"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year B
Saints of the day:
SAINT RAPHAEL ARNÁIZ BARÓN
Monk
(1911-1938)
Monk
(1911-1938)
Raphael Arnáiz Barón was born in Burgos (Spain) April 9, 1911, into a prominent, deeply Christian family. He was baptised and confirmed in Burgos and began his schooling at the Jesuit college in the same city where, in 1919, he was admitted to first Communion.
It was at this time that he had his first experience of illness: persistent fevers due to colibacillosis forced him to interrupt his studies. To mark his recovery , which he attributed to a special intervention of the Virgin Mary, his father took him to Zaragoza and consecrated him to the Virgin of Pilar. This experience, which took place in the late summer of 1921, profoundly marked Raphael.
When the family moved to Oviedo, he continued his secondary schooling with the Jesuits there, obtaining a diploma in science. He then enrolled in the School of Architecture in Madrid, where he succeeded in balancing his studies with a life of fervent piety.
Possessing a brilliant and eclectic mind, Raphael also stood out because of his deep sense of friendship and his fine features. Blessed with a happy and jovial nature he was also athletic, had a gift for drawing and painting as well a love for music and the theatre. But as he matured, his spiritual experience of the Christian life deepened.
Although the study of architecture required a great deal of hard work and discipline, at that time he began the practice of making a long daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of "Caballero de Gracia". He even joined the Nocturnal Adoration Association, and faithfully took his turn before the Blessed Sacrament.
In this way his heart became well disposed to listening, and he perceived an invitation from God to lead the contemplative life.
Raphael had already been in contact with the Trappist monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas, and he felt strongly drawn to this place, responding to his deepest desires. In December of 1933 he suddenly broke off his professional studies and on January 16, 1934 entered the monastery of San Isidro.
After the first months of the noviciate and his first Lent, which he lived with great enthusiasm, embracing all the austerities of Trappist life, God mysteriously chose to test him with a sudden and painful infirmity: a serious form of diabetes mellitus which forced him to leave the monastery immediately and return to his family in order to receive the proper care.
Barely recovered, he returned to the monastery, but his illness forced him to leave the monastery for treatment again and again. But whenever he was absent he wanted to return, responding faithfully and generously to what he understood to be a call from God.
Sanctified by his joyful and heroic fidelity to his vocation , in his loving acceptance of the Divine will and the mystery of the Cross, in his impassioned search for the Face of God, fascinated by his contemplation of the Absolute, in his tender and filial devotion to the Virgin Mary-"the Lady", as he liked to call her-his life came to an end on April 26, 1938. He was barely 27 years old. He was buried in the monastery cemetery , and later in the Abbey church.
The fame of his sanctity rapidly spread beyond the walls of the monastery. The example of his life together with his many spiritual writings continue to spread and greatly profit those who get to know him. He has been described as one of the great mystics of the twentieth century.
On August 19, 1989, the Holy Father John Paul II, on World Youth Day at Santiago de Compostella, proposed him as a model for young people today, and beatified him on September 27, 1992.
Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on October 11, 2009 and presented him as a friend and intercessor for all the faithful, especially for the young. - Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
St. Cletus was the third Bishop of Rome, and succeeded St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows his eminent virtue among the first
The canon of the Roman Mass, Bede, and other martyrologists, style him a martyr. He was buried near St. Linus, in the Vatican, and his relics still remain in that church.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
St. Marcellinus succeeded St. Coins in the bishopric of Rome in 296, about the time that Diocletian set himself up for a deity, and impiously claimed divine honors . In those stormy times of persecution Marcellinus acquired great glory.
He sat in St. Peter's chair eight years, three months, and twenty-five days, dying in 304, a year after the cruel persecution broke out, in which he gained much honor. He has been styled a martyr, though his blood was not shed in the cause of religion.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year B
Acts 4:8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
8 It is better to take refuge in Adonai
than to trust in human beings;
9 better to take refuge in Adonai
than to put one’s trust in princes.
21 I am thanking you because you answered me;
you became my salvation.
22 The very rock that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone!
23 This has come from Adonai,
and in our eyes it is amazing.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.
We bless you from the house of Adonai.
28 You are my God, and I thank you.
You are my God; I exalt you.
29 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
1 John 3:1 See what love the Father has lavished on us in letting us be called God’s children! For that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it has not known him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now; and it has not yet been made clear what we will become. We do know that when he appears, we will be like him; because we will see him as he really is.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, since he isn’t a shepherd and the sheep aren’t his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them. 13 The hired worker behaves like this because that’s all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn’t matter to him what happens to the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me — 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father — and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. 16 Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 “This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life — in order to take it up again! 18 No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do.”
Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year B
Commentary of the day:
Saint Anthony of Padua (c.1195-1231), Franciscan, Doctor of the Church
Sermons for Sundays and Feasts of the Saints
“I am the good shepherd”. The word “shepherd” comes from the word “to pasture”. Christ pastures us each day on his body and blood in the sacrament of the altar. Jesse, David's father, said to Samuel: “My youngest son is pasturing the sheep” (1Sam 16,11). Our very own David, lowly and humble like a good shepherd, pastures his sheep too...
We also read in Isaiah: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care” (Is 40,11)... And indeed, when the good shepherd leads his flock out to pasture, or when he brings them back, gathers together all the little lambs that are unable as yet to walk; he takes them in his arms, carries them in his bosom. He carries the mother ewes as well: those about to give birth or have just been delivered. So too does Jesus Christ: he feeds us every day on the Gospel teachings and sacraments of the Church. He gathers us in those arms that he stretched out on the cross “to gather into one the scattered children of God” (Jn 11,52). He has drawn us into the bosom of his mercies as a mother draws her child.
We also read in Isaiah: “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care” (Is 40,11)... And indeed, when the good shepherd leads his flock out to pasture, or when he brings them back, gathers together all the little lambs that are unable as yet to walk; he takes them in his arms, carries them in his bosom. He carries the mother ewes as well: those about to give birth or have just been delivered. So too does Jesus Christ: he feeds us every day on the Gospel teachings and sacraments of the Church. He gathers us in those arms that he stretched out on the cross “to gather into one the scattered children of God” (Jn 11,52). He has drawn us into the bosom of his mercies as a mother draws her child.
____________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment