"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Second week of Lent
Saints of the day:
SAINT SIMPLICIUS
Pope
(+ 483)
Pope
(+ 483)
Saint Simplicius was the ornament of the Roman clergy under Sts. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 468. He was raised by God to corn fort and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians.
The emperors for many years were rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and, in theeighth year of the pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. These soon saw that their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and upon refusal chose for their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a resolute and intrepid man, who was proclaimed king of Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples.
Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians.
The East gave his zeal no less employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics Patriarch of Antioch; and Peter Mengus, one of the mostprofligate men, that of Alexandria. Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople , received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic Church, and was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every side, whilst the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured everything by his passions and human views.
St. Simplicius, having sat fifteen years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his labors in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]Saint Chad
Feastday: March 2
Patron of Mercia; Lichfield; of astronomers
Birth: 634
Death: 672
Irish archbishop and brother of St. Cedd, also called Ceadda. He was trained by St. Aidan in Lindisfarne and in England. He also spent time with St. Egbert in Ireland. Made the archbishop of York by King Oswy, Chad was disciplined by Theodore, the newly arrived archbishop of Canterbury, in 669. Chad accepted Theodore's charges of impropriety with such humility and grace that Theodore regularized hisconsecration and appointed him the bishop of Mercia. He established a see at Lichfield. His relics are enshrined in Birmingham. In liturgical art he is depicted as a bishop, holding a church.Blessed Charles the Good
In 1086, St. Canute, King of Denmark and father of Blessed Charles the Good, was slain in St. Alban's Church, Odence. Charles who was only a few years old was taken by his mother to the court of Robert, Count of Flanders, his maternal grandfather. When he grew up, he became a knight and accompanied Robert in a crusade to the Holy Land where he distinguished himself; on their return, Charles also fought against the English with his uncle. On Robert's death, his son Baldwin succeeded him and designated Charles as the heir. At the same time, he arranged for Charles' marriage to the daughter of the Count of Clermont. During Baldwin's rule, Charles was closely associated with him, and the people came to have a high regard for his wise and beneficent ways as well as his personal holiness. At Baldwin's death, in 1119, the people made his cousin their ruler. Charles ruled his people with wisdom, diligence, and compassion; he made sure that times of truce were respected and fought against black marketeers who horded food and were waiting to sell it at astronomical prices to the people. This encouraged their undying wrath and one day in 1127 as Charles was praying in the Church of St. Donatian they set upon him and killed him.Blessed Charles the Good feast day is March 2nd.
Book of Daniel 9:4 I prayed to Adonai my God and made this confession:
“Please, Adonai, great and fearsome God, who keeps his covenant and extends grace to those who love him and observe his mitzvot! 5 We have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled and turned away from your mitzvot and rulings. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, our ancestors and to all the people of the land.
7 “To you, Adonai, belongs righteousness; but to us today belongs shame — to us, the men of Y’hudah, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and all Isra’el, including those nearby and those far away, throughout all the countries where you have driven them; because they broke faith with you. 8 Yes, Adonai, shame falls on us, our kings, our leaders and our ancestors; because we sinned against you. 9 It is for Adonai our God to show compassion and forgiveness, because we rebelled against him. 10 We didn’t listen to the voice of Adonai our God, so that we could live by his laws, which he presented to us through his servants the prophets.
Psalm 79:8 Don’t count past iniquities against us,
but let your compassion come quickly to meet us,
for we have been brought very low.
9 Help us, God of our salvation,
for the sake of the glory of your name.
Deliver us, forgive our sins,
for your name’s sake.
11 Let the groaning of the captives come before you;
by your great strength save those condemned to death.
13 Then we, your people and the flock in your pasture,
will give you thanks forever.
From generation to generation
we will proclaim your praise.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 6:Luke 6:36 Show compassion, just as your Father shows compassion.
37 “Don’t judge,
and you won’t be judged.
Don’t condemn,
and you won’t be condemned.
“Forgive,
and you will be forgiven.
38 Give,
and you will receive gifts —
the full measure, compacted, shaken together and overflowing, will be put right in your lap. For the measure with which you measure out will be used to measure back to you!”
Monday of the Second week of Lent
Commentary of the day:
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
The Degrees of Humility and Pride, §12 (trans. ©Classics of Western Spirituality, 1987)
"Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful"
You see, then, that Christ has two natures in one Person, one which always was and another which began to be. And according to that nature which was eternally his, he always knew everything. But according to that which began in time, he experienced many things in time. In this way he began to know the miseries of the flesh, by that mode of cognition which the weakness of the flesh instructs.
Our first parents were wiser and happier when they did not know that which they came to know only foolishly and in wretchedness. But God their Creator, seeking what was lost, came down in mercy in pursuit of his wretched creatures, to where they had miserably fallen. He wanted to experience for himself what they were suffering because they had gone against his will. He came not out of a curiosity like theirs, but out of a wonderful charity. He did not intend to remain wretched among them, but to free those who were wretched as one made merciful.
Therefore Christ was made merciful, not with that mercy which he who remained happy had had from eternity, but with that mercy which he discovered in our fleshly garb as he himself went through our misery.
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment