The Daily Gospel for Wednesday, 4 November 2015
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Wednesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary TimeSaints of the day:
SAINT CHARLES BORROMEO
Archbishop of Milan
(1538-1584)
Archbishop of Milan
(1538-1584)
About fifty years after the Protestant heresy had broken out, Our Lord raised up a mere youth to renew the face of His Church. In 1560 Charles Borromeo, then twenty-two years of age, was created cardinal, and by the side of his uncle, Pius IV., administered the affairs of the Holy See.
His first care was the direction of the Council of Trent. He urged forward its sessions, guided its deliberations by continual correspondence from Rome, and by his firmness carried it to its conclusion. Then he entered upon a still more arduous work-the execution of its decrees.
As Archbishop of Milan he enforced their observance, and thoroughly restored the discipline of his see. He founded schools for the poor, seminaries for the clerics, and by his community of Oblates trained his priests to perfection. Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock he was a most tender father. He would sit by the roadside to teach a poor man the Pater and Ave, and would enter hovels the stench of which drove his attendants from the door.
During the great plague he refused to leave Milan, and was ever by the sick and dying, and sold even his bed for their support. So he lived and so he died, a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, up to his last hour giving his life for his sheep.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
SAINT FELIX OF VALOIS
Hermit and co-founder of the Trinitarians
(1127-1212)
Hermit and co-founder of the Trinitarians
(1127-1212)
St. Felix was son of the Count of Valois. His mother throughout his youth did all she could to cultivate in him a spirit of charity. The unjust divorce between his parents matured a long-formed resolution of leaving the world; and, confiding his mother to her pious brother, Thibault, Count of Champagne, he took the Cistercian habit at Clairvaux.
His rare virtues drew on him such admiration that, with St. Bernard's consent, he fled to Italy, where he led an austere life with an aged hermit. At this time he was ordained priest, and his old counsellor having died, he returned to France, and for many years lived as a solitary at Cerfroid. Here God inspired him with the desire of founding an Order for the redemption of Christian captives, and moved St. John of Matha, then a youth, to conceive a similar wish. Together they drew up the rules of the Order of the Holy Trinity.
Many disciples gathered around them; and, seeing that the time had come for further action, the two Saints made a pilgrimage to Rome to obtain the confirmation of the Order from Innocent III. Their prayer was granted, and the last fifteen , years of Felix's long life were spent in organizing and developing his rapidly increasing foundations.
He died in 1212.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Wednesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time
Letter to the Romans 13:8 Don’t owe anyone anything — except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled Torah. 9 For the commandments, “Don’t commit adultery,” “Don’t murder,” “Don’t steal,” “Don’t covet,”[Romans 13:9 Exodus 20:13–14(17), Deuteronomy 5:17–18(21)] and any others are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[Romans 13:9 Leviticus 19:18] 10 Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah.
Psalms 112:1
Halleluyah!
How happy is anyone who fears Adonai,
who greatly delights in his mitzvot.
2 His descendants will be powerful on earth,
a blessed generation of upright people.
4 To the upright he shines like a light in the dark,
merciful, compassionate and righteous.
5 Things go well with the person who is merciful and lends,
who conducts his affairs with fairness;
9 He distributes freely, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness stands forever.
His power will be increased honorably.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. 27 Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Don’t you sit down and estimate the cost, to see if you have enough capital to complete it? 29 If you don’t, then when you have laid the foundation but can’t finish, all the onlookers start making fun of you 30 and say, ‘This is the man who began to build, but couldn’t finish!’
31 “Or again, suppose one king is going out to wage war with another king. Doesn’t he first sit down and consider whether he, with his ten thousand troops, has enough strength to meet the other one, who is coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he hasn’t, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation to inquire about terms for peace.
33 “So every one of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has cannot be my talmid.
Wednesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day:
Saint John Cassian (around 360-435), founder of monasteries
Conference 3, 6-7
Renouncing all one's possessions
The tradition and the authority of Holy Scripture show us three renunciations… The first is that by which as far as the body is concerned we make light of all the wealth and goods of this world. By the second, we reject the fashions and vices and former affections of soul and flesh. By the third, we detach our soul from all present and visible things, and contemplate only things to come, and set our heart on what is invisible. We have to do all these three at once as the Lord charged Abraham to do, when he said to him "Get out from your country, and your kinsfolk, and your father's house."(Gn 12:1).
First he said "from your country," i.e., from the goods of this world, and earthly riches: secondly, "from your kinsfolk," i.e., from this former life and habits and sins, which cling to us from our very birth and are joined to us as it were by ties of affinity and kinship: thirdly, "from your father's house," i.e., from all the recollection of this world, which the sight of the eyes can afford…
Let us contemplate, as the Apostle says, "not what is seen but what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal" (2Co 4:18)… "Our citizenship is in heaven,.."(Ph 3:20)… We shall go forth from the house of our former parent, who was our father from our very birth, according to the old man, when we were "by nature children of wrath, like the rest"(Ep 2:3), and we will fix our whole mind and concentration on heavenly things… Then our soul will ascend towards unseen things by constant meditation on divine things and spiritual contemplation.
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