Monday, December 7th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 5,17-26.
Monday of the Second week of Advent
7 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
They went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher
through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5,17-26.
One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing.
And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set (him) in his presence.
But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus.
When he saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.”
Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?”
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–he said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.
Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Fr. Dan Donovan
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Monday of the First week of Advent, December 7 2020
St. Ambrose
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Monday of the Second week of Advent
7 December 2020
Commentary of the day
“We have seen incredible things today.”
The Word of God has come to dwell in man; he became “Son of man” in order to accustom man to receive God and God to dwell in man, as it has pleased the Father. See now why the sign of our salvation, Emmanuel born of a Virgin, has been given by the Savior himself (Is 7:14). Indeed, it is the Savior himself who saves men since of themselves they cannot save themselves. (…) The prophet Isaiah has said: “Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak! Take courage, frightened hearts; be strong, fear not! Here is your God who comes with vindication; he himself comes, he comes to save us,” (Is 35:3-4). For it is only by God’s help, and not of ourselves, that we can stand up to our salvation.
And here is another text where Isaiah predicted that the one who saves us is neither simply a man nor an incorporeal being: “It was not a messenger or an angel but the Lord himself who saved his people. Because of his love and pity he forgave them; he redeemed them himself,” (Is 63:9). Yet this Savior is also truly man, truly visible: “City of Zion, behold: your eyes shall see our Savior” (…) And another prophet has said: “He will again have compassion on us and cast into the depths of the sea all our sins,” (Mi 7:19) (…) From the land of Judah, from Bethlehem (Mi 5:1) will come the Son of God, he who is also God, to pour out his praise on all the earth (…) Thus God has become man indeed and the Lord himself has saved us by giving us the sign of the Virgin.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________
Monday of the Second week of Advent
7 December 2020
Saint of the day
St. Ambrose
SAINT AMBROSE
Bishop and Doctor of the Church
(c. 339 – 397)
Ambrose was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan in 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechumen, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by acclamation; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was baptized and consecrated.
He was unwearied in every duty of a pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Justina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhabitants of Thessalonica.
He was the friend and consoler of St. Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting to the Church her son, St. Augustine.
St. Ambrose died in 397, full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of and as one of her greatest doctors.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
London Symphony Orchestra –
Christmas Classics (Full Album)
Thank you: TAM TAM MUSIC
_____________________________________________________
Sunday, December 6th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 1,1-8.
Second Sunday of Advent
6 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1,1-8.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ (the Son of God).
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'”
John (the) Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the holy Spirit.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
####################################
THANK YOU
The Basilica of the National Shrine
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
National Shrine
YOUTUBE
of
The Sunday Mass –
Second Sunday of Advent
6 December 2020
Celebrant & Homilist: Rev. Kevin Regan
East Choir: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Choir Cantor & Organist, Washington, D.C.
St. Nicholas of Bari
__________________________________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Second Sunday of Advent
6 December 2020
Commentary of the day
“I am unworthy to stoop down to loosen the thongs of his sandals”
[Jesus came to John to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” (Mt 3:13-14)] “I am the voice, the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord.” So I cannot be silent, Lord, in your presence. I “need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (…) You existed from the beginning, you were with God and you were God (Jn 1:1). You are the radiance the Father’s glory, the perfect image of the perfect Father (Heb 1:3). You are the true light enlightening every person who comes into the world (Jn 1:9). You were in the world yet you have come to where you were already. You have become flesh, but you have not been changed into flesh. You have lived among us, appearing to your servants in the likeness of a servant (Jn 1:14; 14:23; Phil 2:7). You by your holy name have bridged heaven and earth, and do you come to me? You, so great, to such as I? King to herald, master to servant? (…)
I know the distance between the earth and the Creator, between the clay and the potter. I know how far I, a lamp lit by your grace, am outshone by you, the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 3:20; Jn 5:35). You are concealed by the pure cloud of your body, but I still recognize your sovereignty. I acknowledge my servile condition; I proclaim your greatness. I admit your absolute authority, and my own lowly estate. “I am unworthy to undo the strap of your sandal»; how then could I dare to touch your immaculate head? How could I stretch out my hand over you, who «stretched out the heavens like a tent,” and “set the earth upon the waters” (Pss. 104[103]:2; 136[135]:6)? (…) Surely it is not for me to pray over you, for you are the one who receives the prayers even of those who have no knowledge of you.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________
Second Sunday of Advent
6 December 2020
Saint of the day
St. Nicholas of Bari
(† 342)
ST. NICHOLAS OF BARI
(† 342)
St. Nicholas, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was elected to the vacant see.
Throughout his life he retained the bright and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself the special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Nicholas once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty intended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Determined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by night, and, taking with him a bag of gold, flung it into the window of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on awaking, deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the second daughter; but the third time as he stole away, the father, who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: “Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters’ from hell.”
St. Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a vessel, wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his three children whom he had killed, but who were restored to life by the Saint.
He died in 342. His relics were translated in 1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, “the manna of St. Nicholas” still flows from his bones and heals all kinds of sick.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
___________________________________________________
Second Sunday of Advent
Advent is a season observed in many Christian churches as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term is a version of the Latin word meaning “coming”.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
_____________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Saturday, December 5th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew 9,35-38.10,1.6-8.
Saturday of the First week of Advent
5 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over
unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9,35-38.10,1.6-8.
Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'”
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Fr. Roshan Loy D’Souza, CSC
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Saturday of the First week of Advent, December 5 2020
St. Sabas, ABBOT
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
_____________________________________________________________________
Saturday of the First week of Advent
5 December 2020
Commentary of the day
“As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ “
The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come “the time of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). At that time the human race as well as the entire world, which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly reestablished in Christ (…)
This promised restoration which we are awaiting has already begun in Christ, is carried forward in the mission of the Holy Spirit and through Him continues in the Church in which we learn the meaning of our terrestrial life through our faith, while we perform with hope in the future the work committed to us in this world by the Father, and thus work out our salvation (Phil 2:12).
Already the final age of the world has come upon us (1 Cor 10:11) and the renovation of the world is irrevocably decreed and is already anticipated in some kind of a real way; for the Church already on this earth is signed with a sanctity which is real although imperfect. However, until there shall be “new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells”(2 Pt 3:13) the pilgrim Church in her sacraments and institutions, which pertain to this present time, has the appearance of this world which is passing and she herself dwells among creatures who “groan and travail in labor pains” until now and “await the revelation of the sons of God” (Rm 8:19f.).
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________________
Saturday of the First week of Advent
5 December 2020
Saint of the day
St. Sabas
ABBOT
(439-532)
SAINT SABAS
Abbot
(439-532)
St. Sabas, one of the most renowned patriarchs of the monks of Palestine, was born in the year 439 near Cæsarea. In order to settle a dispute between some of his relatives about the administration of his estate, he forsook the world and entered a monastery, wherein he became a model of fervor.
After ten years in this monastery, Sabas, being eighteen years old, went to Jerusalem to visit the holy places. There, he attached himself to a monastery under the leadership of of St. Euthymius. On the death of the holy abbot, our Saint sought the wilderness, and dwelt in a cave on the top of a high mountain, at the bottom of which ran the brook Cedron.
After Sabas had lived here five years, several came to him, desiring to serve God under his direction. He was at first unwilling, but finally consented. He founded a new monastery of persons desirous to devote themselves to praising and serving God without interruption.
His great sanctity becoming known, Sabas was ordained priest at the age of fifty-three by the patriarch of Jerusalem, and made Superior-General of all the anchorites of Palestine.
Fr. Sabas lived to be ninety-four, and passed away on December 5, 532.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Friday, December 4th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew 9,27-31.
Friday of the First week of Advent
4 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
Jesus touched their eyes and said,
“Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 9,27-31.
As Jesus passed by, two blind men followed him, crying out, “Son of David, have pity on us!”
When he entered the house, the blind men approached him and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they said to him.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”
But they went out and spread word of him through all that land.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Michael Coutts S.J.
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Friday of the First week of Advent, December 4 2020
St. John Damascus, SYRIAN MONK AND PRIEST — St. Barbara, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Friday of the First week of Advent
4 December 2020
Commentary of the day
“Of you my heart speaks: (…) your presence,
Lord, I seek. Hide not your face from me” (Ps 27[26]:8)
Now, my whole heart, say to God: “I seek your face; Lord, it is your face that I seek” (Ps 27[26]:8). O Lord, my God, teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here but absent, where shall I seek you? But you are everywhere, so you must be here; why then do I not seek you? Surely you dwell in light inaccessible – where is it? And how can I have access to light which is inaccessible? Who will lead me and take me into it so that I may see you there? By what signs, under what forms, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord my God, I have never seen your face. Most High Lord, what shall an exile do who is as far away from you as this? What shall your servant do, eager for your love, cast off far from your face? He longs to see you but your countenance is too far away. He wants to have access to you, but your dwelling is inaccessible. He longs to find you but he does not know where you are. He loves to seek you but he does not know your face.
Lord, you are my Lord and my God, and I have never seen you. You have created and recreated me; all the good I have comes from you, and still I do not know you. I was created to see you and I have not yet accomplished that for which I was made. How wretched is the fate of man when he has lost that for which he was created (…) Let me seek you by desiring you, and desire you by seeking you; let me find you by loving you and love you in finding you.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_________________________________________________________
Friday of the First week of Advent
4 December 2020
Saints of the day
St. John Damascus
SYRIAN MONK AND PRIEST
(C. 675-749)
St. John of Damascus
Syrian monk and priest
(c. 675-749)
Saint John Damascene has the double honor of being the last but one of the fathers of the Eastern Church, and the greatest of her poets. It is surprising, however, how little that is authentic is known of his life. The account of him by John of Jerusalem, written some two hundred years after his death, contains an admixture of legendary matter, and it is not easy to say where truth ends and fiction begins.
The ancestors of John, according to his biographer, when Damascus fell into the hands of the Arabs, had alone remained faithful to Christianity. They commanded the respect of the conqueror, and were employed in judicial offices of trust and dignity, to administer, no doubt, the Christian law to the Christian subjects of the Sultan. His father, besides this honorable rank, had amassed great wealth; all this he devoted to the redemption of Christian slaves on whom he bestowed their freedom. John was the reward of these pious actions. John was baptized immediately on his birth, probably by Peter II, bishop of Damascus, afterwards a sufferer for the Faith.
The attainments of the young John of Damascus commanded the veneration of the Saracens; he was compelled reluctantly to accept an office of higher trust and dignity than that held by his father. As the Iconoclastic controversy became more violent, John of Damascus entered the field against the Emperor of the East, and wrote the first of his three treatises on the Veneration due to Images. This was probably composed immediately after the decree of Leo the Isaurian against images, in 730.
Before he wrote the second, he was apparently ordained priest, for he speaks as one having authority and commission. The third treatise is a recapitulation of the arguments used in the other two. These three treatises were disseminated with the utmost activity throughout Christianity.
John devoted himself to religious poetry, which became the heritage of the Eastern Church, and to theological arguments in defense of the doctrines of the Church, and refutation of all heresies. His three great hymns or “canons,” are those on Easter, the Ascension, and Satin Thomas’s Sunday. His eloquent defense of images has deservedly procured him the title of “The Doctor of Christian Art.”
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
__________________________________________________________________________________
Friday of the First week of Advent
4 December 2020
Saints of the day
St. Barbara
VIRGIN AND MARTYR
(3RD CENTURY)
SAINT BARBARA
Virgin and Martyr
(3rd century)
St. Barbara was brought up a heathen. A tyrannical father, Dioscorus, had kept her jealously secluded in a lonely tower which he had built for the purpose. Here in her forced solitude, she gave herself to prayer and study, and contrived to receive instruction and Baptism by stealth from a Christian priest.
Dioscorus, on discovering his daughter’s conversion, was beside himself with rage. He himself denounced her before the civil tribunal. Barbara was horribly tortured, and at last was beheaded, her own father, merciless to the last, acting as her executioner. God, however, speedily punished her persecutors. While her soul was being borne by angels to Paradise, a flash of lightning struck Dioscorus, and he was hurried before the judgment-seat of God.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
____________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Thursday, December 3rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew 7,21.24-27.
Thursday of the First week of Advent
3 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 7,21.24-27.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Henk van Meijel S.J.
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Thursday of the First week of Advent, December 3 2020
St. Francis Xavier, PRIEST
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday of the First week of Advent
3 December 2020
Commentary of the day
Faith, the foundation of our interior life
Faith is a foundational virtue. (…) Faith is the beginning, the foundation and the root in us of our life as child of God. (…) If faith is required to awaken supernatural life, it is still more necessary to ensure its growth and blossoming. Very truly, faith is the foundation and root of the interior life.
In a building, what is the reason for the foundations? They not only permit starting the construction but, surely, it is they on which depends the stability, equilibrium, even the continuation of the structure at every moment? So it is with faith confronted with every christian existence. The firm foundation of our beliefs alone affirms hope, gives flight to charity, and permits prayer to rise up to God. In time of trial, as happens in the course of normal existence, from where does our constant support come, from where do we receive the most efficacious motives for action, if not from faith? This is why Saint Paul asked the Colossians to remain “founded on faith” (Col 1:23). (…) Such is the primordial importance of the certitudes of faith. Their influence never ceases to be at work: they ennoble existence and strengthen the soul. Thanks to them the christian, (…) under the shock of the powers of evil, never doubts the victory (cf. 1 Jn 5:4).
It pleased Saint Paul to enclose within one brief formula this whole doctrine dear to him: “The just live by faith” (cf. Gal 3:2; Rm 1:17; Heb 10:38). Let us hold on to its eminently practical implications since, the more firm our faith, the more our entire life will be renewed and, by it, the bonds of our divine adoption will be tightened.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________
Thursday of the First week of Advent
3 December 2020
Saint of the day
St. Francis Xavier
PRIEST
(1506-1552) –
MEMORIAL
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER
Priest
(1506-1552)
Young Spanish gentleman, in the dangerous days of the Reformation, was making a name for himself as a Professor of Philosophy in the University of Paris, and had seemingly no higher aim, when St. Ignatius of Loyola won him to heavenly thoughts.
After a brief apostolate amongst his countrymen in Rome he was sent by St. Ignatius to the Indies, where for twelve years he was to wear himself out, bearing the Gospel to Hindostan, to Malacca, and to Japan. Thwarted by the jealousy, covetousness, and carelessness of those who should have helped and encouraged him, neither their opposition nor the difficulties of every sort which he encountered could make him slacken his labors for souls.
The vast kingdom of China appealed to his charity, and he was resolved to risk his life to force an entry, when God took him to Himself, and on the 2d of December, 1552, he died, like Moses, in sight of the land of promise.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Tuesday, December 1st. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 10,21-24.
Tuesday of the First week of Advent
1 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10,21-24.
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, 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. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Fr. John Bertao
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Tuesday of the First week of Advent, December 1 2020
Bl. Br. Charles of Jesus, PRIEST — St. Eligius, BISHOP
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
______________________________________________________________________
Tuesday of the First week of Advent
1 December 2020
Commentary of the day
Called to praise God!
O my God, how good you are to call us to praise you! What is sweeter than to praise the beloved! (…) Let us praise the Lord!
God himself gives us the precept and the example. How many psalms are psalms of praise! “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (Ps 150:6) “Praise the Lord, all you nations” (Ps 116[117]:1) (…) How many times does our Lord cry aloud: “I give you praise, Father, for…!” (Lk 10:21), how often does he give him names of praising: “Holy Father… righteous Father…” (Jn 17:11.25) And when he teaches us to pray, what does he tell us to say? “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Mt 6:9), that is to say, be glorified as much by the words as by the thoughts and actions of every person. (…)
Besides, love needs praise, and even if God did not give us either the precept or the example of praising him, it would be obligatory for us to do so for this reason alone, that he says to us: “Your first commandment is to love me.” Admiration is a fundamental aspect of genuine love: it is its foundation, the cause; the motive of genuine love is the goodness, the perfection that is in the loved one; this goodness, this perfection arouses admiration; following admiration, and barely distinct from it, comes love. Now praise is nothing other than the expression of admiration, therefore it is necessarily found (…) wherever there is genuine love.
So let us praise God, both interiorly with the silent praises of loving contemplation, and exteriorly with the words of admiration that the admiration of his perfections places on our lips.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________
Tuesday of the First week of Advent
1 December 2020
Saints of the day
Bl. Br. Charles of Jesus
PRIEST
(1858-1916)
BLESSED CHARLES OF JESUS
Charles de Foucauld
Priest
(1858-1916)
CHARLES DE FOUCAULD (Br. Charles of Jesus) was born in Strasbourg, France on September 15th, 1858. Orphaned at the age of six, he and his sister Marie were raised by their grandfather in whose footsteps he followed by taking up a military career.
Charles lost his faith as an adolescent. His taste for easy living was well known to all and yet he showed that he could be strong willed and constant in difficult situations. He undertook a risky exploration of Morocco (1883-1884). Seeing the way Muslims expressed their faith questioned him and he began repeating, ‘‘My God, if you exist, let me come to know you.’’
On Charles’ return to France, the warm, respectful welcome he received from his deeply Christian family made him continue his search. Under the guidance of Fr. Huvelin, Charles rediscovered God in October 1886. He was then 28 years old. ‘‘As soon as I believed in God, I understood that I could not do otherwise than to live for him alone.’’
A pilgrimage to the Holy Land revealed Charles’ vocation: To follow Jesus in his life at Nazareth. Charles spent 7 years as a Trappist, first in France and then at Akbès in Syria. Later, he began to lead a life of prayer and adoration, alone, near a convent of Poor Clares in Nazareth.
Ordained a priest at 43 (1901), Fr. Charles left for the Sahara, living at first in Beni Abbès and later at Tamanrasset among the Tuaregs of the Hoggar. He wanted to be among those who were ‘‘the furthest removed, the most abandoned.’’ He wanted all who drew close to him to find in him a brother, ‘‘a universal brother.’’ In a great respect for the culture and faith of those among whom he lived, his desire was to ‘‘shout the Gospel with his life.’’ ‘‘I would like to be sufficiently good that people would say, ‘If such is the servant, what must the Master be like?’ ’’
On the evening of December 1st 1916, Fr. Charles was killed by a band of marauders who had encircled his house.
He had always dreamed of sharing his vocation with others: After having written several rules for religious life, he came to the conclusion that this ‘‘life of Nazareth’’ could led by all. Today, the spiritual family of Charles de Foucauld encompasses several associations of the faithful, religious communities and secular institutes for both lay people and priests.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________________________
Tuesday of the First week of Advent
1 December 2020
Saints of the day
St. Eligius
BISHOP
(† 665)
SAINT ELIGIUS
Bishop
(† 665)
Eligius, a goldsmith at Paris, was commissioned by King Clotaire to make a throne. With the gold and precious stones given him he made two. Struck by his rare honesty, the king gave him an appointment at court, and demanded an oath of fidelity sworn upon holy relics; but Eligius prayed with tears to be excused, for fear of failing in reverence to the relics of the Saints.
On entering the court he fortified himself against its seductions by many austerities and continual ejaculatory prayers. He had a marvellous zeal for the redemption of captives, and for their deliverance would sell his jewels, his food, his clothes, and his very shoes, once by his prayers breaking their chains and opening their prisons. His great delight was in making rich shrines for relics.
His striking virtue caused him, a layman and a goldsmith, to be made Bishop of Noyon, and his sanctity in this holy office was remarkable.
He possessed the gifts of miracles and prophecy, and died in 665.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Monday, November 30th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew 4,18-22.
Saint Andrew, apostle – Feast
30 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Come after me,
and I will make you fishers of men.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 4,18-22.
As Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.
He said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
At once they left their nets and followed him.
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them,
and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Dan Donovan
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Monday, Saint Andrew, apostle – Feast November 30 2020
St. Andrew, APOSTLE
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________
Saint Andrew, apostle – Feast
30 November 2020
Commentary of the day
Andrew followed Jesus even to the cross
[“O good cross, who drew all your glory from the limbs of the Lord! O cross so long desired, ardently loved, unceasingly sought and at last made ready for my ardent desires!”*] On Saint Andrew’s day I was moved to see this saint throw himself to the ground at the sight of the cross, unable to hold back his joy and to cry it aloud with such passionate words.
“Bona” means useful, honorable, agreeable; this is its whole goodness, the sole goodness with which it is concerned. “Diu desiderata” (O cross so long desired); he not only desired it but with ardor: from whence it came that his time endured. “Diu sollicite amata” (Cross ardently loved”): love cannot be without care; this saint sought the cross eagerly and with the fear of a man who realizes he might not find it, who is unable to find it soon enough; thus one might say that he has found a treasure as soon as he meets it; the ecstasy he manifests is that of a lover possessed with extreme love. “Sine intermission quaesita” (“unceasingly sought”): here is our rule, and it was in this way that he merited to find it. “Et aliquando…”(at last made ready for my ardent desires”), this phrase indicates a great desire.
He must have loved Jesus exceedingly to find such pleasure in the cross! Men are often loved for the goods they possess; but to love their wretched state for love of them, that is unheard of; it’s a wonder if people don’t hate them because of their wretchedness. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s brothers (cf. Jn 15:13); yet there are degrees in this sacrifice, for to die with this kind of joy, this haste, is a love without compare. What faith! (*The office of the feast — Matins, 2nd nocturne, 6th lesson — ascribes these words to St. Andrew)
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________
Saint Andrew, apostle – Feast
30 November 2020
Feast of the day
St. Andrew
APOSTLE
SAINT ANDREW
Apostle
(1st century)
St. Andrew was one of the fishermen of Bethsaida, and brother, perhaps elder brother, of St. Peter, and became a disciple of St. John Baptist. He seemed always eager to bring others into notice; when called himself by Christ on the banks of the Jordan, his first thought was to go in search of his brother, and he said, “We have found the Messias,” and he brought him to Jesus. It was he again who, when Christ wished to feed the five thousand in the desert, pointed out the little lad with the five loaves and fishes.
St. Andrew went forth upon his mission to plant the faith in Scythia and Greece, and at the end of years of toil to win a martyr’s crown. After suffering a cruel scourging at Patræ in Achaia, he was left, bound by cords, to die upon a cross. When St. Andrew first caught sight of the gibbet on which he was to die, he greeted the precious wood with joy. “O good cross! ” he cried, “made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, so long desired, now so happily found! Receive me into thy arms and present me to my Master, that He Who redeemed me through thee may now accept me from thee.”
Two whole days the martyr remained hanging on this cross alive, preaching, with outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who came near, and entreating them not to hinder his passion.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
____________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Sunday, November 29th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 13,33-37.
First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 13,33-37.
Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!'”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
####################################
THANK YOU
The Basilica of the National Shrine
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
National Shrine
YOUTUBE
of
The Sunday Mass –
First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2020
Celebrant & Homilist: Rev. Msgr. Charles Pope
East Choir: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Choir Cantor & Organist, Washington, D.C.
First Sunday of Advent —St. Saturninus, BISHOP AND MARTYR
__________________________________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
__________________________________________________________________________________
First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2020
Commentary of the day
Christ’s two comings
At his first coming, God came without any brilliance, unknown by most, prolonging the mystery of his hidden life by many years. When he came down from the mountain of the Transfiguration, Jesus asked his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. Then he came like a shepherd to look for his lost sheep, and in order to get hold of the unruly animal, he had to remain hidden. Like a doctor who is careful not to frighten his patient right from the start, in the same way, the Lord avoids making himself known right from the beginning of his mission: he only does so imperceptibly and little by little. The prophet announced this event without brilliance with these words: “He shall be like rain coming down on the meadow, like showers watering the earth.” (Ps 72:6) He did not tear open the heavens so as to come on the clouds, but rather, he came in silence into the womb of a virgin and was carried by her for nine months. He was born in a manger as the son of a humble craftsman (…) He went here and there like an ordinary man; his clothing was simple, his table even more frugal. He walked without resting to the point of being tired out. But his second coming will not be like that.
He will come with such brilliance that it won’t be necessary to announce his coming: “As the lightning from the east flashes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Mt 24:27) It will be the time of judgment and of sentencing. And the Lord will not appear as a doctor, but as a judge. The prophet Daniel saw his throne, the river flowing at the base of the tribunal, and that device made entirely of fire, the chariot and the wheels (7:9-10) (…) David, the prophet-king, spoke only of splendor, of brilliance, of fire flaming on all sides: “Before him is a devouring fire; around him is a raging storm.” (Ps 50:3) All these comparisons aim at making us understand God’s sovereignty, the brilliant light that surrounds him, and his inaccessible nature.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_________________________________________________________
First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2020
A short explanation of the Advent season and its significance in the Liturgical Year.
DIRECTIONS:
The Coming of the Lord:
Happy New Year! While a month yet remains in the civil year, the Church is celebrating the beginning of a new Liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent on November 27, 2011. Advent — from the Latin ad venio, “to come” — is the liturgical season anticipating the Adventus Domini, the “coming of the Lord.” While the days grow shorter and colder, we prepare for the “Sun of Justice” who comes to kindle our hearts with his light and his love.
The Eternal Word, who is outside of time, became Incarnate in time, thereby making all time sacred. In the season of Advent, we await the coming of Christ on all the levels which we experience time: in the past — as a babe in the stable of Bethlehem; in the present — as grace in our souls; and in the future — as the Judge at the end of time.
The Advent season is filled with preparation and expectation. Everyone is getting ready for Christmas — shopping and decorating, baking and cleaning. Too often, however, we are so busy with the material preparations that we lose sight of the real reason for our activity: the Word made flesh coming to dwell among us. Christians are urged to preserve the spiritual focus of Christmas amidst the prevailingly secular and consumer-driven society.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season, let us strive to keep Advent a season of waiting and longing, of conversion and hope, meditating often on the incredible love and humility of our God in taking on flesh of the Virgin Mary. In our shopping and baking, let us remember to purchase and prepare something for the poor. When we clean our homes, let us distribute some of our possessions to those who lack many necessities. While we are decking the halls of our homes, let us not forget to prepare a peaceful place in our hearts wherein our Savior may come to dwell.
Focus on the Liturgy:
There are always four Sundays in Advent, though not necessarily four full weeks. The liturgical color of the season is violet or purple, except on the Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete or Rejoice Sunday, when optional rose vestments may be worn. The Gloria is not recited during Advent liturgies, but the Alleluia is retained.
The prophesies of Isaiah are read often during the Advent season, but all of the readings of Advent focus on the key figures of the Old and New Testaments who were prepared and chosen by God to make the Incarnation possible: the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah. The expectancy heightens from December 17 to December 24 when the Liturgy resounds with the seven magnificent Messianic titles of the O Antiphons.
The Advent season also has a Marian and pro-life focus. We meditate on this wonderful mystery of the Word Made Flesh with as much eagerness as his Mother, Mary prepared and awaited the birth of her son. In the USA we celebrate the special feasts of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States of America, on December 8, and Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas, on December 12. Other saints’ days traditionally associated in with our preparation for Christmas include St. Nicholas, patron saint of children whose feast falls on December 6, and the saint of light, St. Lucy on December 13.
Activity Source: Original Text (JGM) by Jennifer Gregory Miller, © Copyright 2003-2013 by Jennifer Gregory Miller
Who We Are:
CatholicCulture.org is run by a non-profit (501 c 3) corporation, Trinity Communications. The board and officers of Trinity Communications are Catholic laymen faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, who seek to enrich faith, strengthen the Church and form Catholic culture according to the mind of the Church.
Trinity Communications has drawn special inspiration from the outstanding Catholic vision and wisdom of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, and continues to follow the lead and guidance of Pope Francis.
First Sunday of Advent – Year A
Saint Aelred of Rielvaux (1110-1167),
Cistercian monk
Sermon for the Advent of the Lord; PL 195, 363 ; PL 184, 818
“Be vigilant and pray that you have the strength… to stand before the Son of Man” (Lk 21,36)
This season of Advent represents the two comings of the Lord: in the first place, the sweetest coming of “the fairest of the children of men” (Ps 45[44],3) of the “Desired of all nations” (Hg 2,8 Vg), of that Son of God who has visibly manifested his long-awaited presence in the flesh to the world, so ardently desired by all our holy forefathers. This is the coming whereby he came into the world to save sinners. But this season also calls to mind the coming we are waiting for with certain hope and should often remember with tears: that which will take place when the same Lord appears manifestly in his glory…: that is to say, on the day of judgement when he will come openly to judge. The first coming was known only to few, but in the second he will manifest himself to the just and to sinners, as the prophet declares: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Is 40,5; Lk 3,6)…
So let us follow the example of those holy forefathers, dearest brethren; let us relive their desire and kindle our minds with love and desire for Christ. As you know well, the celebration of this season was instituted to renew that desire within us that the fathers of old had for the first coming of the Lord and so that, through their example, we might also learn to long for his return. Think of all the good our Lord accomplished for our sakes at his first coming. How much more will he not accomplish when he comes again! This thought will make us love all the more his former coming and all the more desire his return…
If we would experience peace at his future coming, let us strive to welcome his former coming with faith and love. Let us remain faithfully in those works he made known to us and taught us then. Let us nurture love for our Lord in our hearts and, through love, desire, so that when the Desired of the nations comes we may look on him in all confidence.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2016
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
___________________________________________________________________________________
First Sunday of Advent
29 November 2020
Saint of the day
St. Saturninus
BISHOP AND MARTYR
(† 250)
SAINT SATURNINUS
Bishop and Martyr
(† 250)
Saturninus went from Rome, by direction of Pope Fabian, about the year 245, to preach the faith in Gaul. He fixed his episcopal see at Toulouse, and thus became the first Christian bishop of that city. There were but few Christians in the place. However, their number grew fast after the coming of the Saint; and his power was felt by the spirits of evil, who received pagan worship. His power was felt the more because he had to pass daily through the capitol, the high place of pagan worship, on the way to his own church.
One day a great multitude was gathered by an altar, where a bull stood ready for the sacrifice. A man in the crowd pointed out Saturninus, who was passing by, and the people would have forced him to idolatry; but the holy bishop answered: “I know but one God, and to Him I will offer the sacrifice of praise. How can I fear gods who, as you say, are afraid of me?” On this he was fastened to the bull, which was driven down the capitol. The brains of the Saint were scattered on the steps. His mangled body was taken up and buried by two devout women.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Saturday, November 28th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 21,34-36.
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
28 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape
the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21,34-36.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise
like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Henk van Meijel S.J. – celebrant
Deacon Mike Walsh – homilist
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time, November 28 2020
St. James of the Marches, FRANCISCAN PRIEST
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
____________________________________________________________________________
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
28 November 2020
Commentary of the day
“Stay awake, praying at all times”
(Lk 21:36)
Perhaps you will tell me, dear Sisters, that you are so little recollected, even when you are praying, that you can’t spend a quarter of an hour without distractions. Don’t be surprised by this. Sometimes the greatest servants of God experience the same difficulties. I was speaking recently to a good priest, converted many years ago, who spends a long time in prayer to God. He was telling me he often did not have either taste or satisfaction beyond that of saying: “O my God, here I am in your presence to do your most holy will here. It is enough that you see me.” You should do the same. (…)
There is a very easy way: take Our Lord’s passion as the subject of your prayers. There is not a single one of you who does not know everything that took place there, either because you have heard it preached or because you have meditated on it. O my Sisters, what an excellent way of making one’s prayer is that of the passion of Our Lord! It is a spring ever young in which you will find something new every day. Saint Francis never had any other subject of prayer than the passion of Our Lord and he recommends all his dear spiritual children to make use of it constantly. And where do you think, daughters, the great Saint Bonaventure drew all his knowledge? In the sacred book of the Cross. You will do well to make a habit of it, I counsel you.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
28 November 2020
Saint of the day
St. James of the Marches
FRANCISCAN PRIEST
(1394-1476)
SAINT JAMES OF THE MARCHES OF ANCONA
Franciscan Priest
(1394-1476)
The small town of Montbrandon, in the Marches of Ancona, gave birth to this Saint. When young he was sent to the University of Perugia, where his progress in learning soon qualified him to be chosen preceptor to a young gentleman of Florence. Fearing that he might be ingulfed in the whirlpool of world excesses, St. James applied himself to prayer and recollection.
When travelling near Assisium he went into the great Church of the Portiuncula to pray, and being animated by the fervor of the holy men who there served God, and by the example of their blessed founder St. Francis, he determined to petition in that very place for the habit of the Order. He began his spiritual war against the devil, the world, and the flesh, with assiduous prayer and extraordinary fasts and watchings. For forty years he never passed a day without taking the discipline.
Being chosen Archbishop of Milan, he fled, and could not be prevailed on to accept the office. He wrought several miracles at Venice and at other places, and raised from dangerous sicknesses the Duke of Calabria and the King of Naples.
The Saint died in the convent of the Holy Trinity of his Order, near Naples, on the 28th of November, in the year 1476, being ninety years old, seventy of which he had spent in a religious state.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
__________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Thursday, November 26th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 21,20-28.
Thursday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
26 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“When these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21,20-28.
Jesus said to his disciples: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, know that its desolation is at hand.
Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. Let those within the city escape from it, and let those in the countryside not enter the city,
for these days are the time of punishment when all the scriptures are fulfilled.
Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days, for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people.
They will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken as captives to all the Gentiles; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth nations will be in dismay, perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Henk van Meijel S.J.
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Thursday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time, November 26 2020
St. Peter of Alexandria, BISHOP & MARTYR –St. Sylvester, ABBOT
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________
Thursday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
26 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Peter of Alexandria
BISHOP & MARTYR
(† 311)
SAINT PETER OF ALEXANDRIA,
Bishop, Martyr
(† 311)
St. Peter governed the Church of Alexandria during the persecution of Diocletian. The sentence of excommunication that he was the first to pronounce against the schismatics, Melitius and Arius, and which, despite the united efforts of powerful partisans, he strenuously upheld, proves that he possessed as much sagacity as zeal and firmness.
But his most constant care was employed in guarding his flocks from the dangers arising out of persecution. He never ceased repeating to them that, in order not to fear death, it was needful to begin by dying to self, renouncing our will, and detaching ourselves from all things.
St. Peter gave an example of such detachment by undergoing martyrdom in the year 311.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
___________________________________________________________________
Thursday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
26 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Sylvester
ABBOT
(† 1267)
Saint Sylvester
Abbot
(† 1267)
Sylvester, born of a noble family at Osimo, in Picenum, was remarkable, even as a boy, for his keen intelligence and upright conduct. Being duly instructed in sacred learning and made a canon, he benefited his people by his example and his sermons. At the funeral of a relative, who was also a nobleman and a very handsome person, on seeing the disfigured corpse in the open tomb, he said: “What this man was, I am now; and what he is now, I shall be.”
He soon retired to a lonely place with the desire for greater perfection, and there spent himself in vigils, payers and fasting. To hide himself better from men, he kept changing his dwelling place. At length, he arrived at Monte Fano, at that time a solitary place, built a church in honor of St. Benedict and laid the foundations of the Congregation of Sylvestrines.
There he strengthened the monks with his wonderful holiness. He shone with the spirit of prophecy, and possessed power over the demons and other gifts, which he always tried to hide with deep humility.
He fell asleep in the Lord in the year of salvation 1267.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_____________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 24th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 21,5-11.
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
24 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21,5-11.
While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings, Jesus said,
“All that you see here–the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”
Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen? And what sign will there be when all these things are about to happen?”
He answered, “See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!
When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first, but it will not immediately be the end.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father John Bertao
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time, November 24 2020
St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions, MARTYRS
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
24 November 2020
Commentary of the day
“ Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away ” (Mt 24:35)
Our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven at the end of the world, on the last day. For the world will end and this created world will be renewed. For since corruption, theft, adultery and all kinds of sins cover the earth, and “bloodshed follows bloodshed over the land” (Hos 4:2), therefore this world will pass away and another, more lovely, will be established so that this wonderful dwelling place may not remain full of injustice. (…)
Hear what Isaiah says: “The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll and the stars fall like the leaves of a fig tree” (cf. Is 34:4). And the Gospel also says: “The sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky” (Mt 24:29). So let us not be dismayed as though we were the only ones who must die. The stars will also die and yet perhaps they will be brought to life again. The Lord will roll away the sky, not to destroy it but to restore it to life more lovely than before. Listen to the prophet David speaking: “Of old you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish but you remain. They will all grow old like a garment; like clothing you change them and they will be changed” (Ps 102[101], 26-28). (…) Listen, too, to our Lord speaking: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mt 24:35), for the authority of created things does not equal that of their Master’s words.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
____________________________________________________
Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
24 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions
MARTYRS
(1745-1862) –
MEMORIAL
SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC
Priest,
AND HIS COMPANIONS
(18th and 19th centuries)
This feast day celebrates all of the martyrs of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries (1745-1862) who shed their blood in the remote Far East, particularly in Vietnam. Many of the martyrs were priests of the Dominican order. Others belonged to the Paris Society for Foreign Missions, while still others, including Andrew Dung-Lac, were Vietnamese.
Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, a Vietnamese seminarian, wrote in a letter of 1843, shortly before his martyrdom:
“I, Paul, chained for the name of Christ, wish to tell you the tribulations in which I am immersed every day, so that you, inflamed with love for God, may also lift up your praise to God, ‘for his mercy endures forever’. This prison is truly the image of the eternal Hell: to the cruelest tortures of all types, such as fetters, iron chains and bonds, are added hate, vindictiveness, calumny, indecent words, interrogations, bad acts, unjust oaths, curses and finally difficulties and sorrow. But God, who once freed the three boys from the path of the flames, is always with me and has freed me from these tribulations and converted them into sweetness, ‘for his mercy endures forever….
Assist me with your prayers so that I may struggle according to the law, and indeed ‘fight the good fight’ and that I may be worthy to fight until the end, finishing my course happily; if we do not see each other again in this life, in the future age, nonetheless, this will be our joy, when standing before the throne of the spotless Lamb, with one voice we sing his praises, exulting in the joy of eternal victory. Amen.”
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Monday, November 23rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 21,1-4.
Monday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
23 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“I tell you truly,
this poor widow put in more than all the rest;”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 21,1-4.
When Jesus looked up he saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury
and he noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins.
He said, “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest;
for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Fr. Roshan Loy D’Souza, CSC
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Monday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time, November 23 2020
St. Columban, ABBOT — St. Clement I, POPE – MARTYR
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
________________________________________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
23 November 2020
Commentary of the day
Approaching Jesus in humility
[Gertrude said to the Lord]: “Alas, Beloved, I have nothing worthy of suiting you, but after all I well know that, if I possessed all you possess, I should want to renounce it all and give it to you so freely that you could (…) gratify with it whoever you wished.” To this the Lord replied with kindness: “If you find in your heart the disposition to act like this towards me then you must take it for certain that I too desire to treat you in the same way and in the same proportion as my goodness and love prevail over yours.” And she said: “And what title must I carry with me to meet you since you are deigning to come to me with such a quantity of gifts?” “I ask nothing of you,” the Lord replied, “except to come to me completely empty and ready to receive, because everything in you that will please me you will have received from me as pure gift.”
Then she understood that this emptiness was the humility by which she reckoned herself to have absolutely no merit, nor even able to do anything without a free gift from God, and, finally, considered all her own resources as nothing.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
23 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Columban
ABBOT
(† 615)
SAINT COLUMBAN
Abbot
(† 615)
Saint Columban was born in Ireland before the middle of the sixth century.
He was well trained in the classics and theology. After entering the monastic life, he went to France and founded many monasteries which he ruled with strict discipline. After being forced into exile, he went to Italy and founded the monastery of Bobbio.
He died in 615.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-fourth week in Ordinary Time
23 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Clement I
POPE AND MARTYR
(† 100)
SAINT CLEMENT I
POPE AND MARTYR
(† 100)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Let us devote our attention to the Apostolic Fathers, that is, to the first and second generations in the Church subsequent to the Apostles. And thus, we can see where the Church’s journey begins in history.
St Clement, Bishop of Rome in the last years of the first century, was the third Successor of Peter, after Linus and Anacletus. The most important testimony concerning his life comes from St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons until 202. He attests that Clement “had seen the blessed Apostles”, “had been conversant with them”, and “might be said to have the preaching of the apostles still echoing [in his ears], and their traditions before his eyes” (Adversus Haer. 3, 3, 3).
Later testimonies which date back to between the fourth and sixth centuries attribute to Clement the title of martyr.
The authority and prestige of this Bishop of Rome were such that various writings were attributed to him, but the only one that is certainly his is the Letter to the Corinthians. Eusebius of Caesarea, the great “archivist” of Christian beginnings, presents it in these terms: “There is extant an Epistle of this Clement which is acknowledged to be genuine and is of considerable length and of remarkable merit. He wrote it in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, when a sedition had arisen in the latter Church. We know that this Epistle also has been publicly used in a great many Churches both in former times and in our own” (Hist. Eccl. 3, 16).
An almost canonical character was attributed to this Letter. At the beginning of this text – written in Greek – Clement expressed his regret that “the sudden and successive calamitous events which have happened to ourselves” (1, 1) had prevented him from intervening sooner. These “calamitous events” can be identified with Domitian’s persecution: therefore, the Letter must have been written just after the Emperor’s death and at the end of the persecution, that is, immediately after the year 96.
Clement’s intervention – we are still in the first century – was prompted by the serious problems besetting the Church in Corinth: the elders of the community, in fact, had been deposed by some young contestants. The sorrowful event was recalled once again by St Irenaeus who wrote: “In the time of this Clement, no small dissension having occurred among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome dispatched a most powerful Letter to the Corinthians exhorting them to peace, renewing their faith and declaring the tradition which it had lately received from the Apostles” (Adv. Haer. 3, 3, 3).
Thus, we could say that this Letter was a first exercise of the Roman primacy after St Peter’s death. Clement’s Letter touches on topics that were dear to St Paul, who had written two important Letters to the Corinthians, in particular the theological dialectic, perennially current, between the indicative of salvation and the imperative of moral commitment.
First of all came the joyful proclamation of saving grace. The Lord forewarns us and gives us his forgiveness, gives us his love and the grace to be Christians, his brothers and sisters.
It is a proclamation that fills our life with joy and gives certainty to our action: the Lord always forewarns us with his goodness and the Lord’s goodness is always greater than all our sins.
However, we must commit ourselves in a way that is consistent with the gift received and respond to the proclamation of salvation with a generous and courageous journey of conversion.
In comparison with the Pauline model, the innovation added by Clement is to the doctrinal and practical sections, which constituted all the Pauline Letters, a “great prayer” that virtually concludes the Letter.
The Letter’s immediate circumstances provided the Bishop of Rome with ample room for an intervention on the Church’s identity and mission. If there were abuses in Corinth, Clement observed, the reason should be sought in the weakening of charity and of the other indispensable Christian virtues.
He therefore calls the faithful to humility and fraternal love, two truly constitutive virtues of being in the Church: “Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One”, he warned, “let us do all those things which pertain to holiness” (30, 1).
In particular, the Bishop of Rome recalls that the Lord himself, “where and by whom he desires these things to be done, he himself has fixed by his own supreme will, in order that all things, being piously done according to his good pleasure, may be acceptable unto him…. For his own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministries devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen” (40, 1-5: it can be noted that here, in this early first-century Letter, the Greek word “laikós” appears for the first time in Christian literature, meaning “a member of the laos”, that is, “of the People of God”).
In this way, referring to the liturgy of ancient Israel, Clement revealed his ideal Church. She was assembled by “the one Spirit of grace poured out upon us” which breathes on the various members of the Body of Christ, where all, united without any divisions, are “members of one another” (46, 6-7).
The clear distinction between the “lay person” and the hierarchy in no way signifies opposition, but only this organic connection of a body, an organism with its different functions. The Church, in fact, is not a place of confusion and anarchy where one can do what one likes all the time: each one in this organism, with an articulated structure, exercises his ministry in accordance with the vocation he has received.
With regard to community leaders, Clement clearly explains the doctrine of Apostolic Succession. The norms that regulate it derive ultimately from God himself. The Father sent Jesus Christ, who in turn sent the Apostles. They then sent the first heads of communities and established that they would be succeeded by other worthy men.
Everything, therefore, was made “in an orderly way, according to the will of God” (42). With these words, these sentences, St Clement underlined that the Church’s structure was sacramental and not political.
The action of God who comes to meet us in the liturgy precedes our decisions and our ideas. The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created; consequently, this sacramental structure does not only guarantee the common order but also this precedence of God’s gift which we all need.
Finally, the “great prayer” confers a cosmic breath to the previous reasoning. Clement praises and thanks God for his marvellous providence of love that created the world and continues to save and sanctify it.
The prayer for rulers and governors acquires special importance. Subsequent to the New Testament texts, it is the oldest prayer extant for political institutions. Thus, in the period following their persecution, Christians, well aware that the persecutions would continue, never ceased to pray for the very authorities who had unjustly condemned them.
The reason is primarily Christological: it is necessary to pray for one’s persecutors as Jesus did on the Cross.
But this prayer also contains a teaching that guides the attitude of Christians towards politics and the State down the centuries. In praying for the Authorities, Clement recognized the legitimacy of political institutions in the order established by God; at the same time, he expressed his concern that the Authorities would be docile to God, “devoutly in peace and meekness exercising the power given them by [God]” (61, 2).
Caesar is not everything. Another sovereignty emerges whose origins and essence are not of this world but of “the heavens above”: it is that of Truth, which also claims a right to be heard by the State.
Thus, Clement’s Letter addresses numerous themes of perennial timeliness. It is all the more meaningful since it represents, from the first century, the concern of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the other Churches.
In this same Spirit, let us make our own the invocations of the “great prayer” in which the Bishop of Rome makes himself the voice of the entire world: “Yes, O Lord, make your face to shine upon us for good in peace, that we may be shielded by your mighty hand… through the High Priest and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and majesty to you both now and from generation to generation, for evermore” (60-61).
BENEDICT XVI General audience (March 7, 2007)
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Sunday, November 22nd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew 25,31-46.
Sunday, Christ the King – Solemnity
22 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 25,31-46.
Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
####################################
THANK YOU
The Basilica of the National Shrine
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
National Shrine
YOUTUBE
of
The Sunday Mass –
Christ the King – Solemnity
Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
22 November 2020
Celebrant & Homilist: Rev. Msgr. Raymond East
East Choir: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception Choir Cantor & Organist, Washington, D.C.
Christ the King –Solemnity, St. Cecilia VIRGIN AND MARTYR
__________________________________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, Christ the King – Solemnity
22 November 2020
Commentary of the day
May your kingdom come!
The Word is King. King of heaven and of earth. The Word lives and reigns in God. Christ only lives where he reigns; he is essentially King; he lives in us to the degree that he governs all in us, that he reigns over our faculties, that he rules our activity.
When all within us comes from him, that is to say when we no longer think except as he thinks, when we no longer will except as he wills, when we act only according to his good pleasure, then we place our whole self in subjection at his feet, then he reigns in us.
All that is proper to us, all that is personal, disappears to give place to the thoughts and will of the Divine Word. This domination of Christ in us must be complete. We ask this a hundred times a day: “May your kingdom come!” O may that day come, O Lord, when you will reign entirely in me, when no selfish motive will hinder your power over me, when, like you, I shall be entirely yielded up to the Father and nothing within me will be opposed to the Holy Spirit’s action!
On that day we shall have done all that within us lies to bring our own personality to naught before the dominion of Christ. He will truly be for us “All in all” (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). Morally speaking we shall no longer have anything of our own: all will be subject, all will be given to him.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________
Sunday, Christ the King – Solemnity
22 November 2020
Christ the King –
Solemnity
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING
(Solemnity)
The solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ the King indicates the end of the liturgical year.
The Gospel of this Sunday gives us a light for our life and for our behavior. The Kingdom of Christ does not belong to this world; even if the Lord said that his Kingdom is between us. The Gospel of the first Sunday of Advent will clarify about the end of the world, about the second coming of Christ and his advent in the glory.
The Church, because of her wisdom, proclaims that Jesus is really the Lord of the time and the eternity. Liturgical year helps us in path to salvation showing that life has a meaning, a future: being with God. Let us be on the watch… giving thanks for this year, in the joyful wait of Advent, in the contemplation of mystery of “God-with-us”, in faithful of his mercy that opens the door of the world that comes.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2016
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, Christ the King – Solemnity
22 November 2020
Saint of the day
St. Cecilia
VIRGIN AND MARTYR
(† 230) –
MEMORIAL
SAINT CECILIA
Virgin and Martyr
(† 230)
In the evening of her wedding-day, with the music of the marriage-hymn ringing in her ears, Cecilia, a rich, beautiful, and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow by which she had consecrated her virginity to God. “Pure be my heart and undefiled my flesh; for I have a spouse you know not of—an angel of my Lord.”
The heart of her young husband Valerian was moved by her words; he ‘received Baptism, and within a few days he and his brother Tiburtius, who had been brought by him to a knowledge of the Faith, sealed their confession with their blood. Cecilia only remained. “Do you not know,” was her answer to the threats of the prefect, “that I am the bride of my Lord Jesus Christ?” The death appointed for her was suffocation, and she remained a day and a night in a hot-air bath, heated seven times its wont. But “the flames had no power over her body, neither was a hair of her head singed.” The lictor sent to dispatch her struck with trembling hand the three blows which the law allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights Cecilia lay with her head, half severed on the pavement of her bath, fully sensible, and joyfully awaiting her crown; on the third the agony was over, and in 177 the virgin Saint gave back her pure spirit to Christ.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
____________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
Monday, November 16th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 18,35-43.
Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
16 November 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18,35-43.
As Jesus approached Jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging,
and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what was happening.
They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”
The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me!”
Then Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him,
What do you want me to do for you? He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Fr. Dan Donovan
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time, November 16 2020
St. Margaret of Scotland — St. Gertrude the Great, ABBESS
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
___________________________________________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
16 November 2020
Commentary of the day
“The people walking in front rebuked him,
telling him to be silent, but he kept calling out all the more”
When he heard the noise being made by the crowd, the blind man asked what was happening. Someone replied: ‘It’s Jesus of Nazareth!’ His soul was immediately fired with such intense faith in Christ that he started to shout: “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” And you who have come to a standstill by the roadside of life, short as it is, wouldn’t you, too, like to shout aloud? You who are lacking in lights, who stand in need of new graces if you are to commit yourself to seeking holiness. Don’t you feel a pressing need to shout: “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me”? It’s a wonderful prayer, brief and full of fervor, to be repeated frequently!
I advise you to take time to meditate slowly over the moments preceding this miracle so as to engrave deeply on your mind this clear thought: what a difference there is between the merciful Heart of Jesus and our own, poor hearts! This is a thought that will always assist you, especially in times of trial or temptation, at times, too, when you must respond generously to the humble demands of daily life, at times of heroism. For “many rebuked that blind man to make him be quiet.” And you, too, when you became aware that Jesus was passing close by you, your heart beat fast and you began to shout out in the grip of a profound agitation. But then your friends, your habits, your comforts, your environment advised you to be silent, not to shout: “Why call Jesus? Don’t disturb him!”
As for that unfortunate blind man, he paid no attention. To the contrary, he cried out all the more: “Son of David, have pity on me!” And the Lord, who had heard him to begin with, left him to persevere in his prayer. So it is with you. Jesus is instantly aware of our soul’s cry, but he waits. He wants us to be completely convinced of our need of him. He wants us to beseech him persistently like that blind man by the roadside. As Saint John Chrysostom says: “Imitate him. Even if God doesn’t grant what we ask of him for the moment, even if the crowd tries to turn us away from our prayer, don’t stop begging.”
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
16 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Margaret of Scotland
(c. 1046-1093)
SAINT MARGARET OF SCOTLAND
Queen of Scotland
Foundress of abbeys
(† 1093)
Saint Margaret’s name signifies “pearl;” “a fitting name,” says Theodoric, her confessor and her first biographer, “for one such as she.” Her soul was like a precious pearl. A life spent amidst the luxury of a royal court never dimmed its lustre, or stole it away from him who had bought it with his blood. She was the grand, daughter of an English king; and in 1070 she became the bride of Malcolm, and reigned Queen of Scotland till her death in 1093.
How did she become a Saint in a position where sanctity is so difficult?
First, she burned with zeal for the house of God. She built churches and monasteries; she busied herself in making vestments; she could not rest till she saw the laws of God and His Church observed throughout her realm.
Next, amidst a thousand cares, she found time to converse with God-ordering her piety with such sweetness and discretion that she won her husband to sanctity like her own. He used to rise with her at night for prayer; he loved to kiss the holy books she used, and sometimes he would steal them away, and bring them back to his wife covered with jewels. Lastly, with virtues so great, she wept constantly over her sins, and begged her confessor to correct her faults.
St. Margaret did not neglect her duties in the world because she was not of it. Never was a better mother. She spared no pains in the education of her eight children, and their sanctity was the fruit of her prudence and her zeal. Never was a better queen. She was the most trusted counsellor of her husband, and she labored for the material improvement of the country.
But, in the midst of the world’s pleasures, she sighed for the better country, and accepted death as a release. On her death-bed she received the news that her husband and her eldest son were slain in battle. She thanked God, who had sent this last affliction as a penance for her sins. After receiving Holy Viaticum, she was repeating the prayer from the Missal, “O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death didst give life to the world, deliver me.” At the words “deliver me,” says her biographer, she took her departure to Christ, the Author of true liberty.
St Margaret was declared Patroness of Scotland in 1673.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
___________________________________________________________________________
Monday of the Thirty-third week in Ordinary Time
16 November 2020
Saints of the day
St. Gertrude the Great
ABBESS
(† C. 1302)
SAINT GERTRUDE
Abbess
(† c. 1302)
Gertrude was born in the year 1256, of a noble Saxon family, and placed at the age of five for education in the Benedictine abbey of Rodelsdorf. Her strong mind was carefully cultivated, and she wrote Latin with unusual elegance and force; above all, she was perfect in humility and mortification, in obedience, and in all monastic observances.
Her life was crowded with wonders. She has in obedience recorded some of her visions, in which she traces in words of indescribable beauty the intimate converse of her soul with Jesus and Mary. She was gentle to all, most gentle to sinners; filled with devotion to the Saints of God, to the souls in purgatory, and above all to the Passion of Our Lord and to His Sacred Heart.
She ruled her abbey with perfect wisdom and love for forty years. Her life was one of great and almost continual suffering, and her longing to be with Jesus was not granted till 1301 or 1302, when she had reached her forty-one year.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
_______________________________________________________
“Be afraid of the one who after killing
has the power to cast into Gehenna”
_______________________________________________
Faith, Hope and Love, the three of them;
and the greatest of them is love.
____________________________________________________________________
Let me sing of the LORD,
“He has been good to me.”
__________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN 
Tuesday, December 8th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 1,26-38.
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
8 December 2020
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
“Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,26-38.
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
Image: From Bible Hub
###################################################
THANK YOU
National Catholic Broadcasting Council
Daily TV Mass
YouTube
For
Celebrates Daily TV Mass from Loretto Abbey in Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
by
Father Larry Marcille
Catholic Mass Today | Daily TV Mass,
Tuesday of the First week of Advent, December 8 2020
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
St. Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán — St. Patapius, HERMIT
___________________________________________________
ACT OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Blessed Sacrament.
I love You above all things and I desire You in my soul.
Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally,
Come at least spiritually into my heart.
As though You were already there,
I embrace You and unite myself wholly to You;
Permit not that I should ever be separated from You. Amen.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
8 December 2020
Commentary of the day
Saint Pius X
Pope from 1903 to 1914
To contemplate the Immaculate Virgin Mary
If, as the Apostle declares, faith is nothing else than the substance of things to be hoped for” (Heb 11:1) everyone will easily allow that our faith is confirmed and our hope aroused and strengthened by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. The Virgin was kept the more free from all stain of original sin because she was to be the Mother of Christ; and she was the Mother of Christ that the hope of everlasting happiness might be born again in our souls.
Leaving aside charity towards God, who can contemplate the Immaculate Virgin without feeling moved to fulfill that precept which Christ called peculiarly His own, namely that of loving one another as He loved us? “A great sign,” thus the Apostle St. John describes a vision divinely sent him, appears in the heavens: “A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars upon her head” (Rv 12:1). Everyone knows that this woman signified the Virgin Mary, the stainless one who brought forth our Head.
The Apostle continues: “And, being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered” (Rv 12:2). John therefore saw the Most Holy Mother of God already in eternal happiness, yet travailing in a mysterious childbirth. What birth was it? Surely it was the birth of us who, still in exile, are yet to be generated to the perfect charity of God, and to eternal happiness. And the birth pains show the love and desire with which the Virgin from heaven above watches over us, and strives with unwearying prayer to bring about the fulfillment of the number of the elect.
This same charity we desire that all should earnestly endeavor to attain, taking special occasion from (…) feasts in honor of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
______________________________________________________
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
8 December 2020
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary –
Solemnity
Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Solemnity)
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the solemn belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is universally celebrated on December 8, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on September 8. A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the 11th century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the 18th century it became a feast of the universal Church. It is now recognized as a solemnity.
In 1854, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”
It took a long time for this doctrine to develop. While many Fathers and Doctors of the Church considered Mary the greatest and holiest of the saints, they often had difficulty in seeing Mary as sinless—either at her conception or throughout her life. Two Franciscans, William of Ware and Blessed John Duns Scotus, helped develop the theology. They pointed out that Mary’s Immaculate Conception enhances Jesus’ redemptive work. Other members of the human race are cleansed from original sin after birth. In Mary, Jesus’ work was so powerful as to prevent original sin at the outset. In Luke 1:28 the angel Gabriel, speaking on God’s behalf, addresses Mary as “full of grace” (or “highly favored”). In that context this phrase means that Mary is receiving all the special divine help necessary for the task ahead. However, the Church grows in understanding with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit led the Church, especially non-theologians, to the insight that Mary had to be the most perfect work of God next to the Incarnation. Or rather, Mary’s intimate association with the Incarnation called for the special involvement of God in Mary’s whole life. The logic of piety helped God’s people to believe that Mary was full of grace and free of sin from the first moment of her existence. Moreover, this great privilege of Mary is the highlight of all that God has done in Jesus. Rightly understood, the incomparable holiness of Mary shows forth the incomparable goodness of God.
“It is no wonder, then, that the usage prevailed among the holy Fathers whereby they called the mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, fashioned by the Holy Spirit into a kind of new substance and new creature. Adorned from the first instant of her conception with the splendors of an entirely unique holiness, the Virgin of Nazareth is, on God’s command, greeted by an angel messenger as ‘full of grace’ (cf. Luke 1:28). To the heavenly messenger she replies: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38)” (Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 56).
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2016
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
8 December 2020
Saints of the day
St. Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán
(1832-1869)
Saint Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán
(1832-1869)
Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán was born in 1832 in the hamlet of St Joseph in Nobol, Daule, Ecuador. The Dominicans had been looking after the parish for almost three hundred years. She was the daughter of Peter Martillo and Josephine Morán, landowners, modest people with a deep faith. Her father, who had a lively intelligence and was a great worker, amassed considerable wealth.
He was very devoted to the future saint Marianna of Jesus and Saint Hyacinth of Poland who is venerated fervently throughout the province of Guayas. They had nine children, who grew healthy and strong. Narcisa was the sixth. In 1838, when she was six, her mother died. Helped by a teacher and an older sister she learnt to read, write, sing, play the guitar, sew (a skill she really mastered), weave, embroider and cook. She had great qualities, with a particular bent for music. Often, her prayer became song, and her song was intimate and devout, reaching the heart of Him who well deserved it, as a song which she loved to sing in her youth said.
She had a clear perception of her call to sanctity, especially from when she received confirmation, aged seven, on 16th September 1839. She grew into the habit of withdrawing frequently in a small wood near her home to give herself freely to the contemplation of divine realities. The tree of Guayabo, near which she prayed, is today the destination for large pilgrimages. She turned a small room in her house into a domestic chapel. She decided to imitate Saint Marianna of Jesus, identifying with the vocation of a victim. She undertook a demanding path of penance to unite herself more closely with the suffering Christ and cooperate in the redemption of the world. She helped with the domestic chores and out in the fields. She was a young, thoughtful, lovable, happy girl with a sweet and peaceful character, extremely good and obedient, generous, compassionate towards the poor, very devout, loved by all the neighbours. She was a very attractive young woman, blonde with blue eyes, tall, strong and agile. She showed herself to be an excellent catechist. She could not do without communicating the fire of divine love to her family and to the children of the neighbourhood.
In January 1852 her father, a good man, died. Narcisa, who was then 19, moved to Guayaquil to stay with a very well-known family who lived near the cathedral. She stayed in this city until 1868, except for those months she lived in the city of Cuenca. She moved house a number of times to preserve her privacy and to dedicate herself with greater freedom to prayer and penance, earning her living by doing tailoring work. She helped the poor and the sick. She was docile to the instructions of her spiritual directors and shared ideals, and sometimes a house, with the Blessed Mercedes of Jesus Molina. Driven by a desire for greater perfection, and advised by a Franciscan religious, she set off in June 1868 for Lima (Perù) and lived as a lay member in the Dominican convent of Patrocinio, founded in 1688, in the area where Saint John Macias used to graze his flock. The Lord favoured her with extraordinary gifts, and showed her how pleasing her life was, in the midst of trials of the spirit.
Towards the end of September 1869, she had high fevers. Medical remedies could do little, but she kept up her normal rhythm of life, ending with a novena and the celebration of the Eucharist, with great joy, dressed in white, on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 8th December 1869, the same day on which Blessed Pius IX opened in Rome Vatican Council I. At the end of the day she took leave of the sisters, saying she was going on a journey very far.
This was taken as a joke, but not long after, one of the sisters, charged with blessing the cells, noticed a splendour and a special scent in Narcisa’s cell. The community gathered and they saw that she was dead. She was 37 years old.
Afterwards, it became known that she had made a private vow of perpetual virginity, poverty, obedience, enclosure, eremitical life, fasting on bread and water, daily Communion, confession, mortification and prayer. All these vows she kept faithfully. She lived in continuous union with Jesus Christ. Her mortifications were very severe. She carried constantly on her body the signs of the Lord’s crucifixion. She had a firm faith and admirable hope. The doctors were amazed that she could have lived so long with so little food. Her body remained supple for a long time and from it came a pleasant scent, and in front of it many graces were granted. The city of Lima acclaimed her as a saint, as did the people of Guayaquil and Nobol. The Dominican Sisters of Patrocinio guarded the memory of her virtues and her tomb with great veneration until her body, practically incorrupt, was transferred to Guayaquil in 1955. The documents of the diocesan process of canonization were handed over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1964. Pope John Paul II beatified her on 25th October 1992 and Pope Benedict XVI canonized her on 12th October 2008. On 22nd August 1998 they dedicated a shrine in her honour in Nobol, where her incorrupt body is at present. Devotion to the “Niña Narcisa” shows the spontaneous identification of ordinary people with this woman from the Ecuadorian coast. The example of her life, pure and pious, of work and apostolate, sends out a very topical message.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary – Solemnity
8 December 2020
Saints of the day
St. Patapius
HERMIT
Saint Patapius
Hermit
St. Patapius was the founder of a Monastery in Constantinople. Although a hermit, St. Patapius had profound impacts in the lives of those he met. Two of those whom he met later in life, after carrying out his vocation, would go on to become Saints and the founders of more institutions. St. Patapius’ relics are based near Athens, but his memory is eshrined forever in the hearts of men and the mind of God.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2019
___________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE JOIN
DAILY MASS & SUNDAY MASS
READ
DAILY GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS
with
DAILY COMMENTARY OF THE DAY
and
SAINTS OF THE DAY
ALSO READ
From
SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER NEWSLETTER IN THAI
NEWSLETTER IN THAI
THANK YOU
________________________________________________
“I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.”
Book of Isaiah 45,1.4-6.
_______________________________________________________
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN
HAPPY JESUS TO ALL
FROM
FRANCIS XAVIER, SAMSEN
THAILAND
___________________________________________________
October 31, 2020 | Categories: 1 Corinthians 13, All Saints Day, All Souls' Day, Basilicas, CHRISTMAS, COMMENTARY OF THE DAY, DAILY GOSPEL OF LORD JESUS CHRIST, DAILY MASS, DAILY ROSARY, Easter, EASTER - ALLELUIA, EASTER - EXSULTET, FEAST, FEAST OF THE CHURCH, HOLY FAMILY, HOLY WEEK, Lent, MARY, MASS OF THE DAY, Memorial, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH, OUR LADY OF FATIMA, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, Pentecost Sunday - Birthday of the Church, POPE FRANCIS, PRIEST TRANSFER, PSALMS, SAINTS OF THE DAY, SOLEMNITY, STATIONS OF THE CROSS, The Ascension of Jesus, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, THE CANONIZATION OF TWO POPES, The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Most Holy Trinity, The Nativity of Jesus, THE NATIVITY STORY, The Passion | Leave a comment