Saint Ambrose, Commentary on Saint Luke's Gospel, 7, 200-203 ; SC 52

Tuesday, 05 November 2013  

 

Tuesday of the Thirty-first week in Ordinary Time

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 14:15-24.

 ....

and make people come in that my home may be filled. (v. 23)
For, I tell you, none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner.'" 

Commentary of the

Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church. Commentary on Saint Luke's Gospel, 7, 200-203 ; SC 52

"Make people come in that my home may be filled"

The guests excuse themselves, whereas the Kingdom is closed to no one who does not exclude himself by his own decision. Our Lord kindly invites everyone in but it is our own laziness or distraction that keeps us out. Someone who prefers buying a farm has no place in the Kingdom! In Noah's day, buyers and sellers were engulfed by the flood (Lk 17,26-28),... and so it is for anyone who excuses himself because he has just married, since it is written: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother and wife... cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14,26)...

And so, following the proud disdain of the wealthy Christ turned to the pagans. He brought in good and wicked that the good might be made greater and the inclinations of the wicked improve... He invited the poor, the sick, the blind, thus demonstrating that physical handicap keeps no one out of the Kingdom..., or rather, that the infirmity of sin is healed by the mercy of the Lord...

Then he sends people out seeking at intersections in the roads, for “Wisdom cries aloud in the streets” (Prv 1,20). He sends them out to the crossroads that sinners might be told to abandon broad ways and meet up on the narrow way that leads to life (Mt 7,13). He sends them out along roads and hedgerows because people who are hastening towards the blessings to come without being held back by present blessings, who are committed to the way of good will, will attain the Kingdom of Heaven just like people who are able to make a distinction between good and evil as fields are divided by a hedge: that is to say, those who set up the rampart of faith against the temptations of sin.

All Saints (C) – Homily of Fr. Aelred.

Friday if First of November

   All Saints: First Friday of the Month.
On the first attempt with CanCord, it back fired that the inner memory was full, and could not record. Hope to lerarn more.
D.

All Saints (C) – Homily of Fr. Aelred.

Intro   Today is the Solemnity of All  Saints, when we celebrate the canonised saints and those saints known to God alone.

Homily In the saints the Church presents the heroes and heroines of Christianity as models and intercessors. Although the saints had their personal failings, they still provide us with admirable examples at divine power at work in human beings. Alban Butler wrote in the 18^th century: “The lives of the saints furnish the Christian with a daily spiritual entertainment, which is not less agreeable than affecting and instructive”. And speaking of the saints Vatican II said, “ To look on the lives of those who have faithfully followed Christ is to be inspired with a new reason for seeking the city which is to come … God shows us in a vivid way his presence and his presence and his face in the lives of those companions of ours who are more perfectly transformed into the image of Christ”.

Like St. Paul the saints can say, “I live, not now I, but Christ lives in me”” Therefore honour given to the saints is given to Christ.

The 1^st  Reading from the Book of the Apocalypse shows us in heavenly symbolic fashion the saints around the throne in heaven. These have the seal of the living God on their foreheads. This divine signet ring is like of an orients monarch which marked  and sealed as his property. The sealing of God’s servants does not symbolize protection from tribulation and death but means being sustained in and through tribulation.  These martyrs have won their victory by suffering death, like Christ himself, not by inflicting hurt. A glorious destiny awaits the saints, and us too, but precisely as faithful followers of the suffering Christ. “Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory.” This is the divine pattern.

According to St. Paul the more excellent way of following Christ is through the exercise of agape, love. It is the highest of the divine gifts, and its acquisition was the foremost aim of all the saints. St. John of the Cross said, “At the evening of life, we shall be judged by our love”. And another great Catholic sage, Jaque Maritain, said, “In the evening of life there is no greater than to have loved Jesus Christ”.

Prayer Lord God, grant us, with all the saints, the peace and joy of heaven. We ask this thro’ Christ our Lord.

Note:
The Monastic Night Office Second Reading, Anastasius of Sinai (PC 89, 1192-1193) 

Raymond Homily Sunday, 07 July 2013

Fr. Raymond

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:1-12.17-20.

At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit. ...

"The Lord appointed seventy two others and sent them out ahead of him to all the places he himself was to visit". It's important for us to note that he sent them out ahead of him, not as individuals, but in pairs. He sent them out two by two. When the early Fathers of the Church tried to understand this, when they tried to understand why Jesus sent the seventy two out in pairs, they took it to mean that no one is authorised to preach the Gospel in his own name. Whoever preaches as one among many; he preaches as one who is bound together in charity to the community of the faithful. Whoever preaches, preaches in the name of and by the authority of the universal Church; it’s not just a private message of his own, a message preached on his own authority.

So the fact that Jesus sent out his disciples two by two is simply another expression of that great fundamental statement of the creation story viz: that it is not good for man to be alone. The preaching mission of the Church is carried out in the spirit of the great theological reality of the Communion of Saints.

When one man speaks with utter sincerity and when he speaks enthusiastically from his heart, there is a very powerful witness given. Others will be moved by his sincerity and his enthusiasm. But when he is joined by another who is equally sincere and equally enthusiastic then the power of their witness is more than just doubled. Even God himself is forced, as it were, and as he himself confesses, to yield to the prayers of two or three gathered together. So there is great significance in this fact that Jesus chooses to send his disciples out two by two.

We can also presume that the fact that they were to prepare the way for his own personal visit to each of these places after them means that the Gospel can't really be preached effectively by human preaching alone, Jesus himself must come into the picture' in some way. There has to be an inner encounter with Christ himself. The Gospel has to be heard with the heart as well as by the ear. The initial human preaching to the ear has to be followed up by the inner voice of the Spirit speaking to the heart. It is heart that speaks to the heart as Scripture says, The heart of Jesus speaks directly to each of us in the depths of our heart.

  

Like St Joseph let us trust in the Lord's abiding presence

Mass Introduction:  

----- Forwarded Message -----From: Nivard........
Sent: Wednesday, 1 May 2013, 9:31
Subject: The True Vine

Daily Reading & Meditation, adapted. 5 Wed 1 May, St Joseph Worker

 “Abide in me, and I in you”,  John 15:1-8

  

Here is a simple a truth.

We are either fruit-bearing or non-fruit-bearing. There is no in-between.

 

However, the bearing of healthy fruit requires drastic pruning. The Lord promises that we will bearmuch fruit if we abide in him and allow him to purify us.

Like St Joseph let us trust in the Lord's abiding presence with us, as we perform, our daily tasks.

 

Father, may we be one with you in all that we say and do. Draw us close that we may glorify you and bear fruit for your kingdom, through Christ our Lord.

"Did not our hearts burn " Luke 24:13-35

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Nivard 
Sent: Wednesday, 3 April 2013, 10:18
Subject: Easter Wed. 2013 Beautiful Gate, Emmaus

"Did not our hearts burn " Wednesday (April 3): Scripture: Luke 24:13-35      Why was it difficult for the disciples to recognise the risen Lord? Jesus' death scattered his disciples. It shattered their hopes and dreams.     They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. They saw the cross as defeat. They could not comprehend the empty tomb until the Lord appeared to them. Jesus chided the disciples on the road to Emmaus for their slowness of heart to believe what the scriptures had said concerning the Messiah. They did not recognise the risen Jesus until he had broken bread with them. Do we recognise the Lord in his word and in the breaking of the bread?    Father, nourish me with your life-giving word and with the bread of life." through Christ our Lord.  C. http://www.dailyscripture.net/ Adapted. Belated Easter Greetings and Blessings to all of you.!! ZENIT Pope's April Prayer Intentions Focus on Liturgy Celebration of Faith and Mission Churches   VATICAN CITY, April 02, 2013 (Zenit.org) - Pope Francis' prayer intentions this month focus on the life of the faithful increased through liturgy. The Apostleship of Prayer announced the intentions chosen by the Pope for April. His general intention is "that the public, prayerful celebration of faith may give life to the faithful." His mission intention is for mission Churches, that they "may be signs and instruments of hope and resurrection." Read it online | Forward to a Friend | Comment online Go to top REGINA CAELI

Jesus' Temptation (Luke 4:1-13). quote St. Raphael ocso

 Sunday, 17 February 2013

First Sunday of Lent - Year C

Gospel

 Saint Luke 4:1-13.

 Filled with the holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert ...  

