Daily Gospel for Thursday,
17 April 2014
"Simon Peter
answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal
life." John 6:68
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of The Lord’s Supper
Saints of the Day:
SAINT ANICETUS
Pope, Martyr
(+ 173)
St. Anicetus succeeded
St. Pius, and sat about eight years, from 165 to 173. If he did not shed his
blood for the Faith, he at least purchased the title of martyr by great
sufferings and dangers. He received a visit from St. Polycarp, and tolerated
the custom of the Asiatics in celebrating Easter on the 14th day of the first
moon after the vernal equinox, with the Jews. His vigilance protected his flock
from the wiles of the heretics Valentine and Marcion, who sought to corrupt the
faith in the capital of the world.
The first thirty-six
bishops at Rome, down to Liberius, and, this one excepted, all the popes to
Symmachus, the fifty-second, in 498, are honored among the Saints; and out of
two hundred and forty-eight popes, from St. Peter to Clement XIII.
seventy-eight are named in the Roman Martyrology. In the primitive ages, the
spirit of fervor and perfect sanctity, which is nowadays so rarely to be found,
was conspicuous in most of the faithful, and especially in their pastors. The
whole tenor of their lives breathed it in such a manner as to render them the
miracles of the world, angels on earth, living copies of their divine Redeemer,
the odor of whose virtues and holy law and religion they spread on every side.
Lives of the Saints, by
Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Stephen Harding
Feastday: April 17
Patron of Saint Robert of Molesme
Death: 1134
Stephen Harding was born
in Dorset, England. He was a speaker of English, Norman French, and Latin. He
was placed in the abbey of Sherbourne at a young age, but eventually put aside
the cowl and became a travelling scholar. He eventually moved to the abbey of
Molesme in Burgundy, under the abbot Saint Robert of Molesme (c. 1027 - 1111).
When Robert left Molesme
to avoid its corruption and laxity, Stephen and Saint Alberic went with him.
Unlike Alberic, Stephen was not ordered to return, and he remained in solitude
with Robert. When twenty-one monks deserted Molesme to join Robert, Harding,
and Alberic, the three leaders formed a new monastery at Citeaux.
Robert was initially
abbot at Citeaux, returning to Molesme after a year. Alberic then took over,
serving as abbot until his death in 1108. Stephen Harding, the youngest of the
three men, became the third abbot of Citeaux. As abbot, Stephen Harding guided
the new monastery over a period of great growth. Bernard of Clairvaux came to
visit in 1112 and brought with him his followers. Between 1112 and 1119, a
dozen new Cistercian houses were founded to contain the monks coming to the new
movement. In 1119, Stephen wrote the Carta Caritatis, ('Charter of Love') an
important document for the Cistercian Order, establishing its unifying
principles.
Stephen served the house
at Citeaux for twenty-five years. While no single person is considered the
founder of the Cistercian Order, the shape of Cistercian belief and its rapid
growth in the 12th century was due to the leadership of Stephen Harding. In
1133, he resigned the head of the order, due to age and disability. He died the
following year.
His feast day in the
Roman Catholic calendar of saints is March 28. The north aisle of St
Sepulchre-without-Newgate church in London, U.K. was formerly a chapel
dedicated to him (it became the Musicians' Chapel in the 20th century).
In Hungary, in the
village Ap-tistv-nfalva there is a Catholic Baroque Church estd. by
1785, the patron saint of which is Stephen Harding. The village, and the
vicinity Vendvid-kwas at one time under Cistercian lordship.
Saint Robert
Feastday: April 17
Death: 1067
Benedictine abbot and
founder. Born in Auvergne, France, he was originally known as Robert de Turlande.
After becoming a priest and canon of St. Julian’s in Brioude, he founded a
hospice, earning distinction for his care of the poor. He then gave himself
over to the spiritual direction of St. Odilo at Cluny, France. After making a
pilgrimage to Rome, he was moved to give up his life at Cluny and to settle
near Brioude, Auvergne, with a fellow hermit, a former knight named Stephen..
There he attracted followers and built the abbey of Casa Dei to house the
burgeoning community of three hundred monks.
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass
of The Lord’s Supper
Book of Exodus 12:
Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month
shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the
year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth
day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their
fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household; 4 and if the household is too little
for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according
to the number of the souls; according to what everyone can eat you shall make
your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year
old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 and you shall keep
it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening. 7 They shall take some of the
blood, and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses in
which they shall eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with
fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
11 This is how you shall
eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff
in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover. 12 For I
will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of
Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh. 13 The blood shall be to you for a
token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over
you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land
of Egypt. 14 This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a
feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance forever.
Psalm 116: 12 What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits
toward me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call
on Yahweh’s name.
14 I will pay my vows to
Yahweh,
yes, in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in Yahweh’s
sight is the death of his saints.
16 Yahweh, truly I am
your servant.
I am your servant, the son of your servant.
You have freed me from my chains.
17 I will offer to you
the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and will call on Yahweh’s name.
18 I will pay my vows to
Yahweh,
yes, in the presence of all his people,
First Letter to the
Corinthians 11: 23 For I received from
the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night
in which he was betrayed took bread. 24 When he had given thanks, he broke it,
and said, “Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in
memory of me.” 25 In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink, in
memory of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Holy Gospel of Jesus
Christ according to Saint John 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover,
Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to
the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the
end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to
God, 4 arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel,
and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into the basin,
and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was
wrapped around him. 6 Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do
you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him,
“You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand later.”
8 Peter said to him,
“You will never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If
I don’t wash you, you have no part with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to
him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him,
“Someone who has bathed only needs to have his feet washed, but is completely
clean. You are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For he knew him who would betray
him, therefore he said, “You are not all clean.” 12 So when he had washed their
feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, “Do
you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say
so correctly, for so I am. 14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you
an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass
of The Lord’s Supper
Commentary for Today:
Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231), Franciscan,
Doctor of the Church
Sermons for Sundays and Feasts, Maundy Thursday
« I am among you as one who serves » (Lk 22,27)
"Jesus rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a
towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began
to wash the disciples' feet." We read a story of the same kind in Genesis.
Abraham says to the messengers – the three angels who visit him: “Let some
water be brought that you may bathe your feet and then rest yourselves under
the tree; let me bring you a little food that you may refresh yourselves”
(18,4-5). What Abraham did for the three angels, Christ did for his apostles,
those messengers of the truth, who were to preach faith in the Blessed Trinity
to all the world.
He stoops down to them like a child; he stoops down and washes their feet.
What an incomprehensible humility; what inexpressible goodness! He whom the
angels adore in heaven is at these fishermen's feet! The face that causes
angels to tremble bends over the feet of these poor men! Therefore Peter is
seized with fear... When he has washed their feet he makes them “lie down under
the tree” as it says in the Song of Songs: “I delight to rest in his shadow and
his fruit is sweet to my mouth” (2,3). This fruit is his Body and Blood, given
them today by him. It is the “morsel of bread” he set before them and that gave
them strength for the work they must undertake...
Behold, “on this mountain the Lord of Hosts will prepare for all peoples a
feast of rich meat with the marrow” (Is 25,6)... In the upper room where the
apostles are to receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Lord of
all the world throws a feast today for all the peoples who believe in him...
This is what the Church does today throughout the world. It was for her sake
that Christ prepared this feast on Mount Zion, this food that restores us, his
true Body, rich in every spiritual virtue and charity. This he has given to his
apostles and has commanded them to give to those who believe in him.
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