Daily Gospel ~ Monday, 4 November 2013

Daily Gospel ~ Monday, 4 November 2013

At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.(John 6:68, Messianic WEB)

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Saint of the Day:

SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO
Archbishop of Milan
(1538-1584)

About fifty years after the Protestant heresy had broken out, Our Lord raised up a mere youth to renew the face of His Church. In 1560 Charles Borromeo, then twenty-two years of age, was created cardinal, and by the side of his uncle, Pius IV., administered the affairs of the Holy See.

His first care was the direction of the Council of Trent. He urged forward its sessions, guided its deliberations by continual correspondence from Rome, and by his firmness carried it to its conclusion. Then he entered upon a still more arduous work-the execution of its decrees.

As Archbishop of Milan he enforced their observance, and thoroughly restored the discipline of his see. He founded schools for the poor, seminaries for the clerics, and by his community of Oblates trained his priests to perfection. Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock he was a most tender father. He would sit by the roadside to teach a poor man the Pater and Ave, and would enter hovels the stench of which drove his attendants from the door.

During the great plague he refused to leave Milan, and was ever by the sick and dying, and sold even his bed for their support. So he lived and so he died, a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, up to his last hour giving his life for his sheep.

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

SAINT FELIX OF VALOIS
Hermit and co-founder of the Trinitarians
(1127-1212)

St. Felix was son of the Count of Valois. His mother throughout his youth did all she could to cultivate in him a spirit of charity. The unjust divorce between his parents matured a long-formed resolution of leaving the world; and, confiding his mother to her pious brother, Thibault, Count of Champagne, he took the Cistercian habit at Clairvaux.

His rare virtues drew on him such admiration that, with St. Bernard's consent, he fled to Italy, where he led an austere life with an aged hermit. At this time he was ordained priest, and his old counsellor having died, he returned to France, and for many years lived as a solitary at Cerfroid. Here God inspired him with the desire of founding an Order for the redemption of Christian captives, and moved St. John of Matha, then a youth, to conceive a similar wish. Together they drew up the rules of the Order of the Holy Trinity.

Many disciples gathered round them; and, seeing that the time had come for further action, the two Saints made a pilgrimage to Rome to obtain the confirmation of the Order from Innocent III. Their prayer was granted, and the last fifteen , years of Felix's long life were spent in organizing and developing his rapidly increasing foundations.

He died in 1212.

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

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Book of Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, 31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. 32 For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

33 Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counselor?”✡

35 “Or who has first given to him,

and it will be repaid to him again?”✡

36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.(Messianic WEB)

Psalm 69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song,

and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

31 It will please the LORD better than an ox,

or a bull that has horns and hoofs.

33 For the LORD hears the needy,

and doesn’t despise his captive people.

34 Let heaven and earth praise him;

the seas, and everything that moves therein!

36 The children also of his servants shall inherit it.

Those who love his name shall dwell therein.(Messianic WEB)

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 14:12 He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you make a dinner or a supper, don’t call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back. 13  But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind; 14  and you will be blessed, because they don’t have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”(Messianic WEB)

Monday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

Commentary of the day:

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church 

Autobiographical manuscript C, 28 r°-v° (trans. copyright Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites)

"Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you"

I have noticed (and this is very natural) that the most saintly Sisters are the most loved. We seek their company; we render them services without their asking... On the other hand, imperfect souls are not sought out. No doubt we remain within the limits of religious politeness in their regard, but we generally avoid them, fearing lest we say something which isn't too amiable...  This is the conclusion I draw from this: I must seek out in recreation, on free days, the company of the Sisters who are the least agreeable to me in order to carry out with regard to these wounded souls the office of the good Samaritan.
A word, an amiable smile, often suffice to make a sad soul bloom; but it is not principally to attain this end that I wish to practice charity, for I know I would soon become discouraged: a word I shall say with the best intention will perhaps be interpreted wrongly. Also, not to waste my time, I want to be friendly with everybody (and especially with the least amiable Sisters) to give joy to Jesus and respond to the counsel He gives in the Gospel in almost these words: “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not invite your friends, or your brethren, or your relatives, or your rich neighbors, lest perhaps they also invite you in return, and a recompense be made to you. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; and blessed shall you be, because they have nothing to repay you with, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (cf. Lk 14,12-14; Mt 6,4-5) What banquet could a Carmelite offer her Sisters except a spiritual banquet of loving and joyful charity?
As far as I am concerned, I know no other and I want to imitate Saint Paul who “rejoiced with those who rejoice” (Rm 12,15). It is true he wept with the afflicted and tears must sometimes appear in the feast I wish to serve, but I shall always try to change these tears into joy (Jn 16,20), since “the Lord loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor 9,7).

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