Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Sep 30 - St Jerome

+ The gospel passage today, on this feast of St. Jerome, is an interesting one. Jesus tells us that saints and sinners will be found both in the world, and even in the Church, until the time of sorting at the end of the world. He is also telling us that it will be helpful for us if we could tell the difference between saints and sinners; and of course, we ought not be among the latter group (the sinners) if we can possibly avoid it. We have been given what we need to stay on a “straight and narrow path” and we must cling to him, we must cling to Jesus.

St. Jerome was born about the year 342 in a small town near the head of the Adriatic Sea. His father, a Christian, took care that his son was well instructed at home, and then he sent him to Rome, where he received an excellent education, including Latin and Greek. He read the literatures of those languages with great pleasure. His aptitude for oratory was such that he may have considered law as a career. He acquired many worldly ideas, and lived out his pleasure-loving instincts, and lost much of the piety that had been instilled in him at home. Yet, he got in with a Christian crowd of friends and eventually ended up being baptized by Pope Liberius in 360. His intellectual curiosity led him to explore other parts of the world. While in Aquileia, he made friends among the monks of the monastery there. Then it was off to Treves, in Gaul, where he decided to renounce all secular pursuits to dedicate himself wholeheartedly to God. It is interesting how a vocation to one's life work comes about!

The rest as they say is history: Jerome spent a lot of time delving into the study of scripture, both in itself and its commentaries by other writers. Then he himself began to write about his findings. Later, it was found to be beneficial for Jerome to become a priest to serve the needs of the young church. He reluctantly submitted to ordination but wanted to remain a monk and a recluse, which is pretty much what happened. His great work was his translation of the Scriptures from Greek into Latin. But he also wrote endlessly defending the Word of God and for this is considered the greatest of all of the doctors and fathers of the Church. His most often used advices are these: that "ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ;" and that "it was of no use just to read about or study the Word of God (in scripture), one has to act on it!

In the first reading today St. Paul says the same thing to Timothy: all scripture is inspired by God, and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work!

May we become more familiar today with Christ and his word, (and not remain blissfully or purposefully ignorant on certain topics), and then may we act on that familiarity: and be doers of the word and not just hearers! The difference between the saint and the sinner is that the saint listens and tries to act…while the sinner doesn't even really hear at all, and therefore acts aimlessly!

This day, are you more a saint, or a sinner?

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Sep 24 - 25th Week in OT - Thursday

+ It is interesting to note that it was specific to the time at which it was written that the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes says “vanity of vanities, all things are vanity…there is nothing new under the sun.” We must remember that these sayings reflect the general mood of the Old Testament time that was waiting and longing for the coming of the Messiah and Lord. Everything was not only boring for them, it was also wrapped in darkness, and shrouded in overwhelming mystery.

 

Certain lights came forth during that time – like King David, and others – to keep the wandering people on the right path. The prophets too had the job of shining a light in the darkness of ignorance and error.

 

In every age, the Lord is our refuge, no less today.

 

But today, with the coming of the Lord, vanity has vanished, and everything is new every day. “The Spirit blows where it wills” and who knows what great things it will do in the lives of the saints each day.

 

So long as we stay plugged into the sources of the Spirt-flow – the grace coming from the Church of Christ – then we will have the light of life, and our days will be filled with variety, substance and joy!

 

Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, Lord, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Sep 23 - St Padre Pio

+ In the gospel passage today Jesus tells his disciples how he must endure many sufferings and be crucified; our saint for today, Padre Pio was the first priest to receive the stigmata of the Lord’s Passion: proof positive that Jesus did in fact undergo these things for us and for our salvation.

Pio was born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, Benevento (Naples), Italy. As a boy, he was a shepherd. At age 15 he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars in Morcone, Italy and joined the order at age 19. He suffered several health problems, and at one point his family thought he had tuberculosis. He was ordained at age 22 on August 10, 1910.

 

While praying before a crucifix, he received the stigmata on September 20, 1918, the first priest ever to be so blessed. He later became a point of pilgrimage for both the pious and the curious. He would hear confessions by the hour, reportedly able to read the consciences of those who held back. Reportedly he was able to bilocate, levitate, and heal by touch. He founded the House for the Relief of Suffering in 1956, a hospital which serves 60,000 people a year. In the 1920’s he started a series of prayer groups that continue today with over 400,000 members worldwide.

 

Padre Pio died on September 23, 1968 and was canonized in June 2002 by his own personal friend Pope John Paul II. His canonization miracle involved the cure of the 7-year-old son of a doctor at the hospital he founded, who was admitted with fatal meningitis on June 20, 2000. The boy’s mother and some Capuchin friars from Padre Pio’s monastery prayed through the night. In the morning, the boy’s condition improved suddenly.

