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| 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.
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