ORDINARY TIME


Week 7: Tuesday

“You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ” (James 4:3.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Didymus the Blind writes:

“The Savior said: “Ask and you will receive. Everyone who asks will receive.” How can it be then that some people pray but do not get what they ask for? To this it must be answered that if someone comes to prayer in the right way, omitting none of the prerequisites for intercession, he will receive everything he asks for. But if someone appears to be going beyond the permissible bounds laid down for intercession, he will appear to be asking for something in the wrong way and therefore will not obtain it. (Commentary on James.)


Collect
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, always pondering spiritual things,
we may carry out in both word and deed
that which is pleasing to you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






There is a time to be born,
and a time to die

Saint Gregory of Nyssa
(Bishop and Father of the Church)

An excerpt from Homily on Ecclesiastes, Homily 6

Ordinary Time, Week 7: Tuesday


There is a time to be born and a time to die. The fact that there is a natural link between birth and death is expressed very clearly in this text of Scripture. Death invariably follows birth and everyone who is born comes at last to the grave.

There is a time to be born and a time to die. God grant that mine may be a timely birth and a timely death! Of course no one imagines that the Speaker regards as acts of virtue our natural birth and death, in neither of which our own will plays any part. A woman does not give birth because she chooses to do so; neither does anyone die as a result of his own decision. Obviously, there is neither virtue nor vice in anything that lies beyond our control. So we must consider what is meant by a timely birth and a timely death.

It seems to me that the birth referred to here is our salvation, as is suggested by the prophet Isaiah. This reaches its full term and is not stillborn when, having been conceived by the fear of God, the soul’s own birth pangs bring it to the light of day. We are in a sense our own parents, and we give birth to ourselves by our own free choice of what is good. Such a choice becomes possible for us when we have received God into ourselves and have become children of God, children of the Most High. On the other hand, if what the Apostle calls the form of Christ has not been produced in us, we abort ourselves. The man of God must reach maturity.

Now if the meaning of a timely birth is clear, so also is the meaning of a timely death. For Saint Paul every moment was a time to die, as he proclaims in his letters: I swear by the pride I take in you that I face death every day. Elsewhere he says: For your sake we are put to death daily and we felt like men condemned to death. How Paul died daily is perfectly obvious. He never gave himself up to a sinful life but kept his body under constant control. He carried death with him, Christ’s death, wherever he went. He was always being crucified with Christ. It was not his own life he lived; it was Christ who lived in him. This surely was a timely death—a death whose end was true life.

I put to death and I shall give life, God says, teaching us that death to sin and life in the Spirit is his gift, and promising that whatever he puts to death he will restore to life again.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 

 






ORDINARY TIME


Week 7: Monday

“And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.” (James 3:18.)

Saint Bede the Venerable comments on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“Everything we do in this life contains within it the seed of future reward. Paul says the same thing when he writes: “Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.”11 Therefore it is rightly said that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. For the fruit of righteousness is eternal life, which is the reward for good works, so that those who desire peace and implement it sow the earth with the best seed there is, and by their daily actions gain an increase which entitles them to inherit the fruits of life in heaven. The reprobate also reap what they sow, because they will also receive their just reward at the judgment. But that reward will not be the fruits of eternal life, but corruption, because they will reap the eternal punishment due to the corruption in which they passed their lives on earth.” (Concerning the Epistle of Saint James)



Collect
Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that, always pondering spiritual things,
we may carry out in both word and deed
that which is pleasing to you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen



 






Blessing Prayer for our Moms

Loving God,
as a mother gives life and nourishment
to her children,
so you watch over your Church.
Bless these women,
that they may be strengthened
as Christian mothers.
Let the example of their faith
and love shine forth.

Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
may honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.





EASTER SEASON


— The Lord’s Day —


Easter, the Seventh Sunday


Pondering the
Father’s victorious Word:
Jesus

εὐαγγελίζω (euaggelizo)
“to announce the Good News of victory in battle”

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“Holy Father, I pray not only for them,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
(ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν, hina osin teteleiomenoi eis en)
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them.”


θεωρέω (theoreo)
(“to perceive, discover, ponder a deeper meaning”)

‘The Week of Easter’ – the 7 Sundays of Easter – always draw to a close on the Seventh Easter with an excerpt from some part of Jesus’ ‘High Priestly Prayer.’ Each of these Easter Sundays has marked a particular aspect of the new creation of Jesus’ resurrection and the transforming power that Jesus, Who is Resurrection and Life, has unleashed in the universe to make all things new in His Father. As God the Creator rested on the seventh day of Creation, the One Who makes all things new rests on Easter 7 by defining the action of that rest: oneness with His Father. But as far as Jesus is concerned, nothing is ever about Him. As the One Who came to serve and not be served, His life is about drawing us as His disciples into the marvelous life He shares with His Father in the love of the Holy Spirit.

