way that he is able to give life, for “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (Jn 5,21).
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 20 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Eucherius, Bishop (+ 743)
SAINT EUCHERIUS
Bishop
(+ 743)
Bishop
(+ 743)
This Saint was born at Orleans, of a very illustrious family. At his birth his parents dedicated him to God, and set him to study when he was but seven years old, resolving to omit nothing that could be done toward cultivating his mind or forming his heart His improvement in virtue kept pace with his progress in learning: he meditated assiduously on the sacred writings, especially on St. Paul's manner of speaking on the world and its enjoyments as mere empty shadows that deceive us and vanish away. These reflections at length sank so deep into his mind that he resolved to quit the world. To put this design in execution, about the year 714 he retired to the abbey of Jumiége in Normandy, where he spent six or seven years in the practice of penitential austerities and obedience.
Suavaric, his uncle, Bishop of Orleans, having died, the senate and people, with the clergy of that city, begged permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the dangers that threatened him; but they preferred the public good to their private inclinations, and resigned him for that important charge. He was consecrated with universal applause in 721.
Charles Martel, to defray the expenses of his wars and other undertakings, often stripped the churches of their revenues. St. Eucherius reproved these encroachments with so much zeal that, in the year 737, Charles banished him to Cologne. The extraordinary esteem which his virtue procured him in that city moved Charles to order him to be conveyed thence to a strong place in the territory of Liege. Robert, the governor of that country, was so charmed with his virtue that he made him the distributor of his large alms, and allowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. Tron's.
Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employment till the year 743, in which he died, on the 20th of February.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Bl. Francisco and Jacinta Marto Bl. Francisco and Jacinta Marto | |
Francisco Marto (June 11, 1908 - April 4, 1919) and his sister Jacinta Marto (March 11, 1910 - February 20, 1920), together with their cousin, Lucia dos Santos were the children from Aljustrel near Fatima, Portugal, who said they witnessed three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Their reported visions of Our Lady of Fatima proved politically controversial, and gave rise to a major centre of world Christian pilgrimage. The youngest children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto, Francisco and Jacinta were typical of Portuguese village children of that time. They were illiterate but had a rich oral tradition on which to rely, and they worked with their cousin Lucia, taking care of the family's sheep. According to Lucia's memoirs, Francisco had a placid disposition, was somewhat musically inclined, and liked to be by himself to think. Jacinta was affectionate if a bit spoiled, and emotionally labile. She had a sweet singing voice and a gift for dancing. All three children gave up music and dancing after the visions began, believing that these and other recreational activities led to occasions of sin.Following their experiences, their fundamental personalities remained the same. Francisco preferred to pray alone, as he said "to console Jesus for the sins of the world". Jacinta was deeply affected by a terrifying vision of Hell reportedly shown to the children at the third apparition. She became deeply convinced of the need to save sinners through penance and sacrifice as the Virgin had reportedly instructed the children to do. All three children, but particularly Francisco and Jacinta, practiced stringent self-mortifications to this end. | |
St. Wulfric
Feastday: February 20Birth: 1080
Death: 1154
Wulfric (d. 1154) + hermit and miracle worker. Born at Compton Martin, near Bristol, England, he became a priest and was excessively materialistic and worldly. After meeting with a beggar, he underwent a personal conversion and became a hermit at Haselbury; Somerset, England. For his remaining years, he devoted himself to rigorous austerities and was known for his miracles and prophecies. While he was never formally canonized, Wulfric was a very popular saint during the Middle Ages, and his tomb was visited by many pilgrims. Feast day: February 20.
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Deuteronomy 26:(iii) 16 “Today Adonai your God orders you to obey these laws and rulings. Therefore, you are to observe and obey them with all your heart and all your being. 17 You are agreeing today that Adonai is your God and that you will follow his ways; observe his laws, mitzvot and rulings; and do what he says. 18 In turn Adonai is agreeing today that you are his own unique treasure, as he promised you; that you are to observe all his mitzvot; 19 and that he will raise you high above all the nations he has made, in praise, reputation and glory; and that, as he said, you will be a holy people for Adonai your God.”
Psalm 119: א (Alef)
1 How happy are those whose way of life is blameless,
who live by the Torah of Adonai!
2 How happy are those who observe his instruction,
who seek him wholeheartedly!
4 You laid down your precepts
for us to observe with care.
5 May my ways be steady
in observing your laws.
7 I thank you with a sincere heart
as I learn your righteous rulings.
8 I will observe your laws;
don’t completely abandon me!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbor[Matthew 5:43 Leviticus 19:18] — and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun shine on good and bad people alike, and he sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. 46 What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! 47 And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! 48 Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Saturday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-532), Bishop in North Africa
Sermon 5; PL5, 737
The apostle Paul gives us to understand what will be bestowed on these children of God: “If we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom 8,17). Pay heed then, you Christians; pay heed, children of God; pay heed, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ! If you want to gain possession of your Father’s inheritance, pay the debt of your love not simply to your friends but even to your enemies. Refuse this love to no one; it is the common fund of all people of good will. Possess it together, then, and in order to increase it pay it out to the wicked as much as to the good. For this property that we can only hold together is not of earth but of heaven; one person’s share never diminishes that of another…
Love is a gift of God: “Love has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us,” (Rom 5,5)… Love is the root of all good just as, according to Saint Paul, avarice is that of all evil (1Tm 6,10)… Love is always happy, because the more it increases its giving, the more generously does God bestow it on us. That is why, while misers make themselves poor with all they hoard, he who pays his debt of love enriches himself from what he gives.
--------------------Love is a gift of God: “Love has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us,” (Rom 5,5)… Love is the root of all good just as, according to Saint Paul, avarice is that of all evil (1Tm 6,10)… Love is always happy, because the more it increases its giving, the more generously does God bestow it on us. That is why, while misers make themselves poor with all they hoard, he who pays his debt of love enriches himself from what he gives.
--------------------
Daily Gospel for Friday, 19 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Barbatus, Bishop (+ 682)
SAINT BARBATUS
Bishop
(+ 682)
Bishop
(+ 682)
St. Barbatus was born in the territory of Benevento in Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His parents gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his youth laid the foundation of that eminent sanctity which recommends him to our veneration.
The innocence, simplicity, and purity of his manners, and his extraordinary progress in all virtues, qualified him for the service of the altar, to which he was assumed by taking Holy Orders as soon as the canons of the Church would allow it. He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for which he had an extraordinary talent, and, after some time, made curate of St. Basil's in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His parishioners were steeled in their irregularities, and they treated him as a disturber of their peace, and persecuted him with the utmost violence. Finding their malice conquered by his patience and humility, and his character shining still more bright, they had recourse to slanders, in which their virulence and success were such that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors among them.
Barbatus returned to Benevento, where he was received with joy. When St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry in that city, the Christians themselves retained many idolatrous superstitions, which even their duke, Prince Romuald, authorized by his example, though son of Grimoald, King of the Lombards, who had edified all Italy by his conversion. They expressed a religious veneration for a golden viper, and prostrated themselves before it; they also paid superstitious honor to a tree, on which they hung the skin of a wild beast; and those ceremonies were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulders. St. Barbatus preached zealously against these abuses, and at length he roused the attention of the people by foretelling the distress of their city, and the calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the Emperor Constans, who, landing soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento.
Ildebrand, Bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the public tranquillity was restored St. Barbatus was consecrated bishop on the 10th of March, 663. Barbatus, being invested with the episcopal character, pursued and completed the good work which he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace of superstition in the whole state. In the year 680 he assisted in a council held by Pope Agatho at Rome, and the year following in the Sixth General Council held at Constantinople against the Monothelites.
He did not long survive this great assembly, for he died on the 29th of February, 682, being about seventy years old, almost nineteen of which he had spent in the episcopal chair.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
St. Conrad of PiacenzaFebruary 19
St. Conrad of Piacenza
(1290-1350)
Born of a noble family in northern Italy, Conrad as a young man married Euphrosyne, daughter of a nobleman.
One day while hunting he ordered attendants to set fire to some brush in order to flush out the game. The fire spread to nearby fields and to a large forest. Conrad fled. An innocent peasant was imprisoned, tortured to confess and condemned to death. Conrad confessed his guilt, saved the man’s life and paid for the damaged property.
Soon after this event, Conrad and his wife agreed to separate: she to a Poor Clare monastery and he to a group of hermits following the Third Order Rule. His reputation for holiness, however, spread quickly. Since his many visitors destroyed his solitude, Conrad went to a more remote spot in Sicily where he lived 36 years as a hermit, praying for himself and for the rest of the world.
Prayer and penance were his answer to the temptations that beset him. Conrad died kneeling before a crucifix. He was canonized in 1625.
Comment:
Francis of Assisi was drawn both to contemplation and to a life of preaching; periods of intense prayer nourished his preaching. Some of his early followers, however, felt called to a life of greater contemplation, and he accepted that. Though Conrad of Piacenza is not the norm in the Church, he and other contemplatives remind us of the greatness of God and of the joys of heaven.
Quote:
Pope Paul VI’s 1969 Instruction on the Contemplative Life includes this passage: "To withdraw into the desert is for Christians tantamount to associating themselves more intimately with Christ’s passion, and it enables them, in a very special way, to share in the paschal mystery and in the passage of Our Lord from this world to the heavenly homeland" (#1).
St. Boniface of Lausanne
St. Boniface of Lausanne
Feastday: February 19
Friday of the First week of LentFeastday: February 19
Birth: 1183
Death: 1260
Bishop of Lausanne. He was born in Brussels, Belgium, and educated by the Cistercian nuns of La Cambra nearby. After studying in Paris, France, he taught dogma there and at Cologne, Germany. In 1230, he was made the bishop of Lausanne, Switzerland. He served nine years and then resigned to live at the Cistercian convent at La Cambra as chaplain because of an assault by agents of Emperor Frederick II after he had publicly scolded the emperor and the local clergy for their corruption.
Book of Ezekiel 18:21 “However, if the wicked person repents of all the sins he committed, keeps my laws and does what is lawful and right; then he will certainly live, he will not die. 22 None of the transgressions he has committed will be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done, he will live. 23 Do I take any pleasure at all in having the wicked person die?” asks Adonai Elohim. “Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
24 “On the other hand, when the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness by acting in accordance with all the disgusting practices that the wicked person does, will he live? None of the righteous deeds he has done will be remembered; for the trespasses and sins he has committed, he will die.
25 “So now you say, ‘Adonai’s way isn’t fair.’ Listen, house of Isra’el! Is it my way that is unfair? or your ways that are unfair? 26 When the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and commits wickedness, he will die for it — for the wickedness he commits he will die. 27 And when the wicked person turns away from all the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he will save his life. 28 Because he thinks it over and repents of all the transgressions he committed, he will certainly live, not die.
Psalm 130:(0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
21 “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Do not murder,’[Matthew 5:21 Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17] and that anyone who commits murder will be subject to judgment. 22 But I tell you that anyone who nurses anger against his brother will be subject to judgment; that whoever calls his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing!’ will be brought before the Sanhedrin; that whoever says, ‘Fool!’ incurs the penalty of burning in the fire of Gei-Hinnom! 23 So if you are offering your gift at the Temple altar and you remember there that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift where it is by the altar, and go, make peace with your brother. Then come back and offer your gift. 25 If someone sues you, come to terms with him quickly, while you and he are on the way to court; or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer of the court, and you may be thrown in jail! 26 Yes indeed! I tell you, you will certainly not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Friday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 211, 5-6 (SC 116)
It still remains for you to pray: pray for that person to ask your pardon since you know it isn’t right for him not to do so. So pray for him…; say to the Lord: “You know I haven’t offended my neighbour… and that it is harming him to have caused me harm; as for me, with all my heart I ask you to forgive him.”
This is what you have to do so as to live in peace with your neighbors…, in order that we may carry out the Paschal feast in tranquillity and peacefully celebrate the Passion of the one who owed nothing to anyone and who repaid debts in the debtors’ place, our Lord Jesus Christ, who offended no one and whom the whole world, so to speak, has offended. He has not exacted punishments but promised rewards… It is he himself whom we take as witness in our hearts: if we have offended someone we are going to ask for pardon; if someone has offended us, we are ready to forgive and to pray for our enemies.
--------------------This is what you have to do so as to live in peace with your neighbors…, in order that we may carry out the Paschal feast in tranquillity and peacefully celebrate the Passion of the one who owed nothing to anyone and who repaid debts in the debtors’ place, our Lord Jesus Christ, who offended no one and whom the whole world, so to speak, has offended. He has not exacted punishments but promised rewards… It is he himself whom we take as witness in our hearts: if we have offended someone we are going to ask for pardon; if someone has offended us, we are ready to forgive and to pray for our enemies.
Daily Gospel for Thursday, 18 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thursday of the First week of Lent
Saints of the day: St. Flavian, Bishop and Martyr (+ 449)
SAINT FLAVIAN
Bishop and Martyr
(+ 449)
Bishop and Martyr
(+ 449)
FLAVIAN was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 447. His short episcopate of two years was a time of conflict and persecution from the beginning. Chrysaphius, the emperor's favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money from him on the occasion of his consecration. His fidelity in refusing brought on him the enmity of the most powerful man in the empire.
More trouble soon arose. In 448 Flavian had to condemn the rising heresy of the monk Eutyches, who obstinately denied that Our Lord was in two perfect natures after His Incarnation. Eutyches drew to his cause all the bad elements which so early gathered about the Byzantine court. His intrigues were long baffled by the vigilance of Flavian; but at last he obtained from the emperor the assembly of a council at Ephesus, in August 449, presided over by his friend Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria. Into this "robber council," as it is called, Eutyches entered, surrounded by soldiers. The Roman legates could not even read the Pope's letters; and at the first sign of resistance to the condemnation of Flavian, fresh troops entered with drawn swords, and, in spite of the protests of the legates, terrified most of the bishops into acquiescence.
The fury of Dioscorus reached its height when Flavian appealed to the Holy See. Then it was that he so forgot his apostolic office as to lay violent hands on his adversary. St. Flavian was set upon by Dioscorus and others, thrown down, beaten, kicked, and finally carried into banishment. Let us contrast their ends. Flavian clung to the teaching of the Roman Pontiff, and sealed his faith with his blood. Dioscorus excommunicated the Vicar of Christ, and died obstinate and impenitent in the heresy of Eutyches.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
St. Simeon
In St. Matthew's Gospel, we read of St. Simon or Simeon who is described as one of our Lord's brethren or kinsmen. His father was Cleophas, St. Joseph's brother, and his mother, according to some writers, was our Lady's sister. He would therefore be our Lord's first cousin and is supposed to have been about eight years older than He. No doubt he is one of those brethren of Christ who are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as having received the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. St. Epiphanius says that when the Jews massacred St. James the Lesser, his brother Simeon upbraided them for their cruelty. The apostles and disciples afterwards met together to appoint a successor to James as bishop of Jerusalem, and they unanimously chose Simeon, who had probably assisted his brother in the government of that church. In the year 66 civil war broke out in Palestine, as a consequence of Jewish opposition to the Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were warned of the impending destruction of the city and appear to have been divinely ordered to leave it. Accordingly that same year, before Vespasian entered Judaea, they retired with St. Simeon at their head to the other side of the Jordan, occupying a small city called Pella. After the capture and burning of Jerusalem, the Christians returned and settled among the ruins until the Emperor Hadrian afterwards entirely razed it. We are told by St. Epiphanius and by Eusebius that the church here flourished greatly, and that many Jews were converted by the miracles wrought by the saints. When Vespasian and Domitian had ordered the destruction of all who were of the race of David, St. Simeon had escaped their search; but when Trajan gave a similar injunction, he was denounced as being not only one of David's descendants, but also a Christian, and he was brought before Atticus, the Roman governor. He was condemned to death and, after being tortured, was crucified. Although he was extremely old - tradition reports him to have attained the age of 120 - Simeon endured his sufferings with a degree of fortitude which roused the admiration of Atticus himself. His feast day is February 18
Book of Esther C: Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish,
had recourse to the LORD.
She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids,
from morning until evening, and said:
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
As a child I used to hear from the books of my forefathers
that you, O LORD, always free those who are pleasing to you.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.
“And now, come to help me, an orphan.
Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion
and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy,
so that he and those who are in league with him may perish.
Save us from the hand of our enemies;
turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”
Psalm 138:(0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7:7 “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who keeps asking receives; he who keeps seeking finds; and to him who keeps knocking, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone here who, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone? 10 or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 So if you, even though you are bad, know how to give your children gifts that are good, how much more will your Father in heaven keep giving good things to those who keep asking him!
12 “Always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that sums up the teaching of the Torah and the Prophets.
Thursday of the First week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
An anonymous 4th century homily (wrongly attributed to St. John Chrysostom)
Israel enjoys your goods; I also want to experience your kindness. You led Israel out of Egypt; pull me out of error. You redeemed Israel from Pharaoh; deliver me from the author of evil. You led Israel through the Red Sea; lead me through the water of baptism. You guided Israel by means of the pillar of fire; enlighten me by means of your Holy Spirit. Israel ate the bread of angels in the desert; give me your most holy Body. Israel drank water from the rock; quench my thirst with the Blood from your side. Israel received the tables of your Law; inscribe your Gospel in my heart…
“Hearken to my words, O Lord, attend to my sighing.” Thanks to this sighing, Moses had creation as your people’s ally [at the Red Sea]. Thanks to this clamor, Joshua stopped the sun’s course (Josh 10:12). Thanks to this cry, Elijah made the clouds of heaven sterile (1 Kings 17:1). Thanks to this moaning, against all hope, Hannah gave birth to a child (1 Sam 1:10f.). “So Lord, attend to my sighing.”
I proclaim the Father’s absolute power and the Son’s mediation, his being sent into the world and his obedience. The Father is eternally enthroned and you “inclined the heavens and came down.” (Ps 29:10;18:10)… You received his testimony in the Jordan. In calling Lazarus to come out of the tomb, you gave thanks to your Father… In multiplying the loaves in the desert, you raised your eyes to heaven and you said the blessing. When you were hanged on the cross, it was he who received your spirit. When you were laid in the tomb, it was he who raised you on the third day. All of that is what I cry out in my prayer; that is what I proclaim throughout the ages.
--------------------“Hearken to my words, O Lord, attend to my sighing.” Thanks to this sighing, Moses had creation as your people’s ally [at the Red Sea]. Thanks to this clamor, Joshua stopped the sun’s course (Josh 10:12). Thanks to this cry, Elijah made the clouds of heaven sterile (1 Kings 17:1). Thanks to this moaning, against all hope, Hannah gave birth to a child (1 Sam 1:10f.). “So Lord, attend to my sighing.”
I proclaim the Father’s absolute power and the Son’s mediation, his being sent into the world and his obedience. The Father is eternally enthroned and you “inclined the heavens and came down.” (Ps 29:10;18:10)… You received his testimony in the Jordan. In calling Lazarus to come out of the tomb, you gave thanks to your Father… In multiplying the loaves in the desert, you raised your eyes to heaven and you said the blessing. When you were hanged on the cross, it was he who received your spirit. When you were laid in the tomb, it was he who raised you on the third day. All of that is what I cry out in my prayer; that is what I proclaim throughout the ages.
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 13 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: Bl. Jordan of Saxo, Dominican Priest (c. 1190-1237)
BLESSED JORDAN OF SAXONY
Dominican Priest
(C. 1190-1237)
Dominican Priest
(C. 1190-1237)
Blessed Jordan of Saxony was a German of noble descent. He received a pious upbringing, and was noted for his charity to the poor from an early age. Educated in Germany, he received his masters' degree in theology at the University of Paris.
He joined the Order of Preachers in 1220 under Saint Dominic himself and became Prior-provincial of the Order in Lombardy in 1221. He succeeded Dominic as master-general of the Order in 1222. Under his administration, the Order spread throughout Germany, and into Denmark.
He was a noted and powerful preacher; one of his sermons brought Saint Albert the Great into the Order.
Jordan is the author of Libellus de principiis Ordinis Praedicatorum ("Booklet on the beginnings of the Order of Preachers"), a Latin text which is both the earliest biography of Saint Dominic and the first narrative history of the foundation of the Order.
Spiritual director of Blessed Diana d'Andalo, he helped her found the monastery of Saint Agnes.
He died in a shipwreck off the coast of Syria while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Saturday after Ash WednesdayBook of Isaiah 58:9 Then you will call, and Adonai will answer;
you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you will remove the yoke from among you,
stop false accusation and slander,
10 generously offer food to the hungry
and meet the needs of the person in trouble;
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your gloom become like noon.
11 Adonai will always guide you;
he will satisfy your needs in the desert,
he will renew the strength in your limbs;
so that you will be like a watered garden,
like a spring whose water never fails.
12 You will rebuild the ancient ruins,
raise foundations from ages past,
and be called “Repairer of broken walls,
Restorer of streets to live in.”
13 “If you hold back your foot on Shabbat
from pursuing your own interests on my holy day;
if you call Shabbat a delight,
Adonai’s holy day, worth honoring;
then honor it by not doing your usual things
or pursuing your interests or speaking about them.
14 If you do, you will find delight in Adonai —
I will make you ride on the heights of the land
and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Ya‘akov,
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.”
Psalm 86:(0) A prayer of David:
(1) Listen, Adonai, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my life, for I am faithful;
save your servant,
who puts his trust in you
because you are my God.
3 Take pity on me, Adonai,
for I cry to you all day.
4 Fill your servant’s heart with joy,
for to you, Adonai, I lift my heart.
5 Adonai, you are kind and forgiving,
full of grace toward all who call on you.
6 Listen, Adonai, to my prayer;
pay attention to my pleading cry.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:27 Later Yeshua went out and saw a tax-collector named Levi sitting in his tax-collection booth; and he said to him, “Follow me!” 28 He got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Levi gave a banquet at his house in Yeshua’s honor, and there was a large group of tax-collectors and others at the table with them. 30 The P’rushim and their Torah-teachers protested indignantly against his talmidim, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax-collectors and sinners?” 31 It was Yeshua who answered them: “The ones who need a doctor aren’t the healthy but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the ‘righteous,’ but rather to call sinners to turn to God from their sins.”
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
Catechesis before baptism, no.1 (trad. Migne 1993, p. 36 rev.)
You have undertaken a good, a most splendid journey: set yourselves to running the race of enthusiasm. The only Son of God is waiting ready to redeem you: «Come,» he says, «you who are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest» (Mt 11,28). You who labor under sin, bound with the shackles of your misdeeds, hear what the voice of one of the prophets says: «Wash, make yourselves clean, put away your misdeeds from before my eyes» (Is 1,16) that the choir of angels may cry to you: «Happy are they whose transgression is taken away, whose sin is remitted!» (Ps 32[31],1). You who have come precisely to light the lamps of faith let your hands be diligent in guarding the flame so that he who, on our most holy hill of Golgotha, opened up paradise to the malefactor through faith (Lk 23,43) may grant you to sing the wedding song.
If there is anyone here who is a slave of sin, let him prepare himself by means of baptismal faith for the new birth that will make a free man of him, one of the children of adoption. Let him forsake the lamentable slavery of his sins to win the blessed slavery of the Lord... By faith acquire the first fruits of the Holy Spirit» (2Cor 5,5) so that you can be received into everlasting dwellings. Come to the sacrament that will seal you with a view to making you intimates of our Lord.
--------------------If there is anyone here who is a slave of sin, let him prepare himself by means of baptismal faith for the new birth that will make a free man of him, one of the children of adoption. Let him forsake the lamentable slavery of his sins to win the blessed slavery of the Lord... By faith acquire the first fruits of the Holy Spirit» (2Cor 5,5) so that you can be received into everlasting dwellings. Come to the sacrament that will seal you with a view to making you intimates of our Lord.
Daily Gospel for Friday, 12 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: Martyrs of Abitene
|
SAINT BENEDICT OF ANIAN
(c. 750-821)
(c. 750-821)
Benedict was the son of Aigulf, Governor of Languedoc, and was born about 750. In his early youth he served as cup-bearer to King Pepin and his son Charlemagne, enjoying under them great honors and possessions.
Grace entered his soul at the age of twenty, and he resolved to seek the kingdom of God with his whole heart. Without relinquishing his place at court, he lived there a most mortified life for three years; then a narrow escape from drowning made him vow to quit the world, and he entered the cloister of St. Seine.
In reward for his heroic austerities in the monastic state, God bestowed upon him the gift of tears, and inspired him with knowledge of spiritual things. As procurator, he was most careful of the wants of the brethren, and most hospitable to the poor and to guests.
Declining to accept the abbacy, he built himself a little hermitage on the brook Anian, and lived some years in great solitude and poverty; but the fame of his sanctity drawing many souls around him, he was obliged to build a large abbey, and within a short time governed three hundred monks.
He became the great restorer of monastic discipline throughout France and Germany. First, he drew up with immense labor a code of the rules of St. Benedict, his great namesake, which he collated with those of the chief monastic founders, showing the uniformity of the exercises in each, and enforced by his "Penitential" their exact observance; secondly, he minutely regulated all matters regarding food, clothing, and every detail of life; and thirdly, by prescribing the same for all, he excluded jealousies and insured perfect charity.
In a Provincial Council held in 813, under Charlemagne, at which he was present, it was declared that all monks of the West should adopt the rule of St. Benedict.
He died in 821.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
St. DamianSt. Damian
Feastday: April 12
Death: 710
Bishop of Pavia, in Lombardy, Italy. He was elected to that see in 680. Damien served as a mediator between the Lombards and the emperors of the Byzantine Empire. He also opposed the heretical Monothelite.
Friday after Ash Wednesday
Isaiah 58:1 Shout out loud! Don’t hold back!
Raise your voice like a shofar!
Proclaim to my people what rebels they are,
to the house of Ya‘akov their sins.
2 “Oh yes, they seek me day after day
and [claim to] delight in knowing my ways.
As if they were an upright nation
that had not abandoned the rulings of their God,
they ask me for just rulings
and [claim] to take pleasure in closeness to God,
3 [asking,] ‘Why should we fast, if you don’t see?
Why mortify ourselves, if you don’t notice?’
“Here is my answer: when you fast,
you go about doing whatever you like,
while keeping your laborers hard at work.
4 Your fasts lead to quarreling and fighting,
to lashing out with violent blows.
On a day like today, fasting like yours
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 “Is this the sort of fast I want,
a day when a person mortifies himself?
Is the object to hang your head like a reed
and spread sackcloth and ashes under yourself?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day that pleases Adonai?
6 “Here is the sort of fast I want —
releasing those unjustly bound,
untying the thongs of the yoke,
letting the oppressed go free,
breaking every yoke,
7 sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you see them,
fulfilling your duty to your kinsmen!”
8 Then your light will burst forth like the morning,
your new skin will quickly grow over your wound;
your righteousness will precede you,
and Adonai’s glory will follow you.
9 Then you will call, and Adonai will answer;
you will cry, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you will remove the yoke from among you,
stop false accusation and slander,
Psalm 51:3 (1) God, in your grace, have mercy on me;
in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.
4 (2) Wash me completely from my guilt,
and cleanse me from my sin.
5 (3) For I know my crimes,
my sin confronts me all the time.
6 (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil from your perspective;
so that you are right in accusing me
and justified in passing sentence.
18 (16) For you don’t want sacrifices, or I would give them;
you don’t take pleasure in burnt offerings.
19 (17) My sacrifice to God is a broken spirit;
God, you won’t spurn a broken, chastened heart.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9:14 Next, Yochanan’s talmidim came to him and asked, “Why is it that we and the P’rushim fast frequently, but your talmidim don’t fast at all?” 15 Yeshua said to them, “Can wedding guests mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then they will fast.Friday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Sermon 1 for the first day of Lent, 1,3,6
Where I am concerned, to hold completely fast to you is a blessing, O glorious Head, blessed throughout the ages, over which even the angels bend with longing (1 Pt 1:12). I will follow you wherever you go. If you pass through the fire I will not leave you, and I will fear no evil for you are with me (Ps 22[23]:4). You carry my sorrows and suffer for my sake. You, the first, have passed through the narrow passage of suffering that you might offer a wide entry to the members who follow you. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? (Rm 8:35)… This love is the precious ointment that runs down from the Head over the beard, that runs down, too, upon the collar of the robe to anoint its least thread (Ps 132[133]:2). It is in the Head that the plenitude of all graces are to be found and from it we receive all things. In the Head is all mercy, in the Head the overflowing of spiritual perfumes, as it is written: “God has anointed you with the oil of joy” (Ps 44[45]:8)…
And what about us? What does the gospel ask of us at this beginning of Lent? “When you fast,” he says, “anoint your head” (Mt 6:17). What wonderful condescension! The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, he has been anointed with him (Lk 4:18), and yet, in order to preach the gospel to the poor he says to them: “Anoint your head”.
--------------------And what about us? What does the gospel ask of us at this beginning of Lent? “When you fast,” he says, “anoint your head” (Mt 6:17). What wonderful condescension! The Spirit of the Lord is upon him, he has been anointed with him (Lk 4:18), and yet, in order to preach the gospel to the poor he says to them: “Anoint your head”.
Daily Gospel for Thursday, 11 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Saints of the day: St. Severinus of Agaunum, Abbot (+ 507)
SAINT SEVERINUS
Abbot of Agaunum
(+ 507)
Abbot of Agaunum
(+ 507)
St. Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic King Sigismund built there the great abbey of St. Maurice.
St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court; for it was said that the sick from all parts recovered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, Bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb; also a leper, at the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms to the poor and released all his prisoners.
St. Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Château-Landon in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened shortly after, in 507.
The place is now an abbey of reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the greater part of his relics when they plundered this church.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Thursday after Ash WednesdayDeuteronomy 30:(RY: iv, LY: vii) 15 “Look! I am presenting you today with, on the one hand, life and good; and on the other, death and evil — 16 in that I am ordering you today to love Adonai your God, to follow his ways, and to obey his mitzvot, regulations and rulings ; for if you do, you will live and increase your numbers; and Adonai your God will bless you in the land you are entering in order to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you are drawn away to prostrate yourselves before other gods and serve them; (LY: Maftir) 18 I am announcing to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not live long in the land you are crossing the Yarden to enter and possess.
