St. John "Chrysostomos" or "the golden-mouthed': -glory, gleam, beam, light, incandescence, brightness shines ...

Night Office, Patristic Lectionary,  Augustine Press 1999

Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Year II Wednesday

First Reading

2 Corinthians 3:7-2--3:4  

                                                             

 Responsory 2 Cor 3:18; Phil 3:3

With our faces unveiled, + all of us, reflecting as in a mirror the glory

of God, are being transformed from splendour to splendour.

V. We worship in the Spirit of God and we glory in Christ Jesus. + All of us ...

Second Reading

From a homily by Saint John Chrysostom (Second Epitre aux Corinthiennes 7, 5: Bareille XVII, 421-422)

Reflecting the Lord's glory

What does it mean, to say (as Saint Paul does) that: Reflecting the Lord's glory, we are refashioned - transformed - to his likeness? This was clearer in evidence when the grace of miracles was actively at work; but it is not hard to see even now, for anyone with the eyes of faith. For on receiving baptism the soul shines brighter than the sun, being purified by the Holy Spirit; and not only do we behold God's glory, but from it we receive a certain gleam ourselves. Just as bright silver , when struck by beams of light, can send out beams in its turn, not simply of its own nature but from the sun's brilliance, so also the soul, once purified and become brighter than silver, receives a beam from the glory of the Holy Spirit and sends that on. That is why he says, Reflecting, we are refashioned he same pattern from - or of, or by - his glory, that of the Holy Spirit, into a glory, our own, which is contingent, modelled on the Spirit of the Lord. See how he calls the Spirit "Lord," or "Master." He it is who transforms us, who does not permit us to conform to this world, the maker and first cause of creation as he is. As he says: You have been established in Christ Jesus.

This can be explained in more concrete terms from the apostles. We think of St. Paul, whose very clothes were activated; of St. Peter, whose very shadow had power. That could never have been, if they had not borne the king's likeness; if they had not had something of his unapproachable brightness - so much, it appears, that their clothes and their shadows worked wonders. See how that brightness shines through their bodies! Gazing on the face of Stephen, he says, they seemed to see the face of an angel. But that was nothing to the glory shining like lightning within. What Moses bore on his face, they carried in their souls, but to a much higher degree. The mark on Moses was more tangible; but this was incorporeal. Dimly glowing bodies catch fire from brighter ones close by and pass on to others their own incandescence. All that resembles what happens to the faithful. In this way they detach themselves from the world and have their converse only in the things of heaven.

Responsory Ps 113:1.3.5

When Israel came forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from an alien people, + the sea fled at the sight, the Jordan turned back on its course.

V. Why was it, sea, that you fled, that you turned back, Jordan, on your course? + The sea fled ...

John Chrysostom (c.347-407) was born at Antioch and studied under Diodore of Tarsus, the leader of the Antiochene school of theology. After a period of great austerity as a hermit, he resumed to Antioch where he was ordained deacon in 381 and priest in 386. From 386 to 397 it was his duty to preach in the principal church of the city, and his best homilies, which earned him the title "Chrysostomos" or "the golden-mouthed': were preached at this time. In 397 Chrysostom became patriarch of Constantinople, where his efforts to reform the court clergy, and people led to his exile in 404 and finally to his death from the hardships imposed on him. Chrysostom stressed the divinity of Christ against the Arians and his full humanity against the Apollinarians, but he had no speculative bent He was above all a pastor of soul and was one of the most attractive personalities of the early Church.

Ralph the Fervent (d.1101 ) was a conscientious, erudite cure in the former diocese of Poitiers

2 Cor 3:4.Through Christ we have
full confidence in God, ... in the Spirit

Night Office, Patristic Lectionary,  Augustine Press 1999

Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Year II Tuesday

First Reading

2 Corinthians 2:12-2:6  

  

Responsory 2 Cor 3:4.6.5

Through Christ we have full confidence in God, + who has made

us suitable ministers of his new covenant, not of a written code but in the Spirit.   

V. We know that we cannot of ourselves take credit for anything, for all of our sufficiency comes from God, + who has made ...