Commentary of the day :    

 Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938), a Spanish Trappist monk 

 Spiritual writings, 15/12/1936 (trans

 'To know how to wait', Mairin Mitchell) 

The Son of God rejects the temptations of other ways and obeys the Father's will

I, too, once went tearing along the roads of Spain, with the idea of making the speedometer register ninety kilometers an hour: how foolish! When I was conscious that for me, the horizon marked earth's uttermost limit, I suffered the disappointment of one who enjoys earthly freedom, for the earth is small and moreover quickly comes to an end

 Man is bounded by narrow and limited horizons, and for him whose soul aspires after infinite horizons, earthly ones aren't enough, they throttle him; the world isn't sufficient for him, and only in the vastness and immensity of God will he find what he is seeking

 You free men, making journeys around this planet, I don't envy you your life in the world; enclosed in a convent at the foot of a Crucifix I have boundless freedom, I have Heaven, I have God

 What a great blessing it is to have a heart that is in love with Him!...

 Poor Brother Rafael!..

 Go on waiting, waiting with that sweet serenity which sure hope gives

 Keep calm, unshaken, a prisoner of your God at the foot of his tabernacle

 Listen to the distant uproar coming from men enjoying a few short days of freedom in the world, listen from afar to their voices, their laughter, their lamentations, their wars

 Listen, and meditate for a moment

 Meditate on a God who is infinite, who made the earth and mankind, He, the supreme Lord of skies and lands, rivers and seas, who in an instant, simply by willing it created out of the void all that exists

 Mediate for a moment on the life of Christ and you will see that it has no freedom, no outcry or clamor; you will see the Son of God subject to humankind, you will see Jesus, obedient, submissive, and with what steadfast calm he keeps as the only law of his life the fulfillment of the Father's will

 And lastly, look on Christ nailed to a cross

 And we talk of freedom!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0yWBeRtjlk

Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Lk. 5:8

raphael_fishes.jpg

Fifth Sunday of the Year

Note.

After Mass; a comment: "the Homily was like telepathy of the Retreat Director’s lecture."

Aelred  said, ‘It was only yesterday that I wrote the Homily.’

A case of almost singing from the same Hymn book.

Readings:

Isaiah 6:1-2,3-8

1Corinthians 15:1-11

Luke 5:1-11
^v.8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Homily by Fr. Aelred

5^th Sunday (C)

The OT delights in evoking the initiative of God, who chooses and sends his prophets. Last Sunday it was the call of Jeremiah; today the call of Isaiah.

The calling of Isaiah is connected with a vision in the Temple. Isaiah ‘sees God, the Lord and King of the universe, although the divine presence is veiled by smoke to shield human eyes from his awesome glory. Isaiah’s first reaction was fear and trembling; out then, cleansed of his sins, he responded without hesitation of the divine call.

The Prophet’s mission was to turn the kings of Israel from trust in their  political shrewdness and foreign alliances in order to save Israel, and to learn to lean on God alone. In this he was largely unsuccessful, as was a prophet from Galilee, 700 years later, who warned that armed revolt against Rome would lead to the destruction of the nation. For the ‘holy one of Israel’ of Isaiah’s vision is a transcendent God who acts in history on behalf of his own people. It is the mystery of an all-holy God who yet stoops down to frail and sinful men and women.

In the second reading Paul reminds the Corinthians that in order to be saved they must guard the Gospel from all impurity or alteration and passes on what they have received. “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures... he was buried... he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures”; he appeared to the witnesses he had chosen. Paul is one of them. Although Paul is conscious that he is not worthy to be called an apostle because of his persecution of the Church, he realizes that his election is pure grace from God, , as is the zeal which he is to use to accomplish his mission. An unconditional gift, disposed of most freely. To the Lord, Isaiah simply responds: ‘Send me’. Saul is content to say to Jesus: ‘What shall I do?’

The coherence of the 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th Sundays Gospel Readings, is based on the fact that it is Luke from the beginning, placed as in the presence of the person of Jesus and his mystery that is unfolded today in the Church and in the world This Jesus is the Messiah, herald of the good news and the divine grace, whose revelation inaugurates the era of salvation; Jesus, the prophet, this sign of contradiction to whom no one can remain neutral; Jesus, Master and Lord at the origin of the mission, who calls his disciples to follow him while abandoning everything to become “fishers of men” in this world.

