"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Seventeenth week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church:
Joachim and Anne, parents of the Virgin Mary - proper readings
Readings for the Feast in the Province of Québec
Book of Sirach 44: PRAISE OF ISRAEL’S GREAT ANCESTORS*
1 I will now praise the godly,
our ancestors, in their own time,
10 Yet these also were godly;
their virtues have not been forgotten.
11 Their wealth remains in their families,
their heritage with their descendants.
12 Through God’s covenant their family endures,
and their offspring for their sake.
13 And for all time their progeny will endure,
their glory will never be blotted out;
14 Their bodies are buried in peace,
but their name lives on and on.c
15 At gatherings their wisdom is retold,
and the assembly proclaims their praises.
Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, who listened
to my voice in supplication,
11 I said in my alarm,
“All men are liars!”
12 How can I repay the LORD
for all the great good done for me?
13 I will raise the cup of salvation*
and call on the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
17 I will offer a sacrifice of praise
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to saint Matthew 13:11 He answered, “Because it has been given to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it has not been given to them.
16 But you, how blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear! 17 Yes indeed! I tell you that many a prophet and many a tzaddik longed to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.
Saints of the day:Saints of the day:
St. Pantaleon, Martyr († c. 303)
SAINT PANTALEON
Martyr
(† c. 303)
Martyr
(† c. 303)
St. Pantaleon was physician to the Emperor Galerius Maximianus, and a Christian, but, deceived by often hearing the false maxims of the world applauded, was unhappily seduced into an apostasy. But a zealous Christian called Hermolaus awakened his conscience to a sense of his guilt, and brought him again into the fold of the Church.
The penitent ardently wished to expiate his crime by martyrdom; and to prepare himself for the conflict, when Diocletian's bloody persecution broke out at Nicomedia, in 303, he distributed all his possessions among the poor. Not long after this action he was taken up, and in his house were also apprehended Hermolaus, Hermippus, and Hermocrates. After suffering many torments, they were all condemned to lose their heads.
St. Pantaleon suffered the day after the rest. His relics were translated to Constantinople, and there kept with great honor. The greatest part of them are now shown in the abbey of St. Denys near Paris, but his head is at Lyons.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]Blessed Antonio Lucci
July 27
Blessed Antonio Lucci
(1682-1752)
Antonio studied with and was a friend of St. Francesco Antonio Fasani, who after Antonio Lucci’s death testified at the diocesan hearings regarding the holiness of Lucci.
Born in Agnone in southern Italy, a city famous for manufacturing bells and copper crafts, he was given the name Angelo at Baptism. He attended the local school run by the Conventual Franciscans and joined them at the age of 16. Antonio completed his studies for the priesthood in Assisi, where he was ordained in 1705. Further studies led to a doctorate in theology and appointments as a teacher in Agnone, Ravello and Naples. He also served as guardian in Naples.
Elected minister provincial in 1718, the following year he was appointed professor at St. Bonaventure College in Rome, a position he held until Pope Benedict XIII chose him as bishop of Bovino (near Foggia) in 1729. The pope explained, "I have chosen as bishop of Bovino an eminent theologian and a great saint."
His 23 years as bishop were marked by visits to local parishes and a renewal of gospel living among the people of his diocese. He dedicated his episcopal income to works of education and charity. At the urging of the Conventual minister general, Bishop Lucci wrote a major book about the saints and blesseds in the first 200 years of the Conventual Franciscans.
He was beatified in 1989, three years after his friend Francesco Antonio Fasani was canonized.
Saint Celestine
Saint Celestine
Feastday: May 19
When he was twenty, Peter became a hermit and spent his days praying and reading the Holy Bible. If he was not praying or reading, he would copy books or do some hard work so that the devil would not find him doing nothing, and tempt him. Because other hermits kept coming to him and begging him to guide them, he started a new Order.
Peter was an old monk, eighty-four years of age when he was made Pope. It came about in a very unusual way. For two years, there had been no Pope, because the Cardinals could not decide whom to choose. St. Peter sent them a message to decide quickly, for God was not pleased at the long delay. Then and there, they chose the holy old hermit himself! Poor Peter wept when he heard the news, but he sorrowfully accepted and took the name Celestine V.
He was Pope only about five months. Because he was so humble and simple, everyone took advantage of him. He could not say "no" to anyone, and soon matters were in great confusion. At last, the Saint decided that he had better give up his position as Pope. He did so and then threw himself at the feet of the Cardinals for not having been capable of governing the Church. What an impression his humility made on all of them!
