The Daily Gospel for Monday, 3 August 2015

The Daily Gospel for Monday, 3 August 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Monday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Saints of the day:

St. Lydia

Saint Lydia Purpuraria
(1^st 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

Venerable Anthony Margil

Venerable Anthony Margil

(Venerable Antonio 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.

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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

Monday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Numbers 11:4 Next, the mixed crowd that was with them grew greedy for an easier life; while the people of Isra’el, for their part, also renewed their weeping and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt — it cost us nothing! — and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic! 6 But now we’re withering away, we have nothing to look at but this man.”
7 The man, by the way, was like coriander seed and white like gum resin. 8 The people would go around gathering it and would grind it up in mills or pound it to paste with mortar and pestle. Then they would cook it in pots and make it into loaves that tasted like cakes baked with olive oil. 9 When the dew settled on the camp during the night, the man came with it.
10 Moshe heard the people crying, family after family, each person at the entrance to his tent; the anger of Adonai flared up violently; and Moshe too was displeased. 11 Moshe asked Adonai, “Why are you treating your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favor in your sight, so that you put the burden of this entire people on me? 12 Did I conceive this people? Was I their father, so that you tell me, ‘Carry them in your arms, like a nurse carrying a baby, to the land you swore to their ancestors?’ 13 Where am I going to get meat to give to this entire people? — because they keep bothering me with their crying and saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ 14 I can’t carry this entire people by myself alone — it’s too much for me! 15 If you are going to treat me this way, then just kill me outright! — please, if you have any mercy toward me! — and don’t let me go on being this miserable!”
Psalm 81:12 (11) “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Isra’el would have none of me.
13 (12) So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to live by their own plans.
14 (13) How I wish my people would listen to me,
that Isra’el would live by my ways!
15 (14) I would quickly subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
16 (15) Those who hate Adonai would cringe before him,
while [Isra’el’s] time would last forever.
17 (16) They would be fed with the finest wheat,
and I would satisfy you with honey from the rocks.”
The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Matthew 14:13 On hearing about this, Yeshua left in a boat to be by himself in the wilderness. But the people learned of it and followed him from the towns by land. 14 So when he came ashore, he saw a huge crowd; and, filled with compassion for them, he healed those of them who were sick.
15 As evening approached, the talmidim came to him and said, “This is a remote place and it’s getting late. Send the crowds away, so that they can go and buy food for themselves in the villages.” 16 But Yeshua replied, “They don’t need to go away. Give them something to eat, yourselves!” 17 “All we have with us,” they said, “is five loaves of bread and two fish.” 18 He said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 After instructing the crowds to sit down on the grass, he took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking up toward heaven, made a b’rakhah. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the talmidim, who gave them to the crowds. 20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they took up twelve baskets full of the pieces left over. 21 Those eating numbered about five thousand men, plus women and children.
Monday of the Eighteenth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint Bede the Venerable (c.673-735), monk, Doctor of the Church 
Commentary on Saint Mark’s Gospel, 2 ; CCL 120, 510-511 (trans. ©Friends of Henry Ashworth) “I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart” (Hos 2,16)
Matthew relates more fully [than Mark] how he took pity on them. He says: “And he took pity on them and cured their sick.” This is what it means really to take pity on the poor, and on those who have no one to guide them: to open the way of truth to them by teaching to heal their physical infirmities, and to make them want to praise the divine generosity by feeding them when they are hungry as Jesus did... 

But Jesus tested the crowd's faith, and having done so he gave it a fitting reward. He sought out a lonely place to see if they would take the trouble to follow him. For their part, they showed how concerned they were for their salvation by the effort they made in going along the deserted road not on donkeys or in carts of various kinds, but on foot. 
In return Jesus welcomed those weary, ignorant, sick, and hungry people, instructing, healing and feeding them as a kindly savior and physician, and so letting them know how pleased he is by believers' devotion to him.

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