November, 2005


Benedict XVI's general prayer intention for the month of November is:  "That married people may imitate the example of conjugal holiness shown by so many couples in the ordinary conditions of life."

His mission intention is: "That pastors of mission territories may recognize with constant care their duty to foster the permanent formation of their own priests."
 

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Thirty first Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Today let us think of St. Marcellus and St. Alphonsus Rodriguez   (Saints)


Malachi 1: 14b-2:2b, 8-10;   Psalm 131: 1,2,3;  1 Thessalonians 2: 7b-9, 13;  Matthew 23: 1-12.

“Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, Christ.”
   (Matthew 23: 1-12)

  In the Gospel for today (Matthew 23: 1-12) our Lord reminds us that we have only one Master and Father, and he is in heaven, and that we have only one Teacher, and he is Christ - that is, himself.  What our Lord is saying is a variation of the first commandment that there is only one God, and we are to serve him alone. From him comes all authority and those exercising authority and those subject to it must all be striving to acknowledge and serve God alone. On one occasion our Lord was asked which is the first of the commandments. He said that this is the first, that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart. If ever we are to learn how to live in society we must learn how to live this commandment. If God is forgotten, so will man be.

  There can be all sorts of difficulties in achieving this focus, the focus that puts God at the centre of our life and all our actions. Our Lord himself alludes to this at the start of our Gospel passage
(Matt 23: 1). He tells the people and his disciples that “The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses. You must therefore do what they tell you and listen to what they say; but do not be guided by what they do.” Here our Lord is addressing those who were subject to authority. He says that even though those exercising authority were not worthy incumbents of their office, their authority had to be respected for it involved the chair of Moses. That is, it came from God. In fulfilling our duties we are answerable to persons who exercise authority, and who may be unworthy. The temptation will be, especially in a democratic society as is ours, to disregard and have little respect for the authority itself. Rather we must try to find God in all things, and, to the extent possible, in the authority being exercised over us. In social life and of course in the life of the Church we must strive to make God the object and motive of our actions. This can be difficult, but it is part of our sanctification.

  Our Lord not only addresses those subject to authority. He also addresses those with authority. To some extent that will include most of us. He tells those who are in some sense a master or a teacher or a father to remember that God is the only Master, the only Father, and the only Teacher. Most people have some position of influence, and a lot have some authority. It could be authority in the home or to some extent in the workplace. It could be some influence and position among others due to a greater knowledge of some field, or due to some other attainment or personal gift. But whatever be our position and influence and the good we may have done and are currently doing, we must remember that God is its ultimate source and to him we must give the glory. To him also we ought also be referring others who are disposed to give us the glory.

  Whoever we are, whether in authority or subject to it, whether influencing others or being influenced by them, whether we are a master in some sense or a pupil in some other sense, whatever be our situation, we ought be striving to love and serve God and him alone - others as well, yes, but others in God and according to his will. It is God who is the Master, the Teacher, the Father. He is the all. The danger of our modern age is to accept and aspire to moral goodness while not aspiring to religion. We are tempted to a humanism without God, to the attempt to make man central while regarding God as absent, of banishing God from life and society. The danger is that we shall fail to recognise and serve God in what we do, and instead accept the prevailing cultural and social assumption, which is Morality without Religion. Our secular society thinks that it is right and proper  to be free of the thought of God and to build our civilization as if he were not. The reality of God is quietly and politely denied, and we can be infected with this attitude. The virtue of religion, that virtue whereby we give homage to God, is deemed to be a purely private and unnecessary feature of the human personality. It is looked on as a prop or a function of something else.