While one may get ‘caught up’ in the “I in You, You in me” sayings throughout the prayer, it is vital to recall what is looming on the horizon: the Cross. At the conclusion of the prayer, Jesus will go out across the Kidron valley to a garden and be arrested. He knew what was coming and yet entered deeply into prayer with His Father for us!



Of the petitions woven through the entire Prayer, similar to that of the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6, Jesus prays, “that they may be brought to perfection as one.” The Greek word τετελειωμένοι (teteleiomenoi) is translated here as “perfection.” The word is well worth examining this Sunday as ‘ideas of perfection’ often get us humans into quite a bit of trouble in the quest for the ever elusive ‘perfection.’ τελειόω (teleioo) is a Greek verb that means ‘to complete in a broad manner.’ In early Greek, τελειόω (teleioo) conveyed a sense ‘to accomplish’ or ‘to finish.’ This use of τελειόω (teleioo) often had a particular task in view that was clearly identified and one engaged in a series of steps or actions to bring a desired ‘end’ to the task. Gradually another ‘sense’ of τελειόω (teleioo) evolved epsecially when applied to human life, notably growth in the ‘life of virtue.’ “Accomplish” and “finish,” associated more often with specific tasks, became ‘being complete for living’ when dealing with aspects of human life.

So how is τελειόω (teleioo) to be understood in the context of Jesus’ prayer in John 17? Minimally, “perfection” is NOT attaining or obtaining something or some level and calling it quits. Minimally, “perfection” is NOT establishing a particular goal, setting a series of outcomes and then objectively assessing it through a properly devised rubric and congratulating oneself on meeting the goal or goals. Minimally, Christian “perfection” IS being given all necessary gifts to live radically the oneness of the Father. This flows directly from what Jesus did and said: “I have given them the glory you gave Me.” The question here is not ‘what’ is glory; rather ‘Who’? Saint Gregory of Nyssa’s words from his Homilies on the Song of Songs are worth pondering:

“In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called. But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.”








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EASTER SEASON


Week 7: Sunday

“Behold, I am coming soon. I bring with me the recompense I will give to each according to his deeds.” (Revelation 22:12.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint Clement of Rome writes:

“What, then, brothers, ought we to do? Should we grow slack in doing good and give up love? May the Lord never permit this to happen at any rate to us! Rather, should we be energetic in doing “every good deed” with earnestness and eagerness. The good laborer accepts the bread he has earned with his head held high; the lazy and negligent workman cannot look his employer in the face. We must, then, be eager to do good; for everything comes from him. For he warns us, “See, the Lord is coming. He is bringing his reward with him, to pay each one according to his work.” He bids us, therefore, to believe on him with all our heart and not to be slack or negligent in “every good deed.” He should be the basis of our boasting and assurance. We should be subject to his will. We should note how the whole throng of his angels stand ready to serve his will. For the Scripture says, “Ten thousand times ten thousand stood by him, and thousands of thousands ministered to him and cried out: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts: all creation is full of his glory.” We too, then, should gather together for worship in concord and mutual trust and earnestly beseech him as it were with one mouth, that we may share in his great and glorious promises. For he says, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and human heart has not conceived what he has prepared for those who patiently wait for him.” (I Clement, 33.)


Reflection on this Sunday’s Gospel.


Collect
Graciously hear our supplications, O Lord,
so that we,
who believe that the Savior of the human race
is with You in Your glory,
may experience, as He promised,
until the end of the world,
His abiding presence among us.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 






And so our Redeemer’s visible presence
has passed into the sacraments


Pope Saint Leo the Great
(Bishop of Rome and Father of the Church)

An excerpt from Sermon 2 on the Ascension

Easter Week 6: Saturday

At Easter, beloved brethren, it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy; our present rejoicing is on account of his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up, in Christ, above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from men’s sight of everything that is rightly felt to command their reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.

For such is the power of great minds, such is the light of truly believing souls, that they put unhesitating faith in what is not seen with the bodily eye; they fix their desires on what is beyond sight. Such fidelity could never be born in our hearts, nor could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation lay only in what was visible.

And so our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments. Our faith is nobler and stronger because sight has been replaced by a doctrine whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high. This faith was increased by the Lord’s ascension and strengthened by the gift of the Spirit; it would remain unshaken by fetters and imprisonment, exile and hunger, fire and ravening beasts, and the most refined tortures ever devised by brutal persecutors. Throughout the world women no less than men, tender girls as well as boys, have given their life’s blood in the struggle for this faith. It is a faith that has driven out devils, healed the sick and raised the dead.