St. Celestine hoped to live in one of his monasteries in peace. But the new Pope thought it would be safer to keep him where wicked people could not take advantage of him. The saint was put in a cell and died there. Yet he was cheerful and close to God. "You wanted a cell, Peter," he would repeat to himself, "and a cell you have." His feast day is May 19th.
Monday of the Seventeenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Exodus 32:15 Moshe turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets inscribed on both sides, on the front and on the back. 16 The tablets were the work of God; and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Y’hoshua heard the noise of the people shouting he said to Moshe, “It sounds like war in the camp!” 18 He answered, “That is neither the clamor of victory nor the wailings of defeat; what I hear is the sound of people singing.”
19 But the moment Moshe got near the camp, when he saw the calf and the dancing, his own anger blazed up. He threw down the tablets he had been holding and shattered them at the base of the mountain. 20 Seizing the calf they had made, he melted it in the fire and ground it to powder, which he scattered on the water. Then he made the people of Isra’el drink it.
21 Moshe said to Aharon, “What did these people do to you to make you lead them into such a terrible sin?” 22 Aharon replied, “My lord shouldn’t be so angry. You know what these people are like, that they are determined to do evil. 23 So they said to me, ‘Make us gods to go ahead of us; because this Moshe, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt — we don’t know what has become of him.’ 24 I answered them, ‘Anyone with gold, strip it off!’ So they gave it to me. I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!”
30 The next day Moshe said to the people, “You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Adonai ; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin.” 31 Moshe went back to Adonai and said, “Please! These people have committed a terrible sin: they have made themselves a god out of gold. 32 Now, if you will just forgive their sin! But if you won’t, then, I beg you, blot me out of your book which you have written!” 33 Adonai answered Moshe, “Those who have sinned against me are the ones I will blot out of my book. 34 Now go and lead the people to the place I told you about; my angel will go ahead of you. Nevertheless, the time for punishment will come; and then I will punish them for their sin.”
Psalm 106:19 In Horev they fashioned a calf,
they worshipped a cast metal image.
20 Thus they exchanged their Glory
for the image of an ox that eats grass!
21 They forgot God, who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,
fearsome deeds by the Sea of Suf.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them,
[and he would have,] had not Moshe his chosen one
stood before him in the breach
to turn back his destroying fury.
The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 13:31 Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man takes and sows in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up it is larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the birds flying about come and nest in its branches.”
33 And he told them yet another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”
34 All these things Yeshua said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without using a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet,
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will say what has been hidden since the creation of the universe.”[Matthew 13:35 Psalm 78:2]
Monday of the Seventeenth week in Ordinary Time
Saint Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop
Homily 111 ; CC Sermon 25, p.97 ; PL 57, 511
Yeast of the whole world
In the Gospel we read : « Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains but a single grain ; but if it dies it bears much fruit » (Jn 12,24). Our Lord Jesus is the grain of wheat but he is also the yeast… When he came, a man and alone, into the world, the Lord Jesus gave everyone the opportunity to become what he is himself. Anyone who is united to the yeast that is Christ also becomes yeast, useful to the self and of value to all. That person will be saved and will save others.
Before it is mixed into a bowl of flour, the yeast is beaten, crushed, and crumbed; it is completely dissolved. But it is then that, in one and the same fermentation, it take on the same appearance as the numerous dispersed grains of flour. It brings together into a solid lump a substance that, of itself, used to be as inconsistent as dust. In fact it creates a serviceable dough out of what seemed to be nothing but a scattering of dust.
Thus the Lord Jesus Christ, yeast of the whole world, has been crushed by much suffering, pierced and destroyed. And his sap – that is to say, his precious blood – was poured out for us so as to solidify all humankind that was scattered by becoming mingled with them,. We who used to be like a people of flour, see how we are now brought together as by yeast. We who were miserably lying all over the earth, scattered and crushed: see how we are reunited with Christ’s body thanks to the power of his Passion.
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Before it is mixed into a bowl of flour, the yeast is beaten, crushed, and crumbed; it is completely dissolved. But it is then that, in one and the same fermentation, it take on the same appearance as the numerous dispersed grains of flour. It brings together into a solid lump a substance that, of itself, used to be as inconsistent as dust. In fact it creates a serviceable dough out of what seemed to be nothing but a scattering of dust.
Thus the Lord Jesus Christ, yeast of the whole world, has been crushed by much suffering, pierced and destroyed. And his sap – that is to say, his precious blood – was poured out for us so as to solidify all humankind that was scattered by becoming mingled with them,. We who used to be like a people of flour, see how we are now brought together as by yeast. We who were miserably lying all over the earth, scattered and crushed: see how we are reunited with Christ’s body thanks to the power of his Passion.
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