October 2007
(from 26th Sunday C)
Pope Benedict
XVI's
general prayer intention
for the month of October
2007: "That the
Christians who are
in minority situations may have the strength and courage to live their
faith and persevere in bearing witness to it." 
Pope Benedict XVI's missionary prayer intention for October 2007: "That Missionary Day may be a propitious occasion for kindling an ever greater missionary awareness in every baptized person."
Monday of the twenty sixth week in Ordinary Time II
(October
1)
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of
the Church (1873-1898)
Few Saints have aroused so much
admiration and enthusiasm immediately after their 
death; few have
acquired a more astonishing popularity everywhere on earth; few have
been so rapidly raised to the altars as was this holy young Carmelite.
Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin, known as the
Little Flower of Jesus, was born January 2, 1873 at Alençon in
Normandy, France, of very Christian parents. The Martins, who lost four
of their little ones in early infancy or childhood, regarded their
children as gifts from heaven and offered them to God before their
birth. Thérèse was the last flower of this blessed stem,
which gave four Sisters to the Carmel of Lisieux, still another to the
Visitation of Caen. The five sisters were left without their mother, a
victim of cancer, when Thérèse was only four years old;
but her two oldest sisters were of an age to take excellent care of the
household and continue the Christian character formation of the younger
ones, which their mother had initiated. Their saintly father was soon
to see his little flock separated, however, when one after the other
they left to enter religious life. He blessed each one and gave them
all back to God, with humble gratitude to God for having chosen his
daughters.
From childhood Thérèse had manifested a tender piety
which her naturally lively temperament could not alter. Her mother’s
death affected her profoundly, however, and at the age of nine she was
visited with a severe trial in the form of an illness the doctors could
not diagnose, and which seemed incurable. She was instantly restored to
her ordinary good health by the Virgin Mary, in answer to her desolate
sisters’ prayers; Thérèse saw Her statue become animated,
to smile at her with an ineffable tenderness as she lay on her bed of
suffering. Before the age of fifteen Thérèse already
desired to enter the Carmel of Lisieux, where her two eldest sisters
were already nuns; a trip to Rome and a petition at the knees of the
Holy Father Leo XIII gave her the inalterable answer that her Superiors
would regulate the matter. Many prayers finally obtained an affirmative
reply to her ardent request, and four months after her fifteenth
birthday she entered Carmel with an ineffable joy. She could say then,
“I no longer have any desire but to love Jesus even to folly.”
She adopted flowers as the symbol of her love for her Divine Spouse and
offered all her little daily sacrifices and works as rose petals at the
feet of Jesus. Divine Providence gave to the world the autobiography of
this true Saint, whose little way of spiritual childhood was described
in her own words in her Story of a Soul. She could not offer God the
macerations of the great soldiers of God, only her desires to love Him
as they had loved Him, and to serve Him in every way possible, not only
as a cloistered nun, but as a missionary, a priest, a hero of the
faith, a martyr. She chose “all” in spirit, for her beloved Lord. Later
she would be named patroness of missions. Her spirituality does not
imply only sweetness and light, however; this loving child of God
passed by a tunnel of desolate spiritual darkness, yet never ceased to
smile at Him, wanting to serve Him, if it were possible, without His
even knowing it. When nine years had passed in the Carmel, the little
flower was ready to be plucked for heaven; and in a slow agony of
consumption, Thérèse made her final offering to God. She
suffered so severely that she said she would never have believed it
possible, and could only explain it by her desire to save souls for
God. She died in 1897, was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925. And
now, as she foretold, she is spending her heaven in doing good upon
earth. Countless miracles have been attributed to her intercession.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Zecheriah
8:1-8; Psalm 102:16-21, 29 and
22-23; Luke 9:46-50
An argument arose
among the disciples about which of them was the greatest. Jesus
realized the intention of their hearts and took a child and placed it
by his side and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name
receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. For
the one who is least among all of you is the one who is the greatest.”
Then John said in reply, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in
your name and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow in our
company.” Jesus said to him, “Do not prevent him, for whoever is not
against you is for you.” (Luke 9:46-50)
There are many
things that drive the animal world, and one of them is the drive to
dominate. Place two dogs in the same setting and consistently show
favour to one of them. It is not at all unlikely that the other dog
will attack the one being favoured so as to be the “top dog” itself. In
one form or another we see a similar pattern in numerous other families
of animals, birds and insects. It is part of the drive to live, survive and propagate
but it results in one attacking the other in order to dominate the
scene. How like the animal world is the human scene! If we consider the
vast sweep of human history and especially the conflicts that
distinguish it, what is it that is at the root of the ebb and flow of
human affairs? Among other things, it is the desire to dominate others
and to be deemed the greatest. We see this in kingdoms, in communities,
in organizations and in families. It is the source of so much suffering
and evil and it would appear to be an inexorable pattern of human life.
It constitutes much of the problem of evil. When we ask why is there
evil in the world and why God is allowing it to go unchecked, in large
measure we are asking why man desires to be the greatest and ruthlessly
to dominate his fellow man. We are asking why he is so much of a beast!
The answer to this has been revealed. This desire to be first appeared
even in heaven in the angelic rebellion against God. This same desire
led to the fall of man and became part of man’s crippled nature played
out in human history with its wars, conflicts and murders. God’s answer
was to send his Son to show by his example and teaching a radically
different way and to offer us the grace to follow it. That way is the
way of humility and meekness. It is the way of the heart of Christ.
Come to me, our Lord said, and learn from me for I am meek and humble
of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. The way of Christ is
not to dominate but to serve in all humility, not to be the greatest
but to be the least even to death, death on a cross.
In our Gospel
passage today we read that “An argument arose among the disciples about
which of them was the greatest. Jesus realized the intention of their
hearts and took a child and placed it by his side and said to them,
‘Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever
receives me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least
among all of you is the one who is the greatest’”
(Luke
9:46-50). At the beginning of his public ministry our Lord was led
by the Spirit of
God into the desert to be tempted by the devil. At the end of his long
fast he was taken by Satan in some sense to a high mountain and shown
the kingdoms of the world. Satan claimed that they were all his to give
to anyone he chose — suggesting that he himself had a hand in the rise
and success of this or that empire and kingdom. He offered it all to
Christ if he would but fall down and adore him. Satan wanted to be the
first and the greatest. If much of the animal world manifests this
desire to dominate and to be the greatest, if much of the history of
mankind also shows this tendency, it distinguishes the demonic world.
Satan wants to be the greatest. Christ revealed that God is the direct
contrary to all of this. St Paul writes that though he was in the form
of God — possessing the glory of God — Christ shed all this and became
as men are and humbler still, even to embracing death on a cross. For
this reason he was exalted. He told his disciples that the Son of Man
did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom
for the many. At the Last Supper he suddenly rose and took a bowl and
went from disciple to disciple humbly washing the feet of each. Then he
told them that just as he, whom they rightly called their Master and
their Lord, washed their feet, so they should wash the feet of each
other. That is the way of God. The other is the way of Satan. The one
who chooses to be the least is the one who in God’s sight is the
greatest. If we aspire to be children of God this must be the path in
life we follow.
Let us strive to
understand clearly that God is humble and serves humbly. We know this
because Christ was humble and served humbly. He who sees me, he told
his disciples at the Last Supper, sees the Father. The one who exalts
himself, our Lord said, will be humbled, and the one who humbles
himself will be exalted. Our Lord humbled himself and was exalted and
he invites us to follow his way. Let us who aspire to be his disciples
resolve to follow in his footsteps ever day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I will tell you which are man's treasures on earth so that you will
appreciate them: hunger, thirst, heat, cold, pain, dishonour, poverty,
loneliness, betrayal, slander, prison...
(The Way, no.194)
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How does the Holy Spirit intervene in
the Church’s prayer?
The Holy Spirit, the interior Master of Christian prayer, forms the
Church in the life of prayer and allows her to enter ever more deeply
into contemplation of and union with the unfathomable mystery of
Christ. The forms of prayer expressed in the apostolic and canonical
writings remain normative for Christian prayer. (CCC 2623, 2625)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.549)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Tuesday of the twenty sixth week of Ordinary Time II
(October 2)
The
Guardian Angels
Perhaps no aspect of Catholic piety is as comforting to parents as the
belief that an angel protects their little ones from dangers real and
imagined. Yet guardian angels are 
not just for
children. Their role is to represent individuals before God, to watch
over them always, to aid their prayer and to present their souls to God
at death. The concept of an angel assigned to guide and nurture each
human being is a development of Catholic doctrine and piety based on
Scripture but not directly drawn from it. Jesus' words in Matthew 18:10
best support the belief: "See that you do not despise one of these
little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look
upon the face of my heavenly Father." Devotion to the angels began to
develop with the birth of the monastic tradition. St. Benedict gave it
impetus and Bernard of Clairvaux, the great 12th-century reformer, was
such an eloquent spokesman for the guardian angels that angelic
devotion assumed its current form in his day. A feast in honour of the
guardian angels was first observed in the 16th century. In 1615, Pope
Paul V added it to the Roman calendar.
The concept of an unseen
companion has given rise to many childish titters about leaving room
for an angel in a crowded seat and teacher-induced terrors about the
danger of sudden death for a child who fails to honour the angel with
prayer. But devotion to the angels is, at base, an expression of faith
in God's enduring love and providential care extended to each person
day in and day out until life's end. "May the angels lead you into
paradise; may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy
city, the new and eternal Jerusalem." (Rite for Christian
Burial)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Zechariah
8:20-23; Psalm 87:1b-3, 4-5, 6-7; Matthew
18:1-5, 10
The disciples
approached Jesus and said, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of
heaven?” He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will
not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this
child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives
one child such as this in my name receives me. “See that you do not
despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in
heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” (Matthew 18:1-5,
10)
I have often been
walking along and down has come a small bird from a tree to attack me — I am not referring here to the proverbial magpie protecting her young
when nesting. I am referring to quite small birds that have no regard
for the size of the creature they are coming down to drive away.
Then I
notice what has caused the concern. The small bird has a chick that is
attempting to fly and the parent bird is protecting the chick’s
attempts. I once saw a nature film of a household cat with her kitten.
A snake was making its way towards
the kitten to take it and the mother cat went for the snake. The snake
lunged and the cat dodged and went for the snake again. The pattern was
repeated again and again and the snake turned away and went off. The
mother cat had protected her kitten from a mortal danger. I remember
hearing about an infant left momentarily alone on a river beach and a
crocodile came out to take the infant. The family dog immediately went
for the crocodile and attacked it and was taken. The infant was saved
by the protectiveness of the dog. Such is the providence of God that he
places even in animals a strong protective instinct that leads them
instinctively to protect at great risk their young. It is a reflection
of the parental love of God that guards his creatures. It is scarcely
necessary to describe the lengths to which human beings are prepared to
go to protect their children. Even the worst criminals can have a
profound parental instinct for their children, leading them at times to
great efforts to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of their
dependents. In fact throughout all of creation there is the presence of
dependency. Creation is dependent and one element depends on another
for protection and nourishment. In order to live and continue we must
be aided by others and the entire universe depends on
God.
When we think of this all-pervasive pattern of protectiveness present in
things visible, it ought be no surprise that God has revealed that we also
have Guardian Angels. Not only do our parents and friends and others in
society help, nourish and protect us; not only does the whole world sustain
us in an ongoing gigantic pattern of protection and nourishment; but heaven
itself is constantly engaged in our protection too. The fact is that there
are not only hazards innumerable threatening our health and life here on
earth but there are continual threats to our eternal happiness. There is a
great drama going on in the life of each person, a drama that all too few
people understand or appreciate. It is the drama of eternal salvation. Each
person could go to heaven or to hell. The mission of the Church is to
protect and advance the eternal prospects of each
person but God in his goodness has also allotted an angel to enlighten, guard and guide each person on
his way to heaven. That angel is charged with protecting and guiding
his charge against the wiles of the devil and leading him to life in
Christ. It is a difficult work because every person has a free will and
a soul can choose a path that is not that of God. Judas Iscariot had a
guardian angel as did Adolf Hitler, and the work of each angel was to
guide their charge to the fulfilment of God’s will. How sad was the
outcome of their work! But, for that matter, many a wonderful parent
has been bitterly disappointed in the outcome of their efforts. Today
is the memorial of our Guardian Angels when we think of the gift that
God has given to each of us of an angel to befriend us and help us on
our way towards holiness in Christ and so to our eternal homeland. In
our Gospel today our Lord directly refers to the Guardian Angels. “See
that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that
their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly
Father.” (Matthew
18:1-5, 10)
Let us think often
of our Guardian Angel. Let us befriend in faith the angel God has given
us and often pray to him asking for his help and protection. Let us
pray to the Guardian Angel of those we wish to help and all those for
whom we have some responsibility. I invite you to formulate some prayer
to your Guardian Angel, that holy heavenly protector you have
constantly by your side, and invoke his aid often that he assist you to
do the will of God in your everyday life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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It has been well said
that the soul and the body are two enemies who can't get away from one
another, and two friends who cannot get along.
(The Way,
no,195)
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What are the essential forms of
Christian prayer?
They are blessing and adoration, the prayer of petition and
intercession, thanksgiving and praise. The Eucharist contains and
expresses all the forms of prayer. (CCC 2643-2644)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.550)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October 3) Saint Gerard of Brogne Born c.895 at Staves, Namur, Belgium. Died 3 October 959 at Brogne, Belgium, son of Stance and Plectrude. Belgian noblility. Raised in a military atmosphere. Courtier to the Count of Namur. Disappointed by court life, and ashamed of the many privileges he received from his family and military post, Gerard realized that he was called to the monastic life. He found Belgian monasteries too lax in their discipline. While visiting France in 917 on a mission from the Count, Gerard decided the life of the monks of Saint Denis was right for him. He settled his worldly affairs, and took vows at the monastery. There Gerard became an example to other monks in following the Rule, and in his devotion to prayer. His life, and his encouragement of the brothers, helped Saint Denis becoming an example for monasteries throughout Europe. Ordained, but wrestled with feelings of inadequacy as a priest. After 11 years, the abbot asked Gerard to return home to form a monastery there. Abbot of the new monastery, he soon gained renown for his strict observance of the Benedictine Rule. This led many religious and political leaders to request that he reform monasteries throughout Flanders, Lorraine, and Champagne. Near the end of his life Gerard returned to the monastery he built, and spent the rest of his life there in solitude and prayer.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Nehemiah
2:1-8; Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5,
6; Luke 9:57-62
As Jesus and his
disciples were proceeding on their journey, someone said to him, “I
will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens
and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest
his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord,
let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead
bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” And
another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell
to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to
the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of
God.” (Luke
9:57-62)
There are some
questions that many never ask and which they would regard as strange
questions. They are the kind of questions that presume a sense of
wonder at the way things are. For instance, there is the question, why
is there anything at all? Putting it slightly differently, why isn’t
there just nothing? Not only is there not nothing, but our
extraordinarily vast universe of visible things (not considering the
possibility of an invisible universe)
is not chaotic but manifests order and beauty and causality everywhere.
Why is it so? Now, there is another
question related to the previous
one. The presence of suffering and unhappiness in life has always been
a mystery. We call it the problem of evil. But consider the other side
of the coin. Why is there happiness in human life anyhow? We do not
enjoy complete happiness of course but nor do we suffer from its
complete absence. There is a fair degree of happiness in the world
together with, of course, a great deal of sorrow, evil and suffering.
But why is there not complete sorrow everywhere and in any case whence
comes our yearning for absolute happiness? We yearn to be happy in an
absolute sense and not just relatively. We desire to be absolutely
happy. Let me suggest that just as the being — i.e., the things — of
our experience point to a Source beyond, so too the happiness we enjoy
and of which we yearn an abundance points to a Source beyond. Let us
make a further general point about happiness. Experience of life
suggests to us that during our life here we shall never be absolutely
happy, but despite this we seek the truest and fullest happiness even
here on earth. We seek it while knowing that it will not be attained
fully. The pressing question is, wherein lies true happiness here on
earth? Experience teaches us that it will not be attained simply by
setting out to be happy. True happiness comes from seeking and serving
something other than mere happiness itself. It is a fruit or reward of
serving and attaining an object of great worth. Moreover, experience
suggests that the fullest happiness also comes by serving that object
totally.
All this is to say that experience and reflection suggest that the greatest
happiness in this life comes from a total surrender to something of the
highest worth. This general observation can come to any thinking person
reflecting on life and the world, but the concrete question is, in what
exactly does my happiness lie? Before this great question constantly posed
by the heart of man there emerges
the figure of Jesus Christ. He presents himself unequivocally as the
happiness of man. It is for union with him, the Christian religion states,
that we were made. It is the
greatest claim in human history and in its resounding and audacious
simplicity it cuts through all the claims of philosophy and religion
that clamour for man’s attention. Christ is the answer to man’s cry for
happiness precisely because he is the answer to sinful man’s cry to be
good. More fundamental than our need to be happy is our need to be good
and holy. The fruit of holiness is authentic happiness. We are beset by
sin and it is this which is the cause of our unhappiness and the evil
and suffering so rampant in the world. There are some things that
absolutely distinguish man. There is his rationality and his freedom.
But there is also his very conscience, his moral sense, his sense of
right and wrong and this tells him that most fundamental in all his
projects — even more fundamental than his desire to be happy — is his
duty to do good and to avoid evil. Sin is our problem and goodness is
our need. Christ is the answer to this for he is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world. He is the centre and the heart of the
world and our happiness lies in knowing, loving and serving him. But — and this is crucially important
— we are called to do this totally. Our
happiness will lie in a total surrender to and following of Christ. In
this sense he is the answer to man’s need. Christ has come and he
invites us to be his friends, but totally so. Indeed, he asks from us
what God asks, that we love him with all our heart, mind, soul and
strength.
This is the point
of our Gospel passage today (Luke
9:57-62). It
presents three prospective followers. To each our Lord insists on a
total following of him. That is what he asks, and if we accept the
invitation, happiness will be ours here, and ours beyond imagining
hereafter. Life is short and eternity long. There is not a lot of time
to discover wherein lies our happiness. Christ tells us. It lies in a
total friendship with him and in loving him with all our heart. If we
love him we shall keep his commandments. The Church’s message to
mankind is, look to Jesus and enter into friendship with him, and then
in obedience to God follow his way.
(E.J.Tyler)
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One has to give the body a little less than its due. Otherwise it
turns traitor.
(The Way,
no.196)
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What is “blessing”?
The prayer of blessing is man’s response to God’s gifts: we bless the
Almighty who first blesses us and fills us with his gifts. (CCC
2626-2627, 2645)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.551)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Thursday of the twenty sixth week in Ordinary Time II
(October 4) Saint Francis of Assisi, religious (1182-1226) Born in Assisi, Italy. From being a light-hearted youth he changed, gave up his inheritance and bound himself to God, embracing poverty for Christ and living the life of the Gospels. He lived and preached a life of poverty and love of God to all. He founded the religious Order of the Franciscans and gave them rules which were approved by the Holy See. With St Clare he helped found the Order of the Poor Clares and founded the Third Order for lay people. For more on St Francis of Assisi, click here
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Nehemiah
8:1-4a, 5-6, 7b-12; Psalm 19:8, 9, 10,
11; Luke 10:1-12
Jesus appointed
seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every
town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The harvest is
abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to
send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold, I am
sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack, no
sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter,
first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in
the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for the
labourer deserves his payment. Do not move about from one house to
another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set
before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is
at hand for you.’ Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you,
go out into the streets and say, ‘The dust of your town that clings to
our feet, even that we shake off against you.’ Yet know this: the
Kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for
Sodom on that day than for that town.” (Luke 10:1-12)
There is one aspect
of the phenomenon of Christ and his work which is both essential and
distinctive. If we think of Buddha we think of one who searched for the
key to life and happiness and who taught his disciples the key he had
found. That his “religion” grew to the proportions it did and
extended so widely is something that simply happened — I do not think
it was his design. He scarcely aimed to create what we might calla religious
empire or kingdom. Nor did Confucius. I really wonder whether Mahomet
had that in mind from the beginning either — if he did, I strongly suspect it came to him
only later when his movement was gathering momentum and having political
and military success. I suspect that the religion inspired by Mahomet’s
“revelations” became aggressively missionary only as a later
development when it was seen to be feasible. But with
Christ the case is different. From the very beginning of his ministry
he intended to inaugurate what we might call an empire. It was to be a
world-wide empire, but one not one of this world. Christ came to
establish a Kingdom which, while all other kingdoms on this earth — by
whatever name they are designated — rise and fall, his would conquer
the earth and would have no end. Indeed, though the earth itself should
(and will) fail, his throne will by his design last forever. This
Kingdom was the kingdom not of Rome, nor of Israel, nor was it any
other earthly power. Nor did it rely on earthly weapons. It was the Kingdom of God and
of Heaven. It was the
dominion of God himself. Christ came to make of the world the arena of
the dominion of God, the lordship God himself intended to exercise over
all the nations. He did not just come to offer a revelation and to
leave it to people to learn of it and to embrace it as might a great
philosopher leave his teaching to his trusted disciples. Christ came to
reveal, and to conquer the world with his revelation.
That revelation in the first instance is himself. He himself is the heart
and soul of the Kingdom of heaven, the Kingdom of God. Being a member of
this Kingdom means being his loving and genuine disciple. To associate with
him means associating with him in his mission to make disciples of all the
nations. We might say that Christ’s mission is essentially and distinctively
imperialistic. Christ meant from the very beginning to launch and establish
a world-wide Empire and he meant all his disciples to be devoting themselves
to its extension. Its methods are not those of the empires of this world,
but the methods of Christ. His supremely effective method is that of the
Cross. Being crucified is his greatest
and most fruitful method, and he asks that those who wish to come after him
and assist him in establishing and extending the dominion of God over the
hearts of men must be crucified with him. This is done by
faithfully doing the will of God every day in union with him. As St
Paul, the Church’s missionary par excellence writes, with Christ I am
nailed to the cross. This is the way Christ’s world-wide and eternal
empire is established. The Cross is its life. Our Gospel today
describes the beginnings of all this during our Lord’s public ministry.
“Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples whom he sent ahead of him
in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them,
‘The harvest is abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master
of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves’.”
(Luke 10:1-12).
One of the sad anomalies of what we might call the Christian Fact is
that so many who associate with Christ have not understood that their
association with him means that they are called to be missionary.
The life of the Christian must be apostolic. Christ expects each of his
disciples to bear constant and daily witness to him before the
world.
Let us read our
Gospel passage of today understanding that Christ means to address his
words there to each of his disciples. Do you wish to be in his company
and to accept the offer of his divine friendship? Then it means walking
and working with him and that in turn means being apostolic in your
everyday life. It means doing what you can to gather the harvest for
Christ so that God reigns.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If they have witnessed your faults and weaknesses, will it matter
if they witness your penance?
(The Way,
no.197)
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How can adoration be defined?
Adoration is the humble acknowledgement by human beings that they are
creatures of the thrice-holy Creator. (CCC 2628)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.552)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Friday
of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
5) Saint
Flora of
Beaulieu. Virgin.
Patron of the
abandoned, of converts, single laywomen, and victims of betrayal — Flora was born in France about the year 1309.
She was a devout child and later resisted all attempts on the part of
her parents to find a husband for her. In 1324, she entered the Priory
of Beaulieu of the Hospitaller nuns of St. John of Jerusalem. Here she
was beset with many and diverse trials, fell into a depressed state,
and was made sport of by some of her religious sisters. However, she
never ceased to find favour with God and was granted many unusual and
mystical favours. One year on the feast of All Saints, she fell into an
ecstasy and took no nourishment until three weeks later on the feast of
St. Cecelia. On another occasion, while meditating on the Holy Spirit,
she was raised four feet from the ground and hung in the air in full
view of many onlookers. She also seemed to be pierced with the arms of
Our Lord's cross, causing blood to flow freely at times from her side
and at others, from her mouth. Other instances of God's favouring of his
servant were also reported, concerning prophetic knowledge of matters
of which she could not naturally know. Through it all, St. Flora
remained humble and in complete communion with her Divine Master,
rendering wise counsel to all who flocked to her because of her
holiness and spiritual discernment. In 1347, she was called to her
eternal reward and many miracles were worked at her tomb.
click on centre arrow for video
Scripture today:
Baruch
1:15-22; Psalm 79:1b-2, 3-5, 8, 9;
Luke 10:13-16
Jesus said to them,
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But
it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for
you. And as for you, Capernaum, ‘Will you be exalted to heaven? You
will go down to the netherworld.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one
who sent me.” (Luke 10:13-16)
Cardinal Newman in
one of his writings expresses some wonder at the
spectacle of certain individuals who have a degree of faith in God and
in Christ and the Church, but whose lives in so many ways are
confidently
set in a course of open sin and criminality. He wondered at the
strength of the gift of faith that persisted (in these cases he
had in mind) in lives that were greatly at variance with the
obvious requirements of religious faith. That certainly is one aspect
of such a situation. But the other is the more
obvious, namely that the
lack of moral practice in one’s life can totally impede the flourishing
of a life of faith. When we think of the matter, it is clear that this
is one of the most common problems in the life of religious persons. It
is that what they know and believe to be the case in their religion is
not thoroughly translated into their own concrete practice, whether it
be in thought, word or actual deed. Putting it differently, there is
not enough thoroughgoing repentance in their lives. They do not repent
of their sins and renounce them, and this pattern of repentance is not
active in an ongoing and repeated fashion. Now, as we see in the
Gospels repentance was first and foremost in the preaching of Christ
and indeed throughout both the Old and New Testaments. The prophets
were constantly preaching repentance and warning that unless the chosen
people repented from their sins disaster would come. Repentance is a
fundamental teaching of Revelation. John the Baptist preached
repentance from sin and made it clear that repentance was a
prerequisite for the Kingdom of God. He condemned the scribes and
Pharisees for refusing to repent. Our Lord began his ministry with a
call for repentance. It is the lament of our Lord in today’s Gospel
against the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum that they
refused to repent. So serious was it that our Lord made it plain that
they were heading for no less than hell. (Luke
10:13-16)
Closely connected
with and implied in the call to repent is the call to
accept what Christ and his Church teach to be sins. There is
little chance that a person will repent of his sins if he has come to
regard his sinful actions as not being sinful anyway, or that it is for
his “own conscience” to decide whether something is sinful or not, or
that sin does not matter much because there is a question mark over the
very fact of God. If a person has very little sense of personal sin
then his
sins will remain unrepented of and therefore unforgiven. If a person
does not take God to be his Teacher in the matter of morality and sin
then he will be in darkness as to what constitutes sin. He will be
deciding for himself and he will be progressively calling good evil and
evil good. Christ is God and is the revelation of God. He is the Truth
and gives us the grace to live according to the Truth. Now, in our
Gospel passage today our Lord not only condemns the towns for not
accepting his message and repenting of their sins and unbelief but he
goes on to state to his disciples — in other words to the infant
Church — that “whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects
you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent
me.” (Luke 10:13-16) It is a reminder to the
Christian that
Christ speaks to contemporary man through the teaching Church. He who
listens to the Church which Christ founded on the Twelve with Peter at
their head listens to him. When the Church teaches that this or that is
sin then Christ’s faithful should accept this as coming from Christ.
When the Church, teaching in the name of Christ, states that this
or that practice is morally wrong then people risk their eternal
salvation by disregarding that teaching, just as the towns our Lord
addresses in today’s Gospel were risking their eternal salvation for
disregarding Christ's word. In
practical morality each person must be alive to the reality and
authority of God and of Christ and his Church. If the authority of
Christ and his Church is genuinely accepted then one’s moral life is on
a secure footing. Ongoing repentance from what God reveals to be sin is
then possible.
A great
contemporary saint gave his key to perseverance. It was, “Now I
begin!” By this he meant that we ought be starting again each day. This
pattern of repeated beginnings in life especially applies to
repentance. We must be repenting again and again daily throughout life
and many times each day. It is not enough to repent once or a few times
in life in major religious experiences. It has to be occurring
constantly and it means repentance from small, venial sins. Holiness is
impossible if we are not repenting from venial sins. So then, now I
begin!
(E.J.Tyler)
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These are the ripe fruits of the mortified soul: tolerance and
understanding for the defects of others; intolerance for one's own.
(The Way,
no.198)
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What are the different forms of the prayer of petition?
It can be a petition for pardon or also a humble and trusting petition
for all our needs either spiritual or material. The first thing to ask
for, however, is the coming of the Kingdom. (CCC 2629-2633, 2646)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.553)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Saturday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
6) St
Bruno (1035-1101).
This saint has the honour of having founded a religious order which, as
the saying goes, has never had to be reformed because it was never
deformed. No doubt both the founder and the members would reject such
high praise, but it is an indication of the saint's intense love of a
penitential life in solitude. He was born in Cologne, Germany, became a
famous teacher at Rheims and was appointed chancellor of the
archdiocese at the age of 45. He supported Pope Gregory VII in his
fight against the decadence of the clergy and took part in the removal
of his own scandalous archbishop, Manasses. Bruno suffered the
plundering of his house for his pains. He had a dream of living in
solitude and prayer, and persuaded a few friends to join him in a
hermitage. After a while he felt the place unsuitable and, through a
friend, was given some land which was to become famous for his
foundation "in the Chartreuse" (from which comes the word Carthusians).
The climate, desert, mountainous terrain and inaccessibility guaranteed
silence, poverty and small numbers. Bruno and his friends built an
oratory with small individual cells at a distance from each other. They
met for Matins and Vespers each day, and spent the rest of the time in
solitude, eating together only on great feasts. Their chief work was
copying manuscripts. The pope, hearing of Bruno's holiness, called for
his assistance in Rome. When the pope had to flee Rome, Bruno pulled up
stakes again, and spent his last years (after refusing a bishopric) in
the wilderness of Calabria. He was never formally canonized, because
the Carthusians were averse to all occasions of publicity. Pope Clement
extended his feast to the whole Church in 1674.
“Members of those communities which are totally
dedicated to contemplation give themselves to God alone in solitude and
silence and through constant prayer and ready penance. No matter how
urgent may be the needs of the active apostolate, such communities will
always have a distinguished part to play in Christ's Mystical Body..” (Decree on the Renewal
of Religious Life, 7).
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Baruch
4:5-12, 27-29; Psalm 69:33-35,
36-37; Luke 10:17-24
The seventy-two
disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons
are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed
Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the
power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of
the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice
because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names
are written in heaven.” At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy
Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been
your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my
Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the
Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal
him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the
eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings
desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you
hear, but did not hear it.”
(Luke 10:17-24)
I remember many
years ago I had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Israel, the
Holy Land. I spent the time visiting the scenes that feature in
Scripture, especially scenes of the Gospels. On one occasion I was
sitting in the area where our Lord is thought to have been scourged,
now named the Ecce Homo. While seated there, a tourist paused with me
and we began talking. I asked him what he did and he replied with
gusto,
“Oh! I am just a tailor. But I am a member of Jesus Christ!”
What he was saying was that he did not regard his
profession as very important, but what was important and what gave to
him a tremendous dignity was the fact that he was a member of Jesus
Christ. I presume (and hope) that he understood that this derived
especially from his baptism and from the life of faith that derived
from baptism. Our being in Christ is indeed our glory and our boast and
not what we might do or be in a natural sense, although in Christ our
profession and works become important and a very significant means of
sanctification and apostolate. The mystery proclaimed by the Church is
that proclaimed by St Paul in one of his Letters: Christ in you, your
hope of glory! No matter how modest our individual abilities, no matter
how ordinary we rank in comparison with others in terms of notable
achievements, our glory lies in being in Christ and in knowing him. Our
Lord said at the Last Supper that eternal life consists in this, to
know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he sent. In our Gospel passage
today the disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even
the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Our Lord
acknowledged that he had given them a special share in his own powers
to combat the Enemy, but that was not their greatest boast. What was
important was that they were the special object of God’s special
choice. “Nevertheless,” Christ said, “do not rejoice because the
spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written
in heaven.”
The average person is what we might call the little person, the ordinary
person, the person who will not make much of a splash. He will not display
nor exercise any special gifts nor will his achievements be especially
noticed in life, and so he will pass out of this world and soon be forgotten
by the world except for his family and friends. But if he has been of the
great family of Christ’s faithful through faith and the Sacraments and if he
has been truly faithful to his Christian calling, then however obscure his life
heaven will rejoice in him. For consider the cause of our Lord’s rejoicing
in our passage today. “At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit
and said, ‘I give you praise,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these
things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the
childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will’.” The
Christian knows the person of Christ and has come to love him. His life
will be of incalculable worth if he loves Christ profoundly and makes
Christ his all. Our Lord goes on to stress that his disciples have what
the prophets and holy men of the Old Testament longed to have but did
not, and that was him. They would love to have known, loved, followed
and served him in life, but such was not the providence of God for
them. But his disciples before him had this treasure. “ Turning to the
disciples in private he said, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you
see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you
see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear
it’.” (Luke 10:17-24) Man’s glory is his
calling to know and love Christ and to live in him. The greatest
instance of this is the Virgin Mary, mother of God the Son made man.
Humble, relatively unknown, with no public mission, she was the holiest
and greatest human person in the sight of God. Her greatness consisted
certainly in her special vocation as the Mother of God, but most
especially in her perfect union with her Son.
Let us who are in
Christ rejoice that our names are written in heaven and let us never
imperil this wonderful destiny God has for us. It will be imperilled by
a lack of fidelity to the one in whom we have been chosen from all
eternity. St Paul writes in one of his Letters that before the world
began God chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in Christ.
What a catastrophe if we throw all this away for something else! Christ
is our treasure and all our prospects lie in knowing, loving and
serving him.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If the grain of wheat does not die, it remains unfruitful. Don't
you want to be a grain of wheat, to die through mortification, and to
yield a rich harvest? May Jesus bless your wheat-field!
(The Way,
no.199)
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In what does the prayer of
intercession consist?
Intercession consists in asking on behalf of another. It conforms us
and unites us to the prayer of Jesus who intercedes with the Father for
all, especially sinners. Intercession must extend even to one’s
enemies. (CCC 2634-2636, 2647)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.554)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Prayers this week:
O Lord, you have
given everything its place in the world,
and no one can make it otherwise. For it is your creation,
the heavens and the earth and the stars: you are
the Lord of all.
Father, your love for us
surpasses all our hopes and desires.
Forgive our failings, keep
us in your peace and lead us in the way of salvation.
We
ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.
(October 7) Our
Lady of the Rosary
When the heresy of the Albigensians was growing in the district of
Toulouse and striking deeper roots day by day, St. Dominic, who had
just laid the foundations of the Order of Preachers, threw himself
whole-heartedly into the task of destroying this heresy. That he might
be the better able to overcome it, he implored with earnest prayers the
aid of the Blessed Virgin. She instructed Dominic to preach the Rosary
to the people as 
a unique safeguard
against heresy and vice, and he carried out this commission with
wonderful ardour of soul and with great success. From that time, then,
St. Dominic began to promulgate and promote this method of praying. And
the fact that he was its founder and originator has from time to time
been stated in papal encyclicals.
From this salutary practice
countless fruits have flowed to Christendom. Among these, we should
especially mention the victory over the powerful tyranny of the Turks
won at the battle of Lepanto by St. Pius V and the Christian princes he
had aroused. For, as this victory was won on the very day on which the
sodalities of the most holy Rosary throughout the world had been
offering their accustomed supplications and carrying out the prescribed
prayers, it was rightly attributed to these prayers. Gregory XIII
testified to this fact when he decreed that for such a unique benefit
thanks should always be offered everywhere throughout the world to the
Blessed Virgin under the title of the Rosary. Other Popes have granted
almost innumerable indulgences to the recitation of the Rosary and to
Rosary societies.
Clement XI, noting the circumstances of the
equally famous victory of Charles VI, the emperor-elect, over the
innumerable forces of the Turks in Hungary in the year 1716, held that
this victory was to be attributed to the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin. The victory occurred on the feast of the Dedication of Our Lady
of the Snows; and, at almost the time of the battle, the confraternity
of the Most Holy Rosary was offering a public and solemn supplication
in the city of Rome, with a great crowd of people pouring out fervent
prayers to God with great devotion for the overthrow of the Turks and
humbly imploring the powerful aid of the Virgin Mother of God to help
the Christians. Looking also with the eyes of faith at the raising of
the Turks' siege of the island of Corcyra shortly afterwards, he held
that this victory too must be ascribed to the patronage of the Blessed
Virgin. To keep alive, therefore, the memory of these great benefits
and to assure a perpetual thanksgiving for them, Clement extended the
feast of the Most Holy Rosary to the universal Church. Benedict XIII
decreed that all these things be written into the Roman Breviary. Leo
XIII in repeated encyclicals strongly urged all the faithful throughout
the world to recite the Rosary especially during the month of October,
raised the rank of the feast, and added to the Litany of Loretto the
invocation "Queen of the Most Holy Rosary." He also granted a special
Office to be recited by the universal Church on this feast. The Popes
over the last century have repeatedly stressed the great importance of
devotion to Mary through the Rosary.
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The apostles said
to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith
the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be
uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. "Who among you
would say to your servant who has just come in from ploughing or tending
sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at
table'? Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to
eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may
eat and drink when I am finished'? Is he grateful to that servant
because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you
have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable
servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'"
(Luke 17:5-10)
I once heard a
bishop suggest that the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord (March
25) ought be celebrated as a holy day of obligation. Whatever of that,
the Gospel scene of the Annunciation in St Luke is full of
significance. The Angel addresses Mary with profound respect as the one
who is full of grace. The Lord is with her. His words place in the
forefront of Mary’s life the grace of God which made her the all-holy
person she is. His words remind us that God’s grace is the life and the
foundation of holiness. But there is the other side to a life of
holiness which is expressed by Mary’s response to the Angel. “Behold
the handmaid of the Lord,” Mary said. “Be it done unto me
according to your word.” Mary was full of grace, and grace was indeed
the source of her gifts and her holiness. But it required her
cooperation. In that sense, through the grace of God, she herself
merited the profound respect shown her by the Angel. In everything she
depended on God and his grace but in another sense in his plans God
depended on her free response. Thus through her free and ongoing
response Mary merited the holiness she attained. The thought of Mary
leads us to think on the one hand of the grace of God sustaining us in
everything, and
on the other of how through our obedience and faith we merit
the reward of holiness and eternal life. In our Gospel passage today
our Lord speaks of the active power of God uprooting a tree and
planting it in the sea (Luke 17:5-10). It reminds us of the
power of grace on which we depend. The Gospel also refers to our duty,
reminding us that by our obedience to God we merit salvation.
In the history of
the Church there have been two errors in respect to this point. In the
early Church a person by the name of Pelagius taught that it is through
our own efforts that we attain holiness and salvation. Pelagius
probably saw many people making little effort to follow our Lord
closely and saw the results of that in their lack of a Christian life.
On the other hand he perhaps saw those who made every effort and saw
the good results of this. He concluded and laid it down that everything
depends on our own efforts. The Church, particularly St Augustine,
stated that this was a great error. Everything depends ultimately on
the grace of God. By God’s grace at our baptism we are made just and
holy and our sins are taken away. This is not just how God chooses to
regard us, but is the effect in us of the gift of his grace. By means
of this gift of grace we are able freely to respond in faith and
obedience to Christ. That grace is God’s gift and initiative. If we
respond to this gift in faith and obedience we are then able — again,
by the assistance and power of God’s grace — to merit further gifts of
grace from God. His grace grants us an habitual share in his
Trinitarian life. It sanctifies us and unless it is destroyed by
serious sin it gives us an abiding friendship with him. There are also
many other kinds of grace apart from this habitual sanctifying grace.
There are actual graces that are offered to us for specific
circumstances. There are those graces proper to each Sacrament, and
there are special graces or charisms that God grants to this or that
person for the good of others and the Church. Through his grace God
precedes, prepares and elicits our free response to him. It responds to
our deepest desires and it calls for our full cooperation. So all our
life we must seek and depend on the grace of God.
At the same
time, there has been the opposite error of thinking that nothing other
than grace is involved in our sanctification and salvation. Grace is
fundamental and constantly necessary, but so is our free cooperation.
While whatever we merit from our obedience and cooperation with God is,
in the first instance, due to the grace of God, unless we freely
cooperate little will come of it. Grace comes first and foremost, but
our efforts next and also. When I was young a priest once said that
holiness is 99% due to the grace of God, and 1% due to our efforts. But
we must put in that full 1% and that is our whole strength. All will
fall if we fail to put in our bit, and that 1% bit is our full effort
to love God with all our mind, heart and soul. All this is to say that
we have a mighty God that we can rely on, one who pours into our hearts
his wonderful help that can take us so very far and that can produce a
wonderful harvest of holiness in our life. But just as with the virgin
Mary he awaits our daily and constant assent. We must choose to say our
daily yes to all the calls of his divine plan for us, and then live out
that assent in our daily duties and responsibilities. With that free
cooperation he can work wonders in our souls far beyond our imagining.
Let us then begin again every day, saying yes to whatever God wants to
do with us, for us, in us, and through us. It is through his grace and
our merits that his divine plan for our salvation and the salvation of
others will be achieved.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no.1996-2016
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You don't conquer yourself, you don't practise self— denial,
because you are proud. You lead a life of penance? Don't forget that
pride is compatible with penance... Furthermore: your sorrow, after
your falls, after your failures in generosity — is it true sorrow or is
it the petty disappointment of seeing yourself so small and helpless?
How far you are from Jesus if you are not humble..., even though your
disciplines each day bring forth fresh roses!
(The Way,
no.200)
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When is thanksgiving given to God?
The Church gives thanks to God unceasingly, above all in celebrating
the Eucharist in which Christ allows her to participate in his own
thanksgiving to the Father. For the Christian every event becomes a
reason for giving thanks. (CCC 2637-2638, 2648)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.555)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Monday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time II
(October 8) Saint Pelagia, more often called Margaret, on account of the magnificence of the pearls for which she had so often sold herself, was an actress of Antioch, equally celebrated for her beauty, her wealth and the disorder of her life. During a synod at Antioch, she passed Bishop St. Nonnus of Edessa, who was struck with her beauty; the next day she went to hear him preach and was so moved by his sermon that she asked him to baptize her which he did. She gave her wealth to Nonnus to aid the poor and left Antioch dressed in men's clothing. She became a hermitess in a cave on Mount of Olivette in Jerusalem, where she lived in great austerity, performing penances and known as "the beardless monk" until her sex was discovered at her death. Though a young girl of fifteen did exist and suffer martyrdom at Antioch in the fourth century, the story here told is a pious fiction, which gave rise to a whole set of similar stories under different names. Her feast day is October 8th.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Jonah 1:1–2:1-2,
11; Jonah 2:3, 4, 5,
8; Luke 10:25-37
There was a scholar
of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I
do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the
law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord,
your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your
strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” He
replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will
live.” But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And
who is my neighbour?” Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as
he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and
went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that
road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise
a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the
opposite side. But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved
with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and
wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his
own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took
out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the
instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have
given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’ Which of these three, in
your opinion, was neighbour to the robbers’ victim?” He answered, “The
one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do
likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)
However commendable
it is to love others and help them, in itself it is nothing
exceptional. A father loves his children and tries to help them, as
does a wife and mother. A person might love his friends and often try
to help them. We naturally help those who are in the circle we move
about in and they are the natural object of our love. If someone were
to observe the radius of love and help emanating from the average
person I think he would find that generally it embraces his friends and
those relatives whom he counts as friends.
That is to say that there is
nothing exceptional in there being a pattern in a person’s life of
being nice and helpful to others. This is because that helpfulness generally is
extended to those to whom one is naturally drawn. The fact is that
there is also a legitimate self-interest at stake in being good to
those to whom one is naturally bound. A person who did not show love
and helpfulness
to his spouse, his children and his friends would not have an easy
life. What is exceptional and admirable is when this love and practical
charity is extended to those with whom one normally has nothing to do.
In the case where there is no chance of receiving much appreciation,
recognition or return of friendship then helpfulness is truly out of
the ordinary. Even the non-believer recognizes this. In our Gospel
passage today our Lord is asked by a scholar of the law how one is to
get to heaven. Our Lord asked him — a scholar of the Law — to answer
his own question by telling him what the Law of God in the Scriptures
states. The scribe gives the right answer which is that we must love
God with all our heart and our neighbour as ourself. Then (so as not to
look foolish) he asks our Lord a subsidiary question: who, then, is my
neighbour? Our Lord in reply tells the famous parable of the Good
Samaritan who helped the one in need, even though that person in need
had nothing whatever to do with him. Whoever he might be, our neighbour
is the one in need. Putting it differently, we are a true
neighbour to the one in need if we help him, whoever he might be
(Luke
10:25-37).
So then, our Lord
reveals to us that our salvation depends on our helping whoever is in
need. This is the sense in which we must love our neighbour as ourself
and so attain salvation. Our Lord vividly drives home the point
elsewhere when he describes the General Judgment at the end of time. In
chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel we read how all the nations will be
gathered together in Christ’s presence when he comes and presides as
Judge. All mankind will be separated into two groups. Those on
his left will go to hell and those on his right will go to heaven. What
will be the deciding factor in each case? It will be whether a person
has helped the one in need. So seriously does our Lord take this matter
that he identifies with the least person in need. When I was hungry you
did not give me to eat, the Judge will say. Lord, they will ask, when
did we see you hungry? Whatever you did to the least of these brothers
of mine you did to me. Christ is brother to all men, but most
especially to the poor and the afflicted, whatever the affliction may
be. It is to them especially that he has made himself a "neighbour." So
it has always been a distinguishing feature of the Christian religion
that its best practitioners are noted for their love and service of the
poor and afflicted, and that — very importantly — the motivation for
their love of the poor is their love of Christ himself. They see in the
poor the face of Christ because they know that Christ identifies with
the poor. Thus the Church had in its midst St Vincent de Paul. Thus too
it had in its midst Blessed (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta. They helped
the poor with their corporal works of mercy, but they were the first to
recognize and proclaim that poverty comes in a multiplicity of forms
including spiritual and emotional. Our great exemplar is the almighty
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who loved fallen and stricken man and
who did not hesitate to give up his only begotten Son so as to save the
world from eternal misery. God impoverished himself so that we who were
and are poor might be rich. God made himself a neighbour to stricken
man. Let us then do as our heavenly Father has done, or at least pray
for the grace day in and day out to do so.
Let us start by
contemplating the love and mercy of God our Father and that of his Son
made man who is his perfect image and revelation. Let us aspire to be
true children of our Father by loving and helping to our cost those in
need wherever they may be. Let us live out this practical charity in
our everyday lives, recognizing in faith the face of the living Jesus
in all who suffer.
(E.J.Tyler)
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What a
taste of gall and vinegar, of ash and aloes! What a dry and coated
palate! And this physical feeling seems as nothing compared with that
other bad taste, the one in your soul.
The fact is that 'more is being asked of you', and you can't bring
yourself to give it. Humble yourself Would that bitter taste still
remain in your flesh and your spirit if you did all that you could?
(The Way,
no.201)
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What is the prayer of praise?
Praise is that form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that
God is God. It is a completely disinterested prayer: it sings God’s
praise for his own sake and gives him glory simply because he is. (CCC
2639-2643, 2649)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.556)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
(October
9) St
Denis, bishop and
martyr and his martyr
companions (3rd century). St Denis was the first bishop of
Paris. He
was sent to France by Pope Fabian. He suffered martyrdom with his
companions.
St. John Leonardi (1541?-1609) John Leonardi chose to
become a
priest. After his ordination, he became very active in the works of the
ministry, especially in hospitals and prisons. The example and
dedication of his work attracted several young laymen who began to
assist him. They later became priests themselves. John lived in a time
of reform after the Reformation and the Council of Trent. He and his
followers projected a new congregation of diocesan priests. For some
reason the plan, which was ultimately approved, provoked great
political opposition and he was an exile from his home town of Lucca,
Italy, for almost the entire remainder of his life. He received
encouragement and help from St. Philip Neri [whose feast is May 26],
who gave him his quarters—along with the care of his cat! In 1579 he
formed the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and published a
compendium of Christian doctrine that remained in use until the 19th
century. Father Leonardi and his priests became a great power for good
in Italy, and their congregation was confirmed by Pope Clement in 1595.
He died at the age of 68 from a disease caught when tending those
stricken by the plague. By the deliberate policy of the founder, the
Clerks Regular of the Mother of God have never had more than 15
churches and today form only a very small congregation. "Do not be
afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you
the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for
yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven
that no thief can reach nor moth destroy" (Luke 12:32-33).
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Jonah
3:1-10; Psalm 130:1b-2, 3-4ab,
7-8; Luke 10:38-42
Jesus entered a
village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed
him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet
listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him
and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself
to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There
is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will
not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
If there is one
thing that most persons learn after many years it is
that life is short and that it passes quickly. Indeed, every day is
short and it too passes quickly. All this depends to some extent on our
readiness to do things in life and to use our time well in order to
make as good a contribution to others as we can. If our life is full of
worthwhile work not only will we find that time is short, but we shall
find that we have to simplify our goals and do what is truly
necessary
and do it well. This problem of time and our work in life brings us to
our Gospel
scene for today. Our Lord as ever is in the centre of the
scene but two others interact with him, Martha and her sister Mary. Of
the two, Martha dominates the scene. It is she who welcomes our Lord
when he arrives — just as she did when he came on the great occasion
four days after their brother Lazarus had died. Lazarus is not
mentioned in our scene — perhaps he was away or at work somewhere. Mary
welcomes him and is busy making him even more welcome. It is only her
words to our Lord that are reported in our scene, and our Lord’s words
to her in response. Her sister Mary sits at the feet of Jesus listening
to him speaking. Well then, Martha is very busy and indeed too busy.
Exasperated, she complains to Jesus about her inactive sister asking
him to tell her to get up and help. But our Lord — probably with a
genial smile — says that “only one thing” is necessary. What is the one
necessary thing? My conjecture is that in the first instance it was
simply frugality in what Martha was preparing for our Lord himself. He
did not need much — only “one thing”, a simple serving perhaps. But
more than anything our Lord was saying that what Mary was doing at that
point was the important thing, and indeed it was the one thing
necessary. Our Lord preferred Martha to keep the serving as simple as
possible so as to allow for this “one thing necessary” to be the focus
of his visit: to hear the word of God as it came from him.
(Luke 10:38-42)
Undoubtedly this was a simple domestic scene in which our Lord asked Martha
not to worry about the many things she wanted to do for him but to keep it
simple and sit with him and enter into and listen to his conversation. But
St Luke takes the scene and gives it a universal significance. The one thing
we must do in life is to listen to the word of God and to put it into
practice. Let nothing
distract us from that, is what St Luke reports our Lord as implying. Keep
the whole of life as simple as possible so as to allow for a true
concentration on knowing Christ’s word and putting that into practice in our life,
however complicated our life may in fact be. Life may be very
complicated and there is no doubt that real life is complex. Much can harry and distract us but, our Lord says, remember that there is but
one thing necessary and it is that which we should place at the
forefront of our work and our concerns. It is this which will give
value and order to our complex life. The lesson our Lord delivered to
Martha is reported by St Luke perhaps because of the prominence of
Martha not only in our Gospel scene of today but whenever her family is
explicitly mentioned. For instance, she dominates the scene when our
Lord arrives (at her request) four days after the death of her brother
Lazarus. On that occasion she also gives verbal expression to a
magnificent faith in
him. With her practical love for the Master and her ardent and
enlightened faith in him she can be compared to the great Mary
Magdalene. Just as Mary Magdalene has her feast day in the Church’s
Liturgical Year, so too does Martha. By taking our Lord’s passing
correction of Martha and including it in his Gospel St Luke passed on
to us all a most important lesson about the Christian life. Our short
life should be spent doing the necessary thing, which is to hear,
understand and then to put into practice the word of God as it comes
from Jesus and transmitted to us by the Church. This is all that
matters and all our many activities in life ought be informed by this
all-important and necessary thing. It is what our brief life is for.
None of us has a
lot of time on our hands, and we never know when the
time given to us will be cut short. We must stand ready for such a
call, and standing ready means doing what the Master has entrusted to
us. The “one thing necessary” is to hear the word of God and to put it
into practice.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are going to punish yourself voluntarily for your weakness and
lack
of generosity? Very good: but let it be a reasonable penance, imposed
as it were, on an enemy who is at the same time your brother?
(The Way,
no.202)
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What is the importance of Tradition in
regard to prayer?
In the Church it is through living Tradition that the Holy Spirit
teaches the children of God how to pray. In fact prayer cannot be
reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of an interior impulse; rather it
implies contemplation, study and a grasp of the spiritual realities one
experiences. (CCC 2650-2651)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.557)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
10) Saint
Francis Borgia
and Saint Ghislain
SAINT FRANCIS BORGIA
General of the Jesuits (1510-1572) Saint Francis Borgia,
named for Francis of Assisi at his birth in 1510, was placed under the
tutelage of his uncle, Archbishop of Saragossa, after the death of his
mother when he was ten years old. Soon he had to go to the court 
of Spain, as he was
destined to be one of the great lords of that nation. There he remained
Christian, modest and virtuous. His noble and beautiful appearance soon
brought upon him snares which he succeeded in escaping, setting for
himself regimes of prayer and study to escape from the dangers. He wore
a hair shirt, and never would enter into any of those games of chance
which cause the loss not only of money but of time, the spirit of
devotion, and peace of soul. The Empress arranged for him to marry
Eleanor de Castro of Portugal, who like himself was very pious. They
were blessed with eight children, five sons and three daughters, who
continued to practice the virtue of their parents.
Having become the Duke of Gandia after his
father's death, he became one of the richest and most honoured nobles in
Spain. In 1539, there was laid upon him the sad duty of escorting the
mortal remains of his once beautiful sovereign, the Empress Isabella,
who had died still young, to the royal burial ground at Granada. The
coffin had to be opened for him, that he might verify the body before
it was placed in the tomb; and so unrecognizable, so astonishing a
sight met his eyes that he vowed never again to serve any earthly
sovereign, subject to so drastic and terrible a change.
It was many years before he could follow the
call of his Lord; the emperor named him Captain-General of Catalonia,
and sent him to bring to justice a group of bandits who had ravaged the
countryside. The poor found in him strong protection against
oppression. Vices were banished by his ordinances; he endowed poor
girls and assisted families ruined by misery and reversals; he
delivered debtors from prisons by paying what they owed. He was in
effect the very Christian Viceroy of the Emperor. Saint Francis was
relieved of this duty when he asked the Emperor, after the death of his
father, to return and govern his subjects at Gandia. In Gandia he again
did much public good; he built monasteries, founded hospitals, helped
the poor in every possible way. But suddenly, his wife was taken from
him. He was told by God that this loss was for both his and her own
advantage, and amid his tears he offered his own life and that of his
children, if that would please the Eternal Master.
After making a retreat according to the Exercises of
Saint Ignatius, under Blessed Peter Favre, he made the vows of a Jesuit
privately until he could see to the establishment of his children. When
he went to Rome with one of them, it was rumoured he would be made a
cardinal like two of his brothers. But he wished to avoid all
dignities, and succeeded in doing so by leaving Rome as soon as
possible. Saint Ignatius made him his Vicar General for Spain,
Portugal, and the East Indies, and there was scarcely a city of Spain
and Portugal where he did not establish colleges or houses of the
Company of Jesus. At the death of Saint Ignatius two years later, the
Order chose him to be its General. Then his journeys became countless;
to narrate them all would be an impossibility.
The Turks were threatening Christendom, and Pope
Saint Pius V commissioned two cardinal-legates to go and assemble the
European Christian princes into a league for its defence. The holy Pope
chose Francis to accompany one of the Cardinals and, worn out as he
was, the Saint obeyed at once. The fatigues of the embassy exhausted
what little life was left to him. Saint Francis died in the same year
as Saint Pius V, happy to do so in the service of God and the Church,
when he returned to Rome in October, 1572.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Jonah
4:1-11; Psalm 86:3-4, 5-6, 9-10;
Luke 11:1-4
Jesus was praying
in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said
to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He
said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your
Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us
to the final test.” (Luke 11:1-4)
The Church has
always held as most precious our Lord’s teaching in response to the
request of his disciples that he teach them how to pray. While there
are a great number of prayers presented in the Scriptures (such as the
Book of Psalms and numerous other prayers scattered throughout the
various books) we do not often find the answer of a great master or
prophet to the specific request of his disciples to teach them how to
pray. Prayer is fundamental to the practice of
religion and St Alphonsus Ligouri writes that if a person never prays
it is difficult to see how he will be saved. Prayer is an essential
condition of salvation, and it is utterly necessary for holiness. The
very notion of
holiness includes the
notion of prayer. Therefore this Gospel passage in which we have the
prayer our Lord gave to his disciples in response to their request that
he teach them how to pray is indispensable. One of the first things we
notice is that it consists entirely of petitions. Again, St Alphonsus
Ligouri writes of the necessity of the prayer of petition. He says that
one reason why we do not gain much more from God than we do is that we
do not ask for it and he writes that the prayer of petition is
necessary for salvation. This is not to say that we ought not offer
prayers of praise and thanks and adoration. The Book of Psalms contains
numerous such prayers and the example of our Lord himself confirms
this. But the fact that the Lord’s Prayer consists entirely of
petitions suggests that Christ’s prayer was also very much petitionary.
His life was filled with requests of his heavenly Father. Furthermore,
given our situation as creatures in constant need, it is singularly
fitting that we honour God and express our adoration by directing
petitions to him. It is plain that one of the deepest fonts of the
religious sense is the human and social experience of need. Man needs
the aid of the powers above and this experience of need has obviously
nourished his religious life and instinct during the course of history.
The Lord’s Prayer
sets forth what those needs are and formulates our petitions in light
of them (Luke 11:1-4). The first petition and
man’s greatest need is that God be held holy by mankind: “Father,
hallowed be your name.” Consider how fervently our Lord would have
asked for this in his prayer! We ask and implore that his dominion be
established in the hearts of men and that the world acknowledge his
lordship: “Your Kingdom come!” Christ’s public ministry was given over
to the announcement and establishment of the Kingdom of God. We join
with him in praying that the Kingdom which Christ has established here
on earth and which is seminally but in all reality present in his
Church be made more and more fully present in the life of individuals
and nations. In asking God for this we ask what Christ constantly asked
for during his life and above all as he lay dying on the Cross. The
Kingdom! The world needs the dominion and lordship of God as announced,
explained and brought to it by Christ. How much ought we pray for this
to happen, bringing to our petition a heart and soul entirely committed
to this goal! It is what Christ our high priest is continually
interceding for at the right hand of his heavenly Father, and it is the
great goal of the Church’s existence and efforts. We pray that God will
be all in all and that his Will be done on earth just as it is done in
heaven. Heaven is where the will of God is perfectly done and where all
who are united to him in Christ reside, gazing on the face of God. The
more God’s Will is done on earth, the more heavenly will the earth
become. It is in the framework that, in the Lord’s Prayer, we then
proceed to place before our heavenly Father our own personal needs. We
ask for our daily bread which is to say all our material and spiritual
nourishment, especially the Bread of heaven which is the
Eucharist. We ask for the forgiveness of our sins and protection in and
from temptation. Very importantly we undertake to forgive others their
offences against us.
Let us all our
lives be asking things of God our Father. But let us ask for the right
things, and let us ask for them in and with Christ his Son our Lord.
All this is possible by learning to pray well the Lord’s Prayer which
is the charter of all Christian prayer. Let it be our guide and stay
all our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The joy of us poor men, even when it has supernatural motives,
always leaves behind some taste of bitterness.
What did you expect? Here on earth, suffering is the salt of life.
(The Way, no.203)
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What are the sources of Christian
prayer?
They are: the Word of God which gives us “the surpassing knowledge” of
Christ (Philippians 3:8); the Liturgy of the Church that proclaims,
makes present and communicates the mystery of salvation; the
theological virtues; and everyday situations because in them we can
encounter God. (CCC 2652-2662)
“I love you, Lord, and the only grace I
ask is to love you eternally. … My God, if my tongue cannot say in
every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as
often as I draw breath.” (The Curé of Ars, Saint John Mary
Vianney)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.558)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Thursday in the twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time II
(October
11) Saint
Firmin,
son of a senator, was a native of
Pampeluna in Navarre. With his father he was taught the Christian faith
by Honestus, a disciple of Saint Saturninus, the bishop of Toulouse,
himself the disciple of Saint Peter the Apostle. Firmin, who
had been confided by his father to
Honestus for his education and had accompanied him on his apostolic
journeys, was eventually consecrated bishop by Saint Honoratus,
successor to Saint Saturninus at Toulouse. Firmin received the mission
to preach the Gospel in the remoter parts of the Occident, or Gaul;
thus he preached in the regions of Agen, Angers, and Beauvais. In what
is now Clement-Ferrand, after long discussions with two ardent
idolaters, he won them over. Error, wherever he passed, seemed to flee
before him, as if the infernal powers feared to undertake a combat with
this formidable adversary who was sure to defeat them.
He had not yet suffered persecution. Desiring
martyrdom, he decided to go to a centre of paganism in the north, in
what is now Normandy, near Lisieux. There he was arrested and
imprisoned for a time by the pagans. When delivered, he continued on
towards the north, to a region where Saint Denys of Paris had baptized
many. He confirmed the Christians in their faith, and went wherever a
soul might have need of him. The Roman authorities heard of him and
arrested him; the Saint generously confessed Jesus Christ in their
presence. Again he was imprisoned, but released when the prefect and
his successor both died suddenly. He was obliged, however, to flee
secretly.
When he arrived at Amiens, he placed his
residence there and founded a large church of faithful disciples.
Amiens conserves the memory of the day he arrived and preached
fearlessly there beside a temple of Jupiter, at a site where now the
Basilica of Our Lady stands. He taught aloud the salutary doctrine of
Christianity to all who came to listen. Many conversions followed, even
among the authorities of the city, including the senator. He continued
his preaching in that region for a number of years, while the pagan
temples became literally deserted. And then two Roman officials,
Longulus and Sebastian, heard of him and came to the city.
The pagan priests saw their opportunity, when
all the city residents were convoked to appear before the visitors. The
two officials explained that the capital penalty was decreed for those
who did not obey the imperial edicts, not offering incense to the gods
and honouring them. The pagan priests then told them of one who always
refused to do so, and Saint Firmin, after an eloquent defence of the
religion of Christ, was imprisoned. He finally saw his most ardent
desire fulfilled when certain soldiers decided on their own to
accomplish the imperial orders, and came with swords to his prison at
night, where they decapitated the bishop. He died, filled with joy at
their coming. This occurred under the reign of Trajan in the first
years of the second century. The holy bishop remains in the greatest
honour in the city of Amiens.
(Source: Les Petits
Bollandistes:
Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul
Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 11.)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture
today: Malachi
3:13-20b; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and
6; Luke 11:5-13
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom
he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have
nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother
me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already
in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does
not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will
get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. “And I
tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and
the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and
the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be
opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks
for a
fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who
are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
(Luke
11:5-13)
I
remember years ago when I was visiting Ecuador I met an Ecuadorian deacon
who was a well-written poet, regarded as one of the best poets of Ecuador.
He had a book of his poems entitled (in Spanish), The Silence of God.
Evidently a good number of his poems were about the apparent silence of God
in the face of our prayers and sufferings. God seems to do nothing. Our
prayers seem to be unavailing. He seems to be gone from the scene
and the world and life
carries on
without him. Such is the common complaint of man and it was the theme
of many of those poems. But God would not be the utterly transcendent
God if it were easy to see him or to sense his presence and activity.
In any case, God has come to dwell among us in the person of Jesus, and
Christ has assured us that he does indeed hear our prayers. Our
attitude to God must take its inspiration from the word of Christ and
not from what we actually see. He assures us that our prayers will be
answered. So then, relying on the word of Christ his Son our Lord, we
approach God as his children who love and adore him. The one thing our
Lord stresses in our Gospel passage today is that we must persist in
our
prayers, confident that he will answer us in the way he knows
best. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you
will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who
asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who
knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke
11:5-13).
One of our greatest
failures in our petitions to God is that we let our petitions drop. We
do not persist because we do not see results when we want or expect
them. We do not think they will be answered. We even, in view of this
experience, fail to ask for much and at times we even to ask at all. We
fail in faith. We silently give up on God and act towards him as if
there is not much point in petitioning him for anything.
The answer to this
is to keep constantly in mind who it is we are
addressing, and who we are who are addressing him. He is our Father and
we are his children. We are his children by creation, having been made
in his image and likeness, as the first chapter of the Bible teaches
us. We are his children by creation but even more are we his children
by adoption in Christ. By our baptism we are in Christ and share in
Christ’s sonship. These are the bedrock facts of life and of our being.
We
place ourselves on that bedrock fact and pray in view of it. God is our
Father by our creation and by our adoption in Christ. He looks on us
with the love with which he looks on Christ because we are in Christ.
God is not a distant and menacing Creator. He is — so he himself has
revealed — our Father. This is the God we approach in prayer and before
whom we place our petitions. We must never allow our faith to fail
because of appearances. St Thomas More, in mounting the gallows, said,
though I lose my head I’ll come to no harm. That is to say, no matter
what happens we can hold steadfastly to our faith in God’s fatherly
power and love. So too in our life of prayer. Whatever be the
appearances and the circumstances of our prayer, we may most assuredly
trust him. God can be trusted to hear and answer us provided we persist
in placing before him our petitions. How the answer will come and
precisely what form the answer will take is up to his divine wisdom,
but assuredly it will come. Our danger is to give up. Our Lord solemnly
assures us that God our Father will not give up on us. He will not
allow our prayers to go disappointed unless we choose no longer to ask
him — which is to say, unless we give up on him. Let us then resolve to
ask God our Father, in union with Jesus his divine Son, for all we
think we truly need and for all we think he wants to give us,
especially in the way of personal sanctification and, as our Gospel
passage says, in respect to the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our greatest need
is to become holy, and that is God’s greatest gift.
It is his plan for us and it ought be the special object of our prayers
for ourselves and for all others. Let us ask him for this daily. Let us
enlist the prayers of Mary the mother of God and of the angels and
saints. Prayer is most powerful. Let us never give up on it simply
because God appears to delay.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Many who would willingly let themselves be nailed to a Cross
before the
astonished gaze of a thousand onlookers cannot bear with a Christian
spirit the pinpricks of each day! Think, then, which is the more heroic.
(The Way,
no.204)
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In the Church are there different ways of praying?
In the Church there are various ways of praying that are tied to
different historical, social and cultural contexts. The Magisterium of
the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of
praying to the tradition of apostolic faith. It is for pastors and
catechists to explain their meaning which is always related to Jesus
Christ. (CCC 2663)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.559)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time II
(October 12) Saint Wilfrid
and Our Lady
of Pillar
Saint Wilfrid,
Archbishop of York (634-709) It was the glory of the great Saint
Wilfrid to fasten securely the happy links which bound England to Rome.
He was born about the year 634 of an excellent Christian family; at
that time a brightly burning torch was seen over the house of his
father, shedding light all along the street where the house was,
without doing any damage. This was regarded as a presage that the
newborn babe would one day be a brilliant light in the Church. Wilfrid
was brought up by the Celtic monks at Lindisfarne in the rites and
usages of the British Church. Yet even as a boy Wilfrid longed for
perfect conformity with the Holy See in discipline as well as in
doctrine, and at the first opportunity he set out for Rome. When his
devotion and his desire for instruction in the difficulties of the
liturgy were satisfied, he was ready to return to England. On his way
he visited the archbishop of Lyons, Saint Chamond, who had very kindly
received him on his route to Rome. Before re-embarking for England,
Wilfrid received the tonsure and remained with him for three years,
until his death. At home once more, he built a monastery at Stamford,
and made of another one at Ripon a strictly Roman monastery under the
rule of Saint Benedict. There he was ordained a priest, and after
having governed it as Abbot for five years, he was consecrated a bishop
in France. He again remained for a time across the Channel, and then
found, when he returned to England, that another had replaced him in
his newly assigned see of York. That bishop, whose position was more
than doubtful, was persuaded to retire when the Archbishop of
Canterbury visited Northumbria; Wilfrid was thereby reinstated in 669.
He enforced the Roman obedience in his see and founded many monasteries
of the Benedictine Order.
As Bishop of York he had to combat the passions of
wicked kings, the cowardice of worldly prelates, the errors of holy
men. He was twice exiled and once imprisoned; finally the difficulties
were settled with the aid of Roman authority. In 686 he was called back
to his diocese of York, where eventually he swept away the abuses of
many years and a too national system, and substituted instead a
vigorous Catholic discipline, modeled and dependent on Rome. When the
large see of York was definitively divided and suffragan dioceses
established, Saint Wilfrid was given two smaller sees but not York. He
decided to accept the settlement reached with other British
ecclesiastics, since the principle of Roman authority had been
vindicated. He died October 12, 709, amid the monks of Ripon and was
buried in this monastery. A monk of the monastery of Ripon who had
worked with Saint Wilfrid for forty years wrote the first biography of
the former Abbot and Archbishop. The greater part of his relics were
transferred to the cathedral of Canterbury in the year 959.
Trust in the Vicar of Christ is an instinct
planted in us for the preservation of the Faith. It follows necessarily
upon the reign of our Saviour’s divine love in our hearts.
Sources:
Les Petits
Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin
(Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12; Little Pictorial Lives
of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the
Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New
York, 1894); The
Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous
collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908).
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Joel
1:13-15; 2:1-2; Psalm 9:2-3, 6 and 16, 8-9;
Luke 11:15-26
When Jesus had
driven out a demon, some of the crowd said: “By the power of Beelzebul,
the prince of demons, he drives out demons.” Others, to test him, asked
him for a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to
them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and
house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I
drive out demons. If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do
your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But
if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the Kingdom
of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his
palace, his possessions are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks
and overcomes him, he takes away the armour on which he relied and
distributes the spoils. Whoever is not with me is against me, and
whoever does not gather with me scatters. “When an unclean spirit goes
out of someone, it roams through arid regions searching for rest but,
finding none, it says, ‘I shall return to my home from which I came.’
But upon returning, it finds it swept clean and put in order. Then it
goes and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who
move in and dwell there, and the last condition of that man is worse
than the first.” (Luke 11:15-26)
I remember many
years ago it was reported (correctly) in the news media that Pope Paul
VI had observed that the smoke of Satan was present in the dissent that
was rife in various circles within the Church following the Second
Vatican Council. Apart from the weight of Paul VI’s observation, the
notable thing about this news was the attitude of mild derision with
which it was reported, as if to suggest that any serious mention of
Satan was “over the top.” There have been works
written on the history of the image of Satan in Western thought,
and
the point has been made that the modern image of Satan is of something
of an imp.
There is, of course, the entirely opposite
impression as depicted in the modern movies of Satanic possession (as
in The
Exorcism of Emily Rose — a good movie!) in
which the power of Satan is exaggerated. But generally Satan is now
dismissed as a mythical mischief-maker such as we might find
represented in the witches of certain fairy tales. I remember some
decades ago watching a television debate in which a Protestant minister
demanded to see Satan before he would believe that there was any
reality to him. My point here is that we ourselves would have hidden
assumptions drawn from the cultural environment I have been describing
that predispose us
against taking Satan seriously, even if we accept theoretically the
notion of the Devil. Now, Christ took Satan seriously. Satan had
done immense harm
to the work of God, beginning in heaven itself when he refused to
acknowledge the lordship of God. “I will not serve!” was his response
to God’s test of obedience. Undoubtedly his lead had its influence on
other angels and many followed suit. The great demonic troupe was cast
out of the all-holy presence of God. But that was not the end of the
matter for at the dawn of human history Satan made his appearance
and he proved to be the grand Wrecker, drawing Eve and, through
her, Adam into rebellion. Thus man fell. Satan exists and he has done
immense harm to God’s work.
That Satan is an active force is obvious in our Lord’s words in today’s
Gospel. It was a marked characteristic of his ministry that he drove out
demons and did so effortlessly. They were helpless before him. This does not
mean that they were to be taken lightly — it just shows the almighty power
of Christ. So impressive was this wide ranging exorcism that Christ’s
enemies whispered that he was doing all these exorcisms in secret league
with Satan himself so as to gain influence over
the people. Christ’s answer to this dark rumour was to reveal even more
about Satan. He refers to Satan’s kingdom. Christ had come to establish the
Kingdom of God, God’s
dominion over mankind. Opposed to this Kingdom was another kingdom, and
that was the kingdom of Satan. “Every kingdom divided against itself
will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is
divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that
it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.” So Satan’s is a “kingdom”,
implying many subjects and troops, a degree of organizational unity
together with a determination to fight and gain a victory. Satan’s
hated opponent is the Lord God himself. But now there stood in the
midst of Satan’s territory one who “by the finger of God” (the Holy
Spirit?) was driving him and his minions out. Christ is the stronger
One
and doom will befall the one who does not gather with him. “When a
strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But
when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the
armour on which he relied and distributes the spoils. Whoever is not
with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
(Luke 11:15-26) So a war is in progress
and each of us must make a decision as to what side we shall fight
with. It is a fight to the death and we have the advantage of knowing
its foregone conclusion. At the end each of us will be on one side or
the other. Let us decide for Christ now.
In our vast
universe ultimately there is a great struggle going on. It is that
between good and evil, between God and all that is against God, between
Christ and Satan. Christ will come to judge the living and the dead and
that will mark the end of the present struggle. Satan and those who
have gone with him will be plunged into hell. Those who have gone with
Christ will go to heaven. So let us take our stand with Christ and
fight daily with him and in him gain the victory.
(E.J.Tyler)
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We were
reading — you and I — the heroically ordinary life of that man of God.
And we saw him fight whole months and years (what 'accounts' he kept in
his particular examination!) at breakfast time: today he won, tomorrow
he was beaten... He noted: 'Didn't take sugar...; did take sugar!'
May you and I too live our 'sugar tragedy'.
(The Way,
no.205)
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What is the way of our prayer?
The way of our prayer is Christ because prayer is directed to God our
Father but reaches him only if we pray – at least implicitly – in the
name of Jesus. His humanity is in effect the only way by which the Holy
Spirit teaches us to pray to our Father. Therefore liturgical prayers
conclude with the formula: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (CCC 2664,
2680-2681)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.560)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
13) Saint
Edward the
Confessor, King of England (1001-1066)
Saint Edward, son of King
Ethelred, whose kingdom of England fell to the Danish invaders, was
unexpectedly raised to the throne of England in 1041, at the age of
forty years. God had shown Edward to
a pious bishop in
a vision, as England’s King, anointed by Saint Peter: “Behold the one
who will be King through My favor; he will be cherished by heaven,
agreeable to men, terrible to his enemies, loving to his subjects, very
useful to the Church of God.” The English people, tired of being
governed by a foreign domination, decided in 1041 to reinstate the
surviving son of their legitimate sovereign, and under the leadership
of three noblemen, succeeded in crowning Edward on Easter Sunday of the
year 1042. Edward had spent twenty-seven years of his forty in exile in
Normandy, in the palace of his maternal uncle. When he was raised to
the throne,
the virtues of his earlier years, simplicity, gentleness, humility and
a tender charity, but above all his angelic purity, shone with new
brightness. By a rare inspiration of God, though he married to content
his nobles and people, he preserved perfect chastity in the wedded
state. So little did he set his heart on riches, that three times when
he saw a servant robbing his treasury, he let him escape, saying the
poor man needed the gold more than he. He loved to stand at his
palace-gate, speaking kindly to the poor beggars and lepers who crowded
about him, and many of whom he healed of their diseases. The people
rejoiced in having a Saint for their king. Long wars had brought the
kingdom
to a sad state, but Edward’s zeal and sanctity soon wrought a great
change. His reign of twenty-four years was one of almost unbroken
peace. He undertook only one war, which was victorious, to reinstate
Malcolm, legitimate king of Scotland. The country grew prosperous, the
ruined churches rose again under his hand, the weak lived secure, and
for ages afterwards men spoke with affection of the “laws of good Saint
Edward.” The holy king delighted in building and enriching churches;
Westminster Abbey was his last and noblest work. He had a particular
devotion to
the holy Apostles Saint Peter and Saint John the Evangelist, and had
made a promise never to refuse an alms asked in the name of the latter.
One day when he had no money with him, a poor man reached out his hand
in the name of the Apostle, and the king gave him a valuable ring he
was wearing. Some time later, Saint John appeared to two pilgrims
returning from the Holy Land. He gave them a ring and said: “Take it to
the king; he gave it to me one day when I asked for an alms in the
habit of a pilgrim. Tell him that in six months I will visit him and
take him with me, to follow the unblemished Lamb.” The King received it
from them after hearing their relation of this incident, and broke into
tears. And Edward did indeed die six months later, on January 5, 1066.
Many miracles occurred at his tomb. In 1102 his body was exhumed and
found intact and flexible, with its habits perfectly preserved also,
appearing to be new. He was canonized in 1161 by Pope Alexander III.
Sources: Les Petits
Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin
(Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 12; Little Pictorial Lives
of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the
Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New
York, 1894).
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Joel
4:12-21; Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12;
Luke 11:27-28
While Jesus was
speaking, a woman from the crowd called out and said to him, “Blessed
is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” He
replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and
observe it.” (Luke 11:27-28)
Take any field of
study,
be it astronomy, the history of philosophy or the various religions, or
biology and zoology, or of any branch of the insect, fish or animal
kingdoms, and the striking thing that will come home to the student
will surely be the astonishing variety and richness of what is being
studied. Visible creation is endowed with amazingly varied qualities.
For the one who has no doubt about the fact of a Creator boundless in
being, the world offers a stunning spectacle of varied gifts from God
strewn
everywhere beyond number. There is the greater and the less, and so
very often the less is no less beautiful than the greater. Take any dog
show. The parade of dogs of different sizes and shapes is judged. The
judge comes down for the smallest dog as the best formed and best
performing, showing that excellence comes in all sizes and shapes. Take
the
tiniest bird or fish and its beauty can equal or outclass that of a
bird or fish much the larger and more powerful. This pattern may be
taken as a pointer to what is the case in the realm of man. Mankind too
displays a remarkable variety of gifts. Physically there is an
extraordinary diversity in height, features, beauty, and strength among
human beings. There are great differences in intelligence and aptitudes
and an extraordinary diversity in vocations and paths in life.
One person is blessed with good fortune in terms of opportunities to
achieve while another is possessed of few such chances. Others again
seem to be
plagued with difficulties and a lack of success that may not be due to
their own fault. If we consider the more important sphere of religion
and man’s relationship with God, and in particular the Christian life
and man’s life in Christ, once again we see a remarkable variety of
gifts, circumstances and vocations. The lives of the saints show that
God gives to one certain gifts and to others different gifts again. The
gifts bestowed on say, Thomas Aquinas or Francis Xavier were different
from those granted to Therese of Lisieux.
In our Gospel today
we read that “a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,
“Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you
nursed.” The woman’s praise of Christ’s mother — so truly appropriate
— was in effect her praise of him. She exulted in praise of the
mother of Jesus because she was filled with admiration for him. And how
appropriate was this! Mary the mother of Jesus was the mother of the
Messiah. She was the mother of the redeemer of mankind. She was the
mother of God the Son made man. Furthermore, she was conceived free of
original sin. She was full of grace and the Lord was with her. Blessed
was she among women and blessed was the fruit of her womb. The Almighty
had done great things for her. He had looked upon his lowly handmaid
and all generations would call her blessed. But our Lord’s response to
the acclaim of the woman in the crowd? It was to say to her that
“Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Luke
11:27-28).
The gifts that come from God are a wonderful blessing but in God’s
sight more important is the free response of man to his word. Both the
visible (human) and the invisible (angelic) world contain gifted
individuals — gifted in nature and in grace — who, however,
abused their gifts and turned from God. The classic case in the world
invisible was Satan who turned away from God, hearing his will and
refusing it his obedience. Our first parents were created rich in
nature and grace, and they turned from God. They heard God’s word and
refused it. Judas turned from the word of Christ. All this is to say
that however endowed or however ordinary we might be, the one thing
that is important is that we hear the word of God as it comes from
Christ and then resolutely observe it. This is the blessed thing, the
one thing necessary. The true purpose of the gifts God has given us is
to enable us to hear his word and to put it into practice for both our
own sake and for that of others.
Mary the mother of
Christ and our mother too is the model for both the Church and the
world of
what our Lord extols in our Gospel today. She heard the word of God and
put it into practice. She was endowed with gifts of grace beyond
imagining derived from her vocation to be the mother of God. But it was
her faithful response which counted above all. Her response to the word
and the
will of God remained perfect and sent her holy soul into ever greater
heights of union with God amid the humble exterior of her everyday
life. So then, let us resolve to respond to the word of God with our
Lord’s words and her example constantly before us. That is the one
thing necessary.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The heroic
minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a
supernatural reflection and... up! The heroic minute: here you have a
mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body.
(The Way,
no.206)
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What is the role of the Holy Spirit
in prayer?
Since the Holy Spirit is the interior Master of Christian prayer and
“we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Romans 8:26), the Church
exhorts us to invoke him and implore him on every occasion: “Come, Holy
Spirit!” (CCC 2670-2672, 2680-2681)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.561)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Prayers this week:
If you, O Lord,
laid bare our guilt, who could endure it?
But you are forgiving, God of Israel.
Lord, our help and
guide, make your love the foundation of our lives.
May our love for you
express itself in our eagerness to do good for others.
We
ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.
(October 14) St Callistus I, pope
and martyr (died 222 or 223).
Early in the third century, it was to Callistus, then a deacon, that
Pope Saint Zephyrinus confided the government of the clergy, as well as
the creation and maintenance of the Christian cemeteries, which at that
time 
were the
catacombs of Rome. At the death of the Sovereign Pontiff, Callistus
succeeded him as Head of the Church. It is he who made obligatory for
the entire Church, the fast of the Ember Days which the Apostles had
instituted, to bring down blessings on each season of the year. During
his time, the Christians began to build churches, which though
destroyed during the various persecutions, were eventually rebuilt.
Among the catacombs owed to his government, is the one on the Appian
Way which bears his name. Many precious memories are conserved there;
in it are found the tomb of Saint Cecilia, the crypts of several popes,
and paintings which attest the perfect conformity of the primitive
Faith with that of the present-day Church. During the pontificate of
Saint Callistus, several very striking conversions occurred among the
very officers of the persecuting emperor Alexander Severus. At one time
an officer, his family and household, forty-two persons in all, were
baptized by the Pope on the same day. Many others asked him for
Baptism; among them a Senator and sixty-eight persons of his household,
and a guardian of the saintly Pope, whose name was Privatus, after the
prayers of the Holy Father had cured him of an ulcer. All these new
Christians were martyred, and their heads were exposed at the various
gates of Rome to discourage any who would propagate the Faith of Christ
in that city. Despite the continuing pursuits and his constant
solicitude for all the churches, Saint Callistus found the means to
have a diligent search made by fishermen for the body of a priest of
his clergy, which had been cast into the Tiber after his martyrdom.
When it was found he was filled with joy, and buried it with hymns of
praise. During the persecution Saint Callistus was obliged to take
shelter in the poor and populous quarters of the city. The martyred
priest, Calipodius, appeared to him soon afterwards, saying: “Father,
take courage; the hour of the reward is approaching; your crown will be
proportionate to your sufferings.” Soon afterwards he was discovered
there, and the house was guarded by soldiers who received the order to
allow no food to enter it for several days. And Saint Callistus was
martyred in his turn. With a rock suspended from his neck, he was
thrown from a window into a well on October 14, 223. The priest
Asterius recovered and buried his body in the catacomb named for
Calipodius. A week later Asterius too was arrested and thrown into the
Tiber. The Christians interred this martyr also.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
2 Kings
5:14-17; Psalm 98:1-4; 2 Timothy
2:8-13; Luke 17:11-19
As Jesus continued
his journey to Jerusalem, he travelled through Samaria and Galilee. As
he was entering a village, ten lepers met him. They stood at a distance
from him and raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on
us!" And when he saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the
priests." As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them,
realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice;
and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.
Jesus said in reply, "Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the
other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to
God?" Then he said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." (Luke 17:11-19)
As all Christians know — or should know
— Christ gave us a specific prayer in answer to the
request of his disciples that he teach them how to pray. That prayer,
the Lord’s Prayer, is precious to the entire Church for all ages. In
her catechisms she teaches the faithful how to pray largely by
commenting on the Lord’s Prayer. But that text is not the only one that
contains our Lord’s teaching on how we ought pray. Scattered throughout
the Gospels and of course throughout the rest of the Scriptures we find
plenty of teaching on prayer. Our gospel passage today is a case in
point. The lepers gathered in their group call out to our Lord
with a prayer that ought be a model for fallen man. All men, as St Paul
writes in the Letter to the Romans, are under the power of sin and the
wages of sin are death. By nature, fallen as it is, man is a leper in
the sight of God and all he can do is what the lepers of our Gospel
passage today did, call out to Christ that he have pity on them. That
plea for mercy is surely most pleasing to God for it recognises our
condition and it recognises God as the one on whom we depend, the one
who is all-powerful and all merciful. That their prayer was pleasing to
Christ is shown by the immediate answer it evoked from Christ that they
go forthwith to the priests to show themselves. They must have believed
because they immediately went and as they were going they were healed.
Furthermore, when the lone Samaritan returned to our Lord, our Lord
told him that his faith had saved him. So, due
to the goodness of God their humble and faith-filled prayer of petition
in itself had been admirable. Our Gospel scene of the lepers reminds us
of how important are petitions we make to God on our own behalf and on
behalf of others. Had they not asked, they may not have received. Their
prayer is used at the beginning of every Mass when we repeat after
acknowledging our sins, “Lord have mercy! Christ have mercy!” As it was
the starting point of the prayer of the lepers, so it is with us.
But the cry of the
lepers for mercy is not the whole story about their prayer. As we see
from
our Lord’s words in our passage today, even if (and especially if) we
receive
exactly and all of what we ask for, our prayer ought not begin and end
with petitions. In
the case of our lepers their prayer, humble, importunate and
faith-filled as it was, certainly proved to be incomplete. It gained
the blessing they had sought, but it was not wholly pleasing to Christ
for they forgot to thank and praise the Giver of the blessing. We read
that “one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying
God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.
He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, ‘Ten were cleansed, were they
not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to
give thanks to God?’” (Luke
17:11-19).
In his great story of the Good Samaritan our Lord holds up the example
of the kindness of a Samaritan towards one in need. Here in this Gospel
passage he holds up
another Samaritan — this time one in real life — who glorified and
thanked God for his goodness in freeing him from his affliction. All
this is to say that we ought constantly recollect the blessings we have
received from God both in answer to our prayers and those that have
come unsolicited. He has given us life and various opportunities,
however modest we may think them to be. If we have petitioned him with
the spirit of our lepers today, we shall have found that he has
answered many of our prayers and many more in ways we are not aware of.
There is so much to thank God for, and those blessings ought lead us to
praise and glorify him. Let our lives then be filled with prayer of
petition and intercession for ourselves and for others, and at the same
time with praise,
adoration and thanksgiving. We shall be able to praise and glorify God
the more as we grow in thanksgiving. Let us thank God repeatedly for
all we have received, including — and this is most important — the
difficulties, the disappointments and the crosses he has deigned to
allow and even send. He sends and allows them as a sign of his love.
They immerse us in the mystery of Christ if we but accept them from God
humbly. The cross is the means of special union with Christ, and for
this we ought be so very grateful.
St
John Vianney (the Cure of Ars) used to read lots of lives of the
saints. We should too. Biography is both interesting and instructive,
especially the biographies of great people. True greatness consists in
holiness, and holiness comes from living in Christ. The saints teach us
so much about Christian prayer. They knew how to pray for themselves
and for others. They knew how to thank God for all that they had
received from him, including and especially the difficulties and
crosses of life. They knew how to praise and glorify and adore him. Let
us then ask God to give us the grace to be able to pray well and to
immerse our life in a spirit of true prayer.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: The Catechism of the
Catholic Church, no. 2637-2643
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Give thanks, as for a very special favour, for that holy
abhorrence you feel for yourself.
(The Way,
no.207)
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How is Christian prayer Marian?
Because of her singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit,
the Church loves to pray to Mary and with Mary, the perfect ‘pray-er’,
and to “magnify” and invoke the Lord with her. Mary in effect shows us
the “Way” who is her Son, the one and only Mediator. (CCC 2673-2679,
2682)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.562)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Monday of the twenty eighth week of Ordinary Time II
(October
15) Saint
Teresa of
Avila Virgin, Reformer of the Carmelite Order (1515-1582)
“By their fruits you will know them,” says Our Lord of those who
claim to be His followers. The fruits which remain of the life, labours
and prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila bear to her virtue a living and
enduring testimony which none can refuse to admit. She herself wrote
her life and many other celebrated spiritual works, and much more can
still be said of this soul of predilection, whose writings and examples
have led so many souls to high 
sanctity. Born in
1515 in the kingdom of Castile in Spain, she was the youngest child of
a virtuous nobleman. When she was seven years old, Teresa fled from her
home with one of her young brothers, in the hope of going to Africa and
receiving the palm of martyrdom. Brought back and asked the reason for
her flight, she replied: “I want to see God, and I must die before I
can see Him.” She then began, with her same brother, Rodriguez, to
build a hermitage in the garden, and was often heard repeating:
“Forever, forever!” She lost her mother at the age of twelve years, and
was led by worldly companions into various frivolities. Her father
decided to place her in a boarding convent, and she obeyed without any
inclination for this kind of life. Grace came to her assistance with
the good guidance of the Sisters, and she decided to enter religion in
the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation at Avila. For a time
frivolous conversations there, too, checked her progress toward
perfection, but finally in her thirty-first year, she abandoned herself
entirely to God. A vision showed her the very place in hell to which
her apparently light faults would have led her, and she was told by Our
Lord that all her conversation must be with heaven. Ever afterwards she
lived in the deepest distrust of herself. When she was named Prioress
against her will at the monastery of the Incarnation, she succeeded in
conciliating even the most hostile hearts by placing a statue of Our
Lady in the seat she would ordinarily have occupied, to preside over
the Community.
God enlightened her to understand that He desired
the reform of her Order, and her heart was pierced with divine love.
The Superior General gave her full permission to found as many houses
as might become feasible. She dreaded nothing so much as delusion in
the decisions she would make in difficult situations; we can well
understand this, knowing she founded seventeen convents for the
Sisters, and that fifteen others for the Fathers of the Reform were
established during her lifetime, with the aid of Saint John of the
Cross. To the end of her life she acted only under obedience to her
confessors, and this practice both made her strong and preserved her
from error. Journeying in those days was far from comfortable and even
perilous, but nothing could stop the Saint from accomplishing the holy
Will of God. When the cart was overturned one day and she had a broken
leg, her sense of humor became very evident by her remark: “Dear Lord,
if this is how You treat Your friends, it is no wonder You have so
few!” She died October 4, 1582, and was canonized in 1622.
The history of her mortal remains is as
extraordinary as that of her life. After nine months in a wooden
coffin, caved in from the excess weight above it, the body was
perfectly conserved, though the clothing had rotted. A fine perfume it
exuded spread throughout the entire monastery of the nuns, when they
reclothed it. Parts of it were later removed as relics, including the
heart showing the marks of the Transverberation, and her left arm. At
the last exhumation in 1914, the body was found to remain in the same
condition as when it was seen previously, still recognizable and very
fragrant with the same intense perfume.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
1:1-7; Psalm 98:1bcde, 2-3ab, 3cd-4; Luke
11:29-32
While still more
people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is
an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen
of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will
condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At
the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and
condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there
is something greater than Jonah here.” (Luke 11:29-32)
At various points
during his public ministry our Lord appealed to his “works”, which is
to say his miracles. To the messengers from John the Baptist who asked
if he were the one who was to come, he pointed to the blind being able
now to see, the deaf hear, the lame walk and the dead being now alive.
At times to his own disciples he appealed to his “works,” and when on
the spectacular occasion in front of a crowd he raised Lazarus from the
dead he prefaced the event with
a prayer to his heavenly Father in which he said that he was about to
do this so that many might believe. Clearly these “signs”, as St John
calls them in his Gospel, had real importance in the plan of God and no
other prophet in the history of God’s people could claim such a variety
and number of miracles in his ministry. But they were not the decisive
factor in the all-important issue of belief. They assisted the Apostles
in their faith but they did not constitute the critical factor. What
mattered was their very knowledge of Christ and the light granted to
them from above. Consider the beginning of their association with him.
John the Baptist (as we read in St John’s Gospel) pointed our Lord out
to two of his disciples and they set out to follow him. Our Lord turned
and asked them what they wanted. Addressing him as Teacher they asked
where he lived, implying their desire to be with him, hear his teaching
and be his disciples. They stayed with him for the rest of that day and
their die was cast for they had come to know him. Consider the pivotal
conversation Christ had with his Apostles when he asked what people
said of him. Then he asked who they took him to be, and it was Simon
who spoke. “You are the Christ” he said, “the Son of the Living God.”
Our Lord responded by telling Simon that he was blessed because it was
not flesh and blood that had revealed this to him but the Father in
heaven. Simon Peter had come to know the person of Christ through the
grace of God and this personal knowledge of Jesus led to faith and
eternal life.
We remember how in the Gospel of St John (chapter 6) the people sought
Christ after having been fed by him with the loaves. They asked for a sign
from heaven and pointed to the sign given them by Moses when God sent his
people the manna from heaven to eat. In our Gospel today our Lord comments
on the desire for sign, and in the cases he has in mind he states that it is
the result of an evil disposition. “While still more people gathered in the
crowd, Jesus said to them, ‘This generation is an evil generation; it seeks
a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as
Jonah
became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of
Man be to this generation’.” (Luke
11:29-32).
John the Baptist did not give “signs”. Moses gave signs and worked some
miracles and so did Elijah and Elisha, but by and large the prophets
did not. Their prophecies were fulfilled in the course of time, but
prior to this fulfilment their ministry and preaching was not
accompanied with
signs. Their very witness and preaching was sufficient in God’s plan.
While it is true that our Lord worked very many miracles — signs — nevertheless he is saying in our Gospel passage today that his person
and his
preaching are enough for the properly disposed person. Jonah’s
preaching and message was accepted by the Ninevites, and yet there is
someone much greater than Jonah here! The Queen of the South recognized
the wisdom of Solomon, and there is someone much greater than Solomon
here! This is a most important message for the Christian, for our Lord
is saying that the first thing is to strive to know him. Look at him,
draw near and recognize who he is! Come to me, he says, and learn from
me. At the Last Supper our Lord states that eternal life is this, to
know the Father and Jesus Christ whom he sent. We must come to Jesus,
enter into his company and friendship, and learn who he really is, as
did Simon Peter. Discipleship comes by being with Jesus as his friend
and opening one’s heart to the light of God.
Every day we must
place ourselves in the company of Jesus and spend time with him
listening with faith and love to his words, and having the readiness to
put them into practice. Signs have a place and our prayers for
ourselves and others will be heard, but the important thing is to come
to know Jesus as a living person. By the grace and light of God this
will lead us to faith in him. So then, as our Lord said to his
first two disciples, Come and see! Let us do this daily.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Let us bless pain. Love pain. Sanctify pain... Glorify pain!
(The Way, no.208)
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How does the Church pray to Mary?
Above all with the Hail Mary, the prayer with which the Church asks the
intercession of the Virgin. Other Marian prayers are the Rosary, the
Akathistos hymn, the Paraclesis, and the hymns and canticles of diverse
Christian traditions. (CCC 2676-2678, 2682)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.563)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
16) St
Hedwig, religious
(1174-1243). She was the wife of the duke of Poland, an
exemplary mother of seven children. She led a life of piety and
solicitude for the poor and the sick. Upon the death of her husband,
she retired to a Cistercian monastery. (Saints)
St Margaret
Mary Alacoque, virgin (1647-1690) Saint Margaret Mary, a soul of
divine predilection, was born at Terreau in Burgundy, on July 22, 1647.
During her infancy she showed a wonderfully 
sensitive
revulsion to the very idea of sin, and while still a young child always
recited the entire Rosary every day. She lost her father at the age of
eight years, and her mother placed her with the Poor Clares. She was
often sick and for four years was bedridden, losing almost entirely the
use of her members. She made a vow to Our Lady to become one of Her
daughters if She cured her, and was suddenly entirely well. She was of
a gay temperament and her heart became easily attached to human
affections. God began her purification when the charge of her mother’s
house was confided to persons who reduced the family to a sort of
servitude. Margaret Mary turned to God for strength and consolation
when she was accused of various crimes she had not committed. In short,
the Saint of the Sacred Heart learned to suffer for Christ, with
patience, what innocence can suffer in such situations. She desired to
be a religious, but her mother could not bear to hear a word of that
desire. Finally God came to her assistance through a Franciscan priest,
who told her brother that he would answer to God for the vocation of
his sister. In 1671 she entered the Order of the Visitation of Mary, at
Paray-le-Monial, and was professed the following year. She followed all
the practices of the monastery in perfect obedience, spending as much
time as she could in the chapel with her Lord. After sanctifying her by
many trials, Jesus appeared to her in numerous visions, displaying to
her His Sacred Heart, sometimes burning as a furnace, and sometimes
torn and bleeding on account of the coldness and sins of men. “Behold
this Heart which has so loved men, and been so little loved by them in
return!” In 1675, she was told by Our Lord that she, with the aid of
Father Claude de la Colombiere of the Society of Jesus, was to be His
instrument for instituting the feast of the Sacred Heart, and for
spreading that devotion everywhere. This was not accomplished without
great sufferings. The good Jesuit did all in his power to make known
and loved the Heart of Jesus, but when it seemed all obstacles were
about to disappear, his credit diminished, and his Superiors sent him
to England. He returned to France exhausted and soon died. Saint
Margaret Mary was for a time Mistress of Novices, and in this office
exercised a true apostolate, working to win for the Heart of Jesus the
hearts of the young girls who were aspiring to religious consecration.
She was persecuted when she sent one of them home, not having seen in
her the indications of a genuine vocation; the family attempted to have
her deposed. She remained in the charge but was deprived of Holy
Communion on the First Friday of the month. This practice was one of
Our Lord’s specific requests; for souls who communicate nine First
Fridays in succession, He promised the most wonderful graces. The
demons also persecuted her visibly; nonetheless her entire Community
was finally won over to devotion to the Divine Heart. Saint Margaret
Mary died at the age of forty-two years, on October 17, 1690, and
everywhere was heard in the city: “The Saint is dead! The Saint is
dead!” She was beatified in 1864 by Pope Pius IX, and canonized in 1920
by Pope Benedict XV.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
1:16-25; Psalm 19:2-3, 4-5; Luke 11:37-41
After Jesus had
spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home. He entered and
reclined at table to eat. The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did
not observe the prescribed washing before the meal. The Lord said to
him, “Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and
the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil. You fools! Did
not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as to what is
within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” (Luke 11:37-41)
On at least one
occasion — and it could have been several — our Lord said that he had
come to call not the “virtuous” but sinners to repentance. On that
occasion the scribes and the Pharisees were criticising him for
associating with publicans and sinners, and even dining with them. He
was entering into their company and mixing with them. Why was he,
clearly a prophet, doing this? It was, he replied, to draw them away
from sin to God. On one occasion he was passing through
Jericho and Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector and a wealthy man, wanted
to see Jesus so he ran ahead to climb a tree so as to catch sight of
Jesus as he passed by. Our Lord approached with the crowd, stopped and
looked up at Zacchaeus and smilingly invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home
to dine, and did so in front of the crowd. Again, our Lord’s easy and
friendly approach to sinners caused wonderment. He had come to call
sinners to repentance. But the acknowledged sinners were not the only
ones our Lord came to reclaim. The Pharisees too were sinners but in
their case there was no recognition or acknowledgement of their sins.
When John the Baptist came he attacked them for their lack of
repentance and this attack was renewed by our Lord. The publicans and
the prostitutes were entering heaven before them, our Lord said. Our
Lord wanted to reclaim them too, for they too were sinners but of a
different type. Our Lord was plain speaking with them and often reduced
them to silence. His bluntness with their hypocrisy and pride and
blindness was the fruit of his effort to reclaim them from sin.
However, inasmuch as there are various references to their inviting him
to dine with them, his manner towards them must have been winning and
attractive — in character with the beauty of his person. Nicodemus was
a Pharisee, a leading Jew, and he sought our Lord out by night and was
welcomed. The point to be made is that our scene today is a further
illustration of our Lord seeking out the lost.
The strong words of
our Lord to his guest and to his class as given in our Gospel today (Luke 11:37-41)
show our Lord’s profound and penetrating insight into the heart of the
sinner. If there is one thing which attracted his loving smile it was a
genuine repentance. If there was one thing which attracted his severity it
was pride, a lack of any sense of personal sin and hypocrisy. Repentance was
impossible for such as continued with these dispositions. We remember the
sinful woman who made her way into the house of the Pharisee where our Lord
was dining and bathed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
Our Lord sensitively accepted her love and her repentance, forgiving her
sins and sending her away profoundly consoled and reconciled with God. We
remember the woman caught in adultery and the power of our Lord’s silence
dispersing her harsh accusers. He gently allowed her to go and directed her
not to sin again. All men are under the power of sin, as St Paul writes in
the Letter to the Romans. How then can we expect to be welcomed by Christ?
We shall be welcomed if we turn to him in repentant love. This is precisely
what the Pharisees were not doing (undoubtedly with some exceptions —
Nicodemus has already been mentioned). In fact very many of them turned
against him in hate. They were sunk in their sins and our Lord warned them
that if they continued along their path they would die in their sins. We
then must make it a major project of our life to learn to repent. We must
become repentant in the depths of our soul. We have to acquire an ongoing
and lasting spirit of repentance in which
we recognise our sins and resolve, by the grace of God, to renounce them. It is especially
the minor sins, the venial sins, which we must learn to renounce. If we
do not repent of venial sins then holiness will be out of the question.
God does not simply impute to us the holiness of Christ. He means us,
with the grace of Christ, to renounce them and to keep beginning again
in this path of repenting of sin, and so to become
holy.
So then, now I
begin! Every day let us at least at the end of the day make the effort
to recall our sins, to be sorry for them out of love for Christ, and to
resolve to change for the love of Christ. We must acquire the habit of
genuine repentance. The Gospels show us that the one who is genuinely
repentant is especially loved by Christ and will be favoured with his
grace.
(E.J.Tyler)
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A whole programme for a good course in the 'subject' of suffering
is given to us by the Apostle: spe gaudentes — rejoicing in hope, In
tribulatione patientes — patient in troubles, orationi instantes —
persevering in prayer.
(The Way,
no.209)
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How are the saints
guides for prayer?
The saints are our models of prayer. We also ask them to intercede
before the Holy Trinity for us and for the whole world. Their
intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. In the
communion of saints, throughout the history of the Church, there have
developed different types of spiritualities that teach us how to live
and to practice the way of prayer. (CCC 2683-2684
2692-2693)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.564)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Wednesday of the twenty eighth week in Ordinary Time II
(October
17) Saint
Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (†107)
Saint Ignatius, Bishop of
Antioch, was the disciple of Saint John the Evangelist. Believing that
the Church on earth should resemble that of the heavenly Jerusalem of
which Saint John wrote in his Apocalypse, he established singing in
choirs in his church at Antioch, after a vision of the celestial choirs
who sang in that manner. When the emperor Domitian persecuted the
Church, Saint Ignatius obtained peace for his own flock by fasting and
prayer, although for his own part he desired to suffer with Christ, and
to prove himself a perfect disciple.
The Roman emperors often visited Antioch, one of the
cities of first importance of the empire. In 107, the eighth year of
the reign of the emperor Trajan, he came to Antioch and forced the
Christians to choose between apostasy and death. Saint Ignatius, who
had already governed that church for forty years, continued to fortify
it against apostasy, and did not flee. Arrested and brought before the
emperor, the latter addressed him: “Who are you, poor devil, to set our
commands at naught?” “Call not poor devil,” Ignatius answered, “one who
bears God within him.” And when the emperor asked him what he meant by
that, Ignatius explained that he bore in his heart Christ, crucified
for his sake. “Change your ideas, and I will make you a priest of the
great Jupiter, and you will be called ‘father’ by the Senate.” “What
could such honours matter to me, a priest of Christ, who offer Him
every day a sacrifice of praise, and am ready to offer myself to Him
also?” “To whom? To that Jesus who was crucified by Pontius Pilate?”
“Yes, and with whom sin was crucified, and the devil, its author,
vanquished.”
The questions and the courageous
replies continued for a time that day and also on the following one.
Saint Ignatius said, “I will not sacrifice; I fear neither torments nor
death, because I desire to go quickly to God.” Thereupon the emperor
condemned him to be torn to pieces by wild beasts in Rome. Saint
Ignatius blessed God, who had so honored him, “binding him in the same
chains as Paul, His apostle.” When his people wept, he told them to
place their hope in the sovereign Pastor, who never abandons His flock.
On passing through the city of Smyrna, he exhorted the faithful, who
were grieved at his fate, to remain true to Christ until death, and he
gave some of them who were going to Rome a letter for the Christians of
the capital of the Christian world. This letter is still extant. He
writes: “I fear your charity, I fear you have an affection too human
for me. You might prevent me from dying, but by so doing, you would
oppose my happiness. Suffer me to be immolated while the altar is
ready; give thanks to God... If when I arrive among you I should have
the weakness to seem to have other sentiments, do not believe me;
believe only what I am writing to you now.” This letter of Saint
Ignatius has encouraged all generations of Christians in their combats.
He journeyed to Rome, guarded by
soldiers, and with no fear but of losing the martyr’s crown. Three of
his disciples, who accompanied him and were eyewitnesses of the
spectacle, wrote the acts of his martyrdom: His face shining with joy,
he reassured them as the lions were released, saying: “I am the wheat
of Christ, I will be ground by the teeth of the beasts and made into
flour to be a good bread for my Lord Jesus Christ!” He was devoured by
lions in the Roman amphitheater. The wild beasts left nothing of his
body except a few bones, which were reverently treasured at Antioch
until their removal in the year 637 to the Church of Saint Clement in
Rome. After the martyr’s death, several Christians saw him in vision,
in prayer to Christ, and interceding for them.
Reflection. Ask Saint Ignatius to
obtain for you the grace of profiting by all you have to suffer, and
rejoicing in it as a means of likeness to your crucified
Redeemer. (magnificat.ca)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Romans
2:1-11; Psalm 62:2-3, 6-7, 9; Luke
11:42-46
The Lord said: “Woe
to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden
herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These
you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you
Pharisees! You love the seat of honour in synagogues and greetings in
marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people
unknowingly walk.” Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in
reply, “Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too.” And he said,
“Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard
to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.” (Luke 11:42-46)
We are so
accustomed to diversity of opinion in the world that its implications
for truth and error can easily escape us. We do not advert to the
philosophical principle of contradiction and its implications for
mankind. I refer to the obvious fact that something cannot be both true
and false at the same time and under the same aspect. For instance, it
cannot be the case that man can know God and in the same sense cannot
know him. It cannot be the case that God exists and in the
same sense does not exist. It cannot be the case that Christ is the
divine and human Redeemer of man and the only way to the Father and in
the same sense is not this. Now, there are great numbers of people who
firmly consider that the man Jesus is God and our redeemer, while at
the same time there are great numbers of people (Muslims, Hindus,
atheists, etc) who deny he is this. That is to be expected, but our
Western tendency is not only to accept this diversity and polarity as
an objective fact but to set aside the question of the truth of the
matter as of secondary importance. We set to one side the question of
who and what is right and who and what is wrong in the controverted
matter. More than this, our tendency can be to think that the truth of
non-empirical matters is unattainable and basically irrelevant.
Indeed, we can think that there is no objective truth to the matter in
these basic issues, but that the only reality is what each person just
happens to think. Truth is simply a factor of each person’s opinion and
that opinion is the upshot of subjective forces, including choice. All
of this is generally quietly and unconsciously assumed — unless the
person in question is thinking philosophically and deliberately
espousing a philosophy of relativism, idealism or whatever. The
relativism which is so influential in Western thought and attitudes is
a hidden assumption or starting point and its fruit is to think that in
non-empirical issues — which are the most fundamental issues of all — there is no error. The only error is whatever does not work or is not
useful. Truth and error in religion, for instance, is a subjective
phantom.
Now, of course in our Gospel passage today our Lord was not addressing the
modern assumption as to truth and error in religion. But his words remind us
of the fact of error in religion. They also remind us of the real
possibility of error which is culpable and harmful. He condemns the
Pharisees and the scribes. “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint
and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment
and to love for God. These you should have done, without
overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of
honour in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are
like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.”
(Luke
11:42-46).
The Pharisees were in an almost hopeless state of error, a blindness
which was at the same time culpable. Woe was coming upon them. So error
in religion is a powerful fact. The mere fact of widespread and
profound diversity in religious opinion manifests the fact of religious
error to a greater or lesser extent on a large scale. The issue of what
is the truth and who possesses it is a further question, but our Lord’s
words by implication for our day attack relativism in respect to truth
and error. Let us take to heart this implication for modern culture.
Attaining the truth and avoiding and renouncing error must be at the
forefront of life. It means that we should strive to attain the truth
and if we are convinced that we have the truth (of, say, Catholic
Christianity) then we should strive to attain more of it so as to be
filled with the truth revealed by God. We can very easily be partially
blind, and in the basic issues even wholly so. This blindness may to
some extent be culpable — the blindness of the scribes and the
Pharisees was culpable. So we should arouse ourselves and seek to
attain and live in the truth, which is the truth revealed by God and
embodied in the person of Christ. Let us place truth and error in the
forefront, and uproot the assumption that it is second in importance to
what is merely useful. Our religion must not be based just on
pragmatism.
Let us pray to God
our Father for the grace to see and embrace the light of Christ and its
implications for life. Truth and error is the all-important issue in
the matter of religion. As our Lord said, the truth will make you free.
While being alert to all traces, seeds and vehicles of the truth
wherever they may be in the religions and philosophies of the world,
let us nevertheless strive to be a true witness to Christ who is the
light of the world. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life for mankind.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Atonement: this is the path that leads to Life.
(The Way, no.210)
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Who can educate us in prayer?
The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Daily
family prayer is particularly recommended because it is the first
witness to the life of prayer in the Church. Catechesis, prayer groups,
and “spiritual direction” constitute a school of and a help to prayer.
(CCC 2685-2690, 2694-2695)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.565)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist
(Thursday of the twenty eighth week in Ordinary Time II)
(October 18) Saint
Luke, evangelist
Saint Luke, a physician
at Antioch and a painter, was also an excellent rhetorician in Greek,
his native language. He became a disciple of Saint Paul, the Apostle’s
fellow-worker and his faithful friend during his two 
imprisonments,
and is best known to us as the historian of the New Testament acts of
both Christ and the Apostles. Though not an eye-witness of Our Lord’s
life, the meticulous Evangelist diligently gathered information from
those who had followed or listened to Jesus of Nazareth, and wrote, as
he tells us, all things in order. His command of Greek is much admired.
Saint Clement of Alexandria, Saint Jerome and Saint Thomas Aquinas
state that it is he who translated Saint Paul’s famous Epistle to the
Hebrews, written in the language of the Jerusalem Christians, into the
admirable Greek which we presently possess as the only ancient version.
The Acts of the Apostles were
written by the Evangelist as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing the
history of the Church down to the first imprisonment of Saint Paul in
Rome, in the year 64. The humble historian never names himself, but by
his occasional use of “we” instead of “he” or “they”, we are able to
detect his presence in the scenes of Saint Paul’s life which he
describes. We thus find that he sailed with Paul and Silas from Troas
to Macedonia, where he remained behind, apparently, for seven years at
Philippi. Finally, after remaining near Saint Paul during the time he
was imprisoned in Palestine, he accompanied him, still a prisoner, when
he was transported to Rome. Thus he shared the shipwreck and perils of
that memorable voyage, narrated in Chapter 27 of Acts — which book no
Christian should fail to read, along with the four Gospels. He then
narrates the two years of Saint Paul’s first imprisonment, ending in
his liberation.
There his narrative ends, but
from Saint Paul’s Epistles we learn that Saint Luke was his faithful
companion to the last. His paintings of Our Lady are still conserved
with care in a number of places in Europe. Saint Luke certainly learned
from the Mother of Christ Herself, the story of the Annunciation, the
Visitation, and the Angelic mission to the shepherds of Bethlehem.
After the martyrdom of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Saint Epiphanus
says that Saint Luke preached in Italy, Gaul, Dalmatia and Macedonia.
Others say he went to Egypt and preached in the Thebaid, the region of
the Fathers of the desert. Saint Hippolyte says he was crucified in
Greece. His mortal remains were transferred to the Church of the
Apostles, built by Constantine the Great at Constantinople, with those
of Saint Andrew and Saint Timothy. Some of his relics remain in the
Greek monastery of Mount Athos.
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Scripture today: 2 Timothy
4:10-17b; Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18;
Luke 10:1-9
The Lord Jesus
appointed seventy-two disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to
every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them, “The
harvest is abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master of the
harvest to send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold,
I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Carry no money bag, no sack,
no sandals; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you
enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives
there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you, for
the labourer deserves payment. Do not move about from one house to
another. Whatever town you enter and they welcome you, eat what is set
before you, cure the sick in it and say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God is
at hand for you.’” (Luke 10:1-9)
In view of the
widespread phenomenon of religion in world history, and in view of the
immense variety of the religions of man, a great question is simply
this: what is religion? Perhaps it is impossible to give a definition
that fits all religions. If one defines religion in terms of the
worship and service of God, or of the knowledge of God and of his will
for us, what are we to say of those “religions” that do not allow for a
“God”?
Classic Buddhism is, we could probably say, agnostic.
It consists of a search for happiness and fulfilment which is
understood to be attained in Enlightenment or Nirvana. Something
similar could be said of Confucianism, a great ethical way towards
harmony
within oneself and among men. What is to be said of the immense variety
of indigenous religions? Whatever about all this, the distinguishing
feature of Christianity is that the God of the Christians is not only
real but was seen and
touched and heard. He was and is divine and he was and is man. He is
the infinite God become a man like us. He is a tangible fact. He spoke,
ate and drank, suffered and died, and rose from the dead. Moreover,
this Jesus who is God is one of three Persons in one God, and each of
these persons is the one eternal and infinite God. The second Person
became one of us and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.
It is a breathtaking claim and so human was Jesus Christ that many at
the time utterly rejected the claim. They took up stones to stone him
with because, St John tells us, he claimed that God was his own father
and thus made himself equal to God. Has there ever been so striking and
extraordinary a religious doctrine in the history of man as that of the
Incarnation? The God of the Christian religion is the man Jesus, risen
from the dead. He is the Lord of the world and the task of the Church
is to draw all men into his friendship. The Christian religion consists
in friendship with this man Jesus who is God.
Being a Christian, then, means being a true companion of Jesus, one who is
prepared to accompany him whithersoever he, Jesus, chooses to go. It means
entering into the life and friendship of Jesus and following his way and
shouldering a share in his interests and mission. Christ came among men with
a mission to redeem the world and to bring that redemption to each person in
space and time. Being a Christian means entering into that mission and
making it one’s own daily mission. This mission is lived out and exercised
according to the vocation and circumstances the providence of God has placed
one in. Our Gospel today narrates how “the Lord Jesus appointed seventy-two
disciples whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. He said to them,
‘The harvest is abundant but the labourers are few; so ask the master
of the harvest to send out labourers for his harvest. Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves’.”(Luke
10:1-9). As
Christ was missionary, so too is the Christian. As pope after pope has
taught, the apostolate is an essential element in the Christian life.
The Christian life is not just a life of personal or even public piety,
even though piety is absolutely essential. A piety that had no interest
in advancing in practical ways the mission and redemptive work of
Christ in and through his body the Church, is a very incomplete piety.
Christian piety is apostolic. It is missionary in the sense that it is
immersed in the mission of Christ to the world. This applies to the
active missionary, it applies to the ordinary family and working man or
woman, and it applies to the Carmelite in her monastery. St Terese of
Lisieux was a young Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24 at the end
of the nineteenth century. She attained a great level of holiness, and
a distinctive feature of her holiness was her ardent missionary spirit
that poured itself out in prayer and penance for the salvation of all
souls.
What is religion?
In terms of the Christian religion there are two things we must take
seriously if we wish to be authentic Christians. Firstly we must grow
in a lively friendship with the living Jesus. The Christian religion
consists in love for Jesus, and all that this implies. Secondly
friendship with Jesus involves sharing in his redemptive mission and
bringing the fruits of it to others, be it in one’s family, among one’s
friends, within one’s workplace. Our Gospel passage today reminds us of
this missionary and apostolic dimension in every Christian life. Let us take up this
challenge for Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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In the
deep pit opened by your humility, let penance bury your negligences,
offences and sins. Just as the gardener buries rotten fruit, dried
twigs and fallen leaves at the foot of the very trees which produced
them. And so what was useless, what was even harmful, can make a real
contribution to a new fruitfulness.
From the falls learn to draw strength: from death, life.
(The Way,
no.211)
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What places are conducive to prayer?
One can pray anywhere but the choice of an appropriate place is not a
matter of indifference when it comes to prayer. The church is the
proper place for liturgical prayer and Eucharistic adoration. Other
places also help one to pray, such as a “prayer corner” at home, a
monastery or a shrine.
(CCC 2691, 2696)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.566)
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Friday of the twenty eighth week in Ordinary Time II
(October
19) John
de Brébeuf and Isaac Jogues, priests and martyrs, and their
martyr companions. Also
St Paul of the
Cross, priest (1694-1775)
Isaac Jogues
(1607-1646): Isaac Jogues and his companions were the first
martyrs of the North American continent officially recognized by the
Church. As a young Jesuit, Isaac Jogues, a man of learning and culture,
taught literature in France. He gave up that career to work among the
Huron Indians in the New World, and in 1636 he and his companions,
under the leadership of John de Brébeuf, arrived in Quebec. The
Hurons were constantly warred upon by the Iroquois, and in a few years
Father Jogues was captured by the Iroquois and imprisoned for 13
months. His letters and journals tell how he and his companions were
led from village to village, how they were beaten, tortured and forced
to watch as their Huron converts were mangled and killed. An unexpected
chance for escape came to Isaac Jogues through the Dutch, and he
returned to France, bearing the marks of his sufferings. Several
fingers had been cut, chewed or burnt off. Pope Urban VIII gave him
permission to offer Mass with his mutilated hands: "It would be
shameful that a martyr of Christ be not allowed to drink the Blood of
Christ." Welcomed home as a hero, Father Jogues might have sat back,
thanked God for his safe return and died peacefully in his homeland.
But his zeal led him back once more to the fulfillment of his dreams.
In a few months he sailed for his missions among the Hurons. In 1646 he
and Jean de Lalande, who had offered his services to the missioners,
set out for Iroquois country in the belief that a recently signed peace
treaty would be observed. They were captured by a Mohawk war party, and
on October 18 Father Jogues was tomahawked and beheaded. Jean de
Lalande was killed the next day at Ossernenon, a village near Albany,
New York. The first of the Jesuit missionaries to be martyred was
René Goupil who, with Lalande, had offered his services as an
oblate. He was tortured along with Isaac Jogues in 1642, and was
tomahawked for having made the Sign of the Cross on the brow of some
children.
Jean de
Brébeuf (1593-1649): Jean de Brébeuf was a French
Jesuit who came to Canada at the age of 32 and labored there for 24
years. He went back to France when the English captured Quebec (1629)
and expelled the Jesuits, but returned to his missions four years
later. Although medicine men blamed the Jesuits for a smallpox epidemic
among the Hurons, Jean remained with them. He composed catechisms and a
dictionary in Huron, and saw 7,000 converted before his death. He was
captured by the Iroquois and died after four hours of extreme torture
at Sainte Marie, near Georgian Bay, Canada. Father Anthony Daniel,
working among Hurons who were gradually becoming Christian, was killed
by Iroquois on July 4, 1648. His body was thrown into his chapel, which
was set on fire.
Gabriel Lalemant
had taken a fourth vow—to sacrifice his life to the Indians. He was
horribly tortured to death along with Father Brébeuf. Father Charles
Garnier was shot to death as he baptized children and
catechumens during an Iroquois attack. Father Noel Chabanel
was killed before he could answer his recall to France. He had found it
exceedingly hard to adapt to mission life. He could not learn the
language, the food and life of the Indians revolted him, plus he
suffered spiritual dryness during his whole stay in Canada. Yet he made
a vow to remain until death in his mission.
These eight Jesuit martyrs of North America were
canonized in 1930.
"My confidence
is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his
designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work
and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our
shortcomings" (from a letter of Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in
France, September 12, 1646, a month before he
died).
(American Catholic.org)
St Paul of the
Cross, priest (1694-1775) Born in Liguria (Italy). He devoted
himself to the service of the poor and the sick. He was outstanding for
his apostolic zeal and his great penances. He founded the religious
congregation of the Passionists.
(Saints)
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Scripture today:
Romans
4:1-8; Psalm 32:1b-2, 5,
11; Luke 12:1-7
At that time: So
many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another
underfoot. Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples, “Beware of the
leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees. “There is nothing
concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known.
Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the
light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be
proclaimed on the housetops. I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid
of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show
you whom to fear. Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power
to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one. Are not
five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped
the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted.
Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:1-7)
There
are some agnostics around and some atheists too, but I think one could
say that most people accept that there is a supernatural realm and that
there is a God. Most people are not theoretical atheists or agnostics.
But that can be a far cry from what we might call genuine religion. A
great theorist of the nature of faith was Cardinal John Henry Newman in
the
nineteenth century. He made a straightforward distinction between those
for whom God is a mere notion and those for whom God
is a reality. What, we might ask, is the key to having an abiding
realization of the God of revelation and living in the light of it? The
key is surely
living with a lively sense of the very presence of God, one and triune.
God the holy Trinity is not just nearby but within. The Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit abide within the soul of the one who is baptized
and in the
state of grace. In the case of one who is not in the state of grace,
God the Creator and Father is immanent, intimately near and watching
all. He is ever so near and he who is our Father, our Friend and our
Judge sees all. Nothing escapes his notice for he sustains all in being
and he is constantly inviting us to an intimate friendship with him. He
sees the slightest thing in our hearts that constitutes an obstacle to
this friendship and acknowledgment of him. Our problem is that we
forget these great unseen facts and we live in the light of simply what
we can and do see. Now, even things that we can see we can fail to
realize. A person has before him the constant love of his spouse and
yet he can fail to realize it. It is possible for this love to be no
more than
a notion to him and other things can be more real to him such as money,
sport or whatever. Yes, we can fail to appreciate the reality of things
that are plainly before us, and so it is even more possible to fail to
realize what we cannot see but what is even more real than things
visible. So if our religion is to be genuine, we must learn to live
constantly in the presence of God. This presence must not be forgotten.
In our Gospel today
our Lord solemnly warns his disciples against the hypocrisy of the
Pharisees. We read that Jesus began to speak, first to his disciples,
“Beware of the leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees. “There
is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will
not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be
heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors
will be proclaimed on the housetops.” (Luke 12:1-7).
The Pharisees (though not all, of course) acted as if they were
religious but their hearts were far from God. Their hearts were
self-centred and sought the acclaim of men. Our Lord said that what
they kept concealed, either deliberately or through culpable blindness,
would be revealed. What they said — say, about him — in the dark would
be heard in the light, and what they had whispered in secret — about
him or others — would be proclaimed publicly. God sees all and the day
will come when they would be held to account at the judgment seat of
God. What each person must do is to live with the thought that God is
near
and within, and then to live constantly in a way continually pleasing
to God. At our Lord’s baptism the voice of the Father was
heard and it said, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Our Lord
lived constantly in the presence of his heavenly Father, and on one
occasion he challenged his enemies to with this question: “Can any of
you convict me of sin?” On another occasion he stated that he always
did what pleased the Father. We who desire to follow Christ closely
should establish a regime in our life whereby we are able to remember
the constant presence of God. It means a plan of life involving times
of formal prayer, some spiritual reading, receiving the Sacraments, and
frequently raising the mind and heart to God in brief prayer by
renewing
the offering made of oneself in the morning. When a person lives
in the presence of God it is God he is trying to please and not just
men. “ I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the
body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear. Be
afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into
Gehenna.” Ultimately the only one to fear displeasing is God. Let us
then resolve to please God in all things and to live constantly in his
loving and yet awesome presence.
(E.J.Tyler)
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That Christ you see is not Jesus. It is only the pitiful image
that your blurred eyes are able to form... — Purify yourself. Clarify
your sight with humility and penance. Then... the pure light of Love
will not be denied you. And you will have perfect vision. The image you
see will be really his: his!
(The Way,
no.212)
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What times are more suitable for
prayer?
Any time is suitable for prayer but the Church proposes to the faithful
certain rhythms of praying intended to nourish continual prayer:
morning and evening prayer, prayer before and after meals, the Liturgy
of the Hours, Sunday Eucharist, the Rosary, and feasts of the
liturgical year. (CCC 2697-2698, 2720)
“We must remember God more often than we draw
breath.” (Saint Gregory of Nazianzus)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.567)
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Saturday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October 20) Saint Irene. She was the widow of Saint Castulus, who suffered martyrdom during the persecutions of the emperor Diocletian. Her claim to fame is that she healed the wounds of Saint Sebastian, who, shot with arrows, had been left for dead. Once healed, and despite Irene's exhortations to leave Rome, Sebastian continued his Christain teaching and was finally clubbed to death. There is a fine painting by the French artist Trophime Bigot (c.1579-c.1649?): 'St Sebastian healed by Irene', from the church of St Tommaso di Villanova, Castel Gandolfo, that can be now found in the XIII room of the Vatican Pinacoteca.
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Scripture today:
Romans 4:13,
16-18; Psalm 105:6-7, 8-9, 42-43; Luke
12:8-12
Jesus said to his
disciples: “I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the
Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. But whoever
denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.
“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,
but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be
forgiven. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and
authorities, do not worry about how or what your defence will be or
about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that
moment what you should say.”
(Luke 12:8-12)
I have at various
times noticed an important objection to the person of Christ levelled
by some of our Jewish brethren — and those of the Jewish faith are
indeed our (elder) brethren in that Abraham is our common father in the
faith. The objection is that Jesus Christ himself is the object of the
Christian religion. No other prophet or figure has this status. Take
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, or any of the prophets be they the
greatest or the least. None of them sets himself forth as the object of
revealed religion. They all point away
from themselves to the one God.
But read through the New Testament and it is obvious that Christ’s very
self is the focus of a great deal of his teaching. His very self
is the object of his disciples’ love and life. This is disconcerting
for the Jewish writers I am thinking of. Our Gospel passage today is a
case in point, for in it our Lord speaks of “everyone” acknowledging
him before others. He himself is to be the object of their witness and
proclamation. Everyone who acknowledges him before others will be
acknowledged by him before the angels of God, and the one who denies
him before others will be denied before the angels of God. The point is
reinforced by our Lord after he rose from the dead and just prior to
his final ascension into heaven. His disciples were to go to the whole
world with a mission. The mission was to make all the nations his
disciples, disciples of Jesus Christ. The Christian religion consists
of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. The plan of God is that all of
mankind is called to accept Christ as the divine Oracle and object of
life. This is an extraordinary and utterly unique claim, placing the
person of Jesus far beyond any other figure in the religions of man.
How can this be justified? It is justified by the claim that Christ is
God. The man Jesus is not only the Messiah, but he is God from God,
Light from Light, true God from true God, the only Son of the Father,
the image of the unseen God, the divine Redeemer of all mankind.
So it is that all Christians are called to live a life of witnessing to the
person of Jesus. Every religious person is called to bear witness to God
through his words and especially his deeds. But the Christian knows that the
God of the world is incarnate in the person of Jesus and so his life is to
be a life of witness to this fact. As the life of our Lord shows and as the
lives of so many other Christians shows, this work of witnessing brings
difficulty, opposition and persecution. Our Lord crowned his
short life by deliberately allowing himself to fall into the hands of the
Jewish leaders in order to bear witness to the truth of himself, knowing that it would involve suffering and death. This was the will of
the Father that he bear witness to the truth amid rejection, suffering
and death. In the presence of Pontius Pilate, the representative of the
Roman Empire, he stated that he was born to bear witness to the truth,
and that whoever is of the truth listens to his voice. The “truth” was
above all the truth about himself and his redemptive work. Those who
believed in him and observed his commandments would be saved. The
Christian by his life bears witness to this, as did the Master himself.
Now,
there is a most consoling feature in the life of witness of the
Christian. It is that he has the wonderful assistance of God the Holy
Spirit, about whom our Lord says that “everyone who speaks a word
against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.” This same Holy Spirit is
our guide and stay in all our life and work of witness, for our Lord
says that “when they take you before synagogues and before rulers and
authorities, do not worry about how or what your defence will be or
about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that
moment what you should say.” (Luke 12:8-12).
Let the Christian in his everyday life, then, call on the help of the
Holy Spirit and not worry. In all difficulties the Holy Spirit will be
at hand to guide and to help.
Let us accept
Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the true object of
man’s yearnings and his destiny. This is the message of the Church to
the world, and we have the wondrous help of the Holy Spirit to guide us
in proclaiming this by our daily life and the fulfilment of our duties.
So then, now I begin! Every day is my opportunity! I must not waste
time, for life is short and eternity is long.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Jesus suffers to carry out the will of the Father. And you, who
also want to carry out the most holy Will of God, following the steps
of the Master, can you complain if you meet suffering on your way?
(The Way,
no.213)
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What are the expressions of the life
of prayer?
Christian tradition has preserved three forms for expressing and living
prayer: vocal prayer, meditation, and contemplative prayer. The feature
common to all of them is the recollection of the heart. (CCC 2697-2699)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.568)
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Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Prayers this week:
I call upon you,
God, for you will answer me; bend your ear and hear my prayer.
Guard me as the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shade of your
wings.
Almighty and ever-living
God, our source of power and inspiration,
give us strength and joy in serving you as followers of Christ.
We
ask this through our
Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God.
(October 21) Saint Celine We
have very few details about the life of this saint who is best known as
the mother of St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims at the time of the
conversion of the people of Gaul under Clovis. St. Celine miraculously
gave birth to St. Remigius when she was already at an advanced age.
Immediately after giving birth, about 438, she also gave sight to the
hermit Montanus who had three times foretold the birth of the saintly
Bishop. After a holy life filled with good works and assiduous
prayer, this saintly woman attained the rewards of heaven about the
year 458. She was buried near Lyons, probably at Cerny, where she had
lived. Unfortunately her relics were destroyed during the French
Revolution. (Catholic Online)
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Scripture today:
Exodus
17:8-13; Psalm 121:1-8; 2 Timothy
3:14-4:2; Luke 18:1-8
Jesus told his
disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without
becoming weary. He said, "There was a judge in a certain town who
neither feared God nor respected any human being. And a widow in that
town used to come to him and say, 'Render a just decision for me
against my adversary.' For a long time the judge was unwilling, but
eventually he thought, 'While it is true that I neither fear God nor
respect any human being, because this widow keeps bothering me I shall
deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me.'"
The Lord said, "Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says. Will
not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him
day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see
to it that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)
The prayer of
petition has always been a topic of controversy. I remember forty years
ago at the University of Sydney there was a lunchtime address by a
priest who was a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy there, and
his topic was prayer of petition. Among the audience there were two
professors of Philosophy in the same department. While one took issue
with
him, the other (who was an agnostic) defended him. Does praying to God
for what we need make
any difference to
things? Jesus Christ, the supreme Teacher of mankind in all that
relates to God and man’s relationship with him, solemnly assures us
that prayer is indeed effective and that
God will hasten to the aid of
the one who appeals to him. But in our Gospel passage today our Lord
tells us that we must ask God in faith, and that faith is shown in perseverence in prayer. Typically, he tells a story to illustrate this
feature of the prayer that God answers. The widow of his story simply
refuses to give up on asking the unjust judge and out of weariness and
frustration at her importunity he gives in to her request. This
illustration our Lord gives is drawn from life and he points out if
this perseverance is effective in human affairs then how much more will
persistence in asking be effective with the good God. “Will not God
then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and
night? Will he be slow to answer them? I tell you, he will see to it
that justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes,
will he find faith on earth?" (Luke
18:1-8). We
must have the faith to turn to God and the faith to be persevering in
our request. Father Benedict Groeschel of the United States once asked
on television what one can do for a close relative who has lapsed from
the practice of the Christian faith. He said, first and foremost to
begin praying for that person, and then to keep praying for him. He
went on to make further judicious suggestions, but the first one was
the persevering prayer of petition.
We must persevere
in our petitions because there are many forces opposing the blessings
God wishes to bestow upon us. Among those opposing forces are the
demonic powers who fight against God and his plan of redemption. In his
public ministry our Lord was continually being opposed by Satan who
actually succeeded in gaining dominion over one of our Lord’s own
Twelve. At the Last Supper Satan finally “entered” into Judas, and
Judas went out into the “night” to organize his betrayal of the Master.
Our Lord told the scribes and Pharisees who were his enemies that their
father was the devil. At the Last Supper he spoke of the prince of this
world and how he was coming. Now, imagine how persevering our Lord’s
own prayer of petition must have been during the whole of his public
ministry! He exhorted his disciples on one occasion to pray that the
Lord of the harvest would send labourers to the harvest. He must have
prayed this prayer constantly. The prayer for forgiveness of his
enemies that he expressed on the cross he must have prayed
perseveringly during his public ministry. The results of that prayer of
Christ is shown in the harvest of souls after his ascension and the
sending of the Holy Spirit — it was
striking.
The
Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Christ our High Priest is
continually now interceding for us at the right hand of the
Father. Christ’s prayer of petition was and continues to be
persevering. It never gave up and it does not now give up. This
powerful and persevering prayer of Christ our Redeemer and High Priest
is the hope of the world and it is this which opposes the powers of
darkness and the fallen tendencies of sinful man. Christ’s prayer
reduces strongholds, and we who are in him by baptism and faith are
called to pray perseveringly for our needs united to him who prays for
them too. We do not pray persistently on our own. We pray in union with
Christ and in union with all those who are in Christ, Mary his mother,
all the angels and saints, and all those still on the way to heaven.
This persevering
prayer of petition offered by Christ our High Priest is made present at
Mass. Mass is the one and unique sacrifice of Calvary mysteriously and
sacramentally made present. At Mass we are able to unite ourselves to
Christ who perseveringly makes petitions to his heavenly Father on our
behalf. Our prayer of petition becomes
powerful when made in union with
him. Let us then, as our Lord says elsewhere, pray always and never
lose heart.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the
Catholic Church no. 2629-2636
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Say to your body: I would rather keep you in slavery than be
myself a
slave of yours.
(The
Way, no.214)
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How can vocal
prayer be described?
Vocal prayer associates the body with the interior prayer of the heart.
Even the most interior prayer, however, cannot dispense with vocal
prayer. In any case it must always spring from a personal faith. With
the Our Father Jesus has taught us a perfect form of vocal prayer. (CCC
2700-2704, 2722)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.569)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October 22) Saint Mary Salome: One of the “Three Marys” who served Christ. She was the mother of St. James the Great and St. John, and was the wife of Zebedee. Mary Salome witnessed the Crucifixion and was among the women who were at the burial place on the day of the Resurrection.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Romans
4:20-25; Luke 1:69-70, 71-72,
73-75; Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the
crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance
with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge
and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against
all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of
possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose
land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is
what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones.
There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to
myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for
many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You
fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you
have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one
who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to
God.” (Luke
12:13-21)
Consider a group of
animals around a very limited amount of food or prey. In all
probability a fight will break out for the spoils. A dog buries its
bones in various locations and feels secure in the memory of those
bones. I have seen a dog unearth its bones and gather them together in
order to show superiority over another dog that has arrived on the
scene. Material goods are even more important for man. He needs them
for his livelihood, for his leisure and culture, and for his
security into the future. Material goods are the source of tremendous
happiness and harmony among men and they are also the occasion of
numerous
wars and strife. That is to say, they are the material
of both sharing
and of greed. One man shares his goods with someone in need or with
someone he loves and those goods are the occasion of happiness and
harmony. Another is greedy and refuses to share them with those in need
and at times deprives others of goods that are theirs. Those goods are
then the occasion of strife and unhappiness. The fact is that we can
love others the more because of material goods or we can love others
the less because of them. So too, in his relationship with God man can
love God the more because of his possession or use of material things,
or he can love God much the less because of them. Because of his fallen
condition, a condition that is prone to great love of self, man is very
liable to be greedy. He is liable to want material goods far more than
is necessary, and he is prone to want them at the expense of others and
his own best interests. Because this tendency is so deeply rooted in
man and so likely to dominate his noblest aspirations there have been
numerous people — especially Christians — who through the centuries
have renounced the independent use, and even ownership, of material
goods. These persons bear witness to love as the proper soul of
our attitude to material goods.
In our Gospel
passage today our Lord solemnly warns against greed (Luke 12:13-21).
When asked, he refuses to accede to the request of a member of the crowd
that he direct his brother to share the inheritance. That, incidentally, is
an example of an earnest prayer that our Lord did not grant. Perhaps with
his insight into hearts our Lord saw in the petitioner the presence or
danger of greed, even if his request was legitimate (and we do not know if
it was). Our Lord replied that he had not come to arbitrate on those
matters. But on other occasions he did provide material goods. At the
marriage feast of Cana he miraculously provided an abundance of splendid
wine. On at least two occasions he provided an immense amount of bread
for a large and hungry concourse of people. So our Lord’s concern here was
the vice of greed, even if present in legitimate requests. We may have a right to what we now have and what we want to
have
in the future, but what is at the heart of our aspirations for those
material things? It could be a deep seated greed. Our Lord tells a
story about a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. There
is not the slightest indication that he gained his harvest dishonestly.
We must presume that he had every legal right to it. Nor is our Lord
specifically and expressly referring to his not having shared his goods
with those in need even though our Lord, if asked, would have said that
the very fact that he hoarded so many goods indicated that he was not
concerned for others in need. But our Lord’s point is that he made his
life to consist in his possessions. We read that he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.” All that he worked for,
all that he valued, all his future, all he rested in, consisted of his
material possessions. That very night his life ended, and he was left
with nothing either in this world or in the next.
We are born into
this world to become rich, but rich in what will last into eternity.
Our true wealth lies in God and in doing his holy will. We shall be
rich if we live in Christ and in union with him. This means following
him in obedient love as he carries his cross, and this path is one of
renunciation. No one can be my disciple, our Lord says, unless he gives
up all his possessions. That is to say, our hearts must be detached
from the things of this world and wholly attached to God in Christ. The
things of this world are to be used and possessed in God and in his
love. Then we shall be rich indeed.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How afraid people are of atonement! If all that they do for
appearance's sake, to please the world, were done with purified
intention for God... what saints many would be!
(The Way,
no.215)
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What is meditation?
Meditation is a prayerful reflection that begins above all in the Word
of God in the Bible. Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion
and desire in order to deepen our faith, convert our heart and fortify
our will to follow Christ. It is a first step toward the union of love
with our Lord. (CCC 2705-2708, 2723)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.570)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
23) St
John of
Capistrano, priest (1386-1456).
It
has been said the Christian saints are the world’s greatest optimists.
Not blind to the existence and consequences of evil, they base their
confidence on the power of Christ’s redemption. The power of conversion
through Christ extends not only to sinful people but also to calamitous
events. Imagine being born in the fourteenth century. One-third of the
population and nearly 40 percent of the clergy were wiped out by the
bubonic plague. The Western Schism split the Church with two or three
claimants to the Holy See at one time. England and France were at war.
The city-states of Italy were constantly in conflict. No wonder that
gloom dominated the spirit of the culture and the times. John
Capistrano was born in 1386. His education was thorough. His talents
and success were great. When he was 26 he was made governor of Perugia.
Imprisoned after a battle against the Malatestas, he resolved to change
his way of life completely. At the age of 30 he entered the Franciscan
novitiate and was ordained a priest four years later. His preaching
attracted great throngs at a time of religious apathy and confusion. He
and 12 Franciscan brethren were received in the countries of central
Europe as angels of God. They were instrumental in reviving a dying
faith and devotion.
The Franciscan Order itself was in turmoil over the
interpretation and observance of the Rule of St. Francis. Through
John’s tireless efforts and his expertise in law, the heretical
Fraticelli were suppressed and the "Spirituals" were freed from
interference in their stricter observance. He helped bring about a
reunion with the Greek and Armenian Churches, unfortunately only a
brief arrangement. When the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, he
was commissioned to preach a crusade for the defense of Europe. Gaining
little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his
efforts in Hungary. He led the army to Belgrade. Under the great
General John Junyadi, they gained an overwhelming victory, and the
siege of Belgrade was lifted. Worn out by his superhuman efforts,
Capistrano was an easy prey to the infection bred by the refuse of
battle. He died October 23, 1456.
John Hofer, a biographer of John Capistrano,
recalls a Brussels organization named after the saint. Seeking to solve
life problems in a fully Christian spirit, its motto was: "Initiative,
Organization, Activity." These three words characterized John's life.
He was not one to sit around, ever. His deep Christian optimism drove
him to battle problems at all levels with the confidence engendered by
a deep faith in Christ. On the saint's tomb in the Austrian town of
Villach, the governor had this message inscribed: "This tomb holds
John, by birth of Capistrano, a man worthy of all praise, defender and
promoter of the faith, guardian of the Church, zealous protector of his
Order, an ornament to all the world, lover of truth and religious
justice, mirror of life, surest guide in doctrine; praised by countless
tongues, he reigns blessed in heaven." That is a fitting epitaph for a
real and successful optimist.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture: Romans 5:12,
15b, 17-19, 20b-21; Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10,
17; Luke 12:35-38
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants
who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open
immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom
the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will
gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.
And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared
in this way, blessed are those servants.” (Luke 12:35-38)
It could be said
that the great and important thing about life is that we all die. A
sign of an immature grasp of life is the lack of an appreciation of our
mortality, which is to say that with the passing of the years should
come the realization
that life is
short. Francis Borgia underwent a profound
change of course when he saw the dead body of his Spanish sovereign.
The sight of the dead queen cast a powerfully new light on life and he
was never quite the same again and the ultimate upshot of his new path
was the Jesuit priesthood and personal sanctity. In the pictures
painted of various saints one often sees a skull included in the
painting — showing the fact that the saint in question kept before him
the thought that life is fast heading towards its end. That end is just
a new beginning to something everlasting, one way or the other. The
other great feature about death (which is itself the great feature
about life) is that death often comes suddenly, without warning.
Without warning there is a massive earthquake and vast numbers are
killed and maimed. Or the earthquake occurs under the sea, and the
tsunami destroys thousands of people and numerous towns. A suicide
bomber suddenly blasts numerous people in all directions. A plague
arises out of nowhere and takes numbers beyond counting. A plane
explodes in mid-air or crashes into a cloud-covered mountain. A person
drops dead from a heart attack or is suddenly discovered to be with
terminal cancer and has only a month or two to live. Life will
certainly come to an end, but it could easily end suddenly. All this is
part and parcel of the transience of created visible being and is a
result of the fall of man at the beginning. Sin entered the world
through one man and with sin death, and death has passed to the whole
human race, and that death can be sudden. We must take account of this
all our lives. Our Lord says to his disciples that they must so live as
always to be ready and prepared.
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants
who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open
immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom
the master finds vigilant on his arrival.” (Luke
12:35-38). Our Lord’s words remind us that it is an essential
component of the Christian discipleship that we so live as to be ready at
any point for life to end. The Christian views a sudden death as a sudden
arrival of Jesus the Master. Life is a constant journey towards the Master
who is in the process of coming to us. His definitive arrival could happen
at
any moment. This arrival
is something the Christian looks forward to
and awaits. He is a servant of the Master and he awaits his arrival by
being constantly busy about his Master’s affairs. He is using the short
time given to him — time that may come to an end without warning — in
order to please the Master and serve his interests. He is always
vigilant so as to advance the honour and the glory of the Master. Now,
as with everything, we must carefully cultivate a habit of viewing life
in this way because we cannot just turn on at will such an attitude in
our minds. There is an old piece of advice that as we get older we
depend more and more on the habits that we have cultivated. Those
habits that make up the motor of our everyday lives have to be good
habits, bearing in mind the old saying that you can’t teach an old dog
new tricks. One fundamental habit is to look on the day at hand as if
it were to be our last. The only true reality is the present. The
past is gone and the future is not yet. It is the present which we must
live to the fullest which means doing the duty of the moment with love
for and obedience to Christ our Lord, constantly remembering his
Judgment. When we die it is all over, all opportunities have been
exhausted, and all there that remains is the Judgment of Christ our
King.
Let us
appreciate the immense potential of the present moment, the present
day, the present duty, the present opportunity. Let us live in the
present as one who is ready were the Master to arrive at the next
moment. Life must be lived with these great facts in mind: Death and
God’s Judgment. It was because of this that Christ became man and died
and rose for our salvation.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are crying? Don't be ashamed of it. Yes, cry: men also cry
like you, when they are alone and before God. Each night, says King
David, I soak my bed with tears. With those tears, those burning, manly
tears, you can purify your past and supernaturalize your present life.
(The Way,
no.216)
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What is contemplative prayer?
Contemplative prayer is a simple gaze upon God in silence and love. It
is a gift of God, a moment of pure faith during which the one praying
seeks Christ, surrenders himself to the loving will of the Father, and
places his being under the action of the Holy Spirit. Saint Teresa of
Avila defines contemplative prayer as the intimate sharing of
friendship, “in which time is frequently taken to be alone with God who
we know loves us.” (CCC 2709-2719, 2724, 2739-2741)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.571)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
(October 24) St Anthony Claret, bishop (1807-1870) The "spiritual father of Cuba" was a missionary, religious founder, social reformer, queen’s chaplain, writer and publisher, archbishop and refugee. He was a Spaniard whose work took him to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Madrid, Paris and to the First Vatican Council. In his spare time as weaver and designer in the textile mills of Barcelona, he learned Latin and printing: the future priest and
publisher
was preparing. Ordained at 28, he was prevented by
ill health from entering religious life as a Carthusian or as a Jesuit,
but went on to become one of Spain’s most popular preachers. He spent
10 years giving popular missions and retreats, always placing great
emphasis on the Eucharist and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Her rosary, it was said, was never out of his hand. At 42, beginning
with five young priests, he founded a religious institute of
missionaries, known today as the Claretians. He was appointed to head
the much-neglected archdiocese of Santiago in Cuba. He began its reform
by almost ceaseless preaching and hearing of confessions, and suffered
bitter opposition mainly for stamping out concubinage and giving
instruction to black slaves. A hired assassin (whose release from
prison Anthony had obtained) slashed open his face and wrist. Anthony
succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to
a prison term. His solution for the misery of Cubans was family-owned
farms producing a variety of foods for the family’s own needs and for
the market. This invited the enmity of the vested interests who wanted
everyone to work on a single cash crop—sugar. Besides all his religious
writings are two books he wrote in Cuba: Reflections on Agriculture and
Country Delights. He was called back to Spain for a job he did not
relish—being chaplain for the queen. He went on three conditions: He
would reside away from the palace, he would come only to hear the
queen’s confession and instruct the children and he would be exempt
from court functions. In the revolution of 1868, he fled with the
queen’s party to Paris, where he preached to the Spanish colony. All
his life Anthony was interested in the Catholic press. He founded the
Religious Publishing House, a major Catholic publishing venture in
Spain, and wrote or published 200 books and pamphlets. At Vatican I,
where he was a staunch defender of the doctrine of infallibility, he
won the admiration of his fellow bishops. Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore
remarked of him, "There goes a true saint." He died in exile near the
border of Spain at the age of 63.Jesus foretold that those who are truly his representatives would suffer the same persecution as he did. Besides 14 attempts on his life, Anthony had to undergo such a barrage of the ugliest slander that the very name Claret became a byword for humiliation and misfortune. The powers of evil do not easily give up their prey. No one needs to go looking for persecution. All we need to do is be sure we suffer because of our genuine faith in Christ, not for our own whims and imprudences. Queen Isabella II once said to Anthony, "No one tells me things as clearly and frankly as you do." Later she told her chaplain, "Everybody is always asking me for favours, but you never do. Isn't there something you would like for yourself?" He replied, "Yes, that you let me resign." The queen made no more offers. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
6:12-18; Psalm 124:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8; Luke 12:39-48
Jesus said to his
disciples: “Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the
hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be
broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not
expect, the Son of Man will come.” Then Peter said, “Lord, is this
parable meant for us or for everyone?” And the Lord replied, “Who,
then, is the faithful and prudent steward whom the master will put in
charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper
time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing
so. Truly, I say to you, he will put him in charge of all his property.
But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’
and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, to eat and
drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an
unexpected day and at an unknown hour and will punish the servant
severely and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who
knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord
with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was
ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe
beating shall be beaten only lightly. Much will be required of the
person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the
person entrusted with more.” (Luke 12:39-48)
By way of initial
aside, I have always thought that St Luke had a sense of humour and
that we see evidence of it in his inspired writings. We think of the
Jews attacking Sosthones the ruler of the synagogue when they were
unsuccessful against Paul (Acts 18:17); or the consternation that
Paul’s words about divine justice caused in Felix (Acts 24:25); or
Felix’s exasperation in telling Paul that his studies were driving him
mad (Acts 26:24). I find a detail in our Lukan
Gospel passage of today a little amusing. Our Lord begins his
instruction about being constantly prepared for the coming of the Son
of Man and suddenly Peter interrupts asking if the parable is meant for
them or for all. Our Lord appears to carry on with his parable
regardless, as if Peter’s intervention is mildly beside the point or
perhaps as if the answer to his question is obvious. Be that as it may,
our Lord’s teaching today is surely of immense importance and we see it
recurring time and again in the Gospels. We must stand ready for the
coming of the Master, and that coming could occur at any point. In the
parable the servant does not doubt that the master will come. It is
just that he makes the assumption that his master is delayed and that
therefore his own activities will go unobserved. The master arrives and
finds him in the midst of his neglect and punishes him accordingly.
Well now, what of modern man? We of the modern age doubt the reality of
what we do not see or touch or hear. We require the possibility of
empirical testing. The supernatural is the object of our scepticism.
Conduct some sort of review of the philosophical literature of the past
decades and notice the extent to which the supernatural is assumed to
be non-factual, or by contrast the extent to which theist philosophers
feel obligated to defend the supernatural. It is a reflection of the
materialism of the modern age and a fruit of much of Western thought
over the past few centuries. We now think that if something is out of
sight then it should be out of mind.
Our parable insists
that it will be no excuse to have been forgetful (Luke 12:39-48). We must take steps to
train ourselves to remember, and to remember constantly, that the
unseen Lord is due. He is on his way in the sense that when he does
arrive we shall be judged on how he finds us. Now this is a
particularly important point in a sense that might easily escape us.
The all-important moment in our life is the moment of our death, and
the dispositions and degree of love and obedience with which we are
found at death will be decisive at our judgment. If at a certain stage
of my life I was serving Christ faithfully and subsequently abandoned
my Christian faith, turning my back on Christ and on obedience to God,
and if this is the disposition I am found to have at my death, what do
I take with me as I go before the judgment of God? I take little but my
neglect because what I had of Christ and life in him I abandoned for
the sake of other loves. I am found to be like the servant of today’s
parable. If much of my life has been neglectful of Christ and of my
duties to him but if despite this I repented and set about the diligent
and loving service of Christ, and am found at this work at my death,
then it is with Christ that I go to my judgment. The all-important
moment of my life is the moment of my death. But to prepare well for
this future moment I must live as best as I can every present
moment. The present is the best preparation for the future. How should
I prepare for my death? I prepare for the moment of my death by living
for God in the present. I must attend to the duties Christ my master
has entrusted to me right now. I should do them for him, do them as
well as I can in all their detail because they come from him, and do
them in their entirety whatever be the cost. That is to say, I must
sanctify my daily work and through doing a holy work in a holy manner I
shall sanctify myself and others as well. If this is my daily way of
life then at the last when my master arrives he will find me ready and
not caught unprepared.
It was once said to
me by a university lecturer (he was my doctoral moderator) that the God
of the Old Testament was a God of judgment and the God of the New
Testament was a God of love. His words constituted a hopelessly
misconceived simplification. Time and again our Lord speaks of the
coming judgment of God and he does so in our Gospel passage today. Let
us take heed of his words and so live as always to be ready whenever
the Master might arrive.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I want you to be happy on earth. And you will not be happy if you
don't lose that fear of suffering. For, as long as we are 'wayfarers',
it is precisely in suffering that our happiness lies.
(The Way,
no.217)
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Why is prayer a “battle”?
Prayer is a gift of grace but it always presupposes a determined
response on our part because those who pray “battle” against
themselves, their surroundings, and especially the Tempter who does all
he can to turn them away from prayer. The battle of prayer is
inseparable from progress in the spiritual life. We pray as we live
because we live as we pray. (CCC 2725)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.572)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
(October 25) Saint Gaudentius Born at Brescia, Italy and died 410 of natural causes. He studied under Saint Philastrius, Bishop of Brescia. Preached throughout Italy and in the East, respected for his life and oratory wherever he went. When Philastrius died near the end of the 4th century, the people of Brescia elected Gaudentius as bishop. Consecrated by Saint Ambrose in 387. Wrote many pastoral letters, and ten of his sermons have come down to us. They show his desire to educate his listeners, and present them with good examples for living. He left his diocese in 405 to join a delegation sent by Pope Innocent I to defend Saint John Chrysostom from charges brought by a heretic. The group was forced by John's enemies to return to Italy. Their ship sank near Lampsacus, but they finally safely reached home. Though the delegation did not achieve its mission, Saint John sent a letter of thanks to Saint Gaudentius.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
6:19-23; Psalm 1:1-2, 3, 4 and
6; Luke 12:49-53
Jesus said to his
disciples: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it
were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that
I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather
division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three
against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his
son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a
daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
(Luke
12:49-53)
Every century of
history has its interest, and one of the very interesting centuries is
the nineteenth. Particularly interesting is the religious history of
the nineteenth century, including and especially the religious life of
England at that
time. Now, among the figures that stand out as of full of interest is
(Cardinal) John Henry Newman, acknowledged as one of the leading
religious minds of the age. Among his many emphases was that of the
hidden starting point or assumption. He
stressed time and again that a person’s thought depends enormously on
where he was coming from, on the initial and often hidden assumptions
from which flows and which shapes so much of his thought. Let us take
his point. One hidden assumption at work in the religious life of so
many is that religion is the key to peace — which of course it most
certainly is. Peace of heart is to be found in God and in submission to
him. But the danger here is that peace rather than God can become one's
goal in embracing and in living religion. That is to say, once religion
becomes difficult and seemingly devoid of peace then religion can be
put on hold or compromised. Newman in his Apologia
pro Vita Sua
acknowledges a special Evangelical influence on him during his youth,
an influence, incidentally, that implanted in him a full acceptance of
the doctrine of the Trinity. That influence came in the writings of
Thomas Scott of Aston Sandford. Newman especially attributes to Scott
his learning that holiness rather than peace is the issue in true
Christianity. Holiness rather than peace! In our Gospel passage today
our Lord warns that “Do you think that I have come to establish peace
on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a
household of five will be divided, three against two and two against
three...” (Luke
12:49-53).
The peace of Christ involves the cross of Christ.
Christ does promise peace to the Christian, but it is not the peace of this
world. My peace I leave to you, he tells his disciples at the Last Supper,
not as the world gives it, but my own peace. Time and again throughout his
ministry he tells his disciples not to be afraid, for all is in the hands of
God our heavenly Father. In this sense they are to maintain their peace. At
the same time he assures them that there will be difficulty and persecution.
It has never been the teaching of the Church that difficulty
and persecution — martyrdom, say — ought be brazenly courted. Our Lord at
one point tells his disciples that they are to conduct themselves as innocently as doves and as shrewdly as
serpents. The Christian in the world must be prudent and, following the
example of St Paul, strive to be all things to all men so as to win as
many for Christ as possible. We must live in the world and work with
the natural laws (as we might call them) of the world. But this should
never be an excuse for failing to bear courageous witness to the truth
of Christ even though it means sacrificing the peace we naturally
prefer and yearn for. Holiness rather than peace! The holiness of the
Christian involves striving to be a peacemaker, for our Lord
specifically says that blessed are the peacemakers. Nevertheless our
Lord’s own example and the example of so many witnesses to him in the
Church’s history show that our Lord’s words are all too true: “I have
come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my
anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to
establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” All
this is to say that bearing witness to Christ involves the cross of
Christ. The Christian follows in the footsteps of the Master on his way
to Calvary. This he does in his fulfilling to the very best of his
ability the ordinary duties of everyday life that God in his providence
has entrusted to him.
Holiness
rather than peace! It is by seeking the holiness of Christ that the
peace of Christ will be attained and granted to us. Let us every day be
prepared to stand for Christ and his way, whatever be the cost. This is
our greatest service possible to the world of our age.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How beautiful it is to give up this life for that Life!
(The Way,
no.218)
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Are there objections to prayer?
Along with erroneous notions of prayer, many think they do not have the
time to pray or that praying is useless. Those who pray can be
discouraged in the face of difficulties and apparent lack of success.
Humility, trust and perseverance are necessary to overcome these
obstacles. (CCC 2726-2728, 2752-2753)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.573
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
26) Saint
Demetrius and
Saint Evaristus
St. Demetrius
Bishop of Alexandria from 188 to 231. Julius Africanus, who visited
Alexandria in the time of Demetrius, places his accession as eleventh
bishop after St. Mark in the tenth year of Commodus (tenth of Severus,
Eus. His. Eccl., VI, ii, is a slip). A legendary history of him is
given in the Coptic "Synaxaria", in an Abyssinian poem cited by the
Bollandists, and in the "Chronicon Orientale" of Abraham Ecchellensis
the Maronite. Three of their statements, however, may have some truth:
one that he died at the age of 105 (born, therefore, in 126); another,
found also in the Melchite Patriarch Eutychius [Sa'id Ibn Batrik, (d.
about 940), Migne, P.G., CXI, 999], that he wrote about the calculation
of Easter to Victor of Rome, Maximus (i.e. Maximinus) of Antioch and
Gabius or Agapius (?) of Jerusalem (cf. Eus., H.E., V, xxv). Eutychius
relates that from Mark to Demetrius there was but one see in Egypt,
that Demetrius was the first to establish three other bishoprics, and
that his successor Heraclas made twenty more.
At all events Demetrius is the first Alexandrian bishop of whom
anything is known. St. Jerome has it that he sent Pantænus on a
mission to India, but it is likely that Clement had succeeded
Pantænus as the head of the famous Catechetical School before the
accession of Demetrius. When Clement retired (c. 203-4), Demetrius
appointed the young Origen, who was in his eighteenth year, in
Clement's place. Demetrius encouraged Origen when blamed for his too
literal execution of an allegorical counsel of our Lord, and is said to
have shown him great favour. He sent Origen to the governor of Arabia,
who had requested his presence in letters to the prefect of Egypt as
well as to the bishop. In 215-16 Origen was obliged to take refuge in
Caesarea from the cruelty of Caracalla. There he preached at the
request of the bishops present. Demetrius wrote to him complaining that
this was unheard of presumption in a layman. Alexander of Jerusalem and
Theoctistus of Caesarea wrote to defend the invitation they had given,
mentioning precedents; but Demetrius recalled Origen. In 230 Demetrius
gave Origen a recommendation to take with him on his journey to Athens.
But Origen was ordained priest at Caesarea without leave, and Demetrius
with a synod of some bishops and a few priests condemned him to
banishment, then from another synod sent a formal condemnation of him
to all the churches. It is impossible to doubt that heresy, and not
merely unauthorized ordination, must have been alleged by Demetrius for
such a course. Rome accepted the decision, but Palestine, Phoenicia,
Arabia, Achaia rejected it, and Origen retired to Caesarea, whence he
sent forth letters in his own defence, and attacked Demetrius. The
latter placed at the head of the Catechetical School the first pupil of
Origen, Heraclas, who had long been his assistant. But the bishop died
very soon, and Heraclas succeeding him, Origen returned to
Alexandria. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
7:18-25a; Psalm 119:66, 68, 76, 77, 93,
94; Luke 12:54-59
Jesus said to the
crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately
that it is going to rain–and so it does; and when you notice that the
wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and
so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of
the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present
time? “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to
go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the
matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the
judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable
throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you
have paid the last penny.” (Luke 12:54-59)
One of the points
of discussion in our day is the place and effect of religion in our
everyday world. Specifically, it is asked whether religion brings peace
and blessings to man or, in the main, suffering and strife. Of course,
this question is often asked and discussed by people who have no time
for religion and even less for what they
call institutionalized religion, which is to say the religion embodied
in and promoted by the Church.
They have their case and they argue it
out, all the while being dismissed by religious people who can see
quite clearly the prejudices from where they are coming. However, this
issue should be taken seriously in the sense that it ought lead each to
ask again what was the founder of the religion intending in respect to
strife and reconciliation in society and among men. What did Christ
teach and practice in respect to the response to injuries, to
forgiveness and to all else that divides and relates men one to the
other. What did Mahomet teach and practice? Let us set aside the
question about Mahomet and ask the question of Christ our Lord. Our
Gospel passage today contains one of many in the Gospels insisting on
reconciliation with those from whom we find ourselves estranged. Our
Lord characteristically begins with a parallel from ordinary life
illustrating the practical wisdom of reconciliation. “Why do you not
judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent
before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way;
otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge
hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into
prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the
last penny.” (Luke
12:54-59) Just
as the wise thing in ordinary life is to take steps to be reconciled
with your opponent before it gets to litigation, so too we should make
efforts to be reconciled with our brother and our neighbour before it
gets to the judgment seat of God.
Our Lord on occasions used graphic language to make this point. If someone
strikes you on the right cheek, he says, turn to him the other cheek for him
to strike as well. Was our Lord meaning this literally? Hardly, for we
remember how during his passion he answered the high priest’s question with
a legitimate response and was struck on the face by an attendant for
supposed lack of respect. Our Lord asked the attendant for a justification
of that action: why did you strike me? Our Lord in speaking of turning the
other cheek was speaking of the love and lack of like violence that ought
fill the heart of his followers. He invites all who labour and
are burdened (with, say, injustices and violence) to
come to him and to learn from him for he is meek and humble of heart,
and promises that they will find rest for their souls. Our Lord
describes himself as meek and humble of heart and inasmuch as he
reveals himself as the image of the Father, we must take it that the
Father too is distinguished by meekness and humility of heart. Christ’s
meekness and humility reveals that of the Father. Blessed are the
gentle and lowly, he says, for they shall have the earth for their
heritage. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of
God. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall have mercy shown them.
This is Christ’s charter for the Christian in society and in the midst
of injustice and violence. The Christian is not to be violent and
unjust himself. He is not to seek revenge. He must strive to be
Christlike knowing that it is by putting on the mind of Christ that
one’s actions will bear fruit that will last. What this means in the
concrete is elaborated by the Church in her social teaching and it is
of the utmost importance for the Christian in the world that he study
and strive to understand this teaching. This social teaching of the
Church applies and makes concrete the teaching of Christ about the life
and work of the Christian in society.
Let us have the
ambition to be true representatives of Christ in the world of our day.
Wherever we go we ought be true instruments of the Master, making him
present in the midst of the injustices and burdens of men and women
everywhere. Where there is hatred, let us sow love. It is in this way
that evil will be overcome and the Kingdom of God made present.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you realize that those sufferings — of body or soul — mean
purification and merit, bless them.
(The Way,
no.219)
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What are the difficulties in prayer?
Distraction is a habitual difficulty in our prayer. It takes our
attention away from God and can also reveal what we are attached to.
Our heart therefore must humbly turn to the Lord. Prayer is often
affected by dryness. Overcoming this difficulty allows us to cling to
the Lord in faith, even without any feeling of consolation. Acedia is a
form of spiritual laziness due to relaxed vigilance and a lack of
custody of the heart. (CCC 2729-2733, 2754-2755)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.574)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
27) Blessed
Emilina and Saint Frumentius
St.
Frumentius, (†383) Bishop, Apostle of Ethiopia Saint
Frumentius was still a child when his uncle, a
Christian philosopher of Tyre in Phoenicia, took him and his brother
Edesius on a 
voyage to Ethiopia.
In the course of their voyage the vessel anchored at a certain port,
and the barbarians of that country slew with the sword all the crew and
passengers, except the two children. Because of their youth and beauty
they were taken to the king at Axuma, who, charmed with the wit and
sprightliness of the two boys, took special care of their education,
and later made Edesius his cup-bearer and Frumentius, who was a little
older, his treasurer and secretary of state. The king, on his deathbed,
thanked them for their services and in reward gave them their liberty.
After his death the queen begged them to remain at court and assist her
in the government of the state until the young prince came of age; this
they did, using their influence to spread Christianity. When the young
king reached his majority, Edesius desired to return to Tyre, and
Frumentius accompanied him as far as Alexandria. There he begged Saint
Athanasius, its Patriarch, to send a bishop to the country where they
had spent many years; and the Patriarch, considering him the best
possible candidate for this office, in the year 328 consecrated him
bishop for the Ethiopians. Vested with this sacred character he gained
great numbers to the Faith by his discourses and miracles, and the
entire nation embraced Christianity with its young king, thus
fulfilling a famous prophecy of Isaiah, uttered 800 years before
Christ. (Isaiah 45:14) Saint Frumentius continued to feed and defend
his flock until it pleased the Supreme Pastor to call him home and
reward his fidelity and labours, in about the year 383.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today: Romans
8:1-11; Psalm 24:1b-2, 3-4ab, 5-6;
Luke 13:1-9
Some people told
Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood
of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, “Do you think that
because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners
than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not
repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who
were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them— do you think they
were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no
means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as
they did!” And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who
had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of
fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, ‘For three years
now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found
none. So cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ He said to him
in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the
ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If
not you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:1-9)
It would be an
interesting academic exercise to research the theme of repentance from
sin in the doctrine and teaching of the founders of the religions of
man. Let one take Zoroaster, or Buddha, or Mahomet, and ask to what
extent did they insist on repentance from sin as foundational to their
message. Of course, in one sense or another
something of repentance from “sin” (however it is viewed) is required
or implied in most religions, but I doubt that it could compare with
the degree to which renunciation of sin is insisted on in revealed
religion — which is to say in the religion recorded in the Old and New
Testaments. The dawn of man’s history as presented in the Bible is
marked by sin and by the death that resulted. The history of man that
followed this sad beginning is shown to be marked by sin. The story of
God’s people is characterised by sin and it was from sin that God
intended to liberate his people and through them the whole human race.
A constant theme in the preaching of the prophets is that of repentance
from sin. The God of the Old Testament regards sin as a horror and sin
brings destruction, suffering and death. God requires that his people
change, that they renounce their evil ways and live according to his
Law. John the Baptist spent his ministry calling on people to repent
and to prepare a way for the coming of the Lord. He pointed out Christ
to his own disciples as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of
the world. Once our Lord commences his public ministry he too continues
the prophetical tradition of the preaching of repentance. Our Lord is
the great Prophet of repentance from sin — and the one who announces
the divine answer to sin. He calls on all to repent, he offers
forgiveness to those who do repent, and he offers the grace of holiness
to those who, having repented, struggle to renounce sin in an ongoing
sense and to live for God. Sin is the sad fact about humanity, and the
answer to this catastrophic fact is the person of Christ.
In our Gospel today our Lord warns his listeners of the dire consequences of
not repenting from sin. We read that some people told Jesus about the
Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans
suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By
no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they
did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam
fell on them— do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who
lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not
repent, you will all perish as they did!” (Luke
13:1-9). The
sufferings and disasters undergone by various people cannot be taken as
punishment for their sins, but they are reminders and signs of
punishment for sin. Not all suffering is a punishment for personal sin,
but personal sin will bring the punishment of suffering. In our passage
our Lord says that death is the consequence of unrepented sin. St Paul
writes in the Letter to the Romans that the wages of sin are death. The
ultimate consequence is Hell, and it was to save us from the fires of
Hell that God became man and suffered and died on the cross for sinful
man. So then, with the grace of Christ we must recognize our sins and
truly repent of them. On the evening of the day our Lord rose from the
dead he appeared to the Eleven and breathed on them the gift of the
Holy Spirit, entrusting them with a share in his mission from the
Father. Then immediately he gave them power to forgive sins. This power
is transmitted to the ordained priesthood and is exercised in the
Sacrament of Penance, a Sacrament which ought be received frequently
and regularly, and in a spirit of profound repentance and
conversion.
Catholic teaching
has always spoken of degrees of seriousness in sin. Broadly there are
mortal sins and venial sins. One danger is to take venial sins lightly.
It will be impossible to attain holiness of life unless there is an
ongoing repentance from venial sins. Venial sins must be renounced and
fought against in everyday life. This we can do with the grace of
Christ and with this grace the fullness of love can be nourished in our
souls.
(E.J.Tyler)
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'God give you health.' — Doesn't this wish for mere physical
well-being, with which some beggars demand or acknowledge alms, leave a
bad taste in your mouth?
(The Way,
no.220)
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How may we strengthen our
filial trust?
