Friday, April 10th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 21:1-14.
Easter Friday
10 April 2015
“Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 21:1-14.
Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself in this way.
Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his disciples.
Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We also will come with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.”
So he said to them, “Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.
So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea.
The other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore, only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish.
When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was the Lord.
Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish.
This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead.
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Easter Friday
10 April 2015
Commentary of the day
Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Jesuit
Abandonment to divine Providence (ed. J. Ramière, SJ)
« It is the Lord! »
All creatures that exist are in the hands of God. The action of the creature can only be perceived by the senses, but faith sees in all things the action of the Creator. It believes that in Jesus Christ all things live, and that his divine operation continues to the end of time, embracing the passing moment and the smallest created atom in its hidden life and mysterious action. The action of the creature is a veil which covers the profound mysteries of the divine operation.
After the Resurrection Jesus Christ took his disciples by surprise in his various apparitions. He showed himself to them under various disguises and, in the act of making himself known to them, disappeared. This same Jesus, ever living, ever working, still takes by surprise those souls whose faith is weak and wavering. There is not a moment in which God does not present himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals his divine action. It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognise his operation until it has ceased.
If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful, God would continually reveal himself to us, and we should see his divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence we should exclaim: “It is the Lord,” and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and should discover easily that nothing was wanting to us, and that the constant providence of God disposed him to bestow upon us at every moment whatever we required.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Easter Friday
10 April 2015
Saint of the day
St. Magdalena of Canossa
Saint Magdalena of Canossa
Virgin, foundress of the Canossian Family of Daughters and Sons of Charity
(1774-1835)
Magdalena of Canossa, was a woman who believed in the love of the Lord Jesus and, sent by the Holy Spirit among those most in need, she served them with a Mother’s heart and an Apostle’s zeal.
Born in Verona on 1st March 1774, of a noble and wealthy family, she was the third of six children.
By way of painful events such as her father’s death, her mother’s second marriage, illness, misunderstanding, the Lord guided her towards unforeseen paths on which Magdalene tentatively set out.
A CALL
Drawn by the love of God, at the age of seventeen she planned to consecrate her life to God and twice tried her vocation at a Carmel.
However, the Holy Spirit urged her to follow a new path: to allow herself to be loved by Jesus Crucified, to belong to Him alone, in order to dedicate herself exclusively to those in greatest need.
She returned to her family and, being compelled by sad events and the tragic political circumstances at the end of the 18th century, she nurtured her true vocation in the depth of her heart and went on with life at Canossa Palace, shouldering the burden of running her family’s large estate.
A GIFT
With complete dedication Magdalene carried out her daily tasks and widened her circle of friends while at the same time remaining open to the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit who gradually moulded her heart and enabled her to share in the love of the Father for mankind revealed by Jesus’ complete and supreme offering of Himself on the Cross, and by the example of Mary, the Sorrowful Virgin Mother.
Moved by that love, Magdalene responded to the cry of the poor, hungry for food, instruction, understanding and the Word of God. She discovered them in the suburbs of Verona, where the echoes of the French Revolution, the occupation by various foreign powers and the Verona uprising had left evident signs of devastation and human suffering.
A PROJECT
Magdalene sought and found her first companions called to follow Christ, poor, chaste, obedient and who were to be sent out as witnesses of His unconditional Love towards all people.
In 1808, Magdalene overcame her family’s opposition and left Canossa Palace once and for all to begin in the poorest district of Verona what she knew in her heart to be the Will of God: to serve the neediest persons with the heart of Christ.
A PROPHECY
Charity is like a blazing fire! Magdalene opened her heart to the Holy Spirit who guided her to the poor in other cities: Venice, Milan, Bergamo, Trent … In only a few decades the number of her houses increased, her religious family grew in the service of the Kingdom of God.
The Love of the Crucified and Risen Lord burnt in Magdalene’s heart who, together with her companions, became a witness of that same love in five specific areas:
Charity schools, providing an all-round formation geared to pupils status in life. Catechesis, given to all classes of people, with special attention to those most ignorant of the Faith. Support given to women patients in hospital.
Residential seminars, to train young teachers for rural areas and valuable helpers for parish priests in their pastoral activities.
Yearly courses of Spiritual Exercises for Ladies of the nobility, with the aim of deepening their spiritual life and involving them in various charitable works.
Later on, this last activity was offered to all those who had a desire for it.
Contemporary to Magdalene and her apostolic work, flourished other witnesses of Charity: Leopoldina Naudet, Antonio Rosmini, Antonio Provolo, Carlo Steeb, Gaspare Bertoni, Teodora Campostrini, T. Eustochio Verzeri, Elisabetta Renzi, Cavanis brothers, Pietro Leonardi, all of whom founded Religious Institutes.
A FAMILY
The Institute of the Daughters of Charity, between 1819 and 1820, received its ecclesiastical approval in the various dioceses where the communities were present.
His Holiness Pope Leo XII approved the Rule of the Institute with the Brief Si Nobis, of 23rd December 1828.
Towards the end of her life, after unsuccessful attempts with A. Rosmini and A. Provolo, Magdalene was able to start the male branch of the Institute which she had planned to set up from the very beginning.
On 23th May 1831 in Venice, she began the first Oratory of the Sons of Charity for the Christian formation of boys and men. She entrusted it to the Venetian priest Don Francesco Luzzo, helped by two laymen from Bergamo: Giuseppe Carsana and Benedetto Belloni.
Magdalene’s active and fruitful life ended when she was 61 years of age. She died in Verona surrounded by her Daughters on 10th April 1835. It was the Friday of Passion Week.
A MISSION
Above all make Jesus Christ known! This heartfelt concern of Magdalene’s was the great inheritance that the Daughters and Sons of Charity are called to live, a life of complete availability to God and service towards others, willing to go to the most distant countries for the sake of this holy work. (MAGDALENE, Ep. II/I, p. 266).
The Daughters of Charity traveled for the Far East in 1860. Today there are about 4000 sisters throughout the world, grouped into 24 provinces.
The Sons of Charity number about 200. They work in various cities in Italy, Latin America and the Philippines.
Canossian Religious, called to a missionary vocation, “ad gentes”, make themselves receptive to those basic Christian values, “the seeds of the Word”, present in every culture while giving witness to and proclaiming what the “have seen, heard, contemplated…”: the Love of the Father who, in Christ, reaches out to every person so that they may have life. Through this giving and receiving, the charism is enriched and bears fruit for God’s Kingdom.
The charism which the Holy Spirit brought to life in Magdalene did not exhaust itself in the vitality of the two Institutes.
Consequently, various groups of lay people have found in Magdalene and in her ideals, their special way of living the faith, of witnessing charity, in all walks of Christian life.
She was beatified by Pius XII on December 7, 1941 and canonized by John Paul II on October 2, 1988 at Rome.
A SONG OF THANKSGIVING
The Church draws our attention, especially that of her Sons and Daughters, to Magdalene, a Witness of the constant and freely given love of God.
We give thanks to Him for the gift of this Mother and Sister of ours and through her intercession we ask that we may love Him, as she did, above all other things, and make Him known to our fellow men by living our specific vocation.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Sunday, April 5th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 20:1-9.
Easter Sunday
Easter Sunday – Solemnity
5 April 2015
Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 20:1-9.
On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
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Easter Sunday – Solemnity
5 April 2015
Old Calendar: Easter Sunday ; Other Titles: Feast of the Resurrection, Pascha
Easter is the feast of feasts, the unalloyed joy and gladness of all Christians.
In the very center of the Mass, the great prayer of thanksgiving, from the first words of the Preface, expresses the unrivalled motive for this joy: if it is right to praise You, Lord, at all times, how much more so should we not glorify You on this day when Christ our Passover was sacrificed, for He is the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world, who by His Death destroyed our death and by His Resurrection restored our life. Easter means, then, Redemption obtained — sin destroyed, death overcome, divine life brought back to us, the resurrection of our body which is promised immortality. With such a certitude, we should banish all trace of sadness.
Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: “This is the day which the Lord has made.” Throughout the octave we shall sing of the unequalled joy which throws open eternity to us. Every Sunday will furnish a reminder of it, and from Sunday to Sunday, from year to year, the Easters of this earth will lead us to that blessed day on which Christ has promised that He will come again with glory to take us with Him into the kingdom of His Father.
Meditation – He is Risen!