19 “I call on heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have presented you with life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life, so that you will live, you and your descendants, 20 loving Adonai your God, paying attention to what he says and clinging to him — for that is the purpose of your life! On this depends the length of time you will live in the land Adonai swore he would give to your ancestors Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov.”
Psalm 1:1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 9:22 adding, “The Son of Man has to endure much suffering and be rejected by the elders, the head cohanim and the Torah-teachers; and he has to be put to death; but on the third day, he has to be raised to life.”
23 Then to everyone he said, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake daily and keep following me. 24 For whoever tries to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life on my account will save it. 25 What will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but destroys or forfeits his own life?
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Commentary of the day:
Theodore of Mopsuestia (?-428), Bishop and theologian
Commentary on Saint John’s Gospel; CSCO 116
After these predictions about himself Jesus exhorts his disciples to imitate him: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life” (v.25). “Therefore, not only must my Passion not scandalize you…, but you must be ready to undergo the same sufferings, too, so as to bear the same fruit.” Then he says very simply: “Whoever serves me must follow me.” “Whoever wishes to be my servant, let him show by his deeds that he wants to follow me.” “Where I am there also will my servant be. If anyone serves me my Father will honor him” (v.26). “Whoever shares in my suffering will share equally in my glory; he will remain with me eternally in the world to come and will share my joy in the heavenly Kingdom. That is how my Father will honor those who have served me faithfully.”
--------------------Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 10 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
"Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Co 6:2)
Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mk 1:15) In the Church's preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism (Acts 2:38) that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.
Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, "clasping sinners to her bosom, is at once holy and always in need of purification, and follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." (LG 8) This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a "contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first. (1 Jn 4:10)
Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.
Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart). (Cf. Council of Trent -1551- DS 1676-1678; 1705; Cf. Roman Catechism, II, V)
The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!" (Ezek 36:26-27) God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. the human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:
Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation it has brought to the whole world the grace of repentance. (From a letter to the Corinthians 7, 4 by Saint Clement, pope)
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving, which express conversion in relation to oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: effort at reconciliation with one's neighbor, tears of repentance, concern for the salvation of one's neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity "which covers a multitude of sins."
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, and revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.[Catechism of the Catholic Church §1427-1428; 1430-1432; 1434-1435 - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
Saint(s) of the day : St. Scholastica, Abbess (+ c. 543)
SAINT SCHOLASTICA
Abbess
(+ c. 543)
Abbess
(+ c. 543)
Of this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Casino.
St. Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that her pure soul went to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Her brother was accustomed to visit her every year, for "she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from his lips." On his last visit, after a day passed in spiritual converse, the Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, "My brother, leave me not, I pray you, this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of those who see God in heaven." St. Benedict would not, break his rule at the bidding of natural affection; and then the Saint bowed her head on her hands and prayed; and there arose a storm so violent that St. Benedict could not return to his monastery, and they passed the night in heavenly conversation.
Three days later St. Benedict saw in a vision the soul of his sister going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God for the graces He had given her, and for the glory which had crowned them. When she died, St. Benedict, her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by St. Benedict mingled their tears and prayed, "Alas! alas! dearest mother, to whom dost thou leave us now? Pray for us to Jesus, to Whom thou art gone." They then devoutly celebrated holy Mass, "commending her soul to God;" and her body was borne to Monte Casino, and laid by her brother in the tomb he had prepared for himself." And they bewailed her many days;" and St. Benedict said, "Weep not, sisters and brothers; for assuredly Jesus has taken her before us to be our aid and defence against all our enemies, that we may stand in the evil day and be in all things perfect."
She died about the year 543.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Wednesday, 10 February 2016Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” says Adonai,
“turn to me with all your heart,
with fasting, weeping and lamenting.”
13 Tear your heart, not your garments;
and turn to Adonai your God.
For he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger, rich in grace,
and willing to change his mind about disaster.
14 Who knows? He may turn, change his mind
and leave a blessing behind him,
[enough for] grain offerings and drink offerings
to present to Adonai your God.
15 “Blow the shofar in Tziyon!
Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly.”
16 Gather the people; consecrate the congregation;
assemble the leaders; gather the children,
even infants sucking at the breast;
let the bridegroom leave his room
and the bride the bridal chamber.
17 Let the cohanim, who serve Adonai,
stand weeping between the vestibule and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, Adonai!
Don’t expose your heritage to mockery,
or make them a byward among the Goyim.
Why should the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then Adonai will become jealous for his land
and have pity on his people.
Psalm 51:3 (1) God, in your grace, have mercy on me;
in your great compassion, blot out my crimes.
4 (2) Wash me completely from my guilt,
and cleanse me from my sin.
5 (3) For I know my crimes,
my sin confronts me all the time.
6 (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil from your perspective;
so that you are right in accusing me
and justified in passing sentence.
12 (10) Create in me a clean heart, God;
renew in me a resolute spirit.
13 (11) Don’t thrust me away from your presence,
don’t take your Ruach Kodesh away from me.
14 (12) Restore my joy in your salvation,
and let a willing spirit uphold me.
17 (15) Adonai, open my lips;
then my mouth will praise you.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God! 21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”
6:1 As God’s fellow-workers we also urge you not to receive his grace and then do nothing with it. 2 For he says,
“At the acceptable time I heard you;
in the day of salvation I helped you.”[2 Corinthians 6:2 Isaiah 49:8]
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 6:1 “Be careful not to parade your acts of tzedakah in front of people in order to be seen by them! If you do, you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 So, when you do tzedakah, don’t announce it with trumpets to win people’s praise, like the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 3 But you, when you do tzedakah, don’t even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4 Then your tzedakah will be in secret; and your Father, who sees what you do in secret, will reward you.
5 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on street corners, so that people can see them. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
16 “Now when you fast, don’t go around looking miserable, like the hypocrites. They make sour faces so that people will know they are fasting. Yes! I tell you, they have their reward already! 17 But you, when you fast, wash your face and groom yourself, 18 so that no one will know you are fasting — except your Father, who is with you in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Commentary of the day:
Saint John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
Homily for Ash Wednesday 1983 - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
And in this inner secret, in this intimacy with God in the full truth of the heart and of the conscience, words like those of the psalms of today's liturgy resound as one of the most profound confessions that man has ever done to God: “Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn” (Ps 50,1-6).
These are words that purify, words that transform. They transform man from the inside. Let us recite them often during Lent. And above all, let us strive to renovate the spirit that leads them, the inspiration that has rightly so given these words a force of conversion. For Lent is essentially an invitation to conversion. The works of alms of which the Gospel speaks about today open the way to this conversion. Let us practice them as much as we can. But first of all, let us try to meet God interiorly in our whole life, in all it is made of, so as to reach this conversion in deepness, of which the penitential psalm of today's liturgy is filled.
---------------------These are words that purify, words that transform. They transform man from the inside. Let us recite them often during Lent. And above all, let us strive to renovate the spirit that leads them, the inspiration that has rightly so given these words a force of conversion. For Lent is essentially an invitation to conversion. The works of alms of which the Gospel speaks about today open the way to this conversion. Let us practice them as much as we can. But first of all, let us try to meet God interiorly in our whole life, in all it is made of, so as to reach this conversion in deepness, of which the penitential psalm of today's liturgy is filled.
Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 09 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr (+ 249)
SAINT APOLLONIA
Virgin and martyr
and the Martyrs of Alexandria
(+ 249)
Virgin and martyr
and the Martyrs of Alexandria
(+ 249)
At Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury against the Christians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden worship. She replied by cursing the false god again and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy.
St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out; she was led outside the city, a huge fire was kindled, and she was told she must deny Christ, or else be burned alive. She was silent for a while, and then, moved by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she leaped into the fire and died in its flames.
The same courage showed itself the next year, when Decius became emperor, and the persecution grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen. To the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers: he was proof against torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared on account of his tender years; yet the Christians could not bear to think that he had been deprived of the martyr's crown, except to receive it afterwards more gloriously. "Dioscorus," writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, "remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat."
There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with horror at the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed over torture, till at last the judges were glad to execute them at once and put an end to the ignominy of their own defeat.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
St. TeiloSt Teilo
Early Welsh Saint
(Supposedly lived about 550 AD)
PATRON SAINT OF LLANDEILO
(Supposedly lived about 550 AD)
PATRON SAINT OF LLANDEILO
St Teilo, riding a white stag(image from 15th century glass, Plogonnec, Finistere, Brittany)
Introduction
Biographies of the very early Christian saints read very much like modern novels, because in both cases the authors have effectively created a work of fiction. For most of the saints who are said to have flourished in the early centuries after Christ, not a single written source exists from the period when they were alive, and presumably hard at work converting the local pagans to the obscure middle-eastern cult that was then only a few centuries old. One day, however, this cult would become the largest religion on the planet and, with almost two billion worshippers as the 21st century opened, the largest religion the world has ever seen. What people think are facts about such people as St David or St Teilo, after whom Llandeilo is named, are just an accumulation of legends, miracles, tall tales, church propaganda, and even outright fabrications, the earliest of which usually appear several centuries after their deaths. In the case of St Teilo the first written versions of his life appeared in the twelfth century, more than enough time for a thick crust of legend and supposed miracles to have completely obscured whatever are the true facts of his life.
The massive Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is the authoritative repository of the nation's great and good (including plenty of the not-so-good), from Roman times to the present. First appearing in the late nineteenth century the latest edition of 60 volumes was published in 2004 and its 50,000 double-column pages contain entries for 55,000 people deemed important enough to have contributed in some way, great or small, to British history. The author of the entry for St Teilo concurs with this vagueness about his existence and describes him as supposedly living around 550 AD. And the biographer's scepticism goes even further when he calls St Teilo a 'holy man and supposed bishop' who was the founder of the episcopal church of Llandeilo Fawr in Dyfed. Of course, someone must have been around in the sixth century, otherwise the spread of Christianity in Wales couldn't have taken place, and the existence of 25 churches dedicated to Teilo, some as far afield as Cornwall and Brittany, indicates that whoever he was, he was a very busy little missionary indeed. (There are even two villages in Brittany named Landelau and Landêliau.) Only the patron Saint of Wales, St David, has more churches dedicated to him and he, too, was a man for whom there are no contemporary records to attest to his existence, his earliest biography appearing as late as 1090.