Second Reading

From a homily by Ralph the Fervent

(Horn. In Epist. et Evang. Domini XXVI: PL 155, 2033-2035)

Confidence in God

Such is the confidence we have in God through Christ; not that we are capable of thinking anything by ourselves as if it came from ourselves, but our capacity comes from God. The apostle tells us three things about confidence: whom we are to have confidence in, through whom, and what kind of confidence. He shows us whom we are to have confidence in, saying: in God. He himself, he says, has confidence in God, and he teaches us to have the same by his own example. For God alone is able to save us, and truly loves us and is truthful, whereas worldly kings, princes, relations and friends can save neither themselves nor us. Hence the psalmist's words: Put no trust in princes or in any human being, in whom there is no security. Their breath will leave them, and they will return to their own earth. But neither do they truly love, since none of our worldly friends love us for our own good but rather for theirs. It is only God who loves us not for his own advantage but ours. Again they are not even truthful, since it is written: Every man and woman is a liar. But God is truthful. Therefore, my friends, we must put the whole of our trust in God alone, not in anything transient; for relations, friends and all transient things deceive us. God alone never abandons those who hope in him. Hence it is written: Has anyone ever hoped in the Lord, and been put to shame? And David says: For me it is good to cling to God, to put my hope in the Lord my God.

He shows us through whom we are to have confidence, saying: through Christ. For it is only through Christ that we have access to the Father. It is he who reconciles and mediates between God and humanity, and is always interceding for us, insofar as he is man, and like the Father saves us, insofar as he is God. Therefore, my friends, we must love him with all our heart, for, as the apostle says, there is no other name in heaven or on earth by which we are destined to be saved.

As to what kind of confidence we should have in God, this he shows us in saying: not that we are capable of thinking anything by ourselves. He means: we have no confidence in ourselves, neither complete nor partial, as some people usually have, but total confi­dence, and about everything, in God. For such is our trust in God that we have no confidence that comes from ourselves even in thinking, speaking or doing anything at all, but it comes from God. And so he confounds those who rely on their own free will, or their own talents, strength or wealth, since it is written: A king is not saved by his own great power; nor can a giant be saved by his own immense strength. And elsewhere: Those who trust in their own wealth are certain to be ruined. But our capacity comes from God, as regards everything good, of course. For we cannot enjoy anything good, either material, spiritual or heavenly, except through him. And unless he works through us, our own lab or for material things, our devotion to spiritual things and our effort to obtain the rewards of heaven are useless. Hence Christ's words to his disciples: Without me you can do nothing.

          Responsory Ps 68:3; 1 Cor 2:9

The righteous shall rejoice before God, + they shall exult and dance for joy.

V. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. + They shall exult ...

Ralph the Fervent (d.1101 ) was a conscientious, erudite cure in the former diocese of Poitiers, who earned the sobriquet "ardens" by the ardor of his parochial sermons of which more than two hundred survive. They show a methodical treatment of the epistles and gospels of Sundays and greater feasts, emphasizing points of dogma and morals with frequent illustration from scripture and drawing widely on the Fathers and a variety of other authors. Although he was no respecter of persons and did not hesitate to reprove the great, the dissolute troubadour Count William IX of Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine, included him in his court because of his great reputa­tion. Ralph died in the Holy Land while on a crusade with the Count. Two books of letters and a history of crusading have not survived, but three manuscript copies of a theological summa have been preserved.

Christ says, He who has seen me has seen the Father. St. Cyril of Alexandria

Night Office, Patristic Lectionary,  Augustine Press 1999

OT Trinity Rublev

Seventh Week in Ordinary Time Year II Monday

First Reading

2 Corinthians 1:15-2:11 

Responsory 2 Cor 1:21-22; Dt 5:2.4

God firmly establishes us in Christ. He anointed and sealed us,

+ and as his pledge to us he sent his Spirit to dwell in our hearts.

V. The Lord our God made a covenant with us and spoke to us face

to face. +And as his ...  

Second Reading

From a commentary by Saint Cyril of Alexandria (In Ep. [] ad Corinthios: PG 74,921-923)

Christ is God by nature and in truth

God the Father makes us firm in Christ and establishes in all souls a faith that is correct and unshakable in holding that Christ is God by nature and in truth. That is so even if he was visibly in a form like ours, being born from a woman according to human nature and yet being above every created thing. At any rate, when Peter confessed his faith, saying clearly that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ our Lord replied himself, saying, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona.for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. For since the mystery is an enormous one, it has reasonable need of the revelation which is from above, from the Father.