“I rose up and am still with Thee.” After His labors and His humiliations, Christ finds rest with His Father. “I am still with Thee.” This is perfect beatitude. Through His cross He entered into the possession of eternal glory. Christ has gained the crown of victory; through Christ men also win their crowns of victory. Humanity was under a curse and subject to the wrath of God. Now that they have risen with Christ, their guilt has been destroyed. “I rose up and am still with Thee.” The liturgy places these words in the mouth of the Church that she may pray them with Christ.
“The earth trembled and was still when God arose in judgment.” The resurrection of Christ is the judgment and condemnation of those who have turned away from God. This judgment was prefigured by the angel who passed through the land of Egypt destroying the first-born of the Egyptians. The Israelites marked the doors of their houses with the blood of the paschal lamb. We are the new Israel, and “Christ our Pasch is sacrificed.” We mark ourselves with His blood, which we enjoy in the Holy Eucharist. We have been pardoned, we are saved, we shall live.
“He is risen.” The resurrection of Christ is a pledge of our own resurrection. It is the foundation upon which our faith rests. It is the guarantee of our redemption and God’s assurance that our sins are forgiven and that we are called to eternal life. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice therein. Give praise to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Alleluia.” “Christ our Pasch is sacrificed. . . . The Lamb redeems the sheep. Christ, the innocent One, hath reconciled sinners to the Father.” —
Excerpted from The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
From CatholicCulture.org
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Easter Sunday – Solemnity
5 April 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Maximus of Turin
Saint Maximus of Turin
(?-c.420),
Bishop
CC Sermon 53 on Psalm 117; PL 57, 361
“This is the day of gladness and joy”
“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps 117[118],24). It is not by chance, brethren, that today we read the Psalm in which the prophet invites us to rejoice and be glad and in which holy David invites all creation to celebrate this day. For today Christ’s resurrection has opened the resting-place of the dead; the Church’s newly baptised members have rejuvenated the earth; the Holy Spirit has shown us heaven. Hell, now opened, gives up its dead; its youth renewed, the earth buds forth those who are risen; and heaven opens wide to welcome those who mount up towards it.
The thief has gone up to paradise (Lk 23,43); the bodies of the saints enter the holy city (Mt 27,53)… At the resurrection of Christ all the elements, moved by a kind of momentum, are raised towards the heights. Hell hands over to the angels all those whom it was holding captive; heaven presents to the Lord all those it has received… Christ’s resurrection is life for the dead, pardon for sinners, glory for the saints. Thus great David calls all creation to celebrate Christ’s resurrection and encourages it to leap for joy and gladness in this day the Lord has made.
Yet you will ask…, heaven and hell have not been included in the daylight of this world, so can we expect these elements to celebrate a day that completely misses them? But the day the Lord has made penetrates all things, contains all things and encompasses at one and the same time heaven, earth and hell! Christ’s light is not blocked by walls nor broken by the elements nor darkened by shadows. The light of Christ is truly a day without night, a day without end. It shines forth everywhere, radiates everywhere, remains everywhere.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Easter Sunday – Solemnity
5 April 2015
Saint of the day
St. Vincent Ferrer,
Priest
(1350-1419)
SAINT VINCENT FERRER
Dominican priest
(1350-1419)
This wonderful apostle, the “Angel of the Judgment,” was born at Valencia in Spain, in 1350, and at the age of eighteen professed in the Order of St. Dominic. After a brilliant course of study he became master of sacred theology. For three years he read only the Scriptures, and knew the whole Bible by heart.
He converted the Jews of Valencia, and their synagogue became a church. Grief at the great schism then afflicting the Church reduced him to the point of death; but Our Lord Himself in glory bade him go forth to convert sinners, “for My judgment is nigh.”
This miraculous apostolate lasted twenty-one years. He preached throughout Europe, in the towns and villages of Spain, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland. Everywhere tens of thousands of sinners were reformed; Jews, infidels, and heretics were converted. Stupendous miracles enforced his words. Twice each day the ” miracle bell ” summoned the sick, the blind, the lame to be cured. Sinners the most obdurate became Saints; speaking only his native Spanish, he was understood in all tongues. Processions of ten thousand penitents followed him in perfect order. Convents, orphanages, hospitals, arose in his path.
Amidst all, his humility remained profound, his prayer constant. He always prepared for preaching by prayer. Once, however, when a person of high rank was to be present at his sermon he neglected prayer for study. The nobleman was not particularly struck by the discourse which had been thus carefully worked up; but coming again to hear the Saint, unknown to the latter, the second sermon made a deep impression on his soul. When St. Vincent heard of the difference, he remarked that in the first sermon it was Vincent who had preached, but in the second, Jesus Christ.
He fell ill at Vannes in Brittany, and received the crown of everlasting glory in 1419.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Friday, April 3rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 18:1-40.19:1-42.
Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
3 April 2015
“Look, I am bringing him out to you,
so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 18:1-40.19:1-42.
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.
Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?”
They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them.
When he said to them, “I AM,” they turned away and fell to the ground.
So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.”
Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.”
This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus.
Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”
So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him,
and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus.
But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in.
Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.”
Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine.
Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing.
Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.”
When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”
Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”
Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”
One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?”
Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover.
So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring (against) this man?”
They answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.”
At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have the right to execute anyone,”
in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him.
But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak,
and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly.
Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.”
The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid,
and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him.
So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?”
Jesus answered (him), “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!”
They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.
There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.'”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down.
So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be,” in order that the passage of scripture might be fulfilled (that says): “They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.” This is what the soldiers did.
Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and they be taken down.
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs,
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may (come to) believe.
For this happened so that the scripture passage might be fulfilled: “Not a bone of it will be broken.”
And again another passage says: “They will look upon him whom they have pierced.”
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body.
Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds.
They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom.
Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.
So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.
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GOOD FRIDAY
Old Calendar: Good Friday ; Other Titles: God’s Friday; Great Friday; Holy Friday;
“It is accomplished; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.”
Today the whole Church mourns the death of our Savior. This is traditionally a day of sadness, spent in fasting and prayer. The title for this day varies in different parts of the world: “Holy Friday” for Latin nations, Slavs and Hungarians call it “Great Friday,” in Germany it is “Friday of Mourning,” and in Norway, it is “Long Friday.” Some view the term “Good Friday” (used in English and Dutch) as a corruption of the term “God’s Friday.” This is another obligatory day of fasting and abstinence. In Ireland, they practice the “black fast,” which is to consume nothing but black tea and water.
According to the Church’s ancient tradition, the sacraments are not celebrated on Good Friday nor Holy Saturday. “Celebration of the Lord’s Passion,” traditionally known as the “Mass of the Presanctified,” (although it is not a mass) is usually celebrated around three o’clock in the afternoon, or later, depending on the needs of the parish.
The altar is completely bare, with no cloths, candles nor cross. The service is divided into three parts: Liturgy of the Word, Veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion. The priest and deacons wear red or black vestments. The liturgy starts with the priests and deacons going to the altar in silence and prostrating themselves for a few moments in silent prayer, then an introductory prayer is prayed.
In part one, the Liturgy of the Word, we hear the most famous of the Suffering Servant passages from Isaiah (52:13-53:12), a pre-figurement of Christ on Good Friday. Psalm 30 is the Responsorial Psalm “Father, I put my life in your hands.” The Second Reading, or Epistle, is from the letter to the Hebrews, 4:14-16; 5:7-9. The Gospel Reading is the Passion of St. John.
The General Intercessions conclude the Liturgy of the Word. The ten intercessions cover these areas:
- For the Church
- For the Pope
- For the clergy and laity of the Church
- For those preparing for baptism
- For the unity of Christians
- For the Jewish people
- For those who do not believe in Christ
- For those who do not believe in God
- For all in public office
- For those in special need
For more information about these intercessions please see Prayers for the Prisoners from the Catholic Culture Library.
Part two is the Veneration of the Cross. A cross, either veiled or unveiled, is processed through the Church, and then venerated by the congregation. We joyfully venerate and kiss the wooden cross “on which hung the Savior of the world.” During this time the “Reproaches” are usually sung or recited.
Part three, Holy Communion, concludes the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion. The altar is covered with a cloth and the ciboriums containing the Blessed Sacrament are brought to the altar from the place of reposition. The Our Father and the Ecce Agnus Dei (“This is the Lamb of God”) are recited. The congregation receives Holy Communion, there is a “Prayer After Communion,” and then a “Prayer Over the People,” and everyone departs in silence.