  Rather, Our Lord makes it clear that no-one and nothing is to usurp the reality and supreme position of God in everything. Religion is not just a private matter. It is also public and objective, for God who is our Creator and Lord as well as our Redeemer, is the fundamental Reality. Let us make that part of the mission of our life, to do all we can to ensure that in all things God is served above all else, and glorified.
                                                                                                                               (E.J.Tyler)

Further Reading: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.2095-2109 (Serve God alone)

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“If I washed your feet –– I who am Teacher and Lord –– then you must wash each other’s feet.”
(John 13:14)   Commentary by St Paschas Radbert (? –– around 849), Benedictine monk
Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew, 10:23

“Whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” Christ not only told his disciples not to let themselves be called masters and not to love the places of honour at table or any other honour, but in his person, he himself gave the example and model of humility. Whereas the name of master is given him not through kindness but by his natural right, for “in him everything continues in being” (Col 1:17), by taking on flesh, he communicated a teaching to us, which leads us all to true life, and because he is greater than we, he “reconciled us with God.” (Rom 5:10) As if he were telling us: Do not love the highest honours, do not desire to be called masters, just as “I seek no glory for myself; there is one who seeks it.” (Jn 8:50) Keep your eyes fixed on me, “for the Son of Man has come, not to be served by others, but to serve, to give his own life as a ransom for the many.” (Mt 20:28)

Most certainly, in this passage of the gospel, the Lord is not only teaching his disciples, but also the heads of the Churches, commanding everyone not to allow themselves to be driven by greed in seeking honours. On the contrary, may “anyone who aspires to greatness” be the first to become like him, “serving the needs of all.” (Mt 20:26-27)

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Pause to consider the holy wrath of the Master, when he sees his Father’s honour abused in the Temple at Jerusalem. What a lesson for you! You should never be indifferent, or play the coward, when the things of God are treated without respect.
                                                      (The Forge, no.546)

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Monday of the thirty first week of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Quentin and St. Wolfgang   (Saints)


Scripture today:   
Romans 11: 29-36;    Psalm 69: 30-31, 33-34, 36;    Luke 14: 12-14.

“God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice.”  
(Romans 11: 29-36)

In everyday life opportunities come our way and consequences flow from our responses to them. A young man is dating with a fine young woman whom perhaps he does not adequately appreciate. He suddenly decides to bring the relationship to an end. Consequences will flow from this - the girl leaves him and finds someone else whom in due course she marries. He will never be able to start again with her, and perhaps he will never find another like her. It may even come to pass that he never finds a wife.

It is not quite the same with God. There are always consequences that flow from our actions, but at every point during this life we can start again with God. St Paul assures us at the beginning of today’s first reading
(Romans 11: 29-36) that “God never takes back his gifts or revokes his choice.” If we have failed God and disobeyed him (which of course we have), nevertheless we can repent and start again knowing that God’s choice of us stands. St Paul tells us elsewhere that before the foundation of the world God chose us, chose us in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight.

God’s choice of us to belong to him is an everlasting choice with its origins in eternity, and the gift that accompanied and constituted this choice is that of being “in Christ.” We are incorporated into h im, and this gift is the source of all the other heavenly gifts we can enjoy. St Paul tells us in one of his letters that in Christ we receive every heavenly blessing. Every day, then, let us remind ourselves that whatever be our response to God and his gifts, God never takes back his gifts nor revokes his choice. So then, now I begin! The path to holiness in Christ is before me.
                                                                                                                            
(E.J.Tyler)

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“You taught your people by these deeds that those who are just must be kind” (Wisdom 12:19)
(Luke 14: 12-14) Comment by Saint Gregory Nazianzen (330-390), Bishop, Doctor of the Church
(On love of the poor, 4-6)

The first and the greatest of the commandments, that on which the Law and the prophets are based (Mt 22:40), is love, which it seems to me brings its greatest proof in love of the poor, in tenderness and compassion for one’s neighbour. Nothing gives as much honour to God as mercy, for nothing is more like him. “Mercy and truth go before him,” (Ps 89:15) and he prefers mercy to judgment (Hos 6:6). Nothing attracts the kindness of the Friend of humankind as much as kindness towards human beings (Wis 1:6); his reward is just, he weighs and measures mercy.

We must open our heart to all who are poor and to all who are unhappy, whatever their suffering might be. That is the meaning of the commandment which requires us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Rom 12:15) Since we are also human beings, is it not right and proper for us to be kind towards those who are like us?

