The Daily Gospel for Thursday, January 7, 2016

The Daily Gospel for Thursday, January 7, 2016

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Thursday after Epiphany
Saints of the day: St. Angela Foligno

Saint Angela of Foligno
(1248 – 4 January 1309)

St. Angela of Foligno was a Christian mystic who wrote extensively about her mystical revelations. She was a Franciscan tertiary and was known as "Mistress of Theologians". She was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to accept becoming an enclosed religious order that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need. Pope Francis declared her a saint on 9 October 2013,

Some saints show marks of holiness very early. Not Angela! Born of a leading family in Foligno, Italy, she became immersed in the quest for wealth and social position. As a wife and mother, she continued this life of distraction.

Around the age of 40 she recognized the emptiness of her life and sought God’s help in the Sacrament of Penance. Her Franciscan confessor helped Angela to seek God’s pardon for her previous life and to dedicate herself to prayer and the works of charity.

Shortly after her conversion, her husband and children died. Selling most of her possessions, she entered the Secular Franciscan Order. She was alternately absorbed by meditating on the crucified Christ and by serving the poor of Foligno as a nurse and beggar for their needs. Other women joined her in a religious community.

At her confessor’s advice, Angela wrote her Book of Visions and Instructions. In it she recalls some of the temptations she suffered after her conversion; she also expresses her thanks to God for the Incarnation of Jesus. This book and her life earned for Angela the title "Teacher of Theologians." She was beatified in 1693, and canonized in 2013.[AmericanCatholic.org]

St. Raymond of Peñafort, Priest (c. 1175-1275)

 SAINT RAYMUND OF PEÑAFORT
Priest
(C. 1175-1275)

Born A. D. 1175, of a noble Spanish family, Raymund, at the age of twenty, taught philosophy at Barcelona with marvellous success. Ten years later his rare abilities won for him the degree of Doctor in the University of Bologna, and many high dignities.

A tender devotion to our blessed Lady, which had grown up with him from childhood, determined him in middle life to renounce all his honors and to enter her Order of St. Dominic. There, again, a vision of the Mother of Mercy instructed him to cooperate with his penitent St. Peter Nolasco, and with James, King of Aragon, in founding the Order of Our Lady of Ransom for the Redemption of Captives. He began this great work by preaching a crusade against the Moors, and rousing to penance the Christians, enslaved in both soul and body by the infidel. King James of Aragon, a man of great qualities, but held in bond by a ruling passion, was bidden by the Saint to put away the cause of his sin. On his delay, Raymund asked for leave to depart from Majorca, since he could not live with sin. The king refused, and forbade, under pain of death, his conveyance by others. Full of faith, Raymund spread his cloak upon the waters, and, tying one end to his staff as a sail, made the sign of the cross and fearlessly stepped upon it. In six hours he was borne to Barcelona, where, gathering up his cloak dry, he stole into his monastery. The king, overcome by this miracle, became a sincere penitent and the disciple of the Saint till his death.

In 1230, Gregory IX. summoned Raymund to Rome, made him his confessor and grand penitentiary, and directed him to compile "The Decretals," a collection of the scattered decisions of the Popes and Councils. Having refused the archbishopric of Tarragona, Raymund found himself in 1238 chosen third General of his Order; which post he again succeeded in resigning, on the score of his advanced age. His first act when set free was to resume his labors among the infidels, and in 1256 Raymund, then eighty-one, was able to report that ten thousand Saracens had received Baptism. He died A. D. 1275.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]

St. Lucian, Priest and Martyr († 312)

SAINT LUCIAN
Priest and Martyr
(† 312)

St. Lucian was born at Samosata in Syria. Having lost his parents in his youth, he distributed all his worldly goods, of which he inherited an abundant share, to the poor, and withdrew to Edessa, to live near a holy man named Macarius, who imbued his mind with a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and led him to the practice of the Christian virtues.

Having become a priest, his time was divided between the external duties of his holy state, the performance of works of charity, and the study of sacred literature. He revised the books of the Old and New Testaments, expunging the errors which had found their way into the text either through the negligence of copyists or the malice of heretics, thus preparing the way for St. Jerome, who shortly after was to give to the world the Latin translation known as "The Vulgate."

Having been denounced as a Christian, Lucian was thrown into prison and condemned to the torture, which was protracted for twelve whole days. Some Christian visited him in prison, on the feast of the Epiphany, and brought bread and wine to him; while bound and chained down on his back, he consecrated the divine mysteries upon his own breast, and communicated the faithful who were present.

He finished his glorious career in prison, and died with the words, "I am a Christian," on his lips.[Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]]

Thursday after Epiphany
The First Epistle of John 4:19 We ourselves love now because he loved us first. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For if a person does not love his brother, whom he has seen, then he cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 Yes, this is the command we have from him: whoever loves God must love his brother too.

5:1 Everyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah has God as his father, and everyone who loves a father loves his offspring too. 2 Here is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God, we also do what he commands. 3 For loving God means obeying his commands. Moreover, his commands are not burdensome, 4 because everything which has God as its Father overcomes the world. And this is what victoriously overcomes the world: our trust.

Psalm 72:(0) By Shlomo:

(1) God, give the king your fairness in judgment,

endow this son of kings with your righteousness,

2 so that he can govern your people rightly

and your poor with justice.

14 He will redeem them from oppression and violence;

their blood will be precious in his view.

15 May [the king] live long!

May they give him gold from the land of Sh’va!

May they pray for him continually;

yes, bless him all day long.

17 May his name endure forever,

his name, Yinnon, as long as the sun.[Psalm 72:17 Or: “May his name flourish/propagate as long as the sun.” Jewish tradition considers Yinnon a name of the Messiah.]

May people bless themselves in him,

may all nations call him happy.

The Holy Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah according to Saint Luke 4:14 Yeshua returned to the Galil in the power of the Spirit, and reports about him spread throughout the countryside. 15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone respected him.

16 Now when he went to Natzeret, where he had been brought up, on Shabbat he went to the synagogue as usual. He stood up to read, 17 and he was given the scroll of the prophet Yesha‘yahu. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of Adonai is upon me;

therefore he has anointed me

to announce Good News to the poor;

he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the imprisoned

and renewed sight for the blind,

to release those who have been crushed,

19 to proclaim a year of the favor of Adonai.”[Luke 4:19 Isaiah 61:1–2; 58:6]

20 After closing the scroll and returning it to the shammash, he sat down; and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 He started to speak to them: “Today, as you heard it read, this passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled!” 22 Everyone was speaking well of him and marvelling that such appealing words were coming from his mouth. They were even asking, “Can this be Yosef’s son?”

Thursday after Epiphany

Commentary of the day:
Rupert of Deutz (c.1075-1130), Benedictine monk
On the Trinity; PL 167, 787  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me”

This oil with which our Lord, the Son of God, was anointed – and that is why he is called “Anointed One” or “Messiah” in Hebrew and “Christ” in Greek – this oil is the Holy Spirit and the anointing of kings, priests and prophets was only a foreshadowing of it, a material indication… The Church received the Holy Spirit in the patriarchs, kings and prophets before the Holy of holies, the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was anointed…
The ancient priesthood, symbol of the new priesthood, was first of all consecrated with oil but afterwards with blood because the High Priest of the true Tabernacle in heaven (Heb 9:11f.) was first of all consecrated with the Holy Spirit and then with his own blood. 

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