This is a day of mourning. We should try to take time off from work and school to participate in the devotions and liturgy of the day as much as possible. In addition, we should refrain from extraneous conversation. Some families leave the curtains drawn, and maintain silence during the 3 hours (noon — 3p.m.), and keep from loud conversation or activities throughout the remainder of the day. We should also restrict ourselves from any TV, music or computer—these are all types of technology that can distract us from the spirit of the day.
If some members of the family cannot attend all the services, a little home altar can be set up, by draping a black or purple cloth over a small table or dresser and placing a crucifix and candles on it. The family then can gather during the three hours, praying different devotions like the rosary, Stations of the Cross, the Divine Mercy devotions, and meditative reading and prayers on the passion of Christ.
Although throughout Lent we have tried to mortify ourselves, it is appropriate to try some practicing extra mortifications today. These can be very simple, such as eating less at the small meals of fasting, or eating standing up. Some people just eat bread and soup, or just bread and water while standing at the table.
CatholicCulture.org
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The law of fasting and abstinence
Can. 1252: The law of abstinence binds those who have completed their fourteenth year. The law of fasting binds those who have attained their majority, until the beginning of their sixtieth year. Pastors of souls and parents are to ensure that even those who by reason of their age are not bound by the law of fasting and abstinence, are taught the true meaning of penance.
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Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
3 April 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ephrem
A homily attributed to Saint Ephrem (c.306-373),
Deacon in Syria, Doctor of the Church
Lectionary
“Lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32)
Today the cross is advancing, creation exults. The cross, path for those who have gone astray, hope of Christians, the apostles’ preaching, security of the universe, foundation of the Church, fountain for those who are thirsty… In great gentleness, Jesus is led to the passion: he is brought to Pilate’s judgment seat; at the sixth hour, people mock him; until the ninth hour, he bears the pain of the nails, then his death ends his passion. At the twelfth hour, he is taken down from the cross. You could say he is a sleeping lion…
While he is judged, Wisdom remains silent and the Word says nothing. His enemies despise and crucify him… Those to whom yesterday he gave his body as food, watch from a distance as he dies. Peter, the first of the apostles, is the first to flee. Andrew also took flight, and John, who rested at his side, did not prevent the soldier from piercing that side with a lance. The Twelve fled; they did not say one word in his favor, they for whom he is giving his life. Lazarus is not there, he whom he called back to life. The blind man did not weep for him who opened his eyes to the light, and the crippled man, who could walk thanks to him, did not run to him.
Only a bandit who was crucified next to him confessed him and called him his king. O thief, precocious blossom from the tree of the cross, first fruit of the wood from Golgotha…! The Lord reigns; creation rejoices. The cross triumphs, and all nations, tribes, languages and peoples (Rev 7:9) come to adore him… The cross gives light to the whole universe, it chases away the darkness and gathers the nations… into one single Church, one single faith, one single baptism in charity. It stands at the center of the world and is made firm on Calvary.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Image: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
3 April 2015
Saint of the day
St. Richard, Bishop (1197-1253)
SAINT RICHARD OF CHICHESTER
Bishop
(1197-1253)
Richard was born, 1197, in the little town of Wyche, eight miles from Worcester, England. He and his elder brother were left orphans when young, and Richard gave up the studies which he loved, to farm his brother’s impoverished estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard’s successful care, proposed to make over to him all his lands; but he refused both the estate and the offer of a brilliant marriage, to study for the priesthood at Oxford.
In 1235 he was appointed, for his learning and piety, chancellor of that University, and afterwards, by St. Edmund of Canterbury, chancellor of his diocese. He stood by that Saint in his long contest with the king, and accompanied him into exile.
After St. Edmund’s death Richard returned to England to toil as a simple curate, but was soon elected Bishop of Chichester in preference to the worthless nominee of Henry III. The king in revenge refused to recognize the election, and seized the revenues of the see. Thus Richard found himself fighting the same 1 battle in which St. Edmund had died. He went to Lyons, was there consecrated by Innocent IV. in 1245, and returning to England, in spite of his poverty and the king’s hostility, exercised fully his episcopal rights, and thoroughly reformed his see.
After two years his revenues were restored. Young and old loved St. Richard. He gave all he had, and worked miracles, to feed the poor and heal the sick; but when the rights or purity of the Church were concerned he was inexorable.
A priest of noble blood polluted his office by sin; Richard deprived him of his benefice, and refused the king’s petition in his favor. On the other hand, when a knight violently put a priest in prison, Richard compelled the knight to walk round the priest’s church with the same log of wood on his neck to which he had chained the priest; and when the burgesses of Lewes tore a criminal from the church and hanged him, Richard made them dig up the body from its unconsecrated grave, and bear it back to the sanctuary they had violated.
Richard died in 1253, while preaching, at the Pope’s command, a crusade against the Saracens.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Tuesday, March 31st. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 13:21-33.36-38.
Tuesday of Holy Week
31 March 2015
«Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.»
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 13:21-33.36-38.
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, «Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.» The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus’ side. So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant. He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and (took it and) handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.
After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
(Now) none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him. Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or to give something to the poor.
So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.
When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
(If God is glorified in him,) God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I told the Jews, ‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?” Jesus answered (him), “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him, “Master, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times.”
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Tuesday of Holy Week
31 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397),
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397),
Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Treatise on Saint Luke 10,49-52, 87-89
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow before you deny me three times
Brothers, let us repent: let us watch out that we may not have arguments concerning precedence amongst us for our ruin. The fact that the apostles (Lk 22,24) had an argument among them is not a good excuse for us to do the same. It is an invitation to watch out. Peter repented, of course, the day he answered the first call of the Master, but can we say that his conversion happened all at once?…
The Lord gives us the example. We had need for everything; he instead, did not need the help of anybody, nevertheless he reveals himself as master of humility by serving his disciples… As for Peter, surely ready in his spirit but still weak in the flesh (Mt 26,41), he is warned that he will deny the Lord. The Lord’s Passion can find imitators but has no equals. Therefore I do not blame Peter for having denied Christ; I congratulate him for having wept. One thing is relevant to our common condition, the other is a sign of virtue, of inner strength…But if we excuse him, he did not excuse himself. He preferred accusing himself for his own sin and justifying himself by confessing his sin, rather than worsening his case by denying it. And he wept…
He wept; he did not apologize, he just cried. The one who cannot defend himself may yet wash himself; it is up to the tears to wash away the faults we are ashamed to confess in person. Tears speak the sin without trembling. Tears do not ask for forgiveness but they obtain it:…good tears, washing sin away! These weep as long as Jesus looks at them. Peter denied him a first time and did not weep because the Lord had not looked at him. He denied him a second time and he did not weep because again the Lord had not looked at him. He denied him a third time; Jesus looked at him and he wept bitterly. Look at us, Lord Jesus, so that we, too, may bewail our sin.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Tuesday of Holy Week
31 March 2015
Saint of the day
St. Benjamin,
Deacon
and Martyr (c. 424)
SAINT BENJAMIN
Deacon,
Martyr
(+ c. 424)
Isdegerdes, Son of Sapor III., put a stop to the cruel persecutions against the Christians in Persia, which had been begun by Sapor II., and the Church had enjoyed twelve years’ peace in that kingdom, when in 420 it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of Abdas, a Christian bishop, who burned down the Pyræum, or Temple of Fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King Isdegerdes thereupon demolished all the Christian churches in Persia, put to death Abdas, and raised a general persecution against the Church, which continued forty years with great fury.
Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But his son and successor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater inhumanity. The very recital of the cruelties he exercised on the Christian strikes us with horror.
Among the glorious champions of Christ was St. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when an ambassador from the emperor obtained his release on condition that he should never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. The ambassador passed his word in his behalf that he would not; but Benjamin, who was a minister of the Gospel, declared that he should miss no opportunity of announcing Christ.
The king, being informed that he still preached the Faith in his kingdom, ordered him to be apprehended. He suffered tortures frequently repeated with violence. Lastly, he expired about the year 424.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Monday, March 30th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 12:1-11.
Monday of Holy Week
30 March 2015
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and
anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12:1-11.
Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said,
Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages and given to the poor?
He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions.
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
(The) large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too,
because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.
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Monday of Holy Week
30 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430)
Saint Augustine (354-430),
Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermons on Saint John’s Gospel, no.50, 6-7
“You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me”
This is the historical event, now let us look for the symbol. Whoever you are, if you want to be faithful, pour precious perfume on the Lord’s feet along with Mary. This perfume is uprightness… Pour perfume on the feet of Jesus: follow in the Lord’s footsteps by a holy way of life. Wipe his feet with your hair: if you have more than enough, give to the poor and in this way you will have wiped the Lord’s feet… Perhaps the Lord’s feet on earth are in need. Indeed, isn’t it about his members he will say at the end of the world: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25,40)?
“And the house was filled with its fragrance.” That is to say, the world has been filled with the renown of this woman, for the sweet fragrance is her good name. People who associate the name of Christian with a dishonest life injure Christ…; if God’s name is blasphemed by bad Christians, it is praised and honored, on the other hand, by the good: “For in every place we are the aroma of Christ” (2Cor,14-15). And it is said in the Song of Songs: “Your name is oil poured out” (1,3).
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Monday of Holy Week
30 March 2015
Saint of the day
St. John Climacus, anchorite (6th-7th centuries)
SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS
Anchorite
(6th-7th centuries)
John made, while still young, such progress in learning that he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired to Mt. Sinai, where he put himself under the direction of a holy monk. Never was novice more fervent, more unrelaxing in his efforts for self-mastery. After four years he took the vows, and an aged abbot foretold that he would some day be one of the greatest lights of the Church.
Nineteen years later, on the death of his director, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he studied the lives and writings of the Saints, and was raised to an unusual height of contemplation. The fame of his holiness and practical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation. For his greater profit he visited the solitudes of Egypt.
At the age of seventy-five he was chosen abbot of Mt. Sinai, and there “he dwelt in the mount of God, and drew from the rich treasure of his heart priceless riches of doctrine, which he poured forth with wondrous abundance and benediction.”
He was induced by a brother abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life; and his book called the Climax, or Ladder of Perfection, has been prized in all ages for its wisdom, its clearness, and its unction.
At the end of four years he would no longer endure the honors and distractions of his office, and retired to his solitude, where he fell asleep in the Lord.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
30 March 2015
Sunday, March 29th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 14:1-72.15:1-47.
Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Year B
29 March 2015
A woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 14:1-72.15:1-47.
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to take place in two days’ time. So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, “Not during the festival, for fear that there may be a riot among the people.”
When he was in Bethany reclining at table in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil, costly genuine spikenard. She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant. “Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days’ wages and the money given to the poor.” They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you make trouble for her? She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could. She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”‘
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one, “Surely it is not I?”
He said to them, “One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
While they were eating, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Then, after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be dispersed.’
But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee.”
Peter said to him, “Even though all should have their faith shaken, mine will not be.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.”
But he vehemently replied, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch.”
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass by him; he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will.”
When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go. See, my betrayer is at hand.”
Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, “The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely.”
He came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me? Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the scriptures may be fulfilled.” And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging,
We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’ Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?”
But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?”
Then Jesus answered, “I am; and ‘you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'”
At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”
But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. (Then the cock crowed.)
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”
Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”
He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”
And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came, the chief priests with the elders and the scribes, that is, the whole Sanhedrin, held a council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He said to him in reply, “You say so.”
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him, “Have you no answer? See how many things they accuse you of.”
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered, “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?”
For he knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply, “Then what (do you want) me to do with (the man you call) the king of the Jews?” They shouted again, “Crucify him.”
Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” They only shouted the louder, “Crucify him.”
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull).
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.”
With him they crucified two revolutionaries, one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself by coming down from the cross.”
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes, mocked him among themselves and said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
And at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said, “Look, he is calling Elijah.”
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down.” Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him saw how he breathed his last he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” There were also women looking on from a distance. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee and ministered to him. There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down, wrapped him in the linen cloth and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where he was laid.
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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Year B
29 March 2015
At the Procession with palms – gospel mt 21:1-11
and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them,
“Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.
Untie them and bring them here to me.
And if anyone should say anything to you, reply,
‘The master has need of them.’
Then he will send them at once.”
This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet
might be fulfilled:
Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”
The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.
They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them,
and he sat upon them.
The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,
while others cut branches from the trees
and strewed them on the road.
The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is the he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest.”
And when he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?”
And the crowds replied,
“This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
From
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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Year B
29 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ephrem of Salamis
Attributed to Saint Ephrem of Salamis (? – 403), Bishop
1st Homily for the Feast of Palms
“See, your king shall come to you, meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” (Zech 9:9)
“Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion.” Be filled with joy, Church of God. “See, your king shall come to you.” (Zech 9:9) Go out to meet him, hasten to contemplate his glory. This is the world’s salvation: God comes to the cross, and the Desired of the nations (Hag 2:7) enters Zion. The light is coming. Let us cry out with the people: “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Lord God has appeared to us who were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death (Lk 1:79). He appeared as the resurrection of those who have fallen, the liberation of captives, the light of the blind, the consolation of the afflicted, rest for the weak, spring for those who thirst, avenger of the persecuted, redemption of those who are lost, union of the divided, doctor for the sick, salvation of those who have gone astray.
Yesterday, Christ raised Lazarus from the dead; today he is going to his own death. Yesterday, he tore off the strips of cloth that bound Lazarus; today he is stretching out his hand to those who want to bind him. Yesterday, he tore that man away from darkness; today, for humankind, he is going down into darkness and the shadow of death. And the Church is celebrating. She is beginning the feast of feasts, for she is receiving her king as a spouse, for her king is in her midst.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Year B
29 March 2015
Saints of the day
St. Gladys,
Hermit
(5th century)
Saint Gladys
Hermit
(5th century)
Gladys was born in Wales in the 5th century. She was one of the 24 children of Brychan of Brecknock, wife of Saint Gundleus, and mother of Saints Cadoc and, possibly, Keyna.
It is said that after their conversion by the example and exhortation of their son, she and Gundleus lived an austere life.
When Gundleus died, Gladys moved to Pencanau in Bassaleg and lived as a hermit.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion – Year B
29 March 2015
Saints of the day
Sts. Jonas, Barachisius and Co,
Martyrs
(4th century)
IMAGE OF THE CATHOLIC ALL SAINTS
SAINTS JONAS, BARACHISIUS
and their Companions
Martyrs
(4th century)
King Sapor, of Persia (modern Iran), in the eighteenth year of his reign, raised a bloody persecution against the Christians, and laid waste their churches and monasteries. Jonas and Barachisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa, hearing that several Christians lay under sentence of death at Hubaham, went thither to encourage and serve them. Nine of that number received the crown of martyrdom.
After their execution, Jonas and Barachisius were apprehended for having exhorted them to die. The president entreated the two brothers to obey the king of Persia, and to worship the sun, moon, fire, and water. Their answer was, that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven and earth than a mortal prince. Jonas was beaten with knotty clubs and with rods, and next set in a frozen pond, with a cord tied to his foot. Barachisius had two red-hot iron plates and two red-hot hammers applied under each arm, and melted lead dropped into his nostrils and eyes; after which he was carried to prison, and there hung up by one foot. Despite these cruel tortures, the two brothers remained steadfast in the Faith.
New and more horrible torments were then devised under which at last they yielded up their lives, while their pure souls winged their flight to heaven, there to gain the martyr’s crown, which they had so faithfully won.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Saturday, March 28th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 11:45-56.
Saturday of the Fifth week of Lent
28 March 2015
“You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that
one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 11:45-56.
Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done began to believe in him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.
So from that day on they planned to kill him.
So Jesus no longer walked about in public among the Jews, but he left for the region near the desert, to a town called Ephraim, and there he remained with his disciples.
Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before Passover to purify themselves.
They looked for Jesus and said to one another as they were in the temple area, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”
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Saturday of the Fifth week of Lent
28 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Bernard (1091-1153)
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
28th Homily on the Song of Songs
“It is better that one man should die instead of the people”
The darkening of one makes many bright… “It is better,” said Caiaphas, “for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” It is better that one be darkened “in the likeness of sinful flesh,” (Rm 8:3) for the sake of all than for the whole of mankind to be lost by the darkness of sin; that the splendor and image of the substance of God should be shrouded in the form of a slave, in order that a slave might live; that the brightness of eternal light should become dimmed in the flesh for the purifying of the flesh; that he who surpasses all mankind in beauty (Ps 44:2) should be eclipsed by the darkness of the Passion for the enlightening of mankind; that he should suffer the ignominy of the cross, grow pale in death, be totally deprived of beauty and comeliness that he might gain the Church as a beautiful and comely bride, without spot or wrinkle (Ep 5:27).