Summary of Life
Teilo [St Teilo, Eliau, Eliud] (supposed floruit about 550), holy man and supposed bishop, was the founder of the episcopal church of Llandeilo Fawr in Dyfed. Like David and Padarn Teilo was one of the most important saints in south-west Wales. His feast day is celebrated on 9 February.
As the archbishopric of Llandaff expanded its influence and its boundaries in the 12th century, it appropriated the cult of St Teilo as its own. By the eleventh century the church and abbey at Llandeilo had been absorbed into the kingdom of Morgannwg (Glamorgan) which led to its eventual appropriation by Llandaff who even claimed (wrongly) that Teilo had been their second bishop.
Lives of other saints in the twelfth century contain passing references to Teilo but it was a work of propaganda of that century that provides us with the first accounts of his life and deeds, though qualifying words such as 'alleged' or 'supposed' must be attached to anything that comes down after six centuries of silence. The main surviving accounts of these alleged life and deeds are two related versions of the Vita sancti Teiliaui (the life of saint Teilo). In order to claim Teilo, a hagiography (biography of a saint) was composed as part of the ecclesiastical propaganda in the Book of Llandaff, compiled under Bishop Urban in the early twelfth century, and intended to provide the episcopal church with a demonstrable early history. At best the information supplied is of uncertain provenance and much of it appears to rework earlier lost material on St David, and seems intended to elevate the status of Llandaff into a much more important bishopric. Spin, one of the black arts of modern politics, has a long and illustrious history, it would seem.
Of the two versions of Teilo's life, the earlier states he was of noble birth while the second version states he was born near Penally in Pembrokeshire and makes him the uncle of another saint, St Euddogwy. This link to Euddogwy conveniently provides Teilo with a suitable connection to his successor as the archbishop of Llandaff and casts suspicion over the whole genealogical scheme. Both versions claim Teilo as a disciple of St Dyfrig and that he succeeded Dyfrig as archbishop of Llandaff. A life of St David, composed around 1090, has the additional claim that Teilo was a disciple of St David, so his credentials are being very carefully constructed.
To market Teilo's connection to St David, and build up his importance even more, the Vita sancti Teiliaui has an elaborate description of an alleged journey David, Teilo and Padarn made to Jerusalem and includes an account of Teilo's visit to Brittany (known as Armorica in Latin). But even the Catholic Encyclopaedia is sceptical about this visit to the Holy Land, commenting: "The story of his visit to Palestine with Saints David and Padarn (or Paternus) about 518, and their consecration there as bishops by John III, Patriarch of Jerusalem, is not now generally credited." The duration of Teilo's stay in Brittany, said to be "seven years and seven months", also looks suspiciously neat in its numbers, but the claim is at least plausible. North-western France was settled in the fifth and sixth centuries by Celts driven out of southern Britain by invading Germanic tribes, and churches dedicated to Teilo suggest missionary activity having taken place.
The entry for St Teilo in the Catholic Encyclopaedia summarises the life found in the two 12th century hagiographies, where the emphasis on Teilo's alleged aristocratic connections is clearly designed to add prestige to his status:
Archbishop of Llandaff, born at Eccluis Gunniau, near Tenby, Pembrokeshire; died at Llandilo Vawr, Carmarthenshire, probably in or before 560, an old man, but Ussher puts his death at 604. Sir John Rhys thinks that his true name was Eliau or Eilliau; in Latin it usually appears as Teliarus, in Breton as Teliau, and in French as Télo. He was cousin to St. David and born of a good family settled at Penally, near Tenby. His father, whose name was probably Usyllt, may possibly be identified with St. Issell, the patron of the parish church of Saundersfoot. His sister Anaumed, or Anauved, married King Budic of Armorica [ie, Brittany], and became the mother of St. Oudaceus, Teilo's successor.
But it is with Teilo's death at, or near, Llandeilo that early medieval 'biography' comes into its own. There were not one, but three claimants to the body of Teilo: the church at Penally (where he was born); Llandeilo (where he created his church and died); and Llandaff (who claimed him as their bishop), and they resolved these conflicting ownership claims in a most ingenious way. The life claims that Teilo's body was miraculously multiplied into three bodies, each of which was then buried at the competing churches, though the author of the life clearly regards the one preserved at Llandaff as the original!
Legends stick to saints like Velcro and another St Teilo legend concerns nearby Llandyfan church. A well existed for centuries at Llandyfan, which was known as Teilo's well. Pilgrims came from afar to drink of the spring-water which had a reputation as a medicine for curing paralysis and similar ailments, and which was drunk from a skull said by some accounts to be that of St Teilo. The skull has long since disappeared (the legend doesn't reveal which of the three Teilos it was) and the waters of the well have been diverted into a reservoir serving Llandeilo. A Victorian-built church stands on the site at Llandyfan today and the well, which was also used in the nineteenth century for outdoor baptisms, is still there next to the church.
In the 16 th century, when Catholicism was a persecuted religion in Britain, Teilo's well in Llandyfan was once the scene of a swoop by the authorities to apprehend Catholics visiting the spot:
At Llandyfan, a well known as Ffynnon Gwyddfaen was a popular source of pilgrimage. A large number of pilgrims were apprehended there in 1592 and brought before a local magistrate and squire - Morgan Jones of Tregib. A Bill of Complaint was brought against him in the Star Chamber because he refused not only to imprison them but also to examine them. Jones considered their action harmless, viewing them as "poor, sickly persons who had gone to the well to bathe, hoping by the help of God thereby to have their health". Two hundred or more people remained unapprehended at the well, indicating its importance as a source of pilgrimage, a continuity of tradition and the sympathy of a local dignitary towards Catholicism. (Catholic Llandeilo, A History of St David's Parish, Alan Randall, 1987).
Sunk into the wall in Church Street that surrounds Llandeilo church today is another well, once called St Teilo's baptistry, which was also visited as a healing well in earlier days.
The author of the much more recent biography of Teilo in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , is quite blunt about the reliability of these early lives:
The information about the saint contained in this life has been coloured by the interests of Llandaff to such an extent that its reliability as a source for hagiographical (never mind historical) information about the original Teilo, patron of Llandeilo Fawr, is uncertain. (DNB, 2004)
There is, however, some valuable information about the cult of Teilo closer to his times and closer to home. Evidence for the existence of Teilo's cult and episcopal church at Llandeilo has been preserved in the margins of the so-called Lichfield Gospels , written in the eighth or ninth centuries when the manuscript was still housed at Llandeilo, where it is presumed to have been written. The marginal entries include grants of land to 'God and St Teilo' (that is, his church), as well as other documents witnessed by the 'bishop of Teilo.'
The Book of Llandaff , already mentioned, also contains a section entitled Braint Teilo (' the privilege of Teilo '), thought to have been written in the late tenth or early eleventh centuries. The privileges and immunities granted to the church of Teilo by the kings of Morgannwg (Glamorgan) are described in this text, demonstrating that by this time St Teilo's church was located in the kingdom of Morgannwg and explaining its eventual appropriated by Llandaff.
Further evidence that the appropriation of Teilo's cult by Llandaff was a late development can be found by the geographical distribution of the early churches dedicated to Teilo, for they are all in the region of Llandeilo and west Wales, not Llandaff and east Wales. These early dedications are concentrated in western Carmarthenshire (around Llandeilo) and western Pembrokeshire (in Penally where he was born, and Daugleddyf). This distribution closely follows that of St David's cult and could reflect the early association between these two important south-west Wales saints. As we've seen, his Llandaff life claims Teilo also visited Brittany and it is no surprise to find dedications to him there, especially in Cornouaille, including the church and parish of Landelau and the church of Landêliau in Plévin.
Teilo is not infrequently represented in Breton churches as riding on a white hart (stag), a reminder of yet another legend. When a local ruler in the Cornouaille district of Brittany offered him all the land he could encircle between sunset and sunrise, Teilo chose a stag as a swift mount to cover as much ground as possible in the time available. The choice of White Hart for the name of a Llandeilo hostelry may be a coincidence.
Sources:
- The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
- Catholic Encyclopaedia, New York,1914.
- Llandeilo, Eirwen Jones, Carmarthen,1984.
- Hanes Plwyf Llandybie (History of the Parish of Llandybie), Gomer Roberts, 1939.
- Catholic Llandeilo, A History of St David's Parish, Alan Randall, 1987.
A brief note on early Welsh Christianity
The middle-eastern mystery cult of Christianity was first brought to Britain by the occupying Romans in the second century AD and was widespread by the fourth century. In 313 AD Christianity became one of the official cults permitted in the Roman Empire and by 391 AD it was the only permitted religion. In 410 AD the Romans withdrew their legions from Britain completely and had already left Wales even earlier. What we now call England was then subjected to a wave of invasions by Germanic people such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, the first of these tribes giving their name to the lands - Angleland, the name eventually evolving into England. The native Welsh-speaking inhabitants were gradually driven west to modern-day Wales and Cornwall but some were forced to leave British shores completely and settled in north-western France, eventually giving their name to the region - Brittany. It is therefore highly plausible that Teilo could have travelled to Brittany, as is claimed, to convert his fellow Welsh-speakers to Christianity, and the churches named after him clearly demonstrate a presence there. Whether the actual missionary work was undertaken by Teilo himself, or his later followers, is impossible to ascertain.
The barbarian tribes who settled and eventually became the English worshipped various Germanic deities, and when they drove out of the native Brythonic (British) tribes they also exterminated Christianity for a couple of centuries. It wasn't until later Celtic missionaries began to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons, followed later still by missionaries sent from Rome, that Christianity became the unitary religion for the whole of the British Isles. This included Ireland, whose missionaries spread the religion to Scotland and then to England. Missionaries from Wales had first taken Christianity to Ireland after the Roman exodus from Britain (St Patrick was Welsh), for the Romans never occupied the emerald isle, having decided that Wales was the furthest west they cared to venture. The Scandinavian Vikings who next invaded and settled parts of these islands in the 9 th and 10 th centuries were also pagan, resulting in renewed missionary activity, but by the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 the British Isles were once again Christian in worship. The Welsh, in the meantime, had been happily practising this religion uninterrupted since the 2nd century AD.
Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time1 Kings 8:22 Then Shlomo stood before the altar of Adonai in the presence of the whole community of Isra’el, spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and said, “Adonai, God of Isra’el, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant with your servants and show them grace, provided they live in your presence with all their heart.
27 “But can God actually live on the earth? Why, heaven itself, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain you; so how much less this house I have built? 28 Even so, Adonai my God, pay attention to your servant’s prayer and plea, listen to the cry and prayer that your servant is praying before you today, 29 that your eyes will be open toward this house night and day — toward the place concerning which you said, ‘My name will be there’ — to listen to the prayer your servant will pray toward this place. 30 Yes, listen to the plea of your servant, and also that of your people Isra’el when they pray toward this place. Hear in heaven where you live; and when you hear, forgive!
Psalm 84:3 (2) My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing
for the courtyards of Adonai;
my heart and body cry for joy
to the living God.
4 (3) As the sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young,
[so my resting-place is] by your altars,
Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.
5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
10 (9) God, see our shield [the king];
look at the face of your anointed.
11 (10) Better a day in your courtyards
than a thousand [days elsewhere].
Better just standing at the door of my God’s house
than living in the tents of the wicked.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:1 The P’rushim and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Yerushalayim gathered together with Yeshua 2 and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, without doing n’tilat-yadayim. 3 (For the P’rushim, and indeed all the Judeans, holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. 4 Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist; and they adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.)
5 The P’rushim and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?” 6 Yeshua answered them, “Yesha‘yahu was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written,
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far away from me.
7 Their worship of me is useless,
because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’[Mark 7:7 Isaiah 29:13]
8 “You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition. 9 Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition! 10 For Moshe said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[Mark 7:10 Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16] and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’[Mark 7:10 Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9] 11 But you say, ‘If someone says to his father or mother, “I have promised as a korban” ’ ” (that is, as a gift to God) “ ‘ “what I might have used to help you,” ’ 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus, with your tradition which you had handed down to you, you nullify the Word of God! And you do other things like this.”
Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity
Prayer: Seeking the Heart of God, with Bro. Roger
Knowledge of God produces love and knowledge of self produces humility. Humility is nothing other than the truth. “What have we that we have not received?” asks Saint Paul (1Cor 4:7). But if I have received everything then what good have I of myself? If we are convinced of this we won’t ever lift up our heads in pride. If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor blame, because you know what you are. If you are blamed you won’t be discouraged. If they call you a saint you won’t set yourself on a pedestal. Self-knowledge sends us to our knees.
---------------------Daily Gospel for Monday, 08 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947)
JOSEPHINE BAKHITA
(1869-1947)
(1869-1947)
Mother Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan in 1869 and died in Schio (Vicenza) in 1947.
This African flower, who knew the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, bloomed marvelously in Italy, in response to God's grace, with the Daughters of Charity.
Mother "Moretta"
In Schio (Vicenza), where she spent many years of her life, everyone still calls her "our Black Mother". The process for the cause of Canonization began 12 years after her death and on December 1st, 1978 the Church proclaimed the Decree of the heroic practice ofall virtues.
Divine Providence which "cares for the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air", guided the Sudanese slave through innumerable and unspeakable sufferings to human freedom and to the freedom of faith and finally to the consecration of her whole life to God for the coming of his Kingdom.
In Slavery
Bakhita was not the name she received from her parents at birth. The fright and the terrible experiences she went through made her forget the name she was given by her parents. Bakhita, which means "fortunate", was the name given to her by her kidnappers.
Sold and resold in the markets of El Obeid and of Khartoum, she experienced the humiliations and sufferings of slavery, both physical and moral.
Towards freedom
In the Capital of Sudan, Bakhita was bought by an Italian Consul, Callisto Legnani . For the first time since the day she was kidnapped, she realized with pleasant surprise, that no one used the lash when giving her orders; instead, she was treated in a loving and cordial way. In the Consul's residence, Bakhita experienced peace, warmth and moments of joy, even though veiled by nostalgia for her own family, whom, perhaps, she had lost forever.
Political situations forced the Consul to leave for Italy. Bakhita asked and obtained permission to go with him and with a friend of his, a certain Mr. Augusto Michieli.
In Italy
On arrival in Genoa, Mr. Legnani, pressured by the request of Mr. Michieli's wife, consented to leave Bakhita with them. She followed the new "family", which settled in Zianigo (near Mirano Veneto). When their daughter Mimmina was born, Bakhita became her babysitter and friend.
The acquisition and management of a big hotel in Suakin, on the Red Sea, forced Mrs. Michieli to move to Suakin to help her husband. Meanwhile, on the advice of their administrator, Illuminato Checchini, Mimmina and Bakhita were entrusted to the Canossian Sisters of the Institute of the Catechumens in Venice. It was there that Bakhita came to know about God whom "she had experienced in her heart without knowing who He was" ever since she was a child. "Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: Who could be the Master of these beautiful things? And I felt a great desire to see him, to know Him and to pay Him homage..."
Daughter of God
After several months in the catechumenate, Bakhita received the sacraments of Christian initiation and was given the new name, Josephine. It was January 9, 1890. She did not know how to express her joy that day. Her big and expressive eyes sparkled, revealing deep emotions. From then on, she was often seen kissing the baptismal font and saying: "Here, I became a daughter of God!"
With each new day, she became more aware of who this God was, whom she now knew and loved, who had led her to Him through mysterious ways, holding her by the hand.
When Mrs. Michieli returned from Africa to take back her daughter and Bakhita, the latter, with unusual firmness and courage, expressed her desire to remain with the Canossian Sisters and to serve that God who had shown her so many proofs of His love.
The young African, who by then had come of age, enjoyed the freedom of choice which the Italian law ensured.
Daughter of St. Magdalene
Bakhita remained in the catechumenate where she experienced the call to be a religious, and to give herself to the Lord in the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa.
On December 8, 1896 Josephine Bakhita was consecrated forever to God whom she called with the sweet expression "the Master!"
For another 50 years, this humble Daughter of Charity, a true witness of the love of God, lived in the community in Schio, engaged in various services: cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door.
When she was on duty at the door, she would gently lay her hands on the heads of the children who daily attended the Canossian schools and caress them. Her amiable voice, which had the inflection and rhythm of the music of her country, was pleasing to the little ones, comforting to the poor and suffering and encouraging for those who knocked at the door of the Institute.
Witness of love
Her humility, her simplicity and her constant smile won the hearts of all the citizens. Her sisters in the community esteemed her for her inalterable sweet nature, her exquisite goodness and her deep desire to make the Lord known.
"Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!"
As she grew older she experienced long, painful years of sickness. Mother Bakhita continued to witness to faith, goodness and Christian hope. To those who visited her and asked how she was, she would respond with a smile: "As the Master desires."
Final test
During her agony, she re-lived the terrible days of her slavery and more then once she begged the nurse who assisted her: "Please, loosen the chains... they are heavy!"
It was Mary Most Holy who freed her from all pain. Her last words were: "Our Lady! Our Lady!", and her final smile testifiedto her encounter with the Mother of the Lord.
Mother Bakhita breathed her last on February 8, 1947 at the Canossian Convent, Schio, surrounded by the Sisters. A crowd quickly gathered at the Convent to have a last look at their «Mother Moretta» and to ask for her protection from heaven. The fame of her sanctity has spread to all the continents and many are those who receive graces through her intercession.
She was canonized by Pope John-Paul II on October 1, 2000.[Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
St. Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537) 
SAINT JEROME EMILIANI
St. Jerome Emiliani was a member of one of the patrician families of Venice, and, like many other Saints, in early life a soldier. He was appointed governor of a fortress among the mountains of Treviso, and whilst bravely defending his post, was made prisoner by the enemy. In the misery of his dungeon he invoked the great Mother of God, and promised, if she would set him free, to lead a new and a better life. Our Lady appeared, broke his fetters, and led him forth through the midst of his enemies. At Treviso he hung up his chains at her altar, dedicated himself to her service, and on reaching his home at Venice devoted himself to a life of active charity.(1486-1537) His special love was for the deserted orphan children whom, in the times of the plague and famine, he found wandering in the streets. He took them home, clothed and fed them, and taught them the Christian truths. From Venice he passed to Padua and Verona, and in a few years had founded orphanages through Northern Italy. Some pious clerics and laymen, who had been his fellow-workers, fixed their abode in one of these establishments, and devoted themselves to the cause of education. The Saint drew up for them a rule of life and thus was founded the Congregation, which still exists, of the Clerks Regular of Somascha. St. Jerome died February 8, 1537, of the plague which he had caught in visiting the sick.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]] |
SAINT JOHN OF MATHA
Priest and Founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity
(1169-1213)
The life of St. John of Matha was one long course of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief delight was serving the poor; and he often told them he had come into the world for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others; and, for this end, John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages.Priest and Founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity
(1169-1213)
At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance.
The angel again appeared, and they then set out for Rome, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries.
The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, over- i powered his vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud." Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis.
Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
1st book of Kings 8:1 Then Shlomo assembled all the leaders of Isra’el, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the paternal clans of the people of Isra’el, to King Shlomo in Yerushalayim, to bring the ark for the covenant of Adonai out of the City of David, also known as Tziyon. 2 All the men of Isra’el assembled before King Shlomo at the festival in the month of Etanim, the seventh month. 3 All the leaders of Isra’el came. The cohanim took the ark 4 and brought up the ark of Adonai, the tent of meeting and all the holy utensils that were in the tent; these are what the cohanim and L’vi’im brought up. 5 King Shlomo and the whole community of Isra’el assembled in his presence were with him in front of the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen in numbers beyond counting or recording.
6 The cohanim brought the ark for the covenant of Adonai in to its place inside the sanctuary of the house, to the Especially Holy Place, under the wings of the k’ruvim. 7 For the k’ruvim spread out their wings over the place for the ark, covering the ark and its poles from above.
9 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moshe put there at Horev, when Adonai made the covenant with the people of Isra’el at the time of their leaving the land of Egypt.
10 When the cohanim came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the house of Adonai, 11 so that, because of the cloud, the cohanim could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of Adonai filled the house of Adonai.
12 Shlomo said, “Adonai said he would live in thick darkness. 13 But I have built you a magnificent house, a place where you can live forever.”
Psalms 132:6 We heard about it in Efrat,
we found it in the Fields of Ya‘ar.
7 Let’s go into his dwelling
and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.
8 Go up, Adonai, to your resting-place,
you and the ark through which you give strength.
9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness;
may those loyal to you shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:53 After they had made the crossing, they landed at Ginosar and anchored. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized him 55 and began running around throughout that whole region and bringing sick people on their stretchers to any place where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, in towns, cities or country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the tzitzit on his robe, and all who touched it were healed.
Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Exclamation 16 (©Institute of Carmelite Studies)
When You desire, Lord, You quickly heal the wound You have caused; prior to this there is no hope for healing or joy, except for the joy of such worthwhile suffering. O true Lover, with how much compassion, with how much gentleness, with how much delight, with how much favor and with what extraordinary signs of love You cure these wounds, which with the darts of this same love You have caused! 0 my God and my rest from all pains, how entranced I am! How could there be human means to cure what the divine fire has made sick? Who is there who knows how deep this wound goes, or how it came about, or how so painful and delightful a torment can be mitigated?... How right the bride of the Canticles is in saying: “My Beloved is for me and I for my Beloved” (Sg 11,6) for it is impossible that a love like this begin with something so lowly as is my love. And yet, if it is lowly, my Spouse, how is it that it is not so lowly in rising from the creature to its Creator?
---------------------Daily Gospel for Sunday, 07 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Saints of the day: Bl. Rosalie Rendu, (1786-1856)
SAINT JEROME EMILIANI
St. Jerome Emiliani was a member of one of the patrician families of Venice, and, like many other Saints, in early life a soldier. He was appointed governor of a fortress among the mountains of Treviso, and whilst bravely defending his post, was made prisoner by the enemy. In the misery of his dungeon he invoked the great Mother of God, and promised, if she would set him free, to lead a new and a better life. Our Lady appeared, broke his fetters, and led him forth through the midst of his enemies. At Treviso he hung up his chains at her altar, dedicated himself to her service, and on reaching his home at Venice devoted himself to a life of active charity.(1486-1537) His special love was for the deserted orphan children whom, in the times of the plague and famine, he found wandering in the streets. He took them home, clothed and fed them, and taught them the Christian truths. From Venice he passed to Padua and Verona, and in a few years had founded orphanages through Northern Italy. Some pious clerics and laymen, who had been his fellow-workers, fixed their abode in one of these establishments, and devoted themselves to the cause of education. The Saint drew up for them a rule of life and thus was founded the Congregation, which still exists, of the Clerks Regular of Somascha. St. Jerome died February 8, 1537, of the plague which he had caught in visiting the sick.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]] | |
SAINT JOHN OF MATHA
Priest and Founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity
(1169-1213)
Priest and Founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity
(1169-1213)
The life of St. John of Matha was one long course of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief delight was serving the poor; and he often told them he had come into the world for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others; and, for this end, John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages.
At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance.
The angel again appeared, and they then set out for Rome, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries.
The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, over- i powered his vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud." Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis.
Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year CIsaiah 6:1 In the year of King ‘Uziyahu’s death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 S’rafim stood over him, each with six wings — two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying. 3 They were crying out to each other,
“More holy than the holiest holiness
is Adonai-Tzva’ot!
The whole earth is filled
with his glory!”
4 The doorposts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said,
“Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! —
because I, a man with unclean lips,
living among a people with unclean lips,
have seen with my own eyes
the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!”
6 One of the s’rafim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said,
“Here! This has touched your lips.
Your iniquity is gone,
your sin is atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying,
“Whom should I send?
Who will go for us?”
I answered, “I’m here, send me!”
Psalm 138:(0) By David:
(1) I give you thanks with all my heart.
Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth;
for you have made your word [even] greater
than the whole of your reputation.
3 When I called, you answered me,
you made me bold and strong.
4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, Adonai,
when they hear the words you have spoken.
5 They will sing about Adonai’s ways,
“Great is the glory of Adonai!”
7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger;
you put out your hand when my enemies rage;
with your right hand you save me.
8 Adonai will fulfill his purpose for me.
Your grace, Adonai, continues forever.
Don’t abandon the work of your hands!
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now, brothers, I must remind you of the Good News which I proclaimed to you, and which you received, and on which you have taken your stand, 2 and by which you are being saved — provided you keep holding fast to the message I proclaimed to you. For if you don’t, your trust will have been in vain. 3 For among the first things I passed on to you was what I also received, namely this: the Messiah died for our sins, in accordance with what the Tanakh says; 4 and he was buried; and he was raised on the third day, in accordance with what the Tanakh says; 5 and he was seen by Kefa, then by the Twelve; 6 and afterwards he was seen by more than five hundred brothers at one time, the majority of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Later he was seen by Ya‘akov, then by all the emissaries; 8 and last of all he was seen by me, even though I was born at the wrong time. 9 For I am the least of all the emissaries, unfit to be called an emissary, because I persecuted the Messianic Community of God. 10 But by God’s grace I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain; on the contrary, I have worked harder than all of them, although it was not I but the grace of God with me. 11 Anyhow, whether I or they, this is what we proclaim, and this is what you believed.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:1 One day, as Yeshua was standing on the shore of Lake Kinneret, with the people pressing in around him in order to hear the word of God, 2 he noticed two boats pulled up on the beach, left there by the fishermen, who were cleaning their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Shim‘on, and asked him to put out a little way from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Shim‘on, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Shim‘on answered, “We’ve worked hard all night long, Rabbi, and haven’t caught a thing! But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” 6 They did this and took in so many fish that their nets began to tear. 7 So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; and they came and filled both boats to the point of sinking. 8 When he saw this, Shim‘on Kefa fell at Yeshua’s knees and said, “Get away from me, sir, because I’m a sinner!” 9 For astonishment had seized him and everyone with him at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and likewise both Ya‘akov and Yochanan, Shim‘on’s partners. “Don’t be frightened,” Yeshua said to Shim‘on, “from now on you will be catching men — alive!” 11 And as soon as they had beached their boats, they left everything behind and followed him.
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Commentary of the day:
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 43, 5-6 ; CCL 41, 510-511 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
If Christ had first chosen a man skilled in public speaking, such a man might well have said: "I have been chosen on account of my eloquence." If he had chosen a senator, the senator might have said: "I have been chosen because of my rank" If his first choice had been an emperor, the emperor surely might have said: "I have been chosen for the sake of the power I have at my disposal." Let these worthies keep quiet and defer to others; let them hold their peace for a while. I am not saying they should be passed over or despised; I am simply asking all those who can find any grounds for pride in what they are to give way to others just a little.
Christ says: Give me this fisherman, this man without education or experience, this man to whom no senator would deign to speak, not even if he were buying fish. Yes, give me him; once I have taken possession of him, it will be obvious that it is I who am at work in him. Although I mean to include senators, orators, and emperors among my recruits… I shall still be surer of the fisherman. The senator can always take pride in what he is; so can the orator and the emperor, but the fisherman can glory in nothing except Christ alone. Any of these other men may come and take lessons from me in the importance of humility for salvation, but let the fisherman come first.
---------------------Christ says: Give me this fisherman, this man without education or experience, this man to whom no senator would deign to speak, not even if he were buying fish. Yes, give me him; once I have taken possession of him, it will be obvious that it is I who am at work in him. Although I mean to include senators, orators, and emperors among my recruits… I shall still be surer of the fisherman. The senator can always take pride in what he is; so can the orator and the emperor, but the fisherman can glory in nothing except Christ alone. Any of these other men may come and take lessons from me in the importance of humility for salvation, but let the fisherman come first.
Daily Gospel for Saturday, 06 February 2016
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day: St. Paul Miki & his companions, Martyrs (+ 1597) - Memorial
SAINTS PAUL MIKI & HIS COMPANIONS
Martyrs
(+ 1597)
The initial growth of Christianity after Francis Xavier's 1549 arrival in Japan led to opposition from Japanese leaders who feared that the introduction of Christianity was the first step in Spain's effort to conquer their country, just as the Spanish had already conquered the Philippines. The Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan, banished all foreign ministers in 1587, but about fifteen Franciscans come to Japan from the Philippines in 1593. So, in 1596 Hideyoshi ordered the arrest of all missionaries. Police arrested six Franciscans, three Jesuits, fifteen Japanese tertiaries and two Japanese converts. They were condemned to be executed by crucifixion. They were tortured and crucified on 5 February 1597 at Tateyama (Hill of Wheat), Nagasaki.Martyrs
(+ 1597)
Among the Jesuits was Paul Miki, still a Jesuit scholastic [Jesuit in training]. He was born about 1565 in Japan. He entered the Society of Jesus and was a successful preacher. From the cross he preached to the people inviting them to conversion. Miki was also the first Japanese religious to be martyred.
Finally soldiers pierced each prisoner's chest with a lance. The hill on which they died became known as "Martyrs' Hill."
They were all canonized as the Martyrs of Japan in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
********
"The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ.
I thank God it is for this reason that I die.
I believe that I am telling the truth before I die.
I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again:
Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ.
After Christ's example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them.
I ask God to have pity on all,
and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain."
St. Dorothy, Virgin and Martyr (+ 304) I thank God it is for this reason that I die.
I believe that I am telling the truth before I die.
I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again:
Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ.
After Christ's example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them.
I ask God to have pity on all,
and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain."
SAINTE DOROTHY
Virgin and Martyr
(+ 304)
St. Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Cæsarea, where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecution, and when the Governor Sapricius came to Cæsarea he called her before him, and sent this child of martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her.Virgin and Martyr
(+ 304)
She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied that "Christ was her only Spouse, and death her desire." She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope that they might pervert her; but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and asked her the cause of her joy. "Because," she said, "I have brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing with the angels." Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with plates of red-hot iron. "Blessed be Thou," she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,-"blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! Who dost call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber."