Today’s gospel passage is composite. The setting of a discourse of Jesus given on the lake with Jesus using a boat for his pulpit; a miraculous carch of fish; the call of Simon. Simon Peter  had failed. He was a fisherman, and after a whole night’s fishing, he hadn’t caught a fish. But at Jesus command he put out again into deep water and netted a miraculous catch. Peter’s reaction was to say; ‘Leave me Lord; I am a sinful man, because he knew he was in the presence of holiness. But Jesus speaks the reassuring words: ‘Do not be afraid.’ The mind and the message of Jesus is to reassure sinners that he is always there for them, something that the Church has not always put into practice.

Some people (like the apostles) are called to dedicate themselves totally and in a ‘professional’ way to the following of Christ. But not all Christians are called to follow Christ in this way. There is a greater call for a human being than to follow Jesus, to become a Christian. And of course most of these followers will belong to the laity.

Vocation is a word that applies to the laity as much as to the priest or religious. In a very real sense each one in this Church has been called and chosen. Christ addresses each one of us. You did not choose me; no I have chosen you. I have appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will remain. I have called you by name. You are mine.

God can make better saints . Charles de Foucauld

Monday, 04 February 2013 Monday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time

Mark 5:1-20.
.... But he would not permit him but told him instead, "Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you." v.29
Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed. 

Commentary of the day : 

Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), hermit and missionary in the Sahara - Meditations on the Gospels, no.194 

"Go home to your family and announce to them
all that the Lord in his pity has done for you"

When we want to follow Jesus, don't let us be surprised if he doesn't allow us to do so straight away or even if he never allows us to do so... Indeed, his eyes see further than ours: he doesn't just want our own good but everyone's...

Certainly, to share in his life with and like the apostles is a blessing and a grace and we should always strive to come close to this imitation of his life. But that is no more than an outward grace.

By filling us with grace interiorly God can make better saints of us without this exact imitation... than with it. By increasing faith, hope and charity in us he can make us far more perfect in the world or in a mitigated [religious] Order than we would be in the desert or in a strict Order... 

If God doesn't allow us to follow him we should neither be surprised nor afraid nor saddened about it but say to ourselves that he is treating us like the Gerasene and has very wise and hidden reasons for it. What is needed is that we obey him and throw ourselves into his will. Besides..., maybe Jesus allowed the Gerasene to join the apostles some months or years later. 

Let us always hope, as far as opportunity allows, to lead the life that is most perfect in itself and, for the time being, let us lead perfectly the life Jesus gives us, the one where he wants us to be. Let us live in it as he would live himself if his Father's will placed him there. Let us do everything there as he would do it if his Father had put him in that situation... True perfection is to do the will of God.

Kindling Our Lamp - Symeon the New Theologian

Sanctuary Lamp glow and flickering
Cleft in the Log (Cleft in the Rock, Moses,Elijah)

MAGNIFICAT.COM

Last day of January

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

MASS

Alleluia, alleluia! You will shine in the world like bright stars because you are offering it the word of life. AIleluia!

• A lamp is to be put on a lamp-stand, The amount you measure out is the amount you will be given .•

A reading from

the holy Gospel according to Mark       4:21-25

JESUS SAID TO his disciples, "Would you bring in a lamp to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on the lamp-stand? For there is nothing hidden but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this." ...

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

Kindling Our Lamp

God is fire and he is so called by all the inspired Scripture (cf. He 12:29).

The soul of each of us is a lamp.

Now a lamp is wholly in darkness, even though it be filled with oil or tow or other combustible matter, until it receives fire and is kindled.

So too the soul, though it may seem to be adorned with all virtues, yet does not receive the fire-in other words, has not received the divine nature and light-and is still unkindled and dark and its works are uncertain.

All things must be tested and manifested by the light (cf. Ep 5:13).

The man whose sours lamp is still in darkness, that is, untouched by the divine fire, stands the more in need of a guide with a shining torch, who will discern his actions.

As he has compassion for the faults he reveals in confession he will straightway straighten out whatever is crooked in his actions.

Just as he who walks in the night cannot avoid stumbling, so he who has not yet seen the divine light cannot avoid falling into sin.

As Christ says, "If any­one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees this light.

But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because he has not the light in him" (In 11:9- 10).

When he said "in him", he meant the divine and immaterial light, for no one can possess the physical light in himself.