But under his dark covering (Sg 1:5) I recognize the King…; I recognize him and I embrace him. For though he presents this dark exterior… within is the brightness of divine life, the beauty of his strength, the splendor of grace, the purity of innocence. But covering it all is the abject hue of infirmity, his face as it were hidden and despised: “one tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sinning” (He 4:15).
I recognize here the image of our sin-darkened nature; I recognize the garments that clothed our first parents after their sin (Gn 3:21). My God has clothed himself in them by assuming the condition of a slave, and becoming as men are, he was seen in their likeness (Ph 2:7). Under the skin that Jacob wore (Gn 27:16), symbol of sin, I recognize both the hand that committed no sin and the neck which never bowed to evil; no word of treachery was found in his mouth. I know, Lord, that you are gentle by nature, meek and humble of heart, pleasing in appearance and loveable in your ways, “anointed with the oil of gladness above your companions” (Mt 11:29; Ps 44:8). Why then this disfigured likeness to Esau? Whose haggard image this?… Ah! It is mine. He has taken my likeness, taken on my sin… And beneath the rough skin of my sinfulness I recognize my God and my Savior.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Saturday of the Fifth week of Lent
28 March 2015
Saint of the day
St. Gontran, King (545-592)
SAINT GONTRAN
King
(545-592)
St. Gontran was the son of King Clotaire, and grandson of Clovis I. and St. Clotildis. Being the second son, whilst his brothers Charibert reigned at Paris, and Sigebert in Ostrasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king of Orleans and Burgundy in 561, making Chalons his capital.
When compelled to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, he made no other use of his victories, under the conduct of a brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. The crimes in which the barbarous manners of his nation involved him he effaced by tears of repentance.
The prosperity of his reign, both in peace and war, condemns those who think that human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the Gospel, whereas nothing can render a government more flourishing.
He always treated the pastors of the Church with respect and veneration. He was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent of his subjects. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of His justice, to avert
His indignation which he believed he himself had provoked and drawn down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher of crimes in his officers and others, and, by many wholesome regulations, restrained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops; but no man was more ready to forgive offences against his own person.
With royal magnificence he built and endowed many churches and monasteries.
This good king died in 592, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reigned thirty-one years and some months.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Friday, March 27th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 10:31-42.
Friday of the Fifth week of Lent
27 March 2015
“John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 10:31-42.
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
(Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.
He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.
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Friday of the Fifth week of Lent
27 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint John-Paul II
Saint John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
General Audience 6/12/79
“ Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods’ ? ”
“Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gn 1,26). As if the Creator himself retracted to create man; as if, in creating him, not only he called him to existence by saying: “May it be!” but, in a particular way, he drew man from the mystery of his own being. This is comprehensible because it does not concern only the being, but the image. The image must reflect, it must reproduce, in a certain way, the substance of its prototype…It is obvious that this resemblance is not meant as a portrait, but in the sense that the life of a human being is similar to that of God…
By defining man the “image of God”, the book of Genesis reveals what is peculiar to man, what distinguishes him from all other creatures of the visible world. Science, we know, has tried and continues trying to show in different ways the bonds of man with the natural world, to show his dependence on this world, so as to insert him in the history of evolution of the different species.
With all our respect for this type of research, we cannot limit ourselves to this. If we analyse man in the depths of his being we see that he differs from the natural world more than he resembles it. Anthropology and philosophy too proceed in this same way, as they try to analyse and understand the intelligence, freedom, conscience and spirituality of man.
The book of Genesis seems to go beyond all these experiences of science and, by saying that man is the image of God, it makes us understand that the answers to the mystery of his humanity must not be sought in his resemblance with the world. Man resembles God more than nature. It is in this sense that the psalm could say, “You are gods” (Ps 82,6), words that Jesus will repeat.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Friday of the Fifth week of Lent
27 March 2015
Saint of the day
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Thursday, March 26th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 8:51-59.
Thursday of the Fifth week of Lent
26 March 2015
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:51-59.
Jesus said to the Jews: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
(So) the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.
So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
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Thursday of the Fifth week of Lent
26 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr
Against the heresies, IV, 5, 3-5
“Abraham rejoiced to see my day”
“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day; and he saw it, and was glad.” What is intended? “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.” (Gn 15,6; Rm 4,3). In the first place, he believed him to be the maker of heaven and earth, the only God; and secondly, that he would make his posterity to be as the stars of heaven in number. This is what Paul also meant when he said “as lights in the world” (Phil 2,15). Rightly, therefore, having left his earthly kindred, he followed the Word of God, walking as a stranger with the Word that he might later become a citizen with the Word, the Son of God (cf. Eph 2,19). Rightly, too, the apostles, being of the race of Abraham, left their boat and their father, and followed the Word (Mt 4,22). And rightly do we also, having the same faith as Abraham and taking up the cross just as Isaac took up the wood, follow the same Word (Gn 22,6; Mt 16,24).
For in Abraham people had learned beforehand and become accustomed to follow the Word of God. For Abraham, by his faith, followed the commandment of God’s Word and did not falter in delivering up his only-begotten and beloved son as a sacrifice to God (Gn 22,2) so that God also might be pleased to offer up for all Abraham’s descendants his own beloved and only-begotten Son as a sacrifice for our redemption (Rm 8,32).
Since, therefore, Abraham was a prophet and saw in the Spirit the day of the Lord’s coming and the dispensation of his suffering, namely salvation for himself and for all those who, like him, would believe in God, he rejoiced exceedingly. The Lord Christ, therefore, was not unknown to Abraham, whose day he desired to see. And it was as one who had been taught by the Word that Abraham also knew the Father of the Lord and believed in him… Therefore he said, “I will stretch forth my hand to the most high God, who made heaven and earth” (Gn 14,22).
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Fifth week of Lent
26 March 2015
Saints of the day
St. Ludger, Bishop (c. 743-809)
SAINT LUDGER
Bishop
(c. 743-809)
St. Ludger was born in Friesland about the year 743. His father, a nobleman of the first rank, at the child’s own request, committed him very young to the care of St. Gregory, the disciple of St. Boniface, and his successors in the government of the see of Utrecht. Gregory educated him in his monastery and gave him the clerical tonsure. Ludger, desirous of further improvement, passed over into England, and spent four years and a half under Alcuin, who was rector of a famous school at York.
In 773 he returned home, and St. Gregory dying in 776, his successor, Alberic, compelled our Saint to receive the holy order of priesthood, and employed him for several years in preaching the Word of God in Friesland, where he converted great numbers, founded several monasteries, and built many churches.
The pagan Saxons ravaging the country, Ludger travelled to Rome to consult Pope Adrian II, what course to take, and what he thought God required of him. He then retired for three years and a half to Monte Casino, where he wore the habit of the Order and conformed to the practice of the rule during his stay, but made no religious vows.
In 787, Charlemagne overcame the Saxons and conquered Friesland and the coast of the Germanic Ocean as far as Denmark. Ludger, hearing this, returned into East Friesland, where he converted the Saxons to the Faith, as he also did the province of Westphalia. He founded the monastery of Werden, twenty-nine miles from Cologne.
In 802, Hildebald, Archbishop of Cologne, not regarding his strenuous resistance, ordained him Bishop of Munster. He joined in his diocese five cantons of Friesland which he had converted, and also founded the monastery of Helmstad in the duchy of Brunswick.
Being accused to the Emperor Charlemagne of wasting his income and neglecting the embellishment of churches, this prince ordered him to appear at court. The morning after his arrival the emperor’s chamberlain brought him word that his attendance was required. The Saint, being then at his prayers, told the officer that he would follow him as soon as he had finished them. He was sent for three several times before he was ready, which the courtiers represented as a contempt of his Majesty, and the emperor, with some emotion, asked him why he had made him wait so long, though he had sent for him so often. The bishop answered that though he had the most profound respect for his Majesty, yet God was infinitely above him; that whilst we are occupied with Him, it is our duty to forget everything else. This answer made such an impression on the emperor that he dismissed him with honor and disgraced his accusers.
St. Ludger was favored with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. His last sickness, though violent, did not hinder him from continuing his functions to the very last day of his life, which was Passion Sunday, on which day he preached very early in the morning, said Mass towards nine, and preached again before night, foretelling to those that were about him that he should die the following night, and fixing upon place in his monastery of Werden where he chose to be interred.
He died accordingly on the 26th of March, at midnight.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Fifth week of Lent
26 March 2015
Saints of the day
Bl. Maddalena Caterina Morano (1847-1908)
BLESSED MADDALENA CATERINA MORANO
(1847-1908)
Blessed Maddalena Caterina Morano was born in 1847 into a large family in Chieri, near Turin, Italy. When she was eight years old, her father and older sister died, and so young Maddalena had to work. However, she applied herself to study as well, and in 1866 she received her diploma as an elementary school teacher.
