Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

“Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?” (Matthew 13:55.)

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

”And perhaps these things indicated a new doubt concerning him, that Jesus was not a man but something more divine. Yet he was thought to be the son of Joseph and Mary and the brother of four and of the others and the women as well. Yet they saw nothing in any of his relatives that would have given a clue to these gifts. They observed nothing from his education and teaching that would come to such elevated wisdom and power. For they also say elsewhere, “How does this man know letters, having never learned?” which is similar to what is said here. Yet, though they say these things and are so perplexed and astonished, they did not believe but were offended by him. It is as if the eyes of their mind had been mastered by the powers that, in the time of the passion, he was about to lead in triumph on the cross.” (Commentary on Matthew, 10)

Collect

O God,
protector of those who hope in you,
without whom nothing has firm foundation,
nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance your mercy upon us
and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things
that pass in such a way
as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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

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We must bear with everything for God, so that he in turn may bear with us

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Bishop, Apostolic Father of the Church and Martyr

An excerpt from his Letter to Polycarp

Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to Polycarp, who is bishop of the Church of Smyrna, or rather who has for his bishop God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, greetings and all good wishes.

Recognizing your devotion to God, firmly built as if upon a solid rock, I am full of thanksgiving to him for allowing me to see your blessed countenance—may I ever enjoy the sight of it in God! I beseech you by the grace with which you are endowed to press forward on your course and to exhort all men to salvation. Justify your episcopal dignity by your unceasing concern for the spiritual and temporal welfare of your flock; let unity, the greatest of all goods, be your preoccupation. Carry the burdens of all men as the Lord carries yours; have patience with all in charity, as indeed you do. Give yourself to prayer continually, ask for wisdom greater than you now have, keep alert with an unflagging spirit. Speak to each man individually, following God’s example; bear the infirmities of all, like a perfect athlete of God. The greater the toil, the richer the reward.

If you love only your good disciples, you gain no merit; rather you must win over the more troublesome of them by kindness. The same salve does not heal all wounds; convulsions should be allayed with poultices. Be prudent as the serpent in all things, and innocent as the dove always. You are both body and soul; treat gently the manifestations of human fault, even as you pray for the knowledge of things invisible, and then you will lack nothing but abound in every blessing. Do as the circumstances require, like the pilot looking to the wind and the storm-tossed sailor to the harbor, that you may win your way to God with your people. Exercise self-discipline, for you are God’s athlete; the prize is immortality and eternal life, as you know full well. In everything I am your devoted friend—I and my chains, which you have kissed.

Do not be overwhelmed by those who seem trustworthy and yet teach heresy. Remain firm, like the anvil under the hammer. The good athlete must take punishment in order to win. And above all we must bear with everything for God, so that he in turn may bear with us. Increase your zeal. Read the signs of the times. Look for him who is outside time, the eternal one, the unseen, who became visible for us; he cannot be touched and cannot suffer, yet he became subject to suffering and endured so much for our sake.

Do not neglect widows; after the Lord, it is you who must be their guardian. Nothing must be done without your approval, and you must do nothing without God’s approval, as indeed is the case; stand firm. Services should be held often; seek out everyone by name. Do not look down upon slaves, whether men or women; yet they too should not be arrogant, but should give better service for the glory of God so as to gain from him a better freedom. They should not be anxious for their freedom to be bought at the community’s expense, for they might then prove to be the slaves of their own desires.

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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Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit...” (Luke 6:43.)

Saint Cyril of Alexandria comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“See again, Christ commands that those who come to us must be distinguished not by their clothing but by what they really are. “By its fruit,” he says, “the tree is known.” It is ignorance and folly for us to expect to find the choicer kinds of fruits on thorns, grapes for instance, and figs. So it is ridiculous for us to imagine that we can find in hypocrites and the profane anything that is admirable, such as the nobleness of virtue.