Filial trust is tested when we think we are not heard. We must
therefore ask ourselves if we think God is truly a Father whose will we
seek to fulfill, or simply a means to obtain what we want. If our
prayer is united to that of Jesus, we know that he gives us much more
than this or that gift. We receive the Holy Spirit who transforms our
heart. (CCC 2734-2741, 2756)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.575)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
(October 28) St
Simon and St Jude, Apostles Simon is
usually called the “Canaanaean” and also the “Zealot”, probably because
he belonged to the Jewish party of the “Zealots of the Law.” Jude also
called Thaddeus or “Courageous”, is the author of the short epistle in
the New Testament with his name. They probably preached in Mesopotamia
and Persia and were martyred. Their names appear in the Roman Canon.
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture: Sirach 35:12-14,
16-18; Psalm 34:2-3, 17-19,
23;
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
Jesus addressed
this parable to those who were convinced of their own
righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the
temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax
collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to
himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity –
greedy, dishonest, adulterous – or even like this tax collector. I
fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax
collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to
heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a
sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former;
for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles
himself will be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)
The Gospel passage
before us is one of the very famous parables of our
Lord. It is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. They are
both in the Temple praying and our Lord sets before his audience the
prayer that formed in the heart of each and he tells us what was
the upshot of each. In the case of the Pharisee he remained in his
sins, while the Tax Collector went home with
his relationship with God restored. The thought of
the Tax
Collector in the parable immediately reminds us that if we wish to be
made right with God and to live in his friendship then we just must
pray. Because of his prayer he was restored to life in God. Prayer is
absolutely essential in any genuinely religious life and in any
friendship with God. If there is little genuine spirit of prayer in our
life then our relationship with God will be weak. If there is no
prayer, there will be no life with God. St Alphonsus Ligouri writes
that a person who does not pray is endangering his eternal salvation.
By implication, if we wish to grow in holiness and in the love of God,
then we must cultivate a strong life of prayer. Our Lord says elsewhere
in the Gospels that we are to pray always and never to lose heart. He
tells us to persevere in our prayer with the knowledge that if we ask
we shall receive and if we knock we shall have the door opened to
us. So then, any member of Christ’s faithful should be profoundly
convinced of the overriding importance of a strong daily life of
prayer, lived out according to the Church’s classic guidelines. But
now, what further light does our Gospel passage today cast on the
prayer that
ought be rising from our hearts daily before God? The key to it
lies in what St Luke says is our Lord’s intended audience. He told his
parable “to those who were convinced of their own righteousness
and despised everyone else.” The Pharisee of the story embodies the one
who thinks himself good and even holy and who looks down on others,
perhaps even unconsciously. The Tax Collector embodies the one who
knows he is a sinner and who looks up to others as better than himself.
The truest and best prayer is humble and conscious of personal sin.
This point is
especially relevant to our own day. I say this because it
speaks about the necessity of a sense of personal sinfulness if our
prayer is ever going to open us to the friendship of God. Time and
again the Church, including the Popes of our time, has said that one
of our most serious deficiencies is the lack of a sense of sin. We are
prone to think that sin does not matter much and that we are not very
sinful anyway. This tendency in our thought is largely unconscious
because we do not advert much to sin anyway. We are conscious of
physical health and its requirements, and we have many helps to keep a
good check on our physical condition. We have no doubt about the
reality of various kinds of physical and mental illness, but when it
comes to spiritual illness — indifference to God and serious neglect of
his commandments — then on that we are strangely blind. Sin is quietly
deemed to be a
non-event. I am sure this is largely a product of the practical (not
to speak of theoretical) atheism or agnosticism of vast numbers of
people in our
age. Our Western culture is one that relegates God and his declared
commandments to the realm of subjective personal opinion, and being
thus categorized is refused any place in the public discussion of
issues pertaining to man’s objective good. Publicly God is kept out of
sight because it is assumed that he cannot be regarded as a hard fact.
Religion is taken to be useful because religious opinions can support
morality and peace of mind (though not necessarily), but beyond that
God is seen to be little more than a private phantom. The result of
this is that sin becomes a mere personal interpretation of wrongdoing.
Consider the fictional characters and heroes of popular culture. Do
they manifest a sense of personal sin? No, even though they can have a
sense of personal wrongdoing. All this is to say that we who are
children of our culture, a culture that has so many strengths, can be
weak in the sense of personal sin that should characterize our prayer,
as Christ makes clear in his parable today.
If this is the case
our prayer will not make us right with God nor
restore us to his friendship. Let us then take to heart our Lord’s
parable and recognize that if we are not on guard then we of our age,
an age
characteristically deficient in the sense of sin because deficient in
our sense of God, can be rather like the Pharisee in our prayer. Let us
rather make constant use of the prayer of the Tax Collector and pray
repeatedly to God asking his pardon for our sins and failings. O God,
be merciful to me a sinner! This is an admirable prayer and if it is
prayed sincerely it will bring us into God’s pardon and friendship.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If we are generous in voluntary atonement Jesus will fill us with
grace
to love the trials he sends us.
(The Way,
no.221)
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Is it possible to pray always?
Praying is always possible because the time of the Christian is the
time of the risen Christ who remains “with us always” (Matthew 28:20).
Prayer and Christian life are therefore inseparable: “It is possible to
offer frequent and fervent prayer
even at the market place or strolling alone. It is possible also in
your place of business, while buying or selling, or even while
cooking.” (Saint John Chrysostom) (CCC 2742-2745,
2757)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.576)
--------------------------------(Back to Liturgical Day Index)--------------------------------
Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
29) Saint
Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem
St. Narcissus was born towards the close of the first century, and was
almost fourscore years old when he was placed at the head of the church
of Jerusalem, being the thirtieth bishop of that see. In 195, he and
Theophilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, presided in a council of
the bishops of Palestine held at Caesarea, about the time of
celebrating Easter; in which it was decreed that this feast is to be
kept always on a Sunday, and not with the Jewish passover. Eusebius
assures us, that the Christians of Jerusalem preserved in his time the
remembrance of several miracles which God had wrought by this holy
bishop; one of which he relates as follows. One year on Easter-eve the
deacons were unprovided with oil for the lamps in the church, necessary
at the solemn divine office that day. Narcissus ordered those who had
care of the lamps to bring him some water from the neighboring wells.
This being done, he pronounced a devout prayer over the water; then
bade them pour it into the lamps; which they did, and it was
immediately converted into oil, to the great surprise of the faithful.
Some of this miraculous oil was kept there as a memorial at the time
when Eusebius wrote his history. The veneration of all good men for
this holy bishop could not shelter him from the malice of the wicked.
Three incorrigible sinners, fearing his inflexible severity in the
observance of ecclesiastical discipline, laid to his charge a
detestable crime, which Eusebius does not specify. They confirmed their
atrocious calumny by dreadful oaths and imprecations; one wishing he
might perish by fire, another, that he might be struck with a leprosy,
and the third, that he might lose his sight, if what they alleged was
not the truth. Notwithstanding these protestations, their accusation
did not find credit; and, some time after, the divine vengeance pursued
the calumniators. The first was burnt in his house, with his whole
family, by an accidental fire in the night; the second was struck with
a universal leprosy; and the third, terrified by these examples,
confessed the conspiracy and slander, and by the abundance of tears
which he continually shed for his sins, lost his sight before his
death.
Narcissus,
notwithstanding the slander had made no impression on the people to his
disadvantage, could not stand the shock of the bold calumny, or rather
made it an excuse for leaving Jerusalem, and spending some time in
solitude, which had long been his wish. He spent several years
undiscovered in his retreat, where he enjoyed all the happiness and
advantage which a close conversation with God can bestow. That his
church might not remain destitute of a pastor, the neighboring bishops
of the province, after some time, placed in it Pius, and after him
Germanion, who, dying in a short time, was succeeded by Gordius. While
this last held the see, Narcissus appeared again like one from the
dead. The whole body of the faithful, transported at the recovery of
their holy pastor, whose innocence had been most authentically
vindicated, conjured him to reassume the administration of the diocese.
He acquiesced; but afterwards, bending under the weight of extreme old
age, made St. Alexander his coadjutor. This primitive example
authorizes the practice of coadjutorships; which, nevertheless, are not
allowable by the canons except in cases of the perpetual inability of a
bishop through age, incurable infirmity, or other impediment as
Marianus Victorius observes in his notes upon St. Jerome. St. Narcissus
continued to serve his flock, and even other churches, by his assiduous
prayers and his earnest exhortations to unity and concord, as St.
Alexander testifies in his letter to the Arsinoites in Egypt, where he
says that Narcisus was at that time about one hundred and sixteen years
old. The Roman Martyrology honors his memory on the 29th of
October. The pastors of the primitive church,
animated with the spirit of the apostles were faithful imitators of
their heroic virtues, discovering the same fervent zeal. the same
contempt of the world, the same love of Christ. If we truly respect the
church as the immaculate spouse of our Lord, we will incessantly pray
for its exaltation and increase, and beseech the Almighty to give it
pastors according to his own heart, like those who appeared in the
infancy of Christianity. And, that no obstacle on our part may prevent
the happy effects of their zeal, we should study to regulate our
conduct by the holy maxims which they inculcate, we should regard them
as the ministers of Christ; we should listen to them with docility and
attention; we should make their faith the rule of ours, and shut our
ears against the language of profane novelty. O! that we could once
more see a return of those happy days when the pastor and the people
had but one heart and one soul; when there was no diversity in our
belief; when the faithful seemed only to vie with each other in their
submission to the church, and in their desire of
sanctification.
(Catholic Online)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
8:12-17; Psalm 68:2 and 4, 6-7ab,
20-21; Luke 13:10-17
Jesus was teaching
in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen
years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely
incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and
said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on
her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the
leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath,
said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be
done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” The Lord
said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the
sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for
watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen
years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from
this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated;
and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
(Luke
13:10-17)
Let us consider
some of the implications of our Gospel scene today and the protagonists
who are involved. There is Christ and the afflicted woman on the one
hand, and there is Satan who has bound her and in the background the
official who criticizes Christ for his action. We read in the Gospels
how our Lord taught in the fields and in homes and farms, but
especially he taught in the synagogues on the Sabbath days when the
town would be gathered in
prayer and to listen to the word of God. On this occasion during his
session of teaching in the synagogue he saw a woman “crippled by a
spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.” Our
Lord went to her and told her she was free of her infirmity and laid
his hands on her. At this, she stood up erect and praised God (Luke 13:10-17). Imagine the joy and
wonderment that filled her soul! But notice what our Lord said of her
condition when he was accused by the synagogue official of violating
the Sabbath. He said that this woman who had the dignity of being a
daughter of Abraham had been held bound by Satan for eighteen years.
Satan had enslaved her. Now, that is revealing when it comes to what
Western thought has called the problem of evil. The woman had borne her
affliction for eighteen years. How it must have appeared a burdensome
mystery to her! How unjust and how unnecessary one might have regarded
it! How hopeless her prospects and quality of life! Now was her
affliction just the way her life unluckily and unhappily took its
course? Had she simply been tossed into her crippled condition by the
blind forces of nature? No. Our Lord tells us that Satan had held her
bound — in what sense we are not told. As we look around the world and
see the suffering that is everywhere and as we hear of the “mystery of
evil” insinuating that there is no God, our Lord’s words and actions
remind us that suffering and evil come from Satan and sin — “sin” being
the original sin of man and the ongoing personal sins of man in history.
But Christ did not
come simply to take away suffering and death. Human life has been
profoundly spoilt by Satan and sin, but our Lord’s mission was not to
restore it immediately to its pristine condition and beauty as it came
from the hand of God in the beginning. He came to deal with the source
of this decay and to turn its oppressive fruits to advantage. Its
beauty would return in the fullness of time. Christ came to fight against Satan
and as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. The afflicted woman was a victim of Satan and her condition symbolized
the crippled condition of fallen man whom Satan in a far more serious
sense — that of sin — holds bound. Let us also see in the synagogue
official one who was blinded by sin and Satan. Our Lord called him a
hypocrite because he was presenting himself as one zealous for the Law
but was really concerned for his position which he sensed was being
disregarded by our Lord’s healing action. Our Lord’s action against
Satan and his rebuke of the official shows him taking the fight to the
enemy of man. In releasing the woman of her condition our Lord was
giving a sign of the release from sin he would effect for all mankind.
But this release, this redemption, has to be brought to each individual
and this is symbolized by the personal touch of our Lord over the
woman. “He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and
glorified God.” It was a sign of the Kingdom of God present now in his
own person and overthrowing the kingdom of Satan holding mankind bound
through sin. This same Kingdom present in the person of Jesus is active
and effective in the life of the Church that he founded for the
purpose. What Christ did for the woman he does in a far more profound
sense for each of us at our baptism and in all the moments when we
approach the Sacraments and hear his word in the life of the Church. In
the word and Sacraments of the Church Christ is laying his hands on us
individually and conferring on us the grace that releases us from sin
and Satan.
There are two
invisible leaders at work in the world. One is far, far the stronger
and has won the struggle, but the victory has to be played out in
history. The other is far, far the weaker but monstrously at work
nevertheless. Satan is a remorseless wrecker of souls and of good
things that have come from God. The conclusion is foregone.
Christ by his death on the cross has redeemed mankind and Satan’s days
are numbered. But we must take our stand with Christ, for those who do
not gather with him will be scattered. Let us renew our stand with
Christ every day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Let your will exact from your senses, by means of atonement, what
your other faculties deny your will in prayer.
(The Way, no.222)
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What is the prayer of the Hour of Jesus?
It is called the priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper. Jesus,
the High Priest of the New Covenant, addresses it to his Father when
the hour of his sacrifice, the hour of his “passing over” to him is
approaching. (CCC 2604, 2746-2751, 2758)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.577)
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Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
30) Saint
Marcellus and Saint
Alphonsus Rodriguez
St. Alphonsus
Rodriguez (c. 1533-1617) Tragedy and challenge beset
today’s saint early in life, but Alphonsus Rodriguez found happiness
and contentment through simple service and prayer. Born in Spain in
1533, Alphonsus inherited the family textile business at 23. Within the
space of three years, his wife, daughter and mother died; meanwhile,
business was poor. Alphonsus stepped back and reassessed his life. He
sold the business and, with his young son, moved into his sisters’
home. There he learned the discipline of prayer and meditation. Years
later, at the death of his son, Alphonsus, almost 40 by then, sought to
join the Jesuits. He was not helped by his poor education. He applied
twice before being admitted. For 45 years he served as doorkeeperat the
Jesuits’ college in Majorca. When not at his post, hewas almost always
at prayer, though he often encountered difficulties and temptations.
His holiness and prayerfulness attracted many to him, including St.
Peter Claver, then a Jesuit seminarian. Alphonsus’s life as doorkeeper
may have been humdrum, but he caught the attention of poet and
fellow-Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins, who made him the subject of one of
his poems. Alphonsus died in 1617. He is the patron saint of Majorca.
We like to think that God rewards
the good even in this life. But Alphonsus knew business losses, painful
bereavement and periods when God seemed very distant. None of his suffering
made him withdraw into a shell of self-pity or bitterness. Rather, he
reached out to others who lived with pain, including enslaved blacks. Among
the many notables at his funeral were the sick and poor people whose lives
he had touched. May they find such a friend in us!(AmericanCatholic.org)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
8:18-25; Psalm 126:1b-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6; Luke
13:18-21
Jesus said, “What
is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a
mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was
fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in
its branches.” Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of
God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three
measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”
(Luke 13:18-21)
I remember a priest
who taught Modern History some forty years ago saying that the great
power of the future would be China. Many now think that China and India
will emerge as the superpowers of late this century. When that priest
made his observation the two superpowers of the time were the United
States and the Soviet Union. The world power of our day is the United
States, but of course it has its limitations and undoubtedly at some
point in the future it will wane. In
the nineteenth century in the main Britain held the stage, and prior to
that this or that power held sway. Empires and kingdoms rise and fall
like the birth, the growth, the time of strength and then the passing
away of each living thing. There is one grand exception to this
pattern. It is the Ruler and the Kingdom predicted in the Old Testament
and announced and established in the New. Our Lord came announcing the
Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. It was near. Nay, he said, it
had arrived. If by the finger of God I cast out demons, he said, know
that the kingdom of God is among you. His Kingdom was altogether
different from the kingdoms of this world. Pilate asked our Lord is he
were a king because he stood before him charged with claiming to be one
as against Caesar. Our Lord replied to the representative of the empire
of Rome that yes, he was a king, but that his kingdom was not of this
world. What he had come into this world for was to bear witness to the
truth — and it was because he had borne witness to the truth (about
himself) that he was now in the dock with Pilate about to sentence him.
Christ’s words indicate that his Kingdom consists in the first instance
of his own person and then of those who become one with him and fully
accept his revelation. God’s plan for man is that he become a citizen
of this Kingdom and that in Christ every heavenly blessing be gained
and enjoyed.
In our Gospel
passage today our Lord describes certain features of the Kingdom of
God. “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is
like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it
was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt
in its branches.” The dominion and lordship of God as present in the
person and work of Christ looks small and unprepossessing but it will
grow vast and become the home and refuge of the peoples. It is
mankind’s true home and this will become evident in the fullness of time.
Moreover, it will affect the world and gradually transform it. “To what
shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and
mixed in with
three measures of wheat flour until the
whole batch of dough was leavened.” (Luke
13:18-21).
So this world’s true future is to be found in the Kingdom of God. This
Kingdom is the true dominion of the present and it is certainly the
dominion of the future, a future that will never end. Others kingdoms
come and go, they rise and they fall and we see evidence of this in
even in our own day. But there is a Kingdom present in the world right
now and which will never end. It will grow and be the future home of
the peoples and will transform this mortal world into an eternal and
glorious one. Christ is the heart and the centre of this Kingdom and
our calling is to take our stand with him and together with him to bear
witness to his truth. So then, in our participation in the political
and economic and social life of this world let us remember that we are
by our faith and our baptism members first and foremost of the Kingdom
of God now established in the world by the life, the death and the
resurrection of Christ. Let us understand that the best hope of the
regimes of this world is that the Regime of God in Christ be implanted
in them to be the yeast that leavens the entire dough. God is present
among us in Christ, and the world’s hope lies in him.
Every person
immersed in the work of the world has within him and ever by his side
the eternal King whom he is called to serve moment by moment and day by
day. That King is Christ. By serving him in his everyday life the
Christian serves in the best way possible the true interests of the
temporal kingdom which happens to hold the stage at the time. Let us
then take our stand with Christ and understand well that Christ is the
hope of the world and is its salvation.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Of how little value is penance without constant self-denial!
(The Way, no.223)
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What is the origin of the Our Father?
Jesus taught us this Christian prayer for which there is no substitute,
the Our Father, on the day on which one of his disciples saw him
praying and asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). The
Church’s liturgical tradition has always used the text of Saint Matthew
(6:9-13).
(CCC 2759-2760, 2773)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.578)
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Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time II
(October
31) Saint Quentin and Saint Wolfgang
St. Wolfgang of
Regensburg (c. 924-994) Wolfgang was born in Swabia, Germany,
and was educated at a school located at the abbey of Reichenau. There
he encountered Henry, a young noble who went on to become Archbishop of
Trier. Meanwhile, Wolfgang remained in close contact with the
archbishop, teaching in his cathedral school and supporting his efforts
to reform the clergy. At the death of the archbishop, Wolfgang chose to
become a Benedictine monk and moved to an abbey in Einsiedeln, now part
of Switzerland. Ordained a priest, he was appointed director of the
monastery school there. Later he was sent to Hungary as a missionary,
though his zeal and good will yielded limited results. Emperor Otto II
appointed him Bishop of Regensburg (near Munich). He immediately
initiated reform of the clergy and of religious life, preaching with
vigor and effectiveness and always demonstrating special concern for
the poor. He wore the habit of a monk and lived an austere life. The
draw to monastic life never left him, including the desire for a life
of solitude. At one point he left his diocese so that he could devote
himself to prayer, but his responsibilities as bishop called him back.
In 994 he became ill while on a journey; he died in Puppingen near
Linz, Austria. His feast day is celebrated widely in much of central Europe. He
was canonized in 1052. (AmericanCatholic.org)
Click centre arrow to start video
Scripture today:
Romans
8:26-30; Psalm 13:4-5,
6; Luke 13:22-30
Jesus passed
through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to
Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be
saved?” He answered them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for
many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will
you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He
will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you
will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our
streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and
grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the
prophets in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people
will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are
last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
(Luke
13:22-30)
One gets the
impression that there was a far greater fear of hell in the Middle Ages
than there is in the Modern. For modern man this constitutes part of
the general indictment of the Middle Ages. He regards the Middle Ages
as obscurantist and superstitious and one of the many evidences of this
was the fear of hell, whereas now we are beyond those fears. Now, of
course it is possible to exaggerate in our imagination the likelihood
of hell and to underplay
the power of Christ to save. But on balance I feel assured that the
Middle Ages were far closer to the truth in terms of their popular thinking
on Hell than is our own. The fact is that by and large we do not
believe it. I can think of one outstanding theologian — and he was
truly one of the great theologians of the twentieth century — who
appeared in one of his works to doubt that anyone would go to Hell. He
did not deny Hell, but doubted it contains or would contain
inhabitants. Of course, neither Christ nor the Church has declared that
any particular human person is or will be in Hell. But the frequent
allusions of Christ to the fact of Hell surely put us on guard against
taking it in any way lightly. It is obvious from any knowledge of the
Scriptures that Christ taught far more explicitly about Hell than any
other prophet and, indeed, than the Old Testament. I suppose it is for
this reason that I have seen very good Jews deny the existence of Hell
as the Christian understands it. Christ has revealed to mankind the
possibility of Hell for the deliberately unrepentant. In our Gospel
passage today (Luke 13:22-30) our Lord is asked, will
only a few be saved? Perhaps the very question was prompted by our
Lord’s frequent calls for repentance. Our Lord does not answer the
question as to the number of souls who are saved, but rather goes on to
stress that the avoidance of hell requires real effort, that it could
come as a surprise to those who are sentenced to go there, and that
those presumed to be first in line for heaven could be revealed as
being last.
For some eight years at Oxford (during the 1830s) a great religious movement
arose and spread. It was called the Oxford Movement and it sought to renew
and recover the Catholic foundations of Anglicanism. Its leading light was
John Henry Newman. His movement carried on after him in various forms but at
one point during those seven or eight years of his active leadership he
received
a visit from a couple of members of Cambridge
University. The two from Cambridge dined with Newman and Pusey and
during their conversation reference was made to some religious liberals
at Cambridge. Newman said that what they lacked was religious fear.
Indeed, in some of his sermons Newman develops the point that modern
man tends to lack religious fear. He writes that modern man is
confident in his religion and his confidence is not of the right kind,
basically because he is sceptical of the truth of dogma. It is clear
from our Gospel passage today that Christ means us to have a healthy
fear of Hell and a conviction of its real possibility. One of the great
figures of the renewal of the Church in the sixteenth century — the
century of the Protestant Reformation — was Saint Teresa of Avila, the
founder of the reformed Carmel. She was granted (according to her own
testimony) a vision of her place in Hell were she to be unfaithful. It
was a horrifying and unforgettable revelation to her. When our Lady
appeared to the three children at Fatima in 1917 she gave the children
a vision of Hell, which Lucia (one of the three) describes in her Third
Memoir of 1942, as a great sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were
demons and souls in human form like transparent burning embers,
floating about in the conflagration, now raised in the air by the
flames...now falling back on every side. These glimpses given to holy
people of what God has revealed to all of us are a salutary reminder of
what we ought keep in mind. Christ came to save us from Hell and to
open to us the gates of Heaven.
Let us pray for the
grace so to live as to avoid the misery of Hell and go to Heaven in
order to be happy with Christ for all eternity. There is a beautiful
prayer that is generally said at the end of each decade of the Rosary.
It goes, “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of
hell and bring all souls to heaven especially those most in need of thy
mercy.” I invite you to make that prayer your own.
(E.J.Tyler)
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You are afraid of penance?... Of penance, which will help you to
obtain Life everlasting. And yet, in order to preserve this poor
present life, don't you see how men will submit to all the cruel
torture of a surgical operation?
(The Way,
no.224)
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What is the place of the Our Father in the
Scriptures?
The Our Father is the “summary of the whole Gospel” (Tertullian), “the
perfect prayer” (Saint Thomas Aquinas). Found in the middle of the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), it presents in the form of prayer
the essential content of the Gospel. (CCC 2761-2764, 2774)
(Compendium of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.579)
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