Her studies increased her knowledge of Christian doctrine and her longing to be a saint. She wished to enter religious life, but the needs of her family required her to wait. For 12 years she worked as a rural school teacher in Montaldo and taught catechism in the local parish.
In 1878, having set aside enough savings for her mother’s future needs, Maddalena entered the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a congregation founded six years earlier by Don Bosco. She was a model religious, and after a brief but intense novitiate she took her first vows. In 1881, with Don Bosco’s blessing, she was sent to Trecastagni (Diocese of Catania), Sicily, and put in charge of an existing institute for women, to which she gave a new orientation inspired by the principles of the Salesian method.
Sicily became her second home, where she carried out a varied and fruitful apostolate. She opened new houses, set up after-school activities and sewing classes, trained teachers, etc. Her real love, though, was for catechism class, since she was convinced that the formation of Christian conscience was the basis of personal maturity and all social improvement. She coordinated catechetical instruction in 18 of Catania’s churches and trained lay and religious catechists to bring the Christian message to needy boys and girls.
She spent 25 years in Sicily and served her community as local and provincial superior. She was an attentive mother and caring guide for many local vocations, faithfully living the charism of Mother Maria Mazzarello, co-foundress of the institute. She died in Catania at the age of 61 on 26 March 1908.
She was beatified on November 5, 1994 at Catania by John Paul II.
L’Osservatore Romano – 1994
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Wednesday, March 25th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 1:26-38.
The Annunciation of the Lord – Solemnity
25 March 2015
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1:26-38.
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.
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The Annunciation of the Lord – Solemnity
25 March 2015
The Annunciation of the Lord
The Annunciation of the Lord
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
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The Annunciation of the Lord – Solemnity
25 March 2015
Saint of the day
Bl. Omeljan Kovč, Priest and Martyr (1884-1944)
Omeljan Kovč
Priest and Martyr
(1884-1944)
Blessed Emilian Kovch was born on 20 August 1884, near Kosiv. In 1911, after graduating from the College of Sts Sergius and Bacchus in Rome, he was ordained to the priesthood.
In the spring of 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo for aiding Jews. On 25 March 1944 he was burned to death in the ovens of the Majdanek Nazi death camp.
On September 9, 1999 he was honoured with the title “Righteous Ukrainian” by the Jewish Council of Ukraine. He was beatified by John-Paul II on June 2001.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Tuesday, March 24th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 8:21-30.
Tuesday of the Fifth week of Lent
24 March 2015
“The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:21-30.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said (to them), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
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Tuesday of the Fifth week of Lent
24 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Athanasius
(295-373)
Saint Athanasius
(295-373),
Bishop of Alexandria, Doctor of the Church
On the incarnation of the Word, 21-22
“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM”
Why, then, one might say, if it were necessary for Christ to yield up his body to death on behalf of all, did he not lay it aside simply in a human way instead of going so far as to be crucified? For one might say that it was more fitting for him to have laid his body aside honorably, than ignominiously to endure such a death as that. Such an objection is itself too human, whereas what the Savior did is truly divine and worthy of his Godhead for many reasons.
Firstly, because the death which befalls us all comes as a result of the weakness of our nature; for, unable to continue for long, we are dissolved with time. Hence, too, diseases befall us, and we fall sick and die. But the Lord is not weak but is the power and Word of God and life itself. If, then, he had laid aside his body somewhere in private and upon a bed, after the manner of mortal flesh, it would have been thought… there was nothing in him more than in other men… It was not fitting, either, that the Lord,who healed the diseases of others, should himself fall sick…
Why, then, did he not cast out death, as he did sickness? Because it was precisely for this that he possessed a body, and it was unfitting to prevent it lest the resurrection should also be hindered… But it would be better, someone might say, to have foiled the designs of his enemies so that his body might be protected from death altogether. Now let such a one be aware that this too was unbefitting to the Lord. For as it was not fitting for the Word of God, being Life, to inflict death on his own body, so neither was it suitable for him to fly from the death inflicted by others… this did not show weakness on the Word’s part, but, on the contrary, showed Him to be both Savior and Life… the Savior came to bring to completion, not his own death, but the death of all humanity.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Tuesday of the Fifth week of Lent
24 March 2015
Saints of the day
St. Catherine of Sweden
(1330 + 1381)
SAINT CATHARINE OF SWEDEN
Virgin
(1330 + 1381)
St. CatharineE was daughter of Ulpho, Prince of Nericia in Sweden, and of St. Bridget. The love of God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house.
Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to Egard, a young nobleman of great virtue; but the virgin persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. By her discourser he became desirous only of heavenly graces, arid, to draw them down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal.
The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity.
After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion to the Passion of Christ and to the relics of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance.
After her mother’s death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to Sweden, and died abbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen, on the 24th of March in 1381.
For the last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental confession of her sins.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Tuesday of the Fifth week of Lent
24 March 2015
Saints of the day
Bl. Maria Karlowska
(1865-1935)
Blessed Maria Karlowska
Religious
(1865-1935)
Maria Karlowska was born in the territories under Prussian occupation in 1865. She worked as a true Samaritan among women suffering great material and moral deprivation.
Her holy zeal quickly attracted a group of disciples of Christ, with whom she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd of Divine Providence. For herself and her Sisters she set the following goal: “We must proclaim the Heart of Jesus, that is, so to live from him, in him and for him, as to become like him and that in our lives he may be more visible than we ourselves”.
Her devotion to the Saviour’s Sacred Heart bore fruit in a great love for people. She felt an insatiable hunger for love. A love of this kind, according to Blessed Maria Karlowska, will never say “enough”, will never stop midway. Precisely this happened to her, who was as it were transported by the current of love of the Divine Paraclete.
Thanks to this love she restored to many souls the light of Christ and helped them to regain their lost dignity.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Monday, March 23rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 8:1-11.
Monday of the Fifth week of Lent
23 March 2015
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:1-11.
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more.”
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Monday of the Fifth week of Lent
23 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430),
Saint Augustine (354-430),
Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Tractate 33 on the Gospel of John, 5-8
“Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more”
“One after another all withdrew.” The two were left alone, the woman in need of mercy and Mercy. But the Lord, having struck them through with that dart of justice, deigned not to heed their fall, but, turning his eyes away from them, “again he wrote with his finger on the ground.”
But when that woman remained alone and all had gone, he raised his eyes to her. We have heard the voice of justice; let us listen too to the voice of clemency… This woman expected to be punished by him in whom sin could not be found. But he, who had driven back her adversaries with the voice of justice, lifting the eyes of mercy to her, asked her: “Has no one condemned you?” She answered, “No one, Lord.” And he said: “Neither do I condemn you. I by whom, perhaps, you were afraid of being condemned because you have found no sin in me; neither do I condemn you.”
What is this, O Lord? Do you favour sins, then? Certainly not! But take note of what follows: “Go, henceforth sin no more.” The Lord did condemn, therefore, but he condemned the sin, not the sinner… Let them be careful, then, those who love the goodness in the Lord but who fear His truthfulness… The Lord is gracious, the Lord is slow to anger, the Lord is merciful; but the Lord is also just and the Lord is abounding in truth (Ps 85[86],15). He gives you time for amendment but you prefer to take advantage of the delay rather than to reform your ways. Did you act wickedly yesterday? Be good today. Have you spent today in evil? At any rate change your behaviour tomorrow.
This, then, is the meaning of the words he addresses to this woman, “Neither do I condemn you but, having been made secure concerning the past, be on your guard in the future. I, for my part, will not condemn you, I have blotted out what you have done; keep what I have commanded that you may gain what I have promised.”
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Monday of the Fifth week of Lent
23 March 2015
Saints of the day
St. Turibius of Mongrovejo, Bishop (1538-1606)
SAINT TURIBIUS of MONGROVEJO
Archbishop of Lima
(1538-1606)
Turibius Alphonsus Mongrovejo, whose feast the Church honors on April 27th, was born on the 6th of November, 1538, at Mayorga in the kingdom of Leon in Spain. Brought up in a pious family where devotion was hereditary, his youth was a model to all who knew him. All his leisure was given to devotion or to works of charity. His austerities were great, and he frequently made long pilgrimages on foot.
