Daily Gospel for Sunday, 3 August 2014

Daily Gospel for Sunday, 3 August 2014
"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'" (John 6:68-69)
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
Saints of the day:
Saint Lydia Purpuraria
(1st century)
Lydia Purpuraria was born at Thyatira (Ak-Hissar), a town in Asia Minor, famous for its dye works, (hence, her name means purple seller).
She became Paul's first convert at Philippi. She was baptized with her household, and Paul stayed at her home there.
Excerpted from Catholic Online
Venerable Anthony Margil
Confessor, First Order
Born at Valencia in Spain on August 18, 1657, Venerable Anthony Margil early in life manifested an extraordinary interest in the things of God. He loved to spend his time in prayer and visits to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. After he had become a Franciscan and a priest, his whole soul was aflame with the desire to lead others to God. He was among the first who volunteered when missionaries were recruited for the establishment of the first of the so-called apostolic colleges, that of Queretaro in Mexico; and he arrived there on August 13, 1683.
In the New World he became one of its greatest missionaries. He is sometimes called “the Apostle of Texas,” but he was much more than that. He should be styled the Apostle of New Spain, including Mexico, Central America, and Texas. He was in fact a second St Anthony of Padua and another St Francis Solano, so successful were his sermons, so astounding the miracles he performed.
During the forty-three years of his missionary career in New Spain, Father Anthony Margil traveled repeatedly through its vast territory, preaching parish missions everywhere among the Spanish and Indian Christians, and devoting himself to missionary work among the pagan natives in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Texas.
Besides being one of the first members of the Apostolic College of Santa Cruz at Queretaro and inaugurating this college’s preaching of parish missions in that city in September, 1683, he served as its guardian or superior from 1687 to 1700. He also founded the Apostolic College of Christ Crucified in the city of Guatemala on June 13, 1701, and served as its guardian from 1701 to 1704. And he founded the College of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Zacatecas, Mexico, on January 12, 1707, and served as its guardian from 1722 to 1725.
In 1716 he led the missionaries of the Zacatecas College into eastern Texas; and through he was too sick to be present at the founding of the Guadalupe Mission there (so sick in fact that he received the last sacraments – which had happened also on a previous occasion), he personally founded the Texas missions of Dolores and San Miguel.
When the French, during a war with Spain, invaded eastern Texas in 1719, Father Anthony went to the famous Mission San Antonia, later known as the Alamo, which had been founded the year before (May 1, 1718). The following year (1720) he founded the no less famous Mission San Jose near the present city of San Antonio. In 1721 he returned to eastern Texas and restored the missions there.
Recalled to Mexico,Venerable Anthony Margil died a holy death in the great Convento de San Francisco in Mexico City on August 6, 1726. Not long afterwards steps were taken toward his beatification. When the French armies entered Rome in 1797, the documents concerning the cause of Father Anthony Margil were lost; but afterwards they were miraculously found again.
In 1836 he was declared “Venerable,” but his cause has not made any further progress since then. The reason for this probably lay in the persecutions to which the Church in Mexico was subjected during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, the cause of Father Anthony is still pending in Rome, and greater interest in it on the part of the Catholics of the United States would no doubt hasten the day when he would be raised to the honors of the altar. The body of Venerable Anthony Margil was transferred in 1861 to the Cathedral of Mexico City; and it now rests in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception.
*from The Franciscan Book of Saints, by Fr. Habig, OFM
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
Book of Isaiah 55: Buy Without Money
1-5 “Hey there! All who are thirsty,
    come to the water!
Are you penniless?
    Come anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
    Buy without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend your money on junk food,
    your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,
    fill yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come close now,
    listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you,
    the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a witness to the nations,
    made him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I’m doing it to you:
    You’ll summon nations you’ve never heard of,
and nations who’ve never heard of you
    will come running to you
Because of me, your God,
    because The Holy of Israel has honored you.”
Psalm 145:8 God is all mercy and grace—
    not quick to anger, is rich in love.
9 God is good to one and all;
    everything he does is suffused with grace.
15 All eyes are on you, expectant;
    you give them their meals on time.
16 Generous to a fault,
    you lavish your favor on all creatures.
17 Everything God does is right—
    the trademark on all his works is love.
18 God’s there, listening for all who pray,
    for all who pray and mean it.
Letter to the Romans 8:31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 14: Supper for Five Thousand
13-14 When Jesus got the news, he slipped away by boat to an out-of-the-way place by himself. But unsuccessfully—someone saw him and the word got around. Soon a lot of people from the nearby villages walked around the lake to where he was. When he saw them coming, he was overcome with pity and healed their sick.
15 Toward evening the disciples approached him. “We’re out in the country and it’s getting late. Dismiss the people so they can go to the villages and get some supper.”
16 But Jesus said, “There is no need to dismiss them. You give them supper.”
17 “All we have are five loaves of bread and two fish,” they said.
18-21 Jesus said, “Bring them here.” Then he had the people sit on the grass. He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples then gave the food to the congregation. They all ate their fill. They gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. About five thousand were fed.
Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A
Commentary of the day:
Saint Athanasius (295-373), Bishop of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church 
24th Festal letter for Easter
"A deserted place by himself"
Each of the saints had to flee the « broad and spacious way » (Mt 7,13) to dwell alone, apart, and there live a virtuous life: Elijah, Elisha…, Jacob… Solitude and the forsaking of life’s tumult gains a man the friendship of God. Thus Abraham, when he left the land of the Chaldeans, was called “the friend of God” (Jas 2,23). The great Moses, too, when he left the land of Egypt… spoke with God face to face, was saved from the hands of his enemies and crossed the desert. All these are an image of our departure from shadows to wonderful light and of our ascending to the city that is in heaven (Hb 11,16), the prefiguration of true happiness and everlasting joy.
Whereas we have with us the reality announced by shadows and symbols, I mean the Father’s own image, our Lord Jesus Christ (Col 2,17; 1,15). If we always receive him as our food and mark the doors of our souls with his blood, we shall be freed from Pharaoh’s labors and from his overseers (Ex 12,7; 5,6f.)… Now we have found the road to pass from earth to heaven… In former times the Lord went before the children of Israel in a pillar of fire and a cloud; but now he calls us to himself, saying: “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink; from whoever believes in me will flow rivers of living water springing up to eternal life” (Jn 7,37f.).
Therefore let everyone prepare themselves with ardent desire to go to this feast : let them listen to the Savior calling since it is he who comforts us all and each one in particular. Let anyone who is hungry come to him: he is the true bread (Jn 6,32). Let anyone who is thirsty come to him: he is the fountain of living water (Jn 4,10). Let the sick person come to him: he is the Word of God who heals the sick. If anyone is bowed down by the burden of sin and repents, let him take refuge at his feet: he is rest and the harbour of salvation. Let the sinner have confidence for he has said: “Come to me, you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Mt 11,28).
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