This is also made clear by another declaration of our Lord. “The good man,” he says, “as out of a good treasure, pours forth from the heart, good things.” One who is differently disposed, and whose mind is the prey of fraud and wickedness, necessarily brings forth what is concealed deep within. The things that are in the mind and heart boil over and are vomited forth by the stream of speech that flows out of it. The virtuous person therefore speaks such things as become his character, while one who is worthless and wicked vomits forth his secret impurity.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 33)

Collect

O God,
Who made the Bishop Saint Peter Chrysologus
an outstanding preacher of Your Incarnate Word,
grant, through his intercession,
that we may constantly ponder in our hearts
the mysteries of Your salvation and
faithfully express them 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

The sacrament of Christ’s incarnation

Saint Peter Chrysologus

Bishop

An excerpt from Sermon 148

Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

A virgin conceived, bore a son, and yet remained a virgin. This is no common occurrence, but a sign; no reason here, but God’s power, for he is the cause, and not nature. It is a special event, not shared by others; it is divine, not human. Christ’s birth was not necessity, but an expression of omnipotence, a sacrament of piety for the redemption of men. He who made man without generation from pure clay made man again and was born from a pure body. The hand that assumed clay to make our flesh deigned to assume a body for our salvation. That the Creator is in his creature and God is in the flesh brings dignity to man without dishonor to him who made him.

Why then, man, are you so worthless in your own eyes and yet so precious to God? Why render yourself such dishonor when you are honored by him? Why do you ask how you were created and do not seek to know why you were made? Was not this entire visible universe made for your dwelling? It was for you that the light dispelled the overshadowing gloom; for your sake was the night regulated and the day measured, and for you were the heavens embellished with the varying brilliance of the sun, the moon and the stars. The earth was adorned with flowers, groves and fruit; and the constant marvellous variety of lovely living things was created in the air, the fields, and the seas for you, lest sad solitude destroy the joy of God’s new creation. And the Creator still works to devise things that can add to your glory. He has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth; he has made you his legate, so that the vast empire of the world might have the Lord’s representative. Then in his mercy God assumed what he made in you; he wanted now to be truly manifest in man, just as he had wished to be revealed in man as in an image. Now he would be in reality what he had submitted to be in symbol.

And so Christ is born that by his birth he might restore our nature. He became a child, was fed, and grew that he might inaugurate the one perfect age to remain for ever as he had created it. He supports man that man might no longer fall. And the creature he had formed of earth he now makes heavenly; and what he had endowed with a human soul he now vivifies to become a heavenly spirit. In this way he fully raised man to God, and left in him neither sin, nor death, nor travail, nor pain, nor anything earthly, with the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, for all the ages of eternity. 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

 

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Prayer‘s Incomprehensibility made Comprehensible in Jesus

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

Jesus was praying in a certain place,
and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:1-4).”

(Luke 11:1-4.)

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

“Matters which are so immense and so beyond humanity, so surpassing and exceeding our perishable nature that they are impossible for those of a rational and mortal class to comprehend, have, in the vast and immeasurable grace which is poured from God toward humanity, become, by the will of God, comprehensible through Jesus Christ, the minister of boundless grace to us, and through the collaborating Spirit.” This is how Origen of Alexandria – also known as Origen Adamantius (hard as in a diamond or steel), thus the original ‘man of steel’ – begins his treatise On Prayer (third century) that involves a constant reference to and commentary upon The Lord’s Prayer.

Rembrandt’s Face of Jesus

Known for his prayerful and insightful commentaries on Sacred Scripture, Origen most probably would have composed this translation of the sacred prayer as the basis for his work:

“Father, let your name be hallowed,
let your Kingdom come.
Give us our supersubstantial (or superessential) bread daily.
And release us from our sins, as we ourselves release all indebted to us.
And do not bring us into testing.”

