Saint Gregory the Great 3rd September 2015

Pope Saints, Patristic Reading

Gregory might well be writing the words, 
"The preacher must dip his pen into the blood 
of his heart; then he can also reach 
the ear of his neighbour."
(E. Lev)

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT Saint Gregory the Great (+ 604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

MEDITATION OF THE  3RD, SEPTEMBER

   MAGNIFICAT com appreciated.

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'They followed him"

All of us have been called; all of us have come to the marriage feast of the heavenly King. We believe and confess the mystery of his Incarnation. We partake of the banquet of the divine Word. The King will come in on the coming day of judgement. We know we have been called; we do not know whether we have been chosen.

Each of us must disparage himself in humility in proportion to his ignorance of whether or not he has been chosen. Some start nothing good; some do not persist in the good they have begun. We see one person spending almost his entire life in wickedness, but toward its end his sorrow and strict repentance call him back from it. Another seems to be leading the life of a chosen one, yet it comes about that he turns aside toward its end to wicked error. One makes a good start and a better ending; another plunges into evil actions at an early age, and finishes in the same, always becoming worse. Everyone should be anxious and fearful for himself the more ignorant he is of what is in store for him, because-this must be said often and not forgotten-Many are called, but few are chosen.

The example of the faithful often transforms the hearts of listeners more than a teacher's words.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Through Christ the teacher, 0 Lord,
instruct those you feed with Christ, the living Bread,
that on the feast day of Saint Gregory
they may learn your truth
and express it in works of charity.
Through Christ our Lord .

 

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Tesday, 3 September 2013

Saint Gregory the Great, pope, 3 September 2013

St Gregory the Great
Carlo Saraceni (c. 1580-1620)

iBreviary

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Tuesday of the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

SECOND READING   

From a homily on Ezekiel by Saint Gregory the Great, pope
(Lib. 1, 11, 4-6: CCL 142, 170-172)

For Christ's love I do not spare myself in speaking of him

Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Note that a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight.

How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching.

I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgment of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge. Indeed when I was in the monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many matters.

I am forced to consider the affairs of the Church and of the monasteries. I must weigh the lives and acts of individuals. I am responsible for the concerns of our citizens. I must worry about the invasions of roving bands of barbarians, and beware of the wolves who lie in wait for my flock. I must become an administrator lest the religious go in want. I must put up with certain robbers without losing patience and at times I must deal with them in all charity.

With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel? Moreover, in my position I must often communicate with worldly men. At times I let my tongue run, for if I am always severe in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy.

So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me in spite of my weaknesses a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.

  

Gregory might well be writing the words,
"The preacher must dip his pen into the blood
of his heart; then he can also reach
the ear of his neighbour."
(E. Lev)

   

RESPONSORY

He drew his moral and mystical teaching from the source of holy Scripture;
through him the life-giving streams of the Gospel flowed out to all nations.
– Though he is dead he still speaks to us today.

As a soaring eagle sees all on the earth below,
so he cares for both the great and small with his all-embracing charity.
– Though he is dead he still speaks to us today.

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/  

Every' hair on your head Mt. 10:24-33 Saint Claude de la Colombiere

Saint Claude La Colombierecanonized by John Paul II, May 31, 1992

 

14th Week Ord. Time.Sat 14, July

Matt 10:24-33

Magnificat.com.  SAINT CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIERE

MEDITATION    OF THE     DAY

"Every' hair on your head has been counted"

First make an act of faith in God's Providence. Meditate well on the truth that God's continual care extends not only to all things in general but to each particular thing, and especially to ourselves, our souls and bodies, and everything that concerns us. Nothing escapes his loving watchfulness - our work, our daily needs, our health as well as our infirmities, our life and our death, even the smallest hair on our head which cannot fall without his permission.

After this act of faith, make an act of hope. Excite in yourself a firm trust that God will provide for all you need, will direct and protect you with more than a Father's love and vigilance, and guide you in such a way that, whatever happens, if you submit to him everything will turn out for your happiness and advantage, even the things that may seem quite the opposite.

To these two an act of charity should be added. Show your deep love and attachment for divine providence as a child shows for its mother by taking refuge in her arms. Say how highly you esteem all his intentions, however hidden they may be, in the knowledge that they spring from an infinite wisdom which cannot make a mistake and supreme goodness which can wish only the perfection of his creatures. Determine that this feeling will have a practical result in making you ready to speak out in defence of Providence whenever you hear it denied or criticised ...

Let us then trust ourselves entirely to God and his Providence and leave him complete power to order our lives, turning to him lovingly in every need and await­ing his help without anxiety. Leave everything to him and he will provide us with everything, at the time and in the place and in the manner best suited. He will lead us on our way to that happiness and peace of mind for which we are destined in this life as a foretaste of the everlasting happiness we have been promised.

Saint Claude de la Colombiere (+ 1682) was a French Jesuit priest and the spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.

St. James the Apostle by Benedict XVI 2006

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060621_en.html   

BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Wednesday, 21 June 2006 James, the Greater  Dear Brothers and Sisters, We are continuing the series of portraits of the Apostles chosen directly by Jesus during his earthly life. We have spoken of St Peter and of his brother, Andrew. Today we meet the figure of James. The biblical lists of the Twelve mention two people with this name: James, son of Zebedee, and James, son of Alphaeus (cf. Mk 3: 17,18; Mt 10: 2-3), who are commonly distinguished with the nicknames "James the Greater" and "James the Lesser".   These titles are certainly not intended to measure their holiness, but simply to state the different importance they receive in the writings of the New Testament and, in particular, in the setting of Jesus' earthly life. Today we will focus our attention on the first of these two figures with the same name. The name "James" is the translation of Iakobos, the Graecised form of the name of the famous Patriarch, Jacob. The Apostle of this name was the brother of John and in the above-mentioned lists, comes second, immediately after Peter, as occurs in Mark (3: 17); or in the third place, after Peter and Andrew as in the Gospels of Matthew (10: 2) and Luke (6: 14), while in the Acts he comes after Peter and John (1: 13). This James belongs, together with Peter and John, to the group of the three privileged disciples whom Jesus admitted to important moments in his life.