Daily Gospel for Tuesday, 17 November 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Tuesday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
St. Elizabeth of Hungary († 1231) - Memorial
SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
(† 1231)
(† 1231)
Elizabeth was daughter of a king of Hungary, and niece of St. Hedwige. She was betrothed in infancy to Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up in his father's court. Not content with receiving daily numbers of poor in her palace, and relieving all in distress, she built several hospitals, where she served the sick, dressing the most repulsive sores with her own hands.
Once as she was carrying in the folds of her mantle some provisions for the poor, she met her husband returning from the chase. Astonished to see her bending under the weight of her burden, he opened the mantle which she kept pressed against her, and found in it nothing but beautiful red and white roses, although it was not the season for flowers. Bidding her pursue her way, he took one of the marvellous roses, and kept it all his life.
On her husband's death she was cruelly driven from her palace, and forced to wander through the streets with her little children, a prey to hunger and cold; but she welcomed all her sufferings, and continued to be the mother of the poor, converting many by her holy life.
She died in 1231, at the age of twenty-four.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
SAINT GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
Bishop
(3rd Century)
St. Gregory was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. In Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philosophy under the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit of human wisdom to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. Not long after, he was made Bishop of Neo Cæsarea in his own country.
As he lay awake one night an old man entered his room, and pointed to a lady of superhuman beauty, and radiant with heavenly light. This old man was St. John the Evangelist, and the lady told him to give Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave St. Gregory a creed which contained in all its fulness the doctrine of the Trinity. St. Gregory set it in writing, directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors.
Strong in this faith, he subdued demons; he foretold the future. At his word a rock moved from its place, a river changed its course, a lake was dried up. He converted his diocese, and strengthened those under persecution. He struck down a rising heresy; and, when he was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian pest.
St. Gregory died in the year 270.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Tuesday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
2nd book of Maccabees 6: Martyrs for the faith
SAINT GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
Bishop
(3rd Century)
St. Gregory was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. In Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philosophy under the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit of human wisdom to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. Not long after, he was made Bishop of Neo Cæsarea in his own country.
As he lay awake one night an old man entered his room, and pointed to a lady of superhuman beauty, and radiant with heavenly light. This old man was St. John the Evangelist, and the lady told him to give Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave St. Gregory a creed which contained in all its fulness the doctrine of the Trinity. St. Gregory set it in writing, directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors.
Strong in this faith, he subdued demons; he foretold the future. At his word a rock moved from its place, a river changed its course, a lake was dried up. He converted his diocese, and strengthened those under persecution. He struck down a rising heresy; and, when he was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian pest.
St. Gregory died in the year 270.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
SAINT GREGORY THAUMATURGUS
Bishop
(3rd Century)
Bishop
(3rd Century)
St. Gregory was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. In Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philosophy under the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit of human wisdom to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. Not long after, he was made Bishop of Neo Cæsarea in his own country.
As he lay awake one night an old man entered his room, and pointed to a lady of superhuman beauty, and radiant with heavenly light. This old man was St. John the Evangelist, and the lady told him to give Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave St. Gregory a creed which contained in all its fulness the doctrine of the Trinity. St. Gregory set it in writing, directed all his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors.
Strong in this faith, he subdued demons; he foretold the future. At his word a rock moved from its place, a river changed its course, a lake was dried up. He converted his diocese, and strengthened those under persecution. He struck down a rising heresy; and, when he was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian pest.
St. Gregory died in the year 270.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]18 A certain Eleazar, one of the leading scribes, elderly in age and with a most dignified outward appearance, was being compelled to open his mouth and eat pork. 19 But preferring death with honor to life with religious defilement, he proceeded voluntarily to the torture instrument, 20 spitting out the meat. In this he showed how everyone ought to stand fast and reject what isn’t lawful to taste despite the intense desire to live.
21 But those in charge of the unlawful sacrifice, because they had known the man for a long time, took him aside in private and urged him to bring meat that was lawful, prepared beforehand by himself, and then pretend to eat the meat from the sacrifice that the king commanded. 22 By doing this he might escape death and attain friendly treatment because of his old friendship with them. 23 But adopting a dignified perspective worthy of his seniority, his distinguished old age and the gray hair he had acquired, and worthy of his excellent conduct from childhood, and, moreover, worthy of the holy and God-created laws, he declared to them to send him to the grave[2 Maccabees 6:23 Gk Hades] immediately: 24 “It’s not worthy of our old age to act out such a role. Otherwise, many of the young would assume wrongly that Eleazar the 90-year-old had changed to a foreign way of life. 25 If I acted out this charade for the sake of living a moment longer, I would mislead them, and I would be defiled and dishonored in my old age. 26 Even if I escaped the punishment of human beings for the moment, I would certainly not escape the hands of the almighty—whether alive or dead. 27 So I give up my life courageously now to show myself worthy of my old age, 28 and to leave a fine example for the young people of how to die a good death with eagerness and dignity for the revered and sacred laws.” After he spoke he immediately approached the torture instrument. 29 [2 Maccabees 6:29 Correction; Gk uncertain] Those who had shown goodwill toward him earlier now felt hostility toward him,[2 Maccabees 6:29 Correction; Gk uncertain] because the words he had spoken seemed insane to them. 30 When his life was about to end from the beating, he groaned, “It is clear to the Lord with his sacred knowledge that, although I could have been saved from death, I endure in my body harsh pain from this beating, yet in my soul I cheerfully suffer these things because I respect him.” 31 In this manner he died, and his own death left behind a most noble and memorable example of virtue not only for the youth but also for the majority of his nation.
Psalms 3:2 (1) Adonai, how many enemies I have!
How countless are those attacking me;
3 (2) how countless those who say of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” (Selah)
4 (3) But you, Adonai, are a shield for me;
you are my glory, you lift my head high.
5 (4) With my voice I call out to Adonai,
and he answers me from his holy hill. (Selah)
6 (5) I lie down and sleep, then wake up again,
because Adonai sustains me.
7 (6) I am not afraid of the tens of thousands
set against me on every side.
Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 19:1 Yeshua entered Yericho and was passing through, 2 when a man named Zakkai appeared who was a chief tax-collector and a wealthy man. 3 He was trying to see who Yeshua was; but, being short, he couldn’t, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed a fig tree in order to see him, for Yeshua was about to pass that way. 5 When he came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zakkai! Hurry! Come down, because I have to stay at your house today!” 6 He climbed down as fast as he could and welcomed Yeshua joyfully. 7 Everyone who saw it began muttering, “He has gone to be the house-guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zakkai stood there and said to the Lord, “Here, Lord, I am giving half of all I own to the poor; and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay him back four times as much.” 9 Yeshua said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, inasmuch as this man too is a son of Avraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”
Tuesday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:John Tauler (c.1300-1361), Dominican
Sermon 68
What does Our Lord say to Zacchaeus? “Hurry down.” You have to come down, you must not hold back a single drop of consolation from all your impressions in prayer, but come down in your pure nothingness, in your poverty, in your powerlessness… If, from the moment truth has given you some light, there is still some natural attachment in you, you don’t yet possess it, it has not yet become your own; nature and grace still work together and you have not attained perfect abandonment …; this is not yet full purity. That is why God invites such a person to come down, that is to say, he calls him to complete renunciation, to complete detachment from nature, in everything in which nature still possesses something of its own. “For I mean to stay at your house today; today salvation has come to this house.” May this today of eternity come to us!
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