As Origen begins his commentary on The Lord’s Prayer, he is intrigued by the question posed by one of the disciples: “teach us to pray as John taught his disciples.” Jesus’ disciple would certainly know about prayer from the Synagogue experience. Psalms as well as the ritual prayers chanted on various festivals together with domestic feasts such as Passover gave Jewish people of Jesus’ day familiarity with prayer. The disciple then who asks about being schooled in Jesus’ way of prayer recognizes that there is something different about the way Jesus Himself prays. Origen notes: “Since the discussion of prayer is such a task that the illumination of the Father is needed, as well as the teaching of the firstborn Word and the inner working of the Spirit, so that it is possible to think and to speak worthily on such a topic, as a man (for of myself I do not claim capacity for prayer) I am entreating the Spirit before I begin to discuss prayer, so that a discourse which is full and spiritual might be granted to us, and that the prayers which are recorded in the Gospels may be clarified.” For Origen, a fundamental difference that marks the uniqueness of The Lord’s Prayer is its grounding in the life of the Divine Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This Prayer is about communion flowing from a graced relationship providing the one who prays all that is needed for the relationship.

The Evangelist Luke’s recording of this ‘short prayer’ with its powerful imperative petitions does offer much for Christian living. We can begin to be schooled in the ways of prayer by voicing these words of Jesus slowly, giving time to reflect on the words we are using. The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers an in-depth commentary on The Lord’s Prayer as well. We call upon the Holy Spirit this day, for ‘we know not how to pray’ and ask for the grace to pray as Jesus did and be drawn into the depths of the Father’s love.

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

“... and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” (Luke 11:4.)

Tertullian of Carthage comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed at Mass today:

“To complete the prayer which was so well arranged, Christ added that we should pray not only that our sins be forgiven but also that we should completely shun them. “Lead us not into temptation,” that is, do not allow us to be led by the tempter. God forbid that our Lord should seem to be the tempter, as if he were not aware of one’s faith or were eager to upset it! That weakness and spitefulness belongs to the devil. Even in the case of Abraham, God ordered the sacrifice of his son not to tempt his faith but to prove it. He did this to set an example for his commandment that he was later to teach that no one should hold his loved ones dearer than God. Christ himself was tempted by the devil and pointed out the subtle director of the temptation. He confirms this passage by his words to his apostles later when he says, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” They were tempted to desert their Lord because they had indulged in sleep instead of prayer. The phrase that balances and interprets “lead us not into temptation” is “but deliver us from evil.” (On Prayer, 8.)

Collect

O God,
protector of those who hope in You,
without Whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance Your mercy upon us
and grant that, with You as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.
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

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Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

“He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field...” (Matthew 13:24.)

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

“Consider now, if in addition to what we have already recounted, you can otherwise take the good seed to be the children of the Kingdom, because whatever good things are sown in the human soul, these are the offspring of the Kingdom of God. They have been sown by God the Word who was in the beginning with God. Wholesome words about anything are children of the Kingdom.” (Commentary on Matthew, 10.)

Collect

Show favor, O Lord, to Your servants
and mercifully increase the gifts of Your grace,
that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity,
they may be ever watchful
in keeping Your commands.
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

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Our heart is enlarged

Saint John Chrysostom

Bishop and Great Eastern Father of the Church

An excerpt from Homily on II Corinthians

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Our heart is enlarged. For as heat makes things expand, so it is the work of love to expand the heart, for its power is to heat and make fervent. It is this that opened Paul’s lips and enlarged his heart. For I do not love only in words; he means, but my loving heart too is in unison with my words; and so I speak with confidence, without restraint or reserve. There was nothing more capacious than the heart of Paul, for he loved all the faithful with as intimate a love as any lover could have for a loved one, his love not being divided and lessened but remaining whole and entire for each of them. And what marvel is it that his love for the faithful was such, since his heart embraced the unbelievers, too, throughout the whole world?

So he did not just say, “I love you,” but with greater emphasis: Our mouth is open, our heart is enlarged; we hold you all in it, and not only that, but with room for you to move freely. For those who are loved enter fearlessly into the heart of their lover. And therefore he says: You are not constrained because of us, but you are constrained in your own affections. See how this reproach is tempered with much forbearance, as is the way with those who love much. For he did not say: You do not love me, but you do not love me in the same measure; for he did not want to charge them more harshly.

