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| Cuthbert Hedley O.S.B. |
CHRISTMAS SEASON
27 DECEMBER
First Reading
27 DECEMBER
JOHN, APOSTLE AND
EVANGELIST
1 John 1:1 - 2:3
Year I Feast
Responsory
See 1 In 2:4;20:31
We proclaim to you the etemal life that was with the Father
and was made visible to us. + We are writing this that you may rejoice and that
your joy may be complete.
V. These things have been written that you may believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name. + We
are writing ...
Second Reading From a sermon by Bishop John
Cuthbert Hedley (The Light of Life, 376, 380-383)
John, the instrument of the Holy Spirit
Saint John's picture of Jesus is, first of all,
of one who desires, and takes the means, to be a familiar friend. The Word made
flesh not only seeks people out and deals with them personally, but seems to
interest himself in all the concerns that can be called human. He turns the water
into wine to befriend a poor bridegroom. He cannot think of the men and women
around him without seeing them as a harvest, white for the sickle of his apostolate.
He loves Lazarus, John, Mary, Martha; he weeps at the grave of his friend, he is
troubled at the treachery of Judas; he prays for his apostles, and for the
flock of every age and country. He prophesies, with the vision of Calvary
before his eyes, that he will draw all things to himself. Let us notice, again,
how he rejoices at the good things which his holy coming, his precious blood, are
to bring to his people. He announces that he is to give them life, light,
holiness, and the Holy Spirit. His words are burning; his zeal is infectious; those
who come near him feel that a new era, a new dispensation, is about to dawn.
It is in Saint John that we hear chiefly of
the "life" that the Son of God is to bring; that we read of the new baptism;
the new birth; the taking away of sin; the banishing of the darkness; the Eucharistic
gift, life and antidote of the spirit. It is in Saint John's Revela tion
that we read of God's servants overcoming spiritual fear, wearing white robes on
earth, becoming as refined gold, living on a hidden manna of paradise, holding
white counters on which are written new names that no one knew. And these things
appear in the writings of this beloved disciple, not as lessons or homilies,
not as the proverbs of a sage or the didactics of a Solomon; but as the record of
the earthly career of the God-man. He has taken upon himself human nature: and his
human nature is not dead and silent, like a painted face upon the canvas; it lives,
moves, acts with a warm and abundant life, in a long and varied career, from the
manger to the cross, and even to the ascension. And everyone of its recorded manifestations
is a manifestation of the inmost mind and heart -let the expression be pardoned
- of the everlasting and eternal God. And to John the Evangelist it has been given
above all other men to write these things down, and to leave them, for you and
for me.
The best panegyric of Saint John is that he
was the instrument of the Holy Spirit in thus enforcing on the Christian generations this true knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom he had sent. That which he
heard, that which he saw with his eyes, that which he looked upon and touched -
that he has declared to the Church. No - not only that; but also that he whom his
senses thus took note of was the "Word of life, 11 the Word
which was to reveal to men and women who and what their God was.
Responsory
Blessed be the apostle to whom heavenly
secrets were revealed t as he reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper.
V. He drank from the streams of the living
water flowing from the heart of the Lord t as he reclined ...
++++++++++++++++++++++
John Hedley (bishop)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
John Cuthbert Hedley (15
April 1837 – 11 November 1915) was a British Benedictine and
writer who held high offices in the Roman Catholic
Church.[1]
Born in Morpeth, Northumberland, he was educated
at Ampleforth College.[2] He
was professeda member of the Order of Saint Benedict in 1855 and ordained a priest of the order on 9 October
1862. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Newport and Menevia and Titular Bishop of Caesaropolis on
22 July 1873. His consecration to the Episcopate took
place on 29 September 1873, the principal consecrator was
Archbishop (later Cardinal) Henry Edward Manning of Westminster, with
bishops Brown and Chadwick as co-consecrators. Hedley
acted as editor of the Dublin Review, before
appointed the Bishop of the Diocese of Newport and Menevia on
18 February 1881. His episcopal title was changed to Bishop of Newport in 1895.[1]
He published a number of works:
The Christian Inheritance: Set Forth in Sermons
Lex Levitarum: Or, Preparation for the cure of
souls
Lex Levitarum with the Regula Pastoralis
The Light of Life: Set Forth in Sermons
Our Divine Saviour and other Discourses
A Retreat 33 Discourses with meditation for the Use
of the Clergy, Religious, and Others
Bishop Hedley died in office on 11 November 1915,
aged 78.[1] After
his death, the see of Newport was elevated to an archdiocese and
changed its name to Cardiff in 1916.
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