St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him "apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse." The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]
Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco
Priest
(1839-1910)
Priest
(1839-1910)
Alfonso Maria Fusco, the oldest of five childre, was born on March 23, 1839, in Angri, in the province of Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno. His parents, Aniello Fusco and Josephine Schiavone, were both of peasant stock but were raised from their infancy with strong Christian principles and with a holy fear of God.
They were married in the Collegiata of St. John the Baptist on January 31, 1834, and for four long years the cradle they had lovingly prepared remained painfully empty. In Pagani, only a short distance from Angri, the relics of St. Alfonso Maria de' Liguori were preserved. It was to his tomb that Aniello and Josephine went in 1838 to pray. While they were there, the Redemptorist Francesco Saverio Pecorelli told them: "You will have a son; you will name him Alfonso; he will become a priest and will live the life of Blessed Alfonso".
The little boy quickly revealed a mild, gentle, lovable character, responsive to prayer and to the poor. His teachers in his father's house were learned and holy priests who instructed him and prepared him for his first meeting with Jesus. When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion and Confirmation.
He told his parents when he was eleven that he wanted to become a priest, and on November 5, 1850, "freely and with the sole desire to serve God and the Church", as he himself declared many years later, he entered the episcopal Seminary of Nocera dei Pagani. On May 29, 1863, he was ordained by the Archbishop of Salerno, Monsignor Anthony Salomone, amid the joy of his family and the enthusiasm of the people.
Quickly he distinguished himself among the clergy of the Collegiata of St. John the Baptist in Angri for his zeal, his regular attendance at liturgical services and for his diligence in the administration of the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation where he revealed his paternal understanding of his penitents. He devoted himself to the evangelization of the people through his simple and incisive style of preaching.
The daily life of Father Alfonso was that of a zealous priest, but he carried in his heart an old dream. In his last years at the seminary, one night he had dreamt that Jesus the Nazarene was calling him to found an institute of Sisters and an orphanage for boys and girls as soon as he was ordained.
It was a meeting with Maddalena Caputo of Angri, a strong-willed woman aspiring to enter religious life, which impelled Father Alfonso to move more quickly in the foundation of the Institute. On September 25, 1878, Miss Caputo and three other young women met at night in the dilapidated Scarcella house in the Ardinghi district of Angri. The young women wanted to dedicate themselves to their own sanctification through a life of poverty, of union with God, and of charity in the care and instruction of poor orphans.
The Congregation of the Baptistine Sisters of the Nazarene was thus begun; the seed had fallen into the good earth of the hearts of these four zealous and generous women. Privations, struggles, opposition, and trials were their lot, and the Lord made that seed grow abundantly. The Scarcella House was quickly named the Little House of Providence.
Other postulants and the first orphans began to arrive, and with them the first problems. The Lord, who allows those whom He loves much to suffer much, did not spare the Founder and his daughters. Father Alfonso accepted these trials, at times very difficult ones, demonstrating an absolute conformity to the will of God, an heroic obedience to his superiors, and an unbounded trust in Divine Providence.
The unjustified attempt by the Diocesan Bishop Saverio Vitagliano to remove Father Alfonso as director of the Institute based on false accusations; the refusal by his own daughters to open the door for him of the house on Via Germanico in Rome because of their desire for a division; the words of Cardinal Respighi, the Vicar of Rome: "You have founded this community of good sisters who are doing their best. Now withdraw!" were for him moments of great suffering. He was seen praying in anguish, like Jesus in the Garden, in the small chapel in the Mother House in Angri and in the church of St. Joachim in Rome.
Father Alfonso did not leave many writings. He loved to speak with the witness of his life. The short statements, rich in evangelical wisdom, which we find in his writings, and the testimony of those who knew him are flashes which illuminate his simple life, his great love for the Eucharist and for the Passion of Jesus and his filial devotion to the Sorrowful Mother. He would often repeat to his Sisters: "Let us become saints, following Jesus closely... Daughters, if you live in poverty, in chastity and in obedience, you will shine like the stars up in the heavens".
He directed the Institute wisely and prudently. Like a loving father, he watched over the Sisters and the orphans. He showed an almost maternal tenderness for all, especially for the most needy of the orphans. For them there was always space in the Little House of Providence, even when there was a scarcity of food or absolutely nothing. Then Father Alfonso would reassure his worried daughters saying: "Don't worry, my daughters. I am going to Jesus now and He will worry about us!" And Jesus answered quickly and with great generosity. To him who believes, everything is possible!
At a time when an education was the privilege of the few, denied to the poor and to women, Father Alfonso did not mind sacrificing to give the children a peaceful life, an education and a trade for the older ones so that once they were grown up, they could live as honest citizens and as committed Christians. He wanted the Sisters to begin their studies as soon as possible so that they could teach the poor and, through their instruction and evangelization, prepare the way for Jesus especially in the hearts of the children and of youth.
His tenacious will, totally anchored in Divine Providence, the wise and prudent collaboration of Maddalena Caputo, known as Sr. Crocifissa, who was the first superior of the growing Institute, the ongoing spur of the love of God and neighbor, contributed to the extraordinary development of the work in a very short time. The growing requests for assistance for an ever greater number of orphans and children urged Fr. Alfonso to open new houses, first in Campania, and then in other regions of Italy.
During the night of February 5, 1910, he felt unwell. He requested and then received the sacraments on the morning of February 6; after having blessed with trembling hands his own daughters weeping around his bed, he exclaimed: "Lord, I thank you, I have been a useless servant". Then, turning to the Sisters: "From heaven I will not forget you. I will pray for you always". And he then slept peacefully in the Lord.
News of his death spread quickly and for that entire Sunday, there was a procession of people crying and saying: "The father of the poor is dead; the saint is dead!"
His witness has been an inspiration of life and a means of grace, especially for his Sisters spread today throughout four continents. On February 12, 1976, Pope Paul VI recognized his heroic virtues; on October 7, 2001, Pope John Paul II, proclaiming him blessed, offers him as an example to priests, and a model for everyone of an educator and protector especially to the poor and the needy.[- Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
1 Kings 3:4 One time the king went to Giv‘on to sacrifice there, because that was the main high place. Shlomo offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there. 5 At Giv‘on Adonai appeared to Shlomo in a dream at night; God said, “Tell me what I should give you.” 6 Shlomo said, “You showed your servant David my father much grace, as he lived before you honestly and righteously, having an upright heart with you. You preserved this great grace for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as is the case today. 7 So now, Adonai my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; but I am a mere child — I don’t know how to lead! 8 Moreover your servant is among your people, whom you chose, a great people so numerous that they cannot be counted. 9 Therefore, give your servant an understanding heart able to administer justice to your people, so that I can discern between good and bad — for who is equal to judging this great people of yours?”
10 What Shlomo had said in making this request pleased Adonai. 11 God said to him, “Because you have made this request instead of asking long life or riches for yourself, or your enemies’ death, but rather asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; 12 I am doing what you requested. I am giving you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you, nor will there ever again be anyone like you. 13 I am also giving you what you didn’t ask for, riches and honor greater than that of any other king throughout your life.1 Kings 3:4 One time the king went to Giv‘on to sacrifice there, because that was the main high place. Shlomo offered a thousand burnt offerings on the altar there. 5 At Giv‘on Adonai appeared to Shlomo in a dream at night; God said, “Tell me what I should give you.” 6 Shlomo said, “You showed your servant David my father much grace, as he lived before you honestly and righteously, having an upright heart with you. You preserved this great grace for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as is the case today. 7 So now, Adonai my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; but I am a mere child — I don’t know how to lead! 8 Moreover your servant is among your people, whom you chose, a great people so numerous that they cannot be counted. 9 Therefore, give your servant an understanding heart able to administer justice to your people, so that I can discern between good and bad — for who is equal to judging this great people of yours?”
Psalm 119:ב (Bet)
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart;
don’t let me stray from your mitzvot.
11 I treasure your word in my heart,
so that I won’t sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Adonai!
Teach me your laws.
13 I proclaim with my mouth
all the rulings you have spoken.
14 I rejoice in the way of your instruction
more than in any kind of wealth.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:30 Those who had been sent out rejoined Yeshua and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 There were so many people coming and going that they couldn’t even take time to eat, so he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a place where we can be alone, and you can get some rest.” 32 They went off by themselves to an isolated spot; 33 but many people, seeing them leave and recognizing them, ran ahead on foot from all the towns and got there first. 34 When Yeshua came ashore, he saw a huge crowd. Filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he began teaching them many things.
Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Zeno of Verona (? – c.380), Bishop
Sermon 'De spe, fide et caritate', 9; PL 11, 278
O love, to clothe that which was naked you were pleased to become naked. Hunger is as a lavish feast for you if some poor, starving person should eat your bread. Your fortune consists in bequeathing all you possess to works of mercy. You alone have no cause to be besought. You hasten to give succor to the oppressed even at your own expense, whatever the distress into which they have been cast. You are eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, a trusty shield for widows and orphans... You so love your enemies that none can perceive in you any distinction between these and your friends.
O love, it is you who unite the mysteries of heaven with the things of this world and the mysteries of this world with the things of heaven. You are the guardian of what is of God. It is you who, in the Father, govern and ordain all things; who are the obedience of the Son; who rejoice in the Holy Spirit. Because you are one in each of the three Persons, you cannot be divided... Flowing from the spring of the Father, you pour out yourself wholly in the Son without leaving the Father. With good reason it is said that “God is love” (1Jn 4,16) since you alone are the one who directs the power of the Trinity.
---------------------O love, it is you who unite the mysteries of heaven with the things of this world and the mysteries of this world with the things of heaven. You are the guardian of what is of God. It is you who, in the Father, govern and ordain all things; who are the obedience of the Son; who rejoice in the Holy Spirit. Because you are one in each of the three Persons, you cannot be divided... Flowing from the spring of the Father, you pour out yourself wholly in the Son without leaving the Father. With good reason it is said that “God is love” (1Jn 4,16) since you alone are the one who directs the power of the Trinity.
No comments:
Post a Comment