Indeed one may see with what a wonderful love for the faithful he is always inflamed, as one finds proof of it in all his writings. To the Romans he says: I desire to see you, and I have often planned to come to you, and if by any means at last I may succeed in reaching you. To the Galatians he says: My little children, with whom I am again in labor; to the Ephesians: For this reason I bend my knees on your behalf; and to the Thessalonians: What is my hope and my crown of glory? Is it not yourselves? For he used to say that he carried them about in his heart and in his chains.

Again he writes to the Colossians: I want you to know how greatly I strive for you and for all who have not seen my face; and to the Thessalonians: Like a nurse taking care of her children, being desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the Gospel but also our own selves. So too he says: You are not restricted by us. And so Paul does not merely say that he loves them but also that they love him, so that in this way he may draw them to him. Indeed, to the Corinthians he bears witness of this love when he says: Titus came, telling us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me.

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 of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

“Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says: ‘You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see...” (Matthew 13:14.)

In commenting on this verse from today’s Gospel Proclamation, Saint John Chrysostom writes:

“After this, lest any one should suppose his words to be a mere accusation and lest people should say, “Being our enemy he is bringing these charges and calumnies against us,” Jesus introduces the prophet Isaiah. The prophet pronounced the same judgment as Jesus himself: “With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.’” So it is the prophet himself who accuses them with the same precise point. He did not say “You see not” but “You shall indeed see but never perceive.” He did not say “You do not hear” but “You shall indeed hear but never understand.” So they first inflicted the loss on themselves, by stopping their ears, by closing their eyes, by making their heart fat. For they not only failed to hear but also “heard heavily,” and they did this, he said, “lest they should turn for me to heal them.” Thus he described their aggravated wickedness and their determined defection from him. But he said this to draw them closer to him, and to provoke them and to signify that if they would convert he would heal them. It is much as if one should say, “He would not look at me, and I thank him; for if he had given me even a glance, I would straightway have given in.” He spoke in this way to signify how he would wish to have been reconciled. He implied that both their conversion was possible and that upon their repentance they might be saved. It was not for his own glory alone, but for their salvation, that he was doing all things.

For if it had not been his will that they should hear and be saved, he would have remained silent and would not have spoken in parables. But now in this very manner he stirs them up, even by speaking under a veil. “For God does not will the death of the sinner but that he should turn to him and live.” (Homily 45)

Collect

O Lord, God of our Fathers,
Who bestowed on
Saints Joachim and Anne this grace,
that of them should be born
the Mother of Your Incarnate Son,
grant, through the prayers of both,
that we may attain the salvation
you have promised to your people.
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

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By their fruits you will know them

Saint John Damascene

Priest and Father of the Church

An excerpt from his work, On the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Anne was to be the mother of the Virgin Mother of God, and hence nature did not dare to anticipate the flowering of grace. Thus nature remained sterile, until grace produced its fruit. For she who was to be born had to be a first-born daughter, since she would be the mother of the first-born of all creation, in whom all things are held together.

Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.

And so rejoice, Anne, that you were sterile and have not borne children; break forth into shouts, you who have not given birth. Rejoice, Joachim, because from your daughter a child is born for us, a son is given us, whose name is Messenger of great counsel and universal salvation, mighty God. For this child is God.

Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: By their fruits you will know them. The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a virgin before, during and after giving birth. She alone for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in body.

Joachim and Anne, how chaste a couple! While safeguarding the chastity prescribed by the law of nature, you achieved with God’s help something which transcends nature in giving the world the Virgin Mother of God as your daughter. While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the angels, whose queen she now is. Girl of utter beauty and delight, daughter of Adam and mother of God, blessed the loins and blessed the womb from which you come! Blessed the arms that carried you, and blessed your parents’ lips, which you were allowed to cover with chaste kisses, ever maintaining your virginity. Rejoice in God, all the earth. Sing, exult and sing hymns. Raise your voice, raise it and not be afraid.

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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