Even the blessed apostles, though they had been strengthened by so many miracles and instructed by so much teaching, took fright at the cruel suffering of the Lord’s passion and could not accept his resurrection without hesitation. Yet they made such progress through his ascension that they now found joy in what had terrified them before. They were able to fix their minds on Christ’s divinity as he sat at the right hand of his Father, since what was presented to their bodily eyes no longer hindered them from turning all their attention to the realization that he had not left his Father when he came down to earth, nor had he abandoned his disciples when he ascended into heaven.

The truth is that the Son of Man was revealed as Son of God in a more perfect and transcendent way once he had entered into his Father’s glory; he now began to be indescribably more present in his divinity to those from whom he was further removed in his humanity. A more mature faith enabled their minds to stretch upward to the Son in his equality with the Father; it no longer needed contact with Christ’s tangible body, in which as man he is inferior to the Father. For while his glorified body retained the same nature, the faith of those who believed in him was now summoned to heights where, as the Father’s equal, the only-begotten Son is reached not by physical handling but by spiritual discernment.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 





SOLEMNITY


Ascension of the Lord

“For Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf.” (Hebrews 9:24.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Reading proclaimed at Mass today:

“If the ancient custom of sacrifices is clear to you, let us see what these things also contain according to the mystical understanding. You heard that there were two sanctuaries: one, as it were, visible and open to the priests; the other, as it were, invisible and inaccessible. With the exception of the high priest alone, the others were outside. I think this first sanctuary can be understood as this church in which we are now placed in the flesh, in which the priests minister “at the altar of the whole burnt offerings” with that fire kindled about which Jesus said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.” And I do not want you to marvel that this sanctuary is open only to the priests. For all who have been anointed with the chrism of the sacred anointing have become priests, just as Peter says to all the church, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.” Therefore you are a priestly race, and because of this you approach the sanctuary. Therefore the priesthood is exercised in this way in the first sanctuary and the offerings are offered. And from this sanctuary the high priest, dressed in the sanctified garments, proceeds and enters into the interior of the veil just as we already pointed out above in citing the words of Paul, “Christ has entered not into a sanctuary made with hands but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Therefore, the place of heaven and the throne itself of God are designated by the figure and the image of the interior sanctuary.” (Homilies on Leviticus, /i>9.)


Collect
Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God,
and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving,
for the Ascension of Christ your Son
is our exaltation,
and, where the Head has gone before in glory,
the Body is called to follow in hope.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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MEMORIAL


Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

“One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.” (Acts 16:14.)

In commenting on these verses from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“Therefore we need God, who can open the heart. (God, however, opens hearts that are willing. For there are also hearts that are crippled, incapable of seeing.) “To give heed to what was said by Paul.” The opening, then, was God’s work, the “give heed,” hers. Therefore it was both God’s doing and Paul’s. “And when she was baptized,” it says, “she sought us, saying, ‘If you have judged me.’” Look, as soon as she is baptized, she receives the apostles with an entreaty more earnest than Abraham’s. And she mentions no other proof but that by which she was saved. She did not say, “if you have judged me a great woman” or “if you have judged me a devout woman.” What does she say? “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord” - if faithful to the Lord, all the more so to you, unless you dispute it. And she did not say “stay with me” but “come to my house and stay,” thus showing the great eagerness with which she was doing this. Truly a faithful woman!” (Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, 35.)



Collect
Almighty, ever-living God,
Who raised up the Bishop Saint Athanasius
as an outstanding champion
of Your Son’s divinity,
mercifully grant, that,
rejoicing in his teaching and protection,
we may never cease to grow
in knowledge and love of you.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen

 




EASTER SEASON


Week 6: Sunday

“Some who had come down from Judea were instructing the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.”” (Acts 15:1.)

Origen of Alexandria (part 2 of Pope Benedict’s reflections on Origen) comments on this verse from the Reading proclaimed at Mass today.:

“Observe what he alleges as a proof of his statement: “Christians at first were few in number and held the same opinions, but when they grew to be a great multitude, they were divided and separated, each wishing to have his own individual party. This was their object from the beginning.” That Christians at first were few in number, in comparison with the multitudes who subsequently became Christian, is no doubt true.

He also says that “all the Christians were of one mind,” not noticing, even in this particular, that from the beginning there were differences of opinion among believers regarding the meaning of the books held to be divine. At all events, while the apostles were still preaching and eyewitnesses of Jesus were still teaching his doctrine, there was no small discussion among the converts from Judaism regarding Gentile believers and whether they ought to observe Jewish customs or reject the burden of clean and unclean meats as not being obligatory on those who had abandoned their ancestral Gentile customs and had become believers in Jesus.” (Against Celsus, 3.)



Collect
Grant, almighty God,
that we may celebrate
with heartfelt devotion these days of joy,
which we keep in honor of the risen Lord,
and that what we relive in remembrance
we may always hold to in what we do.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the
unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.


Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen


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