Saturday 25 May 2013

St. Bede, the only Englishman to be acclaimed as Doctor of the Universal Church


Bede the Venerable
Saturday 7th Week Ordinary Time
Community MASS; Introduction by  Fr. A…
Saint Bede, whose feast we keep today, was a man of England’s largest and most notable monastery of the late 7th century at Wearmout-Jarrow.
In the century before Bede, the Faith had been firmly established in England through two channels; from the north through Iona and Lindisfarne under the influence of St. Columba; from the south through the sending of Augustine to Canterbury by Pope St. Gregory.
Bede  was a devoted adherent of the Roman outlook, but he was also a sympathetic admirer of Celtic  Saints like Aidan and Cuthbert.
Often called ‘the father of English history.’ Bede is the only Englishman to be acclaimed as Doctor of the Universal Church


MAGNIFICAT com
SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE
The Humility with which to Accept the Kingdom of God
It also sometimes happens that we seek things entirely related to salvation with our eager petitions and devoted actions, and yet we do not immediately obtain what we ask. The result of our petition is postponed to some future time, as when we daily ask the Father on bended knees, saying, your kingdom come, and nevertheless we are not going to receive the kingdom as soon as our prayer is finished, but at the proper time. It is a fact that this is often done with benevolent foresight by our maker, so that the desires [inspired by] our devotion may increase by deferment. When they have advanced more and more by daily growth, at length they embrace perfectly the joys they are seeking.
In this respect we should note that when we pray for those who sin, although we are unable to obtain our request for their salvation, still we are not in the least deprived of the fruit of our petition. Even though they do not deserve to be saved, we will nevertheless be rewarded for the love which we expend on them. And so in such a petition there will be fulfilled for us the promise of the Lord who said, "If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give [it] to you." We must see that he did not simply say, "He will give [itl" but 'He will give [itl" he says, "to you." Even if he will not give [what we ask for] to those on whose behalf we ask, nevertheless when we mercifully intercede for the lapses of others, he will grant us a reward for our generosity.
Saint Bede the Venerable (+735) was an English Benedictine monk, a biblical scholar, and the first English historian.


No comments: