Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week
in Ordinary Time



“As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak…” (Luke 10:38-39.)

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

“Virtue does not have a single form. In the example of Martha and Mary, there is added the busy devotion of the one and the pious attention of the other to the Word of God, which, if it agrees with faith, is preferred even to the very works, as it is written: “Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” So let us also strive to have what no one can take away from us, so that not careless but diligent hearing may be granted to us. For even the seeds of the heavenly Word itself are likely to be taken away if they are sowed by the wayside. Let the desire for wisdom lead you as it did Mary. It is a greater and more perfect work. Do not let service divert the knowledge of the heavenly Word. Nor is Martha rebuked in her good serving, but Mary is preferred because she has chosen the better part for herself, for Jesus abounds with many blessings and bestows many gifts. And therefore the wiser chooses what she perceives as foremost.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, 7.)



Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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





I wish to forewarn you,
for you are my dearest children



Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Bishop, Apostolic Father of the Church and Martyr

An excerpt from his Letter to the Trallians

Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in the province of Asia, dear to God the Father of Jesus Christ, elect and worthy of God, enjoying peace in body and in the Spirit through the passion of Jesus Christ, who is our hope through our resurrection when we rise to him. In the manner of the apostles, I too send greetings to you with the fullness of grace and extend my every best wish.

Reports of your splendid character have reached me: how you are beyond reproach and ever unshaken in your patient endurance—qualities that you have not acquired but are yours by nature. My informant was your own bishop Polybius, who by the will of God and Jesus Christ visited me here in Smyrna. He so fully entered into my joy at being in chains for Christ that I came to see your whole community embodied in him. Moreover, when I learned from him of your God-given kindliness toward me, I broke out in words of praise for God. It is on him, I discovered, that you pattern your lives.

Your submission to your bishop, who is in the place of Jesus Christ, shows me that you are not living as men usually do but in the manner of Jesus himself, who died for us that you might escape death by belief in his death. Thus one thing is necessary, and you already observe it, that you do nothing without your bishop; indeed, be subject to the clergy as well, seeing in them the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, for if we live in him we shall be found in him.

Deacons, too, who are ministers of the mysteries of Jesus should in all things be pleasing to all men. For they are not mere servants with food and drink, but emissaries of God’s Church; hence they should guard themselves against anything deserving reproach as they would against fire.

Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the bishop as the image of the Father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the college of the apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a church. I am confident that you share my feelings in this matter, for I have had an example of your love in the person of your bishop who is with me now. His whole bearing is a great lesson, and his very gentleness wields a mighty influence.

By God’s grace there are many things I understand, but I keep well within my limitations for fear that boasting should be my undoing. At the moment, then, I must be more apprehensive than ever and pay no attention at all to those who flatter me; their praise is as a scourge. For though I have a fierce desire to suffer martyrdom, I know not whether I am worthy of it. Most people are unaware of my passionate longing, but it assails me with increasing intensity. My present need, then, is for that humility by which the prince of this world is overthrown.

And so I strongly urge you, not I so much as the love of Jesus Christ, to be nourished exclusively on Christian fare, abstaining from the alien food that is heresy. And this you will do if you are neither arrogant nor cut off from God, from Jesus Christ, and from the bishop and the teachings of the apostles. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; but whoever is not is unclean. That is to say, whoever acts apart from the bishop and the clergy and the deacons is not pure in his conscience. In writing this, it is not that I am aware of anything of the sort among you; I only wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children.



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 Twenty-seventh week
in Ordinary Time



“The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’” (Luke 10:35.)

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

“Blessed is that innkeeper who can care for another’s wounds. Blessed is he to whom Jesus says, “Whatever you shall spend over and above, I will repay you.” A good steward is one who also spends over and above. Paul is a good steward, whose sermons and epistles overflow with the knowledge that he received. He followed the moderate command of the Lord with almost immoderate effort of mind and body, so that he raised many from deep sorrow by the stewardship of spiritual exhortation. He was a good keeper of his inn, in which the ass knows his master’s crib and the flocks of lambs are enclosed. He feared that the way would be easy for ravening wolves howling outside the corrals to attack the sheepfolds.” (Exposition on the Gospel of Luke, 7.)



Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give
what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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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Pray especially for the whole body
of the Church



Saint Ambrose of Milan
Bishop and Great Latin Father of the Church

An excerpt from a Treatise on Cain and Abel

Monday of the Twenty-seventh week in Ordinary Time

Offer God a sacrifice of praise and fulfill your vows to the Most High. If you praise God you offer your vow and fulfill the promise you have made. So the Samaritan leper, healed by the Lord’s word of command, gained greater credit than the other nine; he alone returned to Christ, praising God and giving thanks. Jesus said of him: There was no one to come back and thank God except this foreigner. He tells him: Stand up and go on your way, for your faith has made you whole.

The Lord Jesus, in his divine wisdom, taught you about the goodness of the Father, who knows how to give good things, so that you might ask for the things that are good from Goodness itself. He urges you to pray earnestly and frequently, not offering long and wearisome prayers, but praying often, and with perseverance. Lengthy prayers are usually filled with empty words, while neglect of prayer results in indifference to prayer.

Again, Christ urges you, when you ask forgiveness for yourself, to be especially generous to others, so that your actions may commend your prayer. The Apostle, too, teaches you how to pray; you must avoid anger and contentiousness, so that your prayer may be serene and wholesome. He tells you also that every place is a place of prayer, though our Savior says: Go into your room.

But by “room” you must understand, not a room enclosed by walls that imprison your body, but the room that is within you, the room where you hide your thoughts, where you keep your affections. This room of prayer is always with you, wherever you are, and it is always a secret room, where only God can see you.

You are told to pray especially for the people, that is, for the whole body, for all its members, the family of your mother the Church; the badge of membership in this body is love for each other. If you pray only for yourself, you pray for yourself alone. If each one prays for himself, he received less from God’s goodness than the one who prays on behalf of others. But as it is, because each prays for all, all are in fact praying for each one.

To conclude, if you pray only for yourself, you will be praying, as we said, for yourself alone. But if you pray for all, all will pray for you, for you are included in all. In this way there is a great recompense; through the prayers of each individual, the intercession of the whole people is gained for each individual. There is here no pride, but an increase of humility and a richer harvest from prayer.



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

 

 



Conversion continues to reverberate
from the Vineyard



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

“Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will
be taken away from you and
given to a people
that will produce its fruit.”
Matthew 21:43
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel life flows once again from a vineyard. For three weeks now Jesus’ teaching regarding Kingdom Living has been anchored in vineyard living. A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the work involved in transforming arid, rocky and sandy land into a fruitful vineyard. When completed, the vineyard becomes a place “set-apart” or “different” that has its own rhythm of life to help make a bountiful harvest a reality. We also learned a few weeks ago that a vineyard can be instrumental in the local economy as it is a place of employment. That point is underscored this week as we learn the landowner not only planted a vineyard but also dug a winepress and built a tower. In other words, this is no ordinary vineyard: many operations happen within the hedge of this vineyard not the least of which is employment.

As was the practice in Ancient Near East, landowners might have a few vineyards and lease them to trusted employees to manage in his absence, as reported in this Sunday’s parable. Those employed are exactly that: employees, not the landowner. One might make the case that the workers, driven by a horrific attitude of entitlement, lost their identity as employees and attempted to appropriate to themselves that which was not theirs from the start. In the end, they lost more than they could even imagine.


As Jesus addressed this parable to “the chief priests and the elders of the people” He was reviewing salvation history for them. The workers in the vineyard (and image of the Israelites) rejected all who had been sent in the name of God calling them to repentance, conversion and covenant living. In the end, many would reject Jesus Himself. Sadly this parable has had an unfortunate history in Jewish-Christian relationships. Throughout the centuries, a good number of Christians have held that this parable ‘sanctions’ a view that Israel has lost her identity as The Chosen People and a new people, namely Christians, are the successors to The Chosen People. Such a position misses the point that Jesus addressed this to a limited number of people, “the chief priests and the elders of the people.” Yet more than that, when we lapse into divisive thinking, speaking and acting we become blind to our own areas of weakness and sin. It is so easy and comfortable to point out other people’s shortcomings than to admit our own and work on them.

For Jesus’ followers Kingdom living as He defines and lives it is the only permissible life path. Embracing that path demands changes not only on the levels of thinking, speaking and acting but also a changes of attitude, what Sacred Scripture terms a “change of the heart.” The ongoing attitude adjustment, so vital in being numbered as a disciple of Jesus, frees one from taking on a false identity. When our attitude is that of Christ’s (last Sunday’s proclamation from Philippians) we see and accept ourselves for who we are: disciples, people in need of learning. We do not dictate how the Kingdom is lived, that was the problem with the vineyard employees. We do not take what is not ours, as the vineyard employees did. Kingdom living, a living that is different and set-apart requires a humility of heart that at the opening and closing of each day and all time in between we live dependent on every word from The Word and act immediately on The Word’s prompting.




Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads and
to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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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Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time



“Hear another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.” (Matthew 21:33.)

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

“Observe the great care that the owner took with this place and the extraordinary recalcitrance of the people. He himself did the work the tenants should have done. It was he who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it and built a tower. He left little for them to do. All they had to do was take care of what was there and to preserve what was given to them. Nothing was left undone but all accomplished. But they made little effort to be productive, even after they had enjoyed such great blessings from him. For when they had come out of Egypt, he gave a law, and set up a city, and built a temple and prepared an altar. Then he “went into a far country.” He was patient with them. He did not always keep a close account of their sins. The meaning of “going into a far country” is God’s great patience.

He sent his servants, that is, the prophets, “to receive the fruit.” By fruit he referred to their obedience, demonstrated through their works. But even here they exhibited their wickedness. They not only failed to give the fruit, after having enjoyed so much care, thus displaying their laziness, but also were angry with the servants who came. For those who did not repay what they owed should hardly have been indignant or angry. Rather, they should have asked for the householder’s forgiveness. But they not only were indignant; they even bloodied their hands. While deserving punishment, they themselves inflicted punishment. Therefore he sent a second and a third company of servants both to show their wickedness and the love toward humanity of the One who sent them. Why didn’t he immediately send his Son? In order that they might repent and condemn themselves for the things they had done to the others. He hoped they would set aside their anger and reverence him when he came.”(The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 68.)




Collect
Almighty ever-living God,
Who in the abundance of Your kindness
surpass the merits and the desires
of those who entreat You,
pour out Your mercy upon us
to pardon what conscience dreads
and to give what prayer does not dare to ask.
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

 






Let the pastor be discreetly silent
and to the point when he speaks



Saint Gregory the Great
Bishop of Rome and Great Western Father of the Church

An excerpt from his Pastoral Guide

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught. Pastors who lack foresight hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favor of men. As the voice of truth tells us, such leaders are not zealous pastors who protect their flocks, rather they are like mercenaries who flee by taking refuge in silence when the wolf appears.

The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion he complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defense of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.

When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the Lord again says to his unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and thereby lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing.

The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Finally, that is also the reason why the Lord warns us through Isaiah: Cry out and be not still; raise your voice in a trumpet call.

Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously.




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 Our Lady of the Rosary



“Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.” (Luke 10:18.)

Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel Proclamation:

“I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens.” It was not that he was actually in the heavens. He was not in them when he said, “I will place my throne above the stars,” but he fell from his greatness and his dominion. “I was looking at Satan, who fell like lightning from the heavens.” He did not fall from heaven, because lightning does not fall from heaven, since the clouds create it. Why then did he say “from the heavens”? This was because it was as though it was from the heavens, as if lightning which comes suddenly. In one second, Satan fell beneath the victory of the cross. Ordinary people were anointed and sent out by reason of their mission and were highly successful in a second, through miracles of healing those in pain, sickness and evil spirits. It was affirmed that Satan suddenly fell from his dominion, like lightning from the clouds. Just as lightning goes out and does not return to its place, so too did Satan fall and did not again have control over his dominion. “Behold, I am giving you dominion.” (Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron, 10.)



Collect
Pour forth, we beseech You, O Lord,
Your grace into our hearts,
that we, to whom
the Incarnation of Christ Your Son
was made known
by the message of an Angel,
may, through the intercession
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
by His Passion and Cross
be brought to the glory
of His Resurrection.
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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









We should meditate
on the mysteries of salvation



Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Abbot and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from one of his Sermons

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

The child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of the Father on high. Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become flesh, so that even though, as he says: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, it is still true for him to say: “I came forth from God and am here.”

In the beginning was the Word. The spring was gushing forth, yet still within himself. Indeed, the Word was with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light. And the Lord said from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. Yet your thought was locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not know; for who knew the mind of the Lord, or who was his counsellor?

And so the idea of peace came down to do the work of peace: The Word was made flesh and even now dwells among us. It is by faith that he dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our imagination. What concept could man have of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, he was invisible and unthinkable, but now he wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.

But how, you ask, was this done? He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer. He hung on a cross, grew pale in death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose again on the third day, and showed the apostles the wounds of the nails, the signs of victory; and finally in their presence he ascended to the sanctuary of heaven.

How can we not contemplate this story in truth, piety and holiness? Whatever of all this I consider, it is God I am considering; in all this he is my God. I have said it is wise to meditate on these truths, and I have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root; and Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this sweetness to overflow for us.

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 Twenty-sixth Week
in Ordinary Time



“Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me...” (Luke 10:16.)

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

“Consider the great authority he gave the holy apostles, how he declared them praiseworthy, and how he decorated them with the highest honors. “He that hears you,” he says, “hears me, and he that rejects you, rejects me; and he that rejects me, rejects him that sent me.” O what great honor! What incomparable dignities! O what a gift worthy of God! Although men, the children of earth, he clothes them with a godlike glory. He entrusts his words to them that they who resist anything or venture to reject them may be condemned. When they are rejected, he assures them that he suffers this. Then again, he shows that the guilt of this wickedness, as being committed against him, rises up to God the Father. See with the eyes of the mind how vast a height he raises the sin committed by men in rejecting the saints! What a wall he builds around them! How great security he contrives for them! He makes them such as must be feared and in every way plainly provides for their being uninjured.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 63)



> Collect
O God, who in the Heart of your Son,
wounded by our sins,
bestow on us in mercy
the boundless treasures of your love,
grant, we pray,
that, in paying him the homage of our devotion,
we may also offer worthy reparation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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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Rejoice in the Lord always



Saint Ambrose of Milan
Bishop and Great Latin Father of the Church

An excerpt from his treatise, On the letter to the Philippians

Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Dear brethren, God’s love is calling us to the joys of eternal happiness for the salvation of our souls. You have just listened to the reading from the Apostle in which he says: Rejoice in the Lord always. The joys of this world lead to eternal misery, but the joys that are according to the Lord’s will, bring those who persevere in them to joys that are enduring and everlasting. The Apostle therefore says: Again I say: rejoice.

He urges us to find ever increasing joy in God and in keeping his commandments. The more we try in this world to give ourselves completely to God our Lord by obeying his commands, the greater will be our happiness in the life to come, and the greater the glory that will be ours in the presence of God.

Let your moderation be known to all men. That is to say, your holiness of life must be evident, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men. It must give an example of moderation and self-control to all your contemporaries on earth and serve also as a memorial of goodness before God and men.

The Lord is near; have no anxiety. The Lord is always near to all who call upon his help with sincerity, true faith, sure hope, and perfect love. He knows what you need, even before you ask him. He is always ready to come to the aid of all his faithful servants in every need. There is no reason for us to be in a state of great anxiety when evils threaten; we must remember that God is very near us as our protector. The Lord is at hand for those who are troubled in heart, and he will save those who are downcast in spirit. The tribulations of the just are many, and the Lord will rescue them from them all. If we do our best to obey and keep his commandments, he does not delay in giving us what he has promised.

But in every prayer and entreaty let your petitions be made known to God, with thanksgiving. In time of trouble we must not grumble or be downhearted; God forbid! We must rather be patient and cheerful, giving thanks to God always in everything.



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

 





Thursday of the
Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time



“After this the Lord appointed seventy[-two] others whom He sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place He intended to visit...” (Luke 10:1.)

In commenting on this verse from Gospel Proclamation, Eusebius of Caesarea writes:

“The names of the apostles of the Savior are clear to everyone from the Gospels, but no list of the seventy disciples is in circulation anywhere. Some have said, to be sure, that Barnabas was one of them, and the Acts of the Apostles and Paul writing to the Galatians have made special mention of him. They say Sosthenes was of these as well. Together with Paul, he wrote to the Corinthians. Tradition also holds that Matthias, who was listed among the apostles in place of Judas, and Joseph Justus, who was honored with him at the same casting of lots, were considered worthy of the same calling among the seventy. They say that Thaddaeus was also one of them, about whom I shall presently relate a story which has come down to us. On observation, you would find that the disciples of the Savior appear to have been more than the seventy. Paul says that after the resurrection from the dead Cephas saw him first, then the Twelve. After these saw him, he was seen by more than five hundred brothers all at once, some of whom he says had fallen asleep, although the majority were still alive at the time that this account was being composed by him.” (Ecclesiastical History, 1.)



Collect
O God,
Who manifest your almighty power
above all by pardoning and showing mercy,
bestow, we pray,
Your grace abundantly upon us
and make those hastening
to attain Your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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

 


May Christ build you up in faith and in truth



Saint Polycarp of Smyrna
Bishop, Apostolic Church Father and Martyr

An excerpt from his Letter to the Philippians

Thursday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time


I am sure that you are well grounded in the Scriptures and nothing of their message escapes you. I, however, have not been so fortunate. As these same Scriptures put it: Be angry and do not sin and Do not let the sun set on your anger. Blessed is the man who bears this in mind, as I am sure you do.

May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and in truth and in great gentleness. May you never know anger, but be patient, long-suffering, persevering and chaste. May he grant you a place among his saints; and may he give the same to us along with you, as well as to all on earth who put their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his Father who has raised him from the dead.

Keep all the saints in your prayers. Pray, too, for our rulers, for our leaders, and for all those in power, even for those who persecute and hate you, and for those who are enemies of the cross. In this way, your good works will be seen by all men, and you will be perfected in him. Both you and Ignatius have written me to ask whether anyone going to Syria will deliver your letter as well as ours. If the opportunity offers itself, I will do it; if I cannot, I will send a representative.

As you request, we have returned to you the letters Ignatius sent us and as many other letters as we had; they are being enclosed with this letter. You will derive great benefit from them, for they are full of faith and patience, and great edification in all that refers to our Lord. Send us any certain information you may possess about Ignatius and his companions.

I am sending this letter to you by Crescens, whom I commended to you when I was present, and do so again. He has lived blamelessly among us, as I am sure he will among you. When his sister comes to you, she too will come with our commendation.

May you find protection in the Lord Jesus Christ, and may his grace be with all who are yours. 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 Saint Francis of Assisi



“At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike...” (Matthew 11:25.)

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

”Jesus praises and glorifies the Father, who had foreseen the entire trajectory of the Word first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Our Lord here gives thanks to his Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, for his mission in becoming incarnate in the form of a servant. He speaks about the Father’s good pleasure now to hide this mystery about himself from Israel, which might be expected to be wise, and to reveal it to the Gentiles, who were until now without understanding. It is thereby demonstrated that God did not forget to fulfill his purpose, nor did Christ’s coming fail in its appointed end. These things indeed have happened, God knowing them beforehand and having commanded beforehand the repentance of grace. The justice of God’s good pleasure is here passed over in silence, but elsewhere it is clearly displayed. God’s good will is not irrational. People do not fail to attain knowledge and wisdom about it for any reason other than their own deficiencies.” (Fragment 239)



Collect
O God,
by Whose gift Saint Francis
was conformed to Christ in poverty and humility,
grant that, by walking in Francis’ footsteps,
we may follow Your Son,
and, through joyful charity,
come to be united with You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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

 


We must be simple, humble and pure



Saint Francis of Assisi
Religious

An excerpt from his Letter Written to All the Faithful

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi

It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.

Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body.

O how happy and blessed are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord himself said in the gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore him with pure heart and mind. This is his particular desire when he says: True worshippers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore him must do so in the spirit of truth. Let us also direct to him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, who art in heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.

Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do his work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.



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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Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week
in Ordinary Time



“When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem...” (Luke 9:51)

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

“It says, “When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” This means that after he would endure his saving passion for us, the time would come when he should ascend to heaven and dwell with God the Father, so he determined to go to Jerusalem. This is, I think, the meaning of his “set his face.

It would be false to affirm that our Savior did not know what was about to happen, because he knows all things. He knew, of course, that the Samaritans would not receive his messengers. There can be no doubt of this. Why then did he command them to go before him? It was his custom to benefit diligently the holy apostles in every possible way, and because of this, it was his practice sometimes to test them…. On this occasion, he also tested them. He knew that the Samaritans would not receive those who went forward to announce that he would stay with them. He still permitted them to go that this again might be a way of benefiting the holy apostles.

What was the purpose of this occurrence? He was going up to Jerusalem, as the time of his passion was already drawing near. He was about to endure the scorn of the Jews. He was about to be destroyed by the scribes and Pharisees and to suffer those things that they inflicted upon him when they went to accomplish all of violence and wicked boldness. He did not want them to be offended when they saw him suffering. He also wanted them to be patient and not to complain greatly, although people would treat them rudely. He, so to speak, made the Samaritans’ hatred a preparatory exercise in the matter. They had not received the messengers.

For their benefit, he rebuked the disciples and gently restrained the sharpness of their wrath, not permitting them to grumble violently against those who sinned. He rather persuaded them to be patient and to cherish a mind that is unmovable by anything like this.” (Commentary on Luke, Homily 56)



Collect
O God,
Who manifest your almighty power
above all by pardoning and showing mercy,
bestow, we pray,
Your grace abundantly upon us
and make those hastening
to attain Your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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


Top






Jesus has set us a personal example



Saint Polycarp of Smyrna
Bishop, Apostolic Church Father and Martyr

An excerpt from his letter to the Philippians

Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time


Presbyters should be sympathetic and merciful to everyone, bring back those who have wandered, visiting the sick; they must not neglect widows and orphans, or the poor, ever providing for what is good in the sight of God and of men. They should refrain entirely from anger, human respect and prejudice; avarice should be wholly alien to them. Nor should they be rash in believing something said against another, nor too severe in judging others, since they know that we are all debtors through sin.

If, then, we pray to the Lord to forgive us, we must in turn forgive. For we live under the eye of our Lord and God, and we must all stand before the judgment seat of God, each to give an account of himself. Let us then serve God with fear and awe. The Lord’s command is also the command of the apostles who preached the Gospel to us, to say nothing of the prophets who foretold the Lord’s coming. Our observance of what is good should be meticulous, avoiding anything that might cause another to stumble; we must shun false brothers and those who assume the Lord’s name hypocritically and lead the unwary into error.

For anyone who does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is the antichrist. And anyone who refuses to admit the testimony of the cross is of the devil. Whoever perverts the Lord’s words to suit his own desires and denies that there is a resurrection or a judgment is the firstborn of Satan. So let us abandon the folly of the masses and their false teaching, and return to the teaching that was handed down to us from the beginning. We must be alert in prayer, constant in fasting; and in our prayers let us beg God, who sees everything, not to lead us into temptation. As the Lord has said: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

So let us persevere in the pledge of our righteousness and in our hope, that is, in Christ Jesus. In his mouth no hint of guilt was discovered; he committed no sin and yet bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Rather, he endured everything for our sake so that we might live in him. Let us then imitate his constancy; if we should suffer because of his name, let us give him that glory. For this is the personal example he has given us, this is the object of our faith.



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 the The Holy Guardian Angels



“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty...” (Psalm 91, 1.)

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 Mass Psalm:

“When the great David heard and understood this, he [David] said to him “who dwells in the shelter of the most High; He will overshadow you with his shoulders,” which is the same as being behind God (for the shoulder is on the back of the body). Concerning himself David says, “My soul clings close to you, your right hand supports me.” You see how Psalms agree with the history. For as the one says that the right hand is a help to the person who has joined himself close behind God, so the other says that the hand touches the person who waits in the rock on the divine voice and prays that he might follow behind.” (Life of Moses, 250.)



Collect
O God,
Who in Your unfathomable providence
are pleased to send
Your holy Angels to guard us,
hear our supplication as we cry to You,
that we may always be defended
by their protection
and rejoice eternally in their company.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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

 


That they might guard you in all your ways



Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Abbot and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from his Sermo 12 in psalmum Qui habitat

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels

He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. Let them thank the Lord for his mercy; his wonderful works are for the children of men. Let them give thanks and say among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. O Lord, what is man that you have made yourself known to him, or why do you incline your heart to him? And you do incline your heart to him; you show him your care and your concern. Finally, you send your only Son and the grace of your Spirit, and promise him a vision of your countenance. And so, that nothing in heaven should be wanting in your concern for us, you send those blessed spirits to serve us, assigning them as our guardians and our teachers.

He has given his angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. These words should fill you with respect, inspire devotion and instill confidence; respect for the presence of angels, devotion because of their loving service, and confidence because of their protection. And so the angels are here; they are at your side, they are with you, present on your behalf. They are here to protect you and to serve you. But even if it is God who has given them this charge, we must nonetheless be grateful to them for the great love with which they obey and come to help us in our great need.

So let us be devoted and grateful to such great protectors; let us return their love and honor them as much as we can and should. Yet all our love and honor must go to him, for it is from him that they receive all that makes them worthy of our love and respect.

We should then, my brothers, show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father. We are God’s children although it does not seem so, because we are still but small children under guardians and trustees, and for the present little better than slaves.

Even though we are children and have a long, a very long and dangerous way to go, with such protectors what have we to fear? They who keep us in all our ways cannot be overpowered or led astray, much less lead us astray. They are loyal, prudent, powerful. Why then are we afraid? We have only to follow them, stay close to them, and we shall dwell under the protection of God’s heaven.

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

 

 

Is it unfair? No, it is Kingdom living!



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

“Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
"What is your opinion? A man had two sons.
He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
He said in reply, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards changed his mind and went.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, ‘Yes, sir,’ but did not go.
Which of the two did his father's will?”
Matthew 21:28-30
Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time


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

Welcome to the vineyard for another week. Welcome to yet another call “unfair,” this week courtesy of the Prophet Ezekiel. At first blush, one might dismiss this week’s Gospel episode as just a snapshot of a day in the ongoing fickle life of family living and expressive of the parent/child relationship. Yet when we look at this Sunday’s Gospel proclamation within the context of the Matthean Gospel, more is being sounded for living discipleship grounded in Jesus Christ.

Initial responses of the sons are interesting. The first son’s response is typical of a human knee-jerk reaction to any request that involves work. NO! I wonder if the son even ‘heard’ his father’s request. It is unfortunate, but let’s face it. When any of us is asked to do x, y or z our unreflective, uncritical response is “no.” This is what theology terms the “affects (influence) and effects (cause or result) of Original Sin. Life is all about me. This affect and effect ‘programs’ each of us to ‘look out for number one’ as an automatic response often devoid of any thought or depth.


Then there is the second son. One might see in him a bit more craftiness. I suspect that he truly knows that to say “no” to dad’s request would not put him in his father’s best graces. So what does he do? He gives the impression or appearance of being a ‘good son’ but that is exactly where he begins and end, the level of appearance. This too is both an affect and effect of the narcissism and relational disconnect known as Original Sin. The difference here is that there is a bit more calculation, a bit more conniving and certainly a bit more plotting. In other words, this son responds to his father’s request by intimating ‘how can I not do it while still looking good as if I were to do it?’ What a convoluted approach to life! What is the answer?

Back to the first son: what does he eventually or ultimately do? He does his father’s will. He has “changed” and “gone beyond” (Greek, μέτα) his mind (Greek, νοῦς). Jesus hails the first son’s ‘change of mind’ as a proper response to the father’s request. Yet what Jesus ultimately prizes in the first son is that he has ‘gone beyond his mind.’ In the biblical world of the New Testament, to ‘go beyond one’s mind’ is to move into the arena of the heart. The first son, after reflection, is moved from the heart to do what his father requests. “Changing” and “going beyond” (Greek, μέτα) plus “mind” (Greek, νοῦς) equals Jesus’ FIRST commandment: “μετανοεῖτε (metanoeite) be converted (Mark 1:15),” a message that John the Baptist sounds in the Gospel according to Saint Matthew as indispensable to recognize Jesus as Son of God, Savior (see a previous article on metanoia). More importantly, however, Jesus applauds the first son for his eventual decision.

The fact that Jesus applauds the first son for his “change of heart” is not just a comforting reality but also a challenge. Jesus’ approval of the son’s change of heart gives each of us hope knowing that He – Jesus – offers us an opportunity to change. It is imperative to change when we sense – however slightly – the call to change. If we say to ourselves, ‘I will get to it next Monday,’ there is the possibility that the fervor will evaporate by then. Procrastination is truly an enemy in the spiritual life. You and I both know that we have truly known what to do in a particular situation or in answer to a prayer. Yet we have said to ourselves and to the Lord, ‘I will get to that next week.’ Next Monday is too late. Next week is too late. Tomorrow is too late. Now is the time to act.

But what exactly is the necessary action that I must do now? The answer is simple. As I want the Lord of Mercy to offer me an opportunity to “change” and “go beyond my mind,” I MUST offer that same opportunity to people who ‘press my buttons.’ This is the challenge of the first son’s change of heart. We have to admit that there are people in the world who we believe have been created for the sole purpose of making my life uncomfortable and miserable. They are on the road, cutting us off in the construction zone. They are in the express line at the supermarket with an order triple the checkout line’s maximum number of items. We meet them at work. They offer comments just when you think the meeting is over and it will now drag on for another half hour. They are the people who have the name husband, wife, brother, sister, friend – and the list goes on. Jesus’ delight in the first son’s response is a challenge to each of us as his disciple to offer one another the same latitude.




Collect
O God,
Who manifest your almighty power
above all by pardoning and showing mercy,
bestow, we pray,
Your grace abundantly upon us
and make those hastening
to attain Your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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






Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time



“What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’” (Matthew 21:28)

In an ancient work known as the Incomplete Work on Matthew, an anonymous Ancient Christian Writer (ACW) offers the following insight on these verses from today’s Gospel:

“Who is this if not the God who created all people and loves them with a fatherly affection, the God who preferred to be loved as a father rather than feared as a lord, even though he was Lord by nature? On this account, at the beginning of the commandments of the law, he did not say, “You shall fear the Lord with all your heart” but “you shall love the Lord with all your heart.” To elicit love is not characteristic of a lord but of a father.

Of the two sons in this parable, the older one represents the Gentiles, since they come from their father Noah. The younger son represents the Jews, who come from Abraham. “And approaching the first, he said, ‘Son, go and work today in my vineyard.’” “Today” refers to this present age. How did he speak to his sons? He didn’t address them face to face like man, but he spoke to the heart, like God. Man only utters words to the ear, but God supplies understanding to the mind.”

What does it mean to work in the vineyard? To work in the vineyard is to do justice. We noted above that the vineyard is the justice that God has planted generally in the nature of all people but more particularly in the Jewish Scriptures. Each vine in the vineyard represents a different type of justice, and each person, according to his individual virtues, produces either more or fewer vines. I do not know of anyone, however, who is sufficient to work the entire vineyard.

“And he said, ‘I will not.’” How did he say, “I will not”? He said it in his thoughts, for whoever understands the difference between good and evil and abandons the good to follow evil seems to be rebelling against the Lord in his thoughts; for “I will not” is spoken against the faculty of the intellect, which was created by God for himself. No one would ever have been able to sin unless he had first said in his heart “I will not,” as the prophet indicates: “Injustice speaks within him that he might sin.” The pagans, who abandoned God and his justice from the beginning and converted to the worship of idols and to a life of sin, seem to have rebelled in their thoughts, as though they had said, “We will not do the justice which we learned from you.”

“Approaching the other,” Jesus asked the same thing, and he replied, “‘I will go,’ but he did not go.” When the Jewish people, represented here by the younger son, were asked both by Moses and by John the Baptist, as though God were speaking through each of them, they promised that they would do everything the Lord commanded. Afterwards, however, they turned away and lied to God, as the prophet had foretold: “Foreign sons deceived me.”

“Which of these two did the will of the Father? They replied, ‘the first.’” Notice how, as we have already said above, attracted by the truth of the parable, they turned its meaning against themselves when they said that the first son, who represented the pagan Gentiles, had done the will of the father. It is better to do the righteousness of God without promising to do so than it is to promise and then to renege. (Incomplete Work on Matthew, «Homily 40»)



Collect
O God,
Who manifest your almighty power
above all by pardoning and showing mercy,
bestow, we pray,
Your grace abundantly upon us
and make those hastening
to attain Your promises
heirs to the treasures of heaven.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
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





It is by grace that you are saved



Saint Polycarp of Smyrna
Bishop, Apostolic Church Father and Martyr

An excerpt from the Leter to the Philippains

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

From Polycarp and his fellow presbyters to the pilgrim church of God at Philippi: May you have mercy and peace in abundance from Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Savior.

I rejoice with you greatly in the Lord Jesus Christ because you have assumed the pattern of true love and have rightly helped on their way those who were in chains. Such chains are becoming to the faithful; they are the rich crown of the chosen ones of our Lord and God. I am glad, too, that your deep-rooted faith, proclaimed of old, still abides and continues to bear fruit in the life-giving power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, for our sins, did not refuse to go down to death, and God raised him up after destroying the pains of hell. With a glorious joy that no words can express you believe in Christ without seeing him. This is the joy in which many wish to share knowing that it is by grace that you are saved and not by works, for so God has willed through Jesus Christ.

So prepare yourselves for the struggle, serve the Lord in fear and truth. Put aside empty talk and popular errors; your faith must be in him who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him a share in his own glory and a seat at his right hand. To him everything was made subject in heaven and on earth; all things obey him, who will come as judge of the living and the dead. All who refuse to believe must answer to God for the blood of his Son.

He who raised him from the dead will raise us too if we do his will and keep his commandments, loving what he loved, refraining from all wrongdoing, fraud, avarice, malice and slander. We must abstain from false witness, not returning evil for evil, nor curse for curse, nor blow for blow, nor denunciation for denunciation. Always remember the words of the Lord, who taught: Do not judge and you will not be judged; forgive and you will be forgiven; be merciful and you will find mercy; the amount you measure out to others will be the amount measured out to you. Blessed are the poor and those who suffer persecution, for theirs is the kingdom of God.



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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