Daily Gospel for Monday, 2 December 2013

Daily Gospel for Monday, 2 December 2013

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. (Messianic World English Bible)

Monday of the First week of Advent

Saint of the Day:

SAINT BIBIANA

Virgin and Martyr

(4th century)

St. Bibiana was a native of Rome. Flavian, her father, was apprehended, burned in the face with a hot iron, and banished to Aequapendente, where he died of his wounds a few days after; and her mother, Dafrosa, was some time after beheaded.

Bibiana and her sister Demetria, after the death of their parents, were stripped of all they had in the world and suffered much from poverty. Apronianus, Governor of Rome, summoned them to appear before him. Demetria, having made confession of her faith, fell down and expired at the foot of the tribunal, in the presence of the judge.

Apronianus gave orders that Bibiana should be put into the hands of a wicked woman named Rufina, who was to bring her to another way of thinking; but Bibiana, making prayer her shield, remained invincible. Apronianus, enraged at the courage and perseverance of a tender virgin, ordered her to be tied to a pillar and whipped with scourges loaded with leaden plummets till she expired.

The Saint underwent this punishment cheerfully, and died in the hands of the executioners.

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

Blessed Ivan Slezyuk

Bishop of the "clandestine" Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church

(1896-1973)

The Blessed Bishop was born on 14 January 1896 in the village of Zhyvachiv, Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk) Region. After graduating from the seminary in 1923, he was ordained to the priesthood. In April 1945 Bishop Hryhory Khomyshyn ordained him as his Co-adjutor with the right of succession as a precaution in case Bishop Khomyshyn should be arrested.

However, shortly thereafter on 2 June 1945, Bishop Ivan was arrested and deported for ten years to the labour camps in Vorkuta, Russia. In 1950 he was transferred to the labour camps in Mordovia, Russia. After his release on 15 November 1954, he returned to Ivano-Frankivsk.

In 1962, he was arrested for the second time and imprisoned for five years in a camp of strict regiment. After his release on 30 November 1968, he had to often go to the KGB for regular "talks."

The last visit was two weeks before his death, which was on 2 December 1973 in Ivano-Frankivsk.

He was beatified on 27 June 2001 by pope John Paul II.© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Monday of the First week of Advent

Isaiah 4: The Future Glory of the Survivors in Zion

2 On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel. 3 Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4 once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Indeed over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.(NRSV)

Psalm 122: Song of Praise and Prayer for Jerusalem

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 I was glad when they said to me,

    “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”

2 Our feet are standing

    within your gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem—built as a city

    that is bound firmly together.

4 To it the tribes go up,

    the tribes of the Lord,

as was decreed for Israel,

    to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

5 For there the thrones for judgment were set up,

    the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    “May they prosper who love you.

7 Peace be within your walls,

    and security within your towers.”

8 For the sake of my relatives and friends

    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your good.(NRSV)

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 8: Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant

5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, appealing to him 6 and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, in terrible distress.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and cure him.” 8 The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” 10 When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one[a] in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

Footnotes:

Matthew 8:10 Other ancient authorities read Truly I tell you, not even(NRSV)

Monday of the First week of Advent

Commentary of the Day:

Vatican Council II

Decree on the missionary activity of the Church « Ad Gentes », § 2-3 (trans. ©Libreria Vaticana editrice)

"Many will come from the east and the west, and will recline... at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven"

The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father. This decree, however, flows from the "fount - like love" or charity of God the Father... from whom the Son is begotten and Holy Spirit proceeds through the Son, freely creating us on account of His surpassing and merciful kindness and graciously calling us moreover to share with Him His life and His glory, has generously poured out, and does not cease to pour out still, His divine goodness. Thus He who created all things may at last be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28)... But it pleased God to call men to... mold them into a people in which His sons, once scattered abroad might be gathered together (Jn 11,52).

This universal design of God for the salvation of the human race is not only carried out, as it were, secretly in the soul of a man... God, in order to establish peace and the communion of sinful human beings with Himself, as well as to fashion them into a fraternal community, decided to intervene in human history in a new and definitive way by sending His Son, clothed in our flesh... that in Him He might restore all things (Eph 1,10). For Jesus Christ was sent into the world as the true mediator between God and men. Since He is God, “all the fullness of the divine nature dwells bodily in Him” (Col 2,9). According to His human nature, on the other hand, He is the new Adam, made head of a renewed humanity (cf 1Co 15,45)... He made himself poor for our sakes, though He had been rich, in order that His poverty might enrich us (2 Cor 8,9)... He assumed our entire human nature such as it is found among us poor wretches, save only sin (Heb 4,15; 9,28)... "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost" (Lk 19,10).

But what the Lord preached that one time, or what was wrought in Him for the saving of the human race, must be spread abroad and published to the ends of the earth (Acts 1,8)... so that what He accomplished at that one time for the salvation of all, may in the course of time come to achieve its effect in all.

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