The fame of Turibius as a master of canon and civil law soon reached the ears of King Philip II., who made him judge at Granada. About that time the see of Lima, in Peru, fell vacant, and among those proposed Philip found no one who seemed better endowed than our Saint with all the qualities that were required at that city, where much was to be done for religion. He sent to Rome the name of the holy judge, and the Sovereign Pontiff confirmed his choice. Turibius in vain sought to avoid the honor. The Pope, in reply, directed him to prepare to receive Holy Orders and be consecrated. Yielding at last by direction of his confessor, he was ordained priest and consecrated.
He arrived at Lima in 1587, and entered on his duties. All was soon edification and order in his episcopal city. A model of all virtue himself, he confessed daily and prepared for Mass by long meditation. St. Turibius then began a visitation of his vast diocese, which he traversed three times, his first visitation lasting seven years and his second four. He held provincial councils, framing decrees of such wisdom that his regulations were adopted in many countries. Almost his entire revenues were bestowed on his creditors, as he styled the poor.
While discharging with zeal his duties he was seized with a fatal illness during his third visitation, and died on the 23d of March, 1606, at Santa, exclaiming, as he received the sacred Viaticum: “I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: ‘We shall go into the house of the Lord.'”
The proofs of his holy life and of the favors granted through his intercession induced Pope Innocent XI to beatify him, and he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in the year 1726.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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Monday of the Fifth week of Lent
23 March 2015
Saints of the day
Sts Victorian and others, Martyrs (+ 484)
IMAGE OF ALL SAINTS
STS. VICTORIAN AND OTHERS
Martyrs
(+ 484)
Huneric, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the Catholics, but in 480 he began a grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which in 484 became general, and vast numbers of Catholics were put to death.
Victorian, one of the principal lords of the kingdom, had been made governor of Carthage, with the Roman title of Proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject of the king, who placed great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an inviolable fidelity.
The king, after he had published his cruel edicts, sent a message to the proconsul, promising, if he would conform to his religion, to heap on him the greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the power of a prince to bestow.
The proconsul, who amidst the glittering pomps of the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made this generous answer: “Tell the king that I trust in Christ. His Majesty may condemn me to any torments, but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic Church, in which I have been baptized. Even if there were no life after this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, Who has granted me the happiness of knowing Him, and bestowed on me His most precious graces.”
The tyrant became furious at this answer, nor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the Saint to endure. Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious martyrdom.
The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others who were crowned in the same persecution.
Two brothers, who were apprehended for the faith, had promised each other, if possible, to die together; and they begged of God, as a favor, that they might both suffer the same torments. The persecutors hung them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them, under the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease. His brother, fearing that this might move him to deny his faith, cried out from the rack, “God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ?” The other was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out, “No, no; I ask not to be released; increase my tortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me.” They were then burned with red-hot plates of iron, and tormented so long that the executioners at last left them, saying, “Everybody follows their example! no one now embraces our religion.” This they said chiefly because, notwithstanding these brothers had been so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises to be seen upon them.
Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the sane time. Among many glorious confessors at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these words: “Think no more of them: Jesus Christ Himself will have care of them and protect their souls.” Whilst in prison she was told that her husband had conformed. Accordingly, when she met him at the bar before judge, she upbraided him in open court for having basely abandoned God; but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been put upon her to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young children, when dragged away by the persecutors, held their companions by the knees till they were torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and scourged every day for a long time; yet by God’s grace every one of them persevered in the faith to the end of the persecution.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Sunday, March 22nd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12:20-33.
Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
A voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12:20-33.
Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast.
They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”
I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
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Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013]
Vom Sinn des Christseins, 1965
“If it dies, it produces much fruit”
To be a Christian is first of all and always to tear oneself away from the selfishness that lives only for itself, so as to enter into a great fundamental orientation of life for one another. Basically, all the great scriptural images transmit this reality. The image of Easter…, the image of the Exodus…, which begins with Abraham and which remains a fundamental law throughout sacred history: all this is an expression of the same basic movement, which consists in becoming detached from an existence turned in on itself.
The Lord Jesus spoke most deeply of this reality in the law concerning the grain of wheat, which at the same time shows that this essential law not only dominates all of history, but marks all of God’s creation since the beginning: “I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
In his death and resurrection, Christ fulfilled the law of the grain of wheat. In the Eucharist, in the bread of wheat, it has truly become the hundredfold fruit (Mt 13,8), of which we still and always live. But in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, in which he remains forever the one who is truly and fully “for us”, he invites us to enter every day into that law which, ultimately, is nothing but the expression of the essence of true love…: to go out of oneself in order to serve others. In the final analysis, Christianity’s fundamental movement is nothing other than the simple movement of love, by which we participate in the creative love of God himself.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
Saint of the day
Bl. Cardinal august von Galen, Bishop (1933-1946)
Blessed Clemens August von Galen
Bishop of Münster
(1933-1946)
Clemens August von Galen was born on 16 March 1878 in Dinklage Castle, Oldenburg, Germany, the 11th of 13 children born to Count Ferdinand Heribert and Elisabeth von Spee.
His father belonged to the noble family of Westphalia, who since 1660 governed the village of Dinklage. For over two centuries his ancestors carried out the inherited office of camerlengo of the Diocese of Münster.
Clemens August grew up in Dinklage Castle and in other family seats. Due to the struggle between Church and State, he and his brothers were sent to a school run by the Jesuits in Feldkirch, Austria.
He remained there until 1894, when he transferred to the Antonianum in Vechta. After graduation, he studied philosophy and theology in Frebur, Innsbruck and Münster, and was ordained a priest on 28 May 1904 for the Diocese of Münster by Bishop Hermann Dingelstadt.
Parish priest, concern for poor
His first two years as a priest were spent as vicar of the diocesan cathedral where he became chaplain to his uncle, Bishop Maximilian Gerion von Galen.
From 1906 to 1929, Fr von Galen carried out much of his pastoral activity outside Münster: in 1906 he was made chaplain of the parish of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg; from 1911 to 1919 he was curate of a new parish in Berlin before becoming parish priest of the Basilica of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg, where he served for 10 years; here, he was particularly remembered for his special concern for the poor and outcasts.
In 1929, Fr von Galen was called back to Münster when Bishop Johannes Poggenpohl asked him to serve as parish priest of the Church of St Lambert.
“Nec laudibus, nec timore’
In January 1933, Bishop Poggenpohl died, leaving the See vacant. After two candidates refused, on September 5, 1933 Fr Clemens was appointed Bishop of Münster by Pope Pius XI.
On October 28, 1933 he was consecrated by Cardinal Joseph Schulte, Archbishop of Cologne; Bishop von Galen was the first diocesan Bishop to be consecrated under Hitler’s regime.
As his motto, he chose the formula of the rite of episcopal consecration: “Nec laudibus, nec timore” (Neither praise nor threats will distance me from God).
Throughout the 20 years that Bishop von Galen was curate and parish priest in Berlin, he wrote on various political and social issues; in a pastoral letter dated 26 March 1934, he wrote very clearly and critically on the “neopaganism of the national socialist ideology”.
Due to his outspoken criticism, he was called to Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1937 together with the Bishop of Berlin, to confer with them on the situation in Germany and speak of the eventual publication of an Encyclical.
On 14 March 1937 the Encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge” (To the Bishops of Germany: The place of the Catholic Church in the German Reich) was published. It was widely circulated by Bishop von Galen, notwithstanding Nazi opposition.
“Lion of Munster’
In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National Socialists, Bishop von Galen delivered three admonitory sermons between July and August. He spoke in his old parish Church of St Lambert and in Liebfrauen-Ueberlassen Church, since the diocesan cathedral had been bombed.
In his famous speeches, Bishop von Galen spoke out against the State confiscation of Church property and the programmatic euthanasia carried out by the regime.
The clarity and incisiveness of his words and the unshakable fidelity of Catholics in the Diocese of Münster embarrassed the Nazi regime, and on 10 October 1943 the Bishop’s residence was bombed. Bishop von Galen was forced to take refuge in nearby Borromeo College.
From 12 September 1944 on, he could no longer remain in the city of Münster, destroyed by the war; he left for the zone of Sendenhorst.
In 1945, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Pius XII was to hold a Consistory and that the Bishop of Münster was also to be present.
Creation of a Cardinal
After a long and difficult journey, due to the war and other impediments, Bishop von Galen finally arrived in the “Eternal City”. On 21 February 1946 the Public Consistory was held in St Peter’s Basilica and Bishop von Galen was created a Cardinal.