It is God, therefore, who makes us firm in Christ, God who seals and anoints us and gives the Spirit as the guarantee, so that it might not be obscure for us, and derived from these things around us, that the Son is not "yes" and "no" but, rather, is truly God and that the "yes" to all good things is in him. God is said to seal and to anoint us, giving the guarantee of the Spirit, so that Christ might be the one who fulfils these things in us, not in a servile way nor as one anointing and sealing us with an alien spirit, but with the Spirit which is his own and the Father's. For the Holy Spirit is in both Father and Son by means of the identity of nature, not as something shared between them but rather as coming forth from the Father through the Son to the created universe. Christ breathed on the holy apostles and said Receive the Holy Spirit, and it is through him and in him that we have received the impress of the divine and intelligible image. For the divine apostle himself said in the letter to the Galatians My children, with whom I am again suffering labour pains until such time as Christ is formed in you. Now if we are conformed to Christ, and if we are enriched by the divine image within us, then Christ himself is the image of God the Father, and his exact resemblance, and we are called to his likeness, not by means of a participation in holiness but rather in nature and essence.

For it is not unreasonable that the one who, by nature, is related to the true God by nature and who is generated from his substance should himself be God. He has been sealed by God the Father, as John the wise says, He who receives his witness has put his seal to the fact that God is true. But he has not been sealed in the same way as we have been, for the Father writes to the effect that he himself is wholly in the nature of the Son, and substantially intimates such. Thus Christ says, He who has seen me has seen the Father.

Cyril of Alexandria (d.444) succeeded his uncle Theophilus as patriarch in 412. Until 428 the pen of this brilliant theologian was employed in exegesis and polemics against the Arians; after that date it was devoted almost entirely to refuting the Nestorian heresy. The teaching of Nestorius was condemned in 431 by the Council of Ephesus at which Cyril presided, and Mary's title, Mother of God, was solemnly recognized. The incarna­tion is central to Cyril's theology. Only if Christ is consubstantial with the Father and with us can he save us, for the meeting ground between God and ourselves is the flesh of Christ Through our kinship with Christ, the Word made flesh, we become children of God, and share in the filial relation of the Son with the Father.

Sermon of the Mount February 23, 2014 Homily Fr. Aelred

23/02/2014

7th Sunday (A)

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mt. 5:48

Homily; Fr. Aelred

(1)Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew continues with me the Sermon of the Mount. In the centre of the Sermon of the Mount stands the Lord’s Prayer in whose centre again the petition for the coming of the Kingdom

(2) Jesus contemporaries knew that God’s kingly rule is eternal and stretches out over the wide world. Although God’s sovereignty is fully acknowledged only in Israel, the near day is near when God will break into history to manifest Himself as the ruler of all, to free his people from bondage, and to subject all nations to his holy will. The prophets had announced a coming Kingdom of God, but Jesus brought the Kingdom of God

…..

(6)Today’s passage concludes with the command ‘You must be perfect’ just as ‘your heavenly Father ‘is perfect’. The word ‘perfect here does not denote a moral or other perfection which we are not really capable of. Seen in the light of its OT background it means rather ‘whole-hearted in, sincere, undivided. As in Deuteronomy says, ‘You shall be whole-hearted in your service of the Lord your God’. It is related to the ‘pure of heart who shall see God’ of the Beatitudes, denoting consistency as well as total commitment and generosity. It is not an optional ‘counsel’ for those who already keep the commandments, but a must for those who want to enter the kingdom.

THE CHAIR OF SAINT PETER FEAST Saturday, 22 February 2014

THE CHAIR OF SAINT PETER
FEAST

BENEDICT XVI

ARNOLFO_DI_CAMBIO
The_Statue_Of_Saint_Peter

 "On this rock I will build my Church'

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, the Latin-rite liturgy celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St Peter. This is a very ancient tradition, proven to have existed in Rome since the fourth century. On it we give thanks to God for the mission he entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his Successors.

