Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time



“See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you ...” (Genesis 9:9.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s First Reading, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“God’s purpose, therefore, was to eliminate all apprehension from Noah’s thinking and for him to be quite assured that this would not happen again. He said, remember, “Just as I brought on the deluge out of love, so as to put a stop to their wickedness and prevent their going to further extremes, so in this case too it is out of my love that I promise never to do it again, so that you may live free of all dread and in this way see your present life to its close.” Hence he said, “Behold, I make my covenant,” that is, I form an agreement. Just as in human affairs when someone makes a promise he forms an agreement and gives a firm guarantee, so too the good Lord said, “Behold, I make my covenant.” God did not say that this massive disaster might come again to those who sin. Rather he said, “Behold, I make my covenant with you and your offspring after you.” See the Lord’s loving kindness: not only with your generation, he says, do I form my agreement, but also in regard to all those coming after you I give this firm guarantee.”(Homilies on Genesis, 28.)


As the proclamation from Genesis continues at weekday Mass, insights from the distinguished Jewish Scripture scholar, Nahum M. Sarna, can offer an added perspective when reflecting on the living and enduring Word of God. In addition to his scholarly work on Genesis and Exodus, he has penned a most insightful work on the Psalms, opening up the world of the Psalms to anyone who prays the Psalms especially the Liturgy of the Hours.

Nahum M. Sarna
“The destruction of the old world calls for the repopulation of the earth and the remedying of the ills that brought on the Flood. Society must henceforth rest on more secure moral foundations. New norms of human behavior must be instituted. At the same time, the haunting specter of a repetition of the cataclysm must be laid to rest, lest it have a paralyzing effect on human activity and impede all progress. The epilogue to the Flood narrative attends to these considerations. It divides clearly into two complementary parts, logically interconnected. Verses 1–7 deal with the renewal of the world, verses 8–17 with divine assurances. A key phrase frames each part: the first, “Be fertile and increase” (verses 1, 7); the second, “I establish a covenant” (verses 9, 17).” (Nahum M. Sarna,  JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001. 978-0809149285)




Collect
O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling place 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

 





Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours...” (Luke 6:20.)

Saint Ambrose of Milan offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel proclamation:

“Let us see how St. Luke encompassed the eight blessings in the four. We know that there are four cardinal virtues: temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude. One who is poor in spirit is not greedy. One who weeps is not proud but is submissive and tranquil. One who mourns is humble. One who is just does not deny what he knows is given jointly to all for us. One who is merciful gives away his own goods. One who bestows his own goods does not seek another’s, nor does he contrive a trap for his neighbor. These virtues are interwoven and interlinked, so that one who has one may be seen to have several, and a single virtue befits the saints. Where virtue abounds, the reward too abounds. Thus temperance has purity of heart and spirit, justice has compassion, patience has peace, and endurance has gentleness.” (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke, 5.)



Collect
O God,
Who teach us that You abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by Your grace
as to become a dwelling 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.



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





Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time



“He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?” (Genesis 3:10-11.)

Saint Symeon the New Theologian offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“Do you see, dear friend, how patient God is? For when he said, “Adam, where are you?” and when Adam did not at once confess his sin but said, “I heard your voice, O Lord, and realized that I am naked and hid myself,” God was not angered, nor did he immediately turn away. Rather, he gave him the opportunity of a second reply and said, “Who told you that you are naked? Unless you ate of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.”

Consider how profound are the words of God’s wisdom. He says, “Why do you say that you are naked but hide your sin? Do you really think that I see only your body but do not see your heart and your thoughts?” Since Adam was deceived he hoped that God would not know his sin. He said something like this to himself, “If I say that I am naked, God in his ignorance will say, ‘Why are you naked?’ Then I shall have to deny and say, ‘I do not know,’ and so I shall not be caught by him and he will give me back the garment that I had at first. If not, as long as he does not cast me out, he will not exile me!”

While he was thinking these thoughts ... God, unwilling to multiply his guilt, says, “How did you realize that you are naked? Unless you ate of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat.” It is as though he said, “Do you really think that you can hide from me? Do you imagine that I do not know what you have done? Will you not say, ‘I have sinned?’ Say, O scoundrel, ‘Yes, it is true, Master, I have transgressed your command. I have fallen by listening to the woman’s counsel, I am greatly at fault for doing what she said and disobeying your word. Have mercy on me!’” But he does not humble himself, he does not bend. The neck of his heart is like a sinew of iron! For had he said this he might have stayed in paradise. By this one word he might have spared himself that whole cycle of evils without number that he endured by his expulsion and in spending so many centuries in hell.” (Discourses, 5.)



As the proclamation from Genesis continues at weekday Mass, insights from the distinguished Jewish Scripture scholar, Nahum M. Sarna, offer added perspective when reflecting on the living and enduring Word of God. In addition to his scholarly work on Genesis and Exodus, he has penned a most insight work on the Psalms, opening up the world of the Psalms to anyone who prays the Psalms especially the Liturgy of the Hours.

Nahum M. Sarna
“Human beings have arrogated the right to make decisions concerning human welfare independently of God and in defiance of His norms. They have lost their innocence and must assume full responsibility for their actions. Accordingly, God now metes out punishment on each transgressor in turn, in the order of their original appearance on the scene. In each case, the judgment is of a twofold nature: it affects what is of central concern in the life of each entity, and it regulates a basic relationship. The snake is punished in its manner of self-propulsion and in its contacts with human beings; the woman is doomed to suffer in childbearing, and her relationship to her husband is defined; the man is fated to a life of arduous labor, and his interaction with the soil is to be disagreeable.” (Nahum M. Sarna,  JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001. 978-0809149285)



Collect
Keep Your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely
on the hope of heavenly Grace,
they may be defended always by Your protection.
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

 


Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time



“The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verse from today’s First Reading:

“Those who have been tricked into taking poison offset its harmful effect by another drug. The remedy, moreover, just like the poison, has to enter the system, so that its remedial effect may thereby spread through the whole body. Similarly, having tasted the poison, that is the fruit, that dissolved our nature, we were necessarily in need of something to reunite it. Such a remedy had to enter into us, so that it might by its counteraction undo the harm the body had already encountered from the poison. And what is this remedy? Nothing else than the body that proved itself superior to death and became the source of our life.” (Catechetical Oration, 27)



Collect
Keep your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely
on the hope of heavenly grace,
they may be defended always
by your protection.
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

 

 

Recognize the dignity of your nature



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

An excerpt from his Sermon 4

Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Our Lord Jesus Christ, born true man without ever ceasing to be true God, began in his person a new creation and by the manner of his birth gave man a spiritual origin. What mind can grasp this mystery, what tongue can fittingly recount this gift of love? Guilt becomes innocence, old becomes new, strangers are adopted and outsiders are made heirs. Rouse yourself, man, and recognize the dignity of your nature. Remember that you were made in God’s image; though corrupted in Adam, that image has been restored in Christ.

Use creatures as they should be used: the earth, the sea, the sky, the air, the springs and the rivers. Give praise and glory to their Creator for all that you find beautiful and wonderful in them. See with your bodily eyes the light that shines on earth, but embrace with your whole soul and all your affections the true light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. Speaking of this light the prophet said: Draw close to him and let his light shine upon you and your face will not blush with shame. If we are indeed the temple of God and if the Spirit of God lives in us, then what every believer has within himself is greater than what he admires in the skies.

Our words and exhortations are not intended to make you disdain God’s works or think there is anything contrary to your faith in creation, for the good God has himself made all things good. What we do ask is that you use reasonably and with moderation all the marvelous creatures which adorn this work; as the Apostle says: The things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.

For we are born in the present only to be reborn in the future. Our attachment, therefore, should not be to the transitory; instead, we must be intent upon the eternal. Let us think of how divine grace has transformed our earthly natures so that we may contemplate more closely our heavenly hope. We hear the Apostle say: You are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ your life appears, then you will also appear in glory with him, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit 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

 





Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop



“From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice.” (Mark 7:24.)

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

“He withdrew, perhaps because the Pharisees were offended when they heard that “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.” It is probable that he sought to avoid the Pharisees, who were offended at his teaching, while he was waiting for the time of his impending suffering — a time suitably and duly appointed.”

The Gentiles, those who dwell on the borders, can be saved if they believe. Think of it this way: each of us when he sins is living on the borders of Tyre or Sidon or of Pharaoh and Egypt. They are on the borders of those who are outside the inheritance of God. (Commentary on Matthew, 11.)




Collect
O God, who enlightened the Slavic peoples
through the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius,
grant that our hearts may grasp the words of your teaching,
and perfect us as a people of one accord
in true faith and right confession.
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









Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time



“... then the LORD God formed the man* out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7.)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“God made the inner person; He molded the outer. “Molding” is suitable for clay, but “making” is [fitting] for an image. So on the one hand, he “molded” flesh, but on the other, he “made” the soul.

“God took of the dust of the earth and fashioned man.” In this world I have discovered the two affirmations that man is nothing and that man is great. If you consider nature alone, he is nothing and has no value; but if you regard the honor with which he has been treated, man is something great.

Others, on the contrary, marking the order of the making of man as stated by Moses, say that the soul is second to the body in order of time, since God first took dust from the earth and formed man, and then animated the being thus formed by his breath. By this argument they prove that the flesh is more noble than the soul, that which was previously formed [more noble] than that which was afterward infused into it…. Nor again are we in our doctrine to begin by making up man like a clay figure and to say that the soul came into being for the sake of this, for surely in that case the intellectual nature would be shown to be less precious than the clay figure. But as man is one, the being consisting of soul and body, we are to suppose that the beginning of his existence is one, common to both aspects, so that he should not be found to be antecedent and posterior to himself, as if the bodily element were first in point of time and the other were a later addition.” (On the Making of Man)


As the proclamation from Genesis continues at weekday Mass, insights from the distinguished Jewish Scripture scholar, Nahum M. Sarna, can offer an added perspective when reflecting on the living and enduring Word of God. In addition to his scholarly work on Genesis and Exodus, he has penned a most insight work on the Psalms, opening up the world of the Psalms to anyone who prays the Psalms especially the Liturgy of the Hours.

Nahum M. Sarna
“The poetic imagery evoked by the Genesis text is graphically explicit in the Book of Job: “Consider that You fashioned me like clay” (10:9); “You and I are the same before God; / I too was nipped from clay” (33:6). The human body is a “house of clay,” and human beings are described as “those who dwell in houses of clay, / Whose origin is dust” (4:19).

Here in Genesis, the image simultaneously expresses both the glory and the insignificance of man. Man occupies a special place in the hierarchy of Creation and enjoys a unique relationship with God by virtue of his being the work of God’s own hands and being directly animated by God’s own breath. At the same time, he is but dust taken from the earth, mere clay in the hands of the divine Potter, who exercises absolute mastery over His Creation.” (Nahum M. Sarna,  JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001. 978-0809149285)



Collect
Keep Your family safe, O Lord,
with unfailing care,
that, relying solely
on the hope of heavenly grace,
they may be defended always
by Your protection.
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

 


Monday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time — Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes



“Then God said: Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear. And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land “earth,” and the basin of water he called “sea.” God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:9-10.)

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (part 2 of the background of Saint Gregory of Nyssa is found here) offers the following insight on this verses from today’s First Reading:

“As for the question of precisely how any single thing came into existence, we must banish it altogether from our discussion. Even in the case of things which are quite within the grasp of our understanding and of which we have sensible perception, it would be impossible for the speculative reason to grasp the “how” of the production of the phenomenon, so much so that even inspired and saintly men have deemed such questions insoluble. For instance, the apostle says, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen are not made of things which do appear.” Let us, following the example of the apostle, leave the question of the “how” in each created thing without meddling with it at all but merely observing incidentally that the movement of God’s will becomes at any moment that he pleases a fact, and the intention becomes at once realized in nature.” (On the Soul and the Resurrection)


As Genesis is proclaimed at weekday Mass for the next 3 weeks, insights from the distinguished Jewish Scripture scholar, Nahum M. Sarna, can offer an added perspective when reflecting on the living and enduring Word of God. In addition to his scholarly work on Genesis and Exodus, he has penned a most insight work on the Psalms, opening up the world of the Psalms to anyone who prays the Psalms especially the Liturgy of the Hours.

Nahum M. Sarna
“Unlike the pagan cosmologies, Genesis exhibits no interest in the question of God’s origins. His existence prior to the world is taken as axiomatic and does not even require assertion, let alone proof. There is no definition of God or any mystical speculation about His nature. God’s nature finds expression not in philosophical abstractions but through His acts and through the demands He makes on human beings. The term for God used here and throughout the present account of Creation is ʾelohim. This is not a personal name but the general Hebrew word for deity ... The preference for the use of ʾelohim in this chapter, rather than the sacred divine name YHVH, may well be conditioned by theological considerations; the term ʾelohim, connoting universalism and abstraction, is most appropriate for the transcendent God of Creation.” (Nahum M. Sarna,  JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001. 978-0809149285)



Collect
Grant us, O merciful God,
protection in our weakness, that we, who keep
the memorial of the Immaculate Mother of God,
may, with the help of her intercession,
rise up from our iniquities.
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

 


The apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes



Saint Bernadette Soubirous

An excerpt from one her letters

Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes

I had gone down one day with two other girls to the bank of the river Gave when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river but the trees seemed quite still and the noise was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads.

At this I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things, and I put my hands into the fold of my dress where my rosary was. I wanted to make the sign of the cross but for the life of me I couldn’t manage it and my hand just fell down. Then the lady made the sign of the cross herself and at the second attempt I managed to do the same, though my hands were trembling. Then I began to say the rosary while the lady let her beads slip through her fingers, without moving her lips. When I stopped saying the Hail Mary, she immediately vanished.

