Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 21 October 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)
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church:
Saints of the Day:
SAINT HILARION
Abbot and Hermit
(291-371)
St. Hilarion was born of heathen parents, near Gaza, and was converted while studying grammar in Alexandria. Shortly after, he visited St. Antony, and, still only in his fifteenth year, he became a solitary in the Arabian desert.
A multitude of monks, attracted by his sanctity, peopled the desert where he lived. In consequence of this, he fled from one country to another, seeking to escape the praise of men; but everywhere his miracles of mercy betrayed his presence. Even his last retreat at Cyprus was broken by a paralytic, who was cured by St. Hilarion, and then spread the fame of the Saint.
He died with the words, "Go forth, my soul; why dost thou doubt? Nigh seventy years hast thou served God, and dost thou fear death?"
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
SAINT URSULA 
Virgin and Martyr
(† 453)
A number of Christian families had entrusted the education of their children to the care of the pious Ursula, and some persons of the world had in like manner placed themselves under her direction.
England being then harassed by the Saxons, Ursula deemed that she ought, after the example of many of her compatriots, to seek an asylum in Gaul. She met with an abiding-place on the borders of the Rhine, not far from Cologne, where she hoped to find undisturbed repose; but a horde of Huns having invaded the country, she was exposed, together with all those who were under her guardianship, to the most shameful outrages.
Without wavering, they preferred one and all to meet death rather than incur shame. Ursula herself gave the example, and was, together with her companions, cruelly massacred in the year 453.
The name of St. Ursula has from remote ages been held in great honor throughout the Church; she has always been regarded as the patroness of young persons and the model of teachers.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Celine
We have very few details about the life of this saint who is best known as the mother of St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims at the time of the conversion of the people of Gaul under Clovis. St. Celine miraculously gave birth to St. Remigius when she was already at an advanced age. Immediately after giving birth, about 438, she also gave sight to the hermit Montanus who had three times foretold the birth of the saintly Bishop.  After a holy life filled with good works and assiduous prayer, this saintly woman attained the rewards of heaven about the year 458. She was buried near Lyons, probably at Cerny, where she had lived. Unfortunately her relics were destroyed during the French Revolution.

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ephesians 2:11-13 But don’t take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God’s ways had no idea of any of this, didn’t know the first thing about the way God works, hadn’t the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God’s covenants and promises in Israel, hadn’t a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.
14-15 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
16-18 Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.
19-22 That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Psalm 85:8-9 I can’t wait to hear what he’ll say.
    God’s about to pronounce his people well,
The holy people he loves so much,
    so they’ll never again live like fools.
See how close his salvation is to those who fear him?
    Our country is home base for Glory!
10-13 Love and Truth meet in the street,
    Right Living and Whole Living embrace and kiss!
Truth sprouts green from the ground,
    Right Living pours down from the skies!
Oh yes! God gives Goodness and Beauty;
    our land responds with Bounty and Blessing.
Right Living strides out before him,
    and clears a path for his passage.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12: When the Master Shows Up
35-38 “Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the Day:
John Tauler (c.1300-1361), Dominican 
Sermon 77, for the feast of a Confessor 
"You also must be prepared for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come" (v.40)
These words mean : you are to be awake and vigilant because you do not know the hour when the Lord will come from the wedding… Because as soon as some feeling of pride, self-satisfaction or self-will enters a man, the Enemy is there cutting the precious bag of all his good works from him. Oh, children! How many of people like these will you see who have done great works… and thus gained great renown…, but presumption has stripped them of all… They will be placed after the poor and simple fellows whom no one values because of their outward appearance and work. Because they humbly take a lowly place these latter will be set above the others… So keep watch with vigilant soul and you will see the pure truth with open eyes… 
« Let your loins be girded and your lamps alight. » Here there are three points to notice. First: the loins are to be girded like someone firmly bound with a rope so as to be led against his will… Second: you are to carry lighted lamps in your hands, which is to say, works of love. Your hands should never stop doing the true, ardent work of charity… Third: you should wait for the Lord when he returns from the wedding… : “The Lord will set them over all his goods; he will gird himself and will serve them.” This wedding from which the Lord comes takes place in the most interior part of the soul, in its depths where the noble image is found. O what intimate contact the soul has with God and God with it in this depth, and what a marvellous work God does there! What rejoicing and joy he finds there! It surpasses all feeling and thought and yet man knows nothing and feels nothing of it. 
____________________________