"Cathedra" literally means the established seat of the Bishop, placed in the mother church of a diocese which for this reason is known as a "cathedral"; it is the symbol of the Bishop's authority and in particular, of his "magisterium", that is, the evangelical teaching which, as a successor of the Apostles, he is called to safeguard and to transmit to the Christian Community.

When a Bishop takes possession of the particular Church that has been entrusted to him, wearing his mitre and holding the pastoral staff, he sits on the cathedra. From this seat, as teacher and pastor, he will guide the journey of the faithful in faith, hope and charity.

So what was the "Chair" of St Peter? Chosen by Christ as the "rock" on which to build the Church (cf. Mt 16: 18), he began his ministry in Jerusalem, after the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost. The Church's first "seat" was the Upper Room, and it is likely that a special place was reserved for Simon Peter in that room where Mary, Mother of Jesus, also prayed with the disciples.

Subsequently, the See of Peter was Antioch, a city located on the Oronte River in Syria, today Turkey, which at the time was the third metropolis of the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria in Egypt. Peter was the first Bishop of that city, which was evangelized by Barnabas and Paul, where "the disciples were for the first time called Christians" (Acts 11: 26), and consequently where our name "Christians" came into being. In fact, the Roman Martyrology, prior to the reform of the calendar, also established a specific celebration of the Chair of Peter in Antioch.

From there, Providence led Peter to Rome. Therefore, we have the journey from Jerusalem, the newly born Church, to Antioch, the first centre of the Church formed from pagans and also still united with the Church that came from the Jews. Then Peter went to Rome, the centre of the Empire, the symbol of the "Orbis" - the "Urbs", which expresses "Orbis", the earth, where he ended his race at the service of the Gospel with martyrdom.

So it is that the See of Rome, which had received the greatest of honours, also has the honour that Christ entrusted to Peter of being at the service of all the particular Churches for the edification and unity of the entire People of God.

The See of Rome, after St Peter's travels, thus came to be recognized as the See of the Successor of Peter, and its Bishop's "cathedra" represented the mission entrusted to him by Christ to tend his entire flock.

This is testified by the most ancient Fathers of the Church, such as, for example, St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, but who came from Asia Minor, who in his treatise Adversus Haereses, describes the Church of Rome as the "greatest and most ancient, known by all... founded and established in Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul"; and he added:  "The universal Church, that is, the faithful everywhere, must be in agreement with this Church because of her outstanding superiority" (III, 3, 2-3).

Tertullian, a little later, said for his part:  "How blessed is the Church of Rome, on which the Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood!" (De Praescriptione Hereticorum, 36).
Consequently, the Chair of the Bishop of Rome represents not only his service to the Roman community but also his mission as guide of the entire People of God.

Celebrating the "Chair" of Peter, therefore, as we are doing today, means attributing a strong spiritual significance to it and recognizing it as a privileged sign of the love of God, the eternal Good Shepherd, who wanted to gather his whole Church and lead her on the path of salvation.

Among the numerous testimonies of the Fathers, I would like to quote St Jerome's. It is an extract from one of his letters, addressed to the Bishop of Rome. It is especially interesting precisely because it makes an explicit reference to the "Chair" of Peter, presenting it as a safe harbour of truth and peace.

This is what Jerome wrote:  "I decided to consult the Chair of Peter, where that faith is found exalted by the lips of an Apostle; I now come to ask for nourishment for my soul there, where once I received the garment of Christ. I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into communion with your beatitude, that is, with the Chair of Peter, for this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built" (cf. Le lettere I, 15, 1-2).

(General Audience - Wednesday, 22 February 2006 )

- Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana   http://dailygospel.org/  

St. Peter Damian and Saint Raphael Arnaiz

  

Friday, 21 February 2014

Friday of the Sixth week in Ordinary Time

Saint(s) of the day : St. Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (1007-1072) 

See commentary below or click here

Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron : "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8:34-38.9:1.

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, «Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Commentary of the day : 

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

Spiritual writings 07/04/1938 (trans. Mairin Mitchell) 

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me"

What joy to live in the Cross of Christ! Who could complain of suffering? Only the insensate man who does not adore the Passion of Christ, the Cross of Christ, the Heart of Christ, can in his own griefs, give way to despair... How good it is to live united with the Cross of Christ. 