I asked my two companions if they had noticed anything, but they said no. Of course they wanted to know what I was doing and I told them that I had seen a lady wearing a nice white dress, though I didn’t know who she was. I told them not to say anything about it, and they said I was silly to have anything to do with it. I said they were wrong and I came back next Sunday, feeling myself drawn to the place.

The third time I went the lady spoke to me and asked me to come every day for fifteen days. I said I would and then she said that she wanted me to tell the priests to build a chapel there. She also told me to drink from the stream. I went to the Gave, the only stream I could see. Then she made me realize she was not speaking of the Gave and she indicated a little trickle of water close by. When I got to it I could only find a few drops, mostly mud. I cupped my hands to catch some liquid without success and then I started to scrape the ground. I managed to find a few drops of water but only at the fourth attempt was there a sufficient amount for any kind of drink. The lady then vanished and I went back home.

I went back each day for two weeks and each time, except one Monday and one Friday, the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it and to see that the priests build a chapel there. I must also pray, she said, for the conversion of sinners. I asked her many times what she meant by that, but she only smiled. Finally with outstretched arms and eyes looking up to heaven she told me she was the Immaculate Conception.

During the two weeks she told me three secrets but I was not to speak about them to anyone and so far I have not.



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

 






Set apart to belong to the host

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

“They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy (קָדֹשׁ, qadosh)
is the LORD of hosts (צָבָא tsabaʾ)!
All the earth is filled with his glory (כָּבוֹד kabowd)!”
At the sound of that cry,
the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.”


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

Actions, words, images and thoughts abound when it comes to a discussion of holiness. What exactly is holiness? Many will certainly acknowledge that it is an important element of Christian living. Yet nailing down a meaning that assists the human living of holiness in an authentic way is a bit harder. Christian history is filled with episodes of movements seeking holiness that actually do more harm than good. While we may not welcome a burning ember touched to our lips, Isaiah’s recollection of his call to prophetic ministry is significant in getting on the proper track of holiness.


When the sight of “the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne” unfolds before Isaiah, he cries out in a way similar to praise: holy, holy, holy. For Isaiah, the ‘thrice holy’ (trisagion in Greek and in various Eastern Rite Liturgies) is essentially a proclamation of Who God is and thus who Isaiah is not. “Holy,” as used here in the Isaian Text, translates the Hebrew word קָדֹשׁ (qadosh). Early in the history of the word’s usage, qadosh expressed ‘difference.’ It did not speak fundamentally about moral qualities or goodness in general; aspects of the word we now tend to view synonymously with ‘holiness.’ In Hebrew usage, “difference” gradually expressed cultic and covenant realities. Thus in time, qadosh came to refer to ‘anyone or anything set apart for a particular purpose’ and for Israel ‘a particular purpose’ involved living the covenant and one’s God-given mission.

In Isaiah’s experience of being called, he knows (sees) how different he is from God. God is the LORD of hosts (צָבָא tsabaʾ). tsaba’ is part of a vocabulary of Hebrew military words. In Isaiah’s day, not only did tsaba’ refer to a large group fit for military service, tsaba’ expressed the order, obedience and loyalty that all in the group had to the leader. The mighty power of ‘the hosts’ came not strictly from its massive quantity of individuals, although that certainly helped, but rather from the cohesiveness or the oneness the mass of individuals formed. Gradually tsaba’ included not only the uncountable number of angels ready to battle anyone or anything contrary to the Lord’s covenant or mission but also all of the stars of the nighttime sky. For Isaiah and other prophets, even these ‘heavenly bodies’ obeyed the ‘Creator of the stars of night’ and sang His praises.

Qadosh and tsaba’ – courtesy of Isaiah and the Lord’s call to him – provide sound elements to respond to the Creator’s effective Word summoning all to a life of holiness. The Lord first and foremost initiates holiness. That is our only starting point for a life of holiness. No amount of work or effort, no technique, no amount of spiritual reading, no amount of ‘saying prayers,’ etc … will ever effect (cause) one to be holy. The grace of holiness is pure gift that cannot be earned, only received graciously. As a gift graciously received, holiness is being or existing not primarily doing (although there will be some ‘doing’ in its proper sequence and time). Like Isaiah, holiness is seeing (knowing) the otherness of God and knowing (seeing) that I [and others!] have been called into that relationship. It is then from that perspective of being-in-relationship that any ‘doing’ is done. Thus the disciplines of holy living – prayer, fasting, almsgiving – are all done, not to earn, but to respond to the One Who has been seen (known). This response then ‘sets one apart for mission and praise’ since holiness is never a God-and-me affair. Mission and praise can be confidently done knowing (seeing) the ‘army of one’ is at our sides continuously ‘lest you dash your foot against the stone.’”







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