On 16 March 1946 the 68-year-old Cardinal returned to Münster. He was cordially welcomed back by the city Authorities and awarded honorary citizenship by the burgomaster.
On the site of what remained of the cathedral, Cardinal von Galen gave his first (and what would be his last) discourse to the more than 50,000 people who had gathered, thanking them for their fidelity to the then-Bishop of Münster during the National Socialist regime. He explained that as a Bishop, it was his duty to speak clearly and plainly about what was happening.
No one knew that the Cardinal was gravely ill, and when he returned to Münster on 19 March 1946 he had to undergo an operation.
Cardinal von Galen died just three days later, on 22 March. He was buried on 28 March in the Ludgerus Chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage to this defender of the faith in the face of political oppression.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Saturday, March 21st. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 7:40-53.
Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent
21 March 2015
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 7:40-53.
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, “This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?
They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Then each went to his own house,
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Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent
21 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint John-Paul II
Saint John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005
Encyclical « Dives in Misericordia »
§ 8 (trans. © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
“A division occurred in the crowd because of him”
In the paschal mystery the limits of the many sided evil in which man becomes a sharer during his earthly existence are surpassed: the cross of Christ, in fact, makes us understand the deepest roots of evil, which are fixed in sin and death; thus the cross becomes an eschatological sign. Only in the eschatological fulfillment and definitive renewal of the world will love conquer, in all the elect, the deepest sources of evil…
In the eschatological fulfillment mercy will be revealed as love, while in the temporal phase, in human history, which is at the same time the history of sin and death, love must be revealed above all as mercy and must also be actualized as mercy. Christ’s messianic program, the program of mercy, becomes the program of His people, the program of the Church. At its very center there is always the cross, for it is in the cross that the revelation of merciful love attains its culmination…
Christ, precisely as the crucified one, is the Word that does not pass away (Mt 24,35), and He is the one who stands at the door and knocks at the heart of every man (Rv 3,20), without restricting his freedom, but instead seeking to draw from this very freedom love, which is not only an act of solidarity with the suffering Son of man, but also a kind of “mercy” shown by each one of us to the Son of the eternal Father. In the whole of this messianic program of Christ, in the whole revelation of mercy through the cross, could man’s dignity be more highly respected and ennobled, for, in obtaining mercy, He is in a sense the one who at the same time “shows mercy”?
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Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent
21 March 2015
Saint of the day
St. Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello (1791-1858)
SAINT BENEDETTA CAMBIAGIO FRASSINELLO
(1791 – 1858)
Saint Benedetta Cambiagio Frasinello was born on 2 October 1791 in Langasco (Genoa) Italy; she died on 21 March 1858 in Ronco Scrivia in Liguria. She was wife, religious and foundress. She let the Holy Spirit guide her through married life to the work of education and religious consecration. She founded a school for the formation of young women and also a religious congregation, and did both with the generous collaboration of her husband. This is unique in the annals of Christian sanctity. Benedetta was a pioneer in her determination to give a high quality education to young women, for the formation of families for a “new Christian society” and for promoting the right of women to a complete education.
Call to marriage, then to religious life
From her parents Benedetta received a Christian formation that rooted in her the life of faith. Her family settled in Pavia when she was a girl. When she was 20 years old, Benedetta had a mystical experience that gave her a profound desire for a life of prayer and penance, and of consecration to God. However, in obedience to the wishes of her parents, in 1816, she married Giovanni Frassinello and lived married life for two years. In 1818, moved by the example of his saintly wife, Giovanni agreed that the two should live chastely, “as brother and sister” and take care of Benedetta’s younger sister, Maria, who was dying from intestinal cancer. They began to live a supernatural parenthood quite unique in the history of the Church.
Congregation founded by wife, who is supported by her husband
Following Maria’s death in 1825, Giovanni entered the Somaschi Fathers founded by St Jerome Emiliani, and Benedetta devoted herself completely to God in the Ursuline Congregation of Capriolo. A year later she was forced to leave because of ill health, and returned to Pavia where she was miraculously cured by St Jerome Emiliani. Once she regained her health, with the Bishop’s approval, she dedicated herself to the education of young girls. Benedetta needed help in handling such a responsibility, but her own father refused to help her. Bishop Tosi of Pavia asked Giovanni to leave the Somaschi novitiate and help Benedettain her apostolic work. Together they made a vow of perfect chastity in the hands of the bishop, and then began their common work to promote the human and Christian formation of poor and abandoned girls of the city. Their educational work was of great benefit to Pavia. Benedetta became the first woman to be involved in this kind of work. The Austrian government recognized her as a “Promoter of Public Education”.
She was helped by young women volunteers to whom she gave a rule of life that later received ecclesiastical approval. Along with instruction, she joined formation in catechesis and in useful skills like cooking and sewing, aiming to transform her students into “models of Christian life” and so assure the formation of families.
Benedictine Sisters of Providence
Benedetta’s work was considered pioneering for those days and was opposed by a few persons in power and by the misunderstanding of clerics. In 1838 she turned over the institution to the Bishop of Pavia. Together with Giovanni and five companions, she moved to Ronco Scrivia in the Genoa region. There they opened a school for girls that was a refinement on what they had done in Pavia.
Eventually, Benedetta founded the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence. In her rule she stressed the education of young girls. She instilled the spirit of unlimited confidence and abandonment to Providence and of love of God through poverty and charity. The Congregation grew quickly since it performed a needed service. Benedetta was able to guide the development of the Congregation until her death. On 21 March 1858 she died in Ronco Scrivia.
Her example is that of supernatural maternity plus courage and fidelity in discerning and living God’s will.
Today the Benedictine Nuns of Providence are present in Italy, Spain, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Peru and Brazil. They are at the service of young people, the poor, the sick and the elderly. The foundress also opened a house of the order in Voghera. Forty years after the death of Benedetta, the bishop separated this house from the rest of the Order. The name was changed to the Benedictines of Divine Providence who honour the memory of the Foundress.
She was canonized by John Paul II on May 19, 2002.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN 
Thursday, September 3rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 5:1-11.
Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:1-11.
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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DAILY MASS – Thursday 3 September 2015
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Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Treatise on the Gospel of Luke, IV, 71-76
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets”
“Put out into deep water,” that is to say, into the high seas of debate. Is there any depth that is comparable to the abyss of “the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge” of the Son God, (Rom 11:33), to the proclamation of his divine filiation? … The Church is led by Peter to the high seas of the testimony, so as to contemplate the risen Son of God and the Holy Spirit who is poured forth.
What are those nets of the apostles, which Christ orders them to lower? Are they not the linking of words, the twists in discourse, the depth of arguments, which don’t allow those whom they have caught to escape? This fishing tackle of the apostles doesn’t make the fish they have caught perish; rather, it preserves them, drawing them out of the abyss towards the light, leading them from the lowest depths to the heights…
“Master,” Peter said, “we have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing; but if you say so, I will lower the nets.” I too, Lord, know that it is night for me when you do not command me. I have not yet converted anyone through my words; it is still night. I spoke on the day of Epiphany: I lowered the net, but I haven’t caught anything yet. I lowered the net during the day. I am waiting for you to give me the order. Upon your word, I will lower it again. Self-confidence is empty, but humility is fertile. Those who had not caught anything until then, have now, at the Lord’s voice, caught an enormous catch of fish.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
Saint of the day
St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (c.540-604) – Memorial
SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Pope and Doctor of the Church
(540-604)
Gregory was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young was governor of Rome. On his father’s death he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Cœlian Hill into a monastery, which now bears his name, and for some years lived as a perfect monk.
The Pope drew him from his seclusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; and he did great service to the Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the Imperial court at Constantinople. While still a monk the saint was struck with some boys who were exposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. “And of what race are they?” he asked. “They are Angles.” “Worthy indeed to be Angels of God,” said he. “And of what province?” “Of Deira,” was the reply. “Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their king?” “He is called Ella.” “It is well,” said Gregory; “Alleluia must be sung in their land to God.” He at once got leave from the Pope, and had set out to convert the English when the murmurs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles were not forgotten, and one of the Saint’s first cares as Pope was to send from his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to England.
On the death of Pope Pelagius II., Gregory was compelled to take the government of the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed schisms; revived discipline; saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste; aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians; and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, which the English had put out in blood.
He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerable letters, and preached incessantly, most effectually by his own example.
He died A. D. 604, worn out by austerities and toils; and the Church reckons him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. Gregory the Great.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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