SAINT SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN +1022

The Discourses (Classics of Western Spirituality) [Paperback]

C. J. De Catanzaro (Author), Symeon (Author)

   4.8 out of 5 stars      See all reviews

 (5 customer reviews) Amazon com Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1980 | Series: Classics of Western Spirituality

Father George Maloney in his introduction to this volume focuses directly on the special importance of St. Symeon and on how similar the religious situation of his era is to our own. "Concretely, the battle of two opposing views of theology centered around St. Symeon and his mystical apophatic approach of the experiencing of God immanently present to the individual, as opposed to the "head trip" scholastic theology as represented by Archbishop Stephen of Nicomedia, the official theologian at the court of Constantinople. Stephen represented the abstract, philosophical type of theologizing while Symeon strove to restore theology to its pristine mystical tendency as a wisdom infused by the Holy Spirit into the Christian after he had been thoroughly purified through a rigorous asceticism and a state of constant repentance."

This great spiritual master of Eastern Christianity was an abbot, spiritual director of renown, theologian and important church reformer. These Discourses which form the central work of his life were preached by St. Symeon to his monks during their morning Matins ritual. They treat such basic spiritual themes as repentance, detachment, renunciation, the works of charity, impassiblity, remembrance of death, sorrow for sins, the practice of God's commandments, mystical union with the indwelling Trinity, faith and contemplation.   

Such is the power of the Word. Lk. 1:21

 Ordinary Time: January 27th

Nunraw. Snow dispersing in hours, 'miraculous' thaw!

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Aelred - Homily.

In the history of the people of God, the creative Word of the 1st Chapter of Genesis is to be heard directly, through the proclaiming of Scripture, every time Israel is solemnly gathered together for a renewal for a the covenant made to  Abraham and Moses. Such is the power of the Word. It happened at the Dedication of the Temple under Solomon and at the inauguration of Judaism after the exile, which forms the setting for today’s 1^st Reading.

When the Jews returned home after 50 years of exile from Babylon, the nation had to be rebuilt from the grown up. Ezra called on the people to rededicate themselves to God. In a solemn liturgy of the Word he read to the people from the Law of Moses and the assembly responded with their Amen, with joy and thanksgiving. From this time on, the life and religion of Jews was based on adherence to the Law, and Ezra was regarded as the father of Judaism.

St. Luke, from whom today’s Gospel passage is taken, is also very interested in the history of the people of God. For him the history is made up of first, the period of Israel, and second, the period of Chris and his Church.  The first period, what we call the OT, is the time of preparation for the culminating event of Christ’s coming; ‘The law and the prophets were until John, since then the good news of the Kingdom of is preached’ (16:16) The second period begins with Jesus and is the whole time when he, as the exalted Lord, is present in the Church. Christ, the risen Lord, is always in the Christian community. The present moment is the time of fulfillment  The ‘today’ and the ‘now’ at Christ’s presence is the time of salvation. And now life is poured out in the Holy Spirit.

Snow clearing for the sheep grazing

Today’s Gospel shows us now Jesus began his ministry on his home soil with his Nazareth Manifesto. Jesus stands before his people in the Nazareth Synagogue and reads from the passage of Isaiah in which the prophet acknowledged himself to be anointed by the Spirit to his task of preaching to the poor and bringing liberty to captives. Jesus then declares that these words of their scriptures were being fulfilled in and by himself.

This was a startling claim. Jesus was saying that the whole sacred history of Israel was coming to a climax, now, in his ministry in his village synagogue. Little wonder that some of the people said: ‘This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary ...where did the man get all this?’ (cf. Mk 6:1-3).

And the primary recipients of Jesus good news were not to be leaders and guardians of Israel’s heritage, the Pharisees and Sadducees. Rather it was the captive, the blind, the oppressed, all who are weakest and powerless. The ‘poor’ in the biblical context means not only those whose poverty is ‘spiritual’, but the materially poor who really do need help, and the hungry who stand in need of nourishment. But they are also those who live on bread alone and who never hear the Word of God. And this must be true of many in modern western societies. Without frequent recourse to the Word of God is difficult to navigate our way through the murkiness of the much of modern life. Both in the public liturgy and in privacy of our homes whenever we open the Bible , we receive the intensely personal welcome of the Word and a sure guide for our lives. Such is the power of the Word.

+ + + + + + + + + +

+... Lord, in today’s Mass we hear how God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus, the long-awaited Saviour of the poor and the oppressed.

+ ... Almighty God, grant that we may share generously with others the blessings we have received from you. We ask this through the same Christ our Lord.