Christ Jesus... teach me that truth which consists in rejoicing in scorn, injury, degradation; teach me to suffer with that humble, silent joy of the saints; teach me to be gentle towards those who don't love me or who despise me; teach me that truth which from the mound of Calvary you reveal to the whole world. 

But I know: a very gentle voice within me explains it all; I feel something in me which comes from you and which I don't know how to put into words; so much mystery is revealed that man cannot apprehend it. I, Lord, in my way, do understand it. It is love. In that is everything. I know it, Lord, nothing more is needed, nothing more, it is love! Who shall describe the love of Christ? Let men, creatures, and all things, keep silent, so that we may hear in the stillness the whisperings of love, meek, patient, immense, infinite, which from the Cross Jesus offers us with his arms open. The world, mad, doesn't listen.

St. Augustine 'There is another, inner prayer without ceasing. It is the desire which consists in longing.'

Patristic Lectionary.
"longing". 12 occurrences of St. Augustine's passage in this Reading.

 Augustin Press Edition 1999

TWO YEAR LECTIONARY

PATRISTIC VIGILS READINGS

ORDINARY TIME

WEEKS 1 to 17 : YEAR II

WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME, YEAR II

A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF ST PAUL TO THE THESSALONIANS

(A holy life and the hope of resurrection: 1 Thessalonians  5:1-28)

 First Reading

1 Thessalonians 5:1-28

Responsory   1 Thes 5:9; Col 1:13

God has not destined us to endure his wrath but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, t who died for us, so that we might live in him.

V. God rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom 

 

Alternative Reading

From a sermon by Saint Augustine of Hippo (Enarr. il'l Ps. 37, 14: CCL 38, 391-392)

Inner prayer without ceasing

Your desire is your prayer. And if your desire is unending, so is your prayer unending. For it was not without good reason that the apostle spoke: Pray without ceasing. We are hardly expected to go down on our knees without a break, are we, or to prostrate ourselves, or raise our hands? Is this really what he means by saying: Pray without ceasing? If we are saying that this is how we are to pray, I think it is frankly impossible to do so without ceasing.

There is another, inner prayer without ceasing. It is the desire which consists in longing. Whatever else you do, if you long for that sabbath, you never cease praying. H you do not want to cease praying, do not cease longing. Your unending stream of longing is your unending stream of speech. H you cease loving, you will cease speaking. Who are those who have ceased speaking? Those of whom it is said: Because there is an abundance of iniquity, the love of many shall grow cold. The cooling-off of love is the silence of the heart. The leaping flames of love are the shouting of the heart. H love lasts for ever, then you are always shouting. If you are always shouting, you are always longing. If you are longing, then you are recollecting the future rest. And you ought to understand before whom the roaring of your heart takes place.

Consider now what sort of longing it ought to be which is before the eyes of God. Should it really be a longing for the death of our enemy? This is the sort of thing people think they are right to ask for. Indeed sometimes we do pray for the thing we ought not to. Let us have a look at what people think they are entitled to pray for. For they pray for the death of someone, and for an inheritance to come their way. But let even those who pray for their enemies to die listen to the Lord when he says: Pray for your enemies. Let them not, therefore, pray for the death of their enemies, but let them pray for their improvement. Indeed their enemies will in a very real sense be dead, for once they have been corrected, they will no longer be enemies.

And before you is all my longing. What if their longing is before God, and their groaning is not before God? How can this possibly be, when the voice of that longing is groaning? That is why the psalm says: And my groaning is not hidden from you. For you it is not hidden, but it is hidden from many people. Sometimes God's humble servant is seen to be saying: And my groaning is not hidden from you. Sometimes God's servant is seen also to laugh. You could hardly say that the longing for God was dead and buried in his heart, could you? And if there is longing within it, there is also groaning. It does not always filter through to the ears of people like you and me, but it never escapes the attention of God's ears.

Responsory   Ps 103:8-9.13-14

The Lord is merciful and loving, slow to anger and full of compas­sion. He will not always reprove us; his wrath will come to an end.

+ As tenderly as a father treats his children, the Lord treats those who stand in awe of him.

V. He knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust. + As tenderly ...