 

When the boy woke from a coma, he said that he had seen an elderly man with a white beard and a long, brown habit, who said to him: “Don’t worry, you will soon be cured.” The miracle was approved by the Congregation and Pope John Paul II on December 20, 2001

 

Whether we bear the marks of Christ’s Passion, visibly or invisibly we are all called upon to bear them one way or another. It is only this way that we can truly understand what Jesus did for us, how much he loved us, and how much he wants us to love and get along with one another. We are God’s family. May we today act as such, as we honor one of our brothers who simply loved God back and tried to spread that love to as many as he could in a very special way.

 

St. Pio, pray for us!

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Sep 20 - 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

+ Our readings today tell us that “it is advisable to consider the things of God on his own level, with his own logic” – to the extent that we are able – “rather than on our own.” The very ability to do this requires God’s action first, by his giving the gift of faith; then it requires our use of the gift, its application in particular instances, and then thanks rendered after successful utilization of the economy of God.  

In our gospel passage today, for example, Jesus is teaching a very wonderful lesson about the generosity of God, in his willingness to offer salvation to everyone – no matter how lately any may come to faith, come to belief in Jesus, come to the church: right up to the very last person born on earth, it will never be too late to say: I believe – and to lead to life based on the belief. And, if Jesus wants these “latecomers” to be the first into the kingdom on Judgment Day – then so be it: this ought not cause the rest any consternation at all. It is not up to us to say: “This is not fair!”

The reason for this, as St. Paul tells the Philippians, is that when for us “life is Christ” – then it does not matter what stage of that life we, or others, might be in; in fact, it does not matter whether we are alive or dead; because if Christ is our life, we have it all – and we just don’t concern ourselves with how full or empty other people are, or when they got to be that way.

Our task today is to continue, as our second reading tells us, to seek God while he may be found, call him while he is near, forsaking our foolish ways and useless thoughts, turning to God for mercy: to our God, who is generous in forgiving: remembering that his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways ours: they are infinitely different:

after all he is God, and we are not: and it’s all going to end up better than we can possibly imagine – if we keep him squarely in our sights!

The Lord is near to all who call upon him.

Thursday, September 17, 2020

Sep 17 - 24th Week in OT - Thursday

+ The first reading yesterday of St. Paul to the Corinthians about the supreme and extreme importance of love (charitable self-sacrificial actions towards others) is demonstrated today by the sinful woman who came to Jesus when he reclined to dine at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee himself did not offer Jesus the usual ablutions that one would offer a guest: foot-washing and the like.

 

The loving woman did offer Jesus these things, using her tears for the water, and her hair for the towel.

 

While the Pharisee could not get past the fact that this was a social outcast who was doing these things to Jesus, Jesus, on the other hand saw through to her heart and knew her to be an ordinary human being looking for real love in mostly the wrong places, and he loved her in her soul, and she responded by promising him that things would be different for her from now on.

 

It was easy for Jesus to forgive her sins, it is easy for him to forgive ours: if we come to him with faith, with humility, and with love.

 

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Sep 15 - Our Lady of Sorrows

+ Today we celebrate the “white martyrdom” – the spiritual martyrdom of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By the fourteenth century her “Sorrows” were fixed at seven:

  • The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus (Luke 2:34)
  • The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family (Matthew 2:13)
  • The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days (Luke 2:43)
  • The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross (Luke 23:26)
  • The Crucifixion, where Mary stands at the foot of the cross (John 19:25)
  • The Descent from the Cross, where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms (Matthew 27:57)
  • The Burial of Jesus (John 19:40)

Just as we said yesterday that Jesus looked forward to and embraced the Cross of our salvation; so too, Mary must have looked forward in a sense to hers. It was her lot to have God do unto her always as he would – she trusted Him and all his ways: she also knew the entire history of her people, and she knew that associating with God always involved risk and self-sacrifice – and so being part of this great drama in the redemption of the world – she knew that as the Mother of the Savior, she would have to suffer greatly too: but she did it willingly and lovingly, like only the Mother of God could. And she always felt the comfort of the Holy Spirit in her trials! Mary is not only our intercessor when we must suffer, but she is also our model!

 

May the revealed thoughts of our hearts find us willing to embrace and endure what we must in order to ensure our salvation and our place in heaven with you, dear holy Mother and Blessed Virgin Mary!

 

Blessed are you, O Virgin Mary; without dying you won the martyr’s crown beneath the Cross of the Lord.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Sep 8 - The Nativity of Mary

+ Today we celebrate the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast originating somewhere between the fourth and the seventh centuries. We know next to nothing about the events surrounding this noteworthy event. It is only through the apocryphal Gospel of James that we know something about Sts. Joachim and Anne, her parents and about the fact that they had a girl-child whom they named Mary, whom they presented to the Lord in the Temple, thus dedicating her to God for life. And so even though the details are sketchy, this only adds to the mystique that we have about Mary as a pure, humble, out-of-the-limelight maiden of Nazareth. She is not the key figure in all of human history: her future son would be that: Jesus, the  Christ, who would be Son of God and Son of Man through her own humanity.

 

The first reading today talks of those who are predestined to experience the fullness of God’s grace: Mary certainly was that, from the first moment of her existence she was full of grace: the grace that was to be reestablished by Christ her son; and so Mary, then, was the first to “resemble Jesus her son” to the point that God delighted in her as a true daughter, in Christ.

 

We rejoice with Mary on her birthday today and ask her to pray for us constantly so that we may resemble not only Jesus her son (to the delight of God the Father) in his gentle, patient, compassionate nature; but also her, in her humility, poverty and obedience.

 

Mary, you are the Dawn, and Christ your Son is the Perfect Day!

 

 

Friday, September 4, 2020

Sep 4 - 22nd Week in OT - Friday

+ The readings today have to do with judging others from external actions. The disciples of Jesus eat and drink because he, their Lord and teacher, is still with them; (there will come a time when he is not with them and then they will fast, they will mourn and they will weep). It is at a time even later than that, our first reading tells us, that the Day of Judgment will come – and he who has the right to judge all actions both external and internal will be present– and the true thoughts and motives of all hearts will be manifested – and all will receive his due from God: praise or condemnation!

 

May our task each day be to have hearts as purified as they might be; as a preparation for the great day when motives are revealed, and reward is distributed!  May we turn from evil and do good, that we may abide forever in the heart of God!

 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Sep 3 - St Gregory the Great

+ Gregory the Great born in 540 was son of Gordianus, a Roman officer, and was related to three saints and a Pope who was also a saint. He was educated by the finest teachers in Rome, and then became prefect of Rome for a year, but then he sold his possessions, turned his home into a Benedictine monastery and used his money to build six monasteries in Sicily and one in Rome. He himself became a Benedictine monk. Upon seeing English children being sold in the Roman Forum, he became a missionary to England. On this date, September 3, 590, he became the first monk to be chosen Pope. This was done by unanimous acclamation.

 

He then sent a monk named Augustine and others to evangelize England; he also sent other missionaries to France, Spain and Africa. He had a love of sacred music and collected the melodies and plain chant so associated with him that they are now known as Gregorian chants. He did extensive writing on the Mass and the Divine Office; he wrote especially about the role of the bishop as a servant; he is the first to use the term for the pope being called “the servant of the servants of God.” He died March 12, 604 at Rome of natural causes. He is one of the four original Doctors of the Latin Church, and the first Pope to be named “Great.”

 

If you asked Gregory his motivation for all his works he would tell you that it was love of God and of his people; he would tell you that any success he had as preacher, teacher, writer was the work of God and not his own; he would tell you that he was but an “instrument of light,” the light of Christ shining on the world so desperately in need of it. And of course, he would tell you that, just as Jesus came to serve, to be a slave of all for their salvation – so should be our role with one another, but especially those who seek roles of greatness as leaders in the Christian community: success here means, self-abnegating, self-sacrificial service for the sake of God and his kingdom. It is not what the world would consider fashionable; but it is what God would consider praiseworthy – and that which really counts!

Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations.

 

 

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Sep 1 - 22nd Week in OT - Tuesday

+ St. Paul clearly relates the existence of the two levels of spiritual reality: the natural and the supernatural. The natural spiritual is the spirit of the world, the spirit that exists in man as he participates in the life of animals, a spirit that because of man’s rationality has at least some chance of being a productive spirit. It is a vivifying spirit, but not a totally responsible or account-giving spirit. On the other hand, for those baptized into the Body of Christ, there exists within them also the very Spirit of God – the Holy Spirit, that is freely given so that we can understand not only fully and clearly the things of the earth, but also the things of God, the things that can only be taught by the Spirit Himself. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him” – other than his own Spirit? It is amazing – for we have the very mind of Christ as his free gift to live our days and nights!

 

The gospel passage shows us how a man can be afflicted with a profaned spirit, but a spirit who recognizes the pristine spirit of God and spontaneously declares its reality; it also shows how Jesus – the source and container of the pristine and divine spirit -  can easily order such unclean spirits to dissipate: which they do immediately at his command.

 

We pray that Jesus dismisses any lingering problematic spirits from us today, and through the intercession of the angels and saints, and his own Blessed Mother Mary, keeps them away from us so that we can focus our attention where it really matters: others and the building of the Kingdom.

 

A great prophet has arisen in our midst and God has visited his people!

 

 

Happy New Year 202

  A Happy New Year to you all! I hope and pray I am able to keep this blog up to date now that we are entering into the New Year! I would li...