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Fall in love with the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ. Aren’t you glad that he should have wanted to be like us? Thank Jesus for this wonderful expression of his goodness.
                                                                                                  (The Forge, no.547)

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The Solemnity of all Saints

(November 1) Today we celebrate the feast of all the unknown saints who are now in heaven. The Church reminds us that sanctity is within everyone’s reach. Through the communion of saints we help one another achieve sanctity. 
(Saints)


Scripture
Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14;  Psalm 24: 1bc-2, 3-4ab, 5-6;  1 John 3: 1-3;  Matthew 5: 1-12a

“They shouted aloud, ‘Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
    (Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14)

Today we celebrate the holiness of all those in heaven and their triumph over the evil they encountered during their lives on earth. The most significant issue in the life of every human being is the call to goodness and the temptation to moral evil. One or the other will gain the victory. In the case of all those in heaven, the good gained the victory.

But as our first reading
(Revelation 7: 2-4, 9-14) makes vividly clear, the victory is God’s - and it is those in heaven who testify to this. From the first instant of our lives God involves himself intimately with us and fights on our side. He endeavours to unite us to himself in Christ, and to make us one with his resistance to evil and struggle for the good. However strong evil may be, he is by far the stronger, and we have every reason to be confident in his power and mercy. The saints in heaven are the evidence of it, and they themselves are constantly interceding for us. Let us be inspired by their example and call on the help of their prayers.

Let us then, here and now on this feast of all the saints, make our choice for God once again. To work! The call of conscience - the special dwelling place of the Holy Spirit within us - summons us to the work God has given us to do. In and through this work of every day will lie the outcome of the struggle for good or for evil. Let us do our work in a holy manner, doing it well and for God. It will sanctify us to the measure we sanctify it, and through it others will be sanctified. Our work, thus sanctified, will take us to the company in heaven of those we celebrate today.
                                                                                                                           
(E.J.Tyler)

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“I believe in the communion of saints”
Comment by the Orthodox monk, Silouane (1866-1938) (Writings)

Many people have the impression that the saints are far away from us. They are far away from those who have distanced themselves, but they are very close to those who keep Christ’s commandments and who have the grace of the Holy Spirit. In heaven, everything lives and moves by means of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is the same on earth as well. He is present in our Church: he is at work in the sacraments; we feel his breath in Holy Scripture. He enlivens the souls of those who believe. The Holy Spirit unites all human beings, and that is why the saints are close to us. When we pray, they hear our prayers by means of the Holy Spirit, and our souls then feel that they are praying for us.

The saints are alive in the other world, and there, by means of the Holy Spirit, they see the glory of God and the beauty of the Lord’s face. In the same Holy Spirit, the saints see our lives and our actions. They know our troubles and hear our fervent prayers. So long as they lived on earth, they learned from the Holy Spirit to love God. The person who remains in love on earth passes over with him to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, where love grows and becomes perfect. And if already here below love cannot forget the brother, then how much more do the saints not forget us and do they pray for us!……

The saints were human beings like all of us. Many of them were great sinners. But by means of their repentance, they came to the Kingdom of Heaven, where they are all alive now there where the Lord and his most pure Mother are. That is where my soul is drawn, to that marvellous and holy assembly that the Holy Spirit gathers together.

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Advent is here. What a marvellous time in which to renew your desire, your nostalgia, your real longing for Christ to come - for him to come every day to your soul in the Eucharist. The Church encourages us: He is about to arrive!
                                                  (The Forge, no.548)

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The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed

(November 2) The Church, after rejoicing yesterday with our brothers who are in heaven, today prays for all who, in the purifying suffering of purgatory, await the day when they will join the company of the saints. The celebration of the Mass, which is the sacrifice of Calvary, renewed on our altars, has ever been for the Church the principal means of fulfilling the great commandment of charity towards the dead. We can also relieve their sufferings through our prayers, suffrages, and penances. Even after death, links with our fellow-travellers and brothers are not broken.
      (Saints)


 
Wisdom 3: 1-9;  Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6;  Romans 5: 5-11; or Romans 6: 3-9;  John 6: 37-40.

 “On this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples” (Isaiah 25: 6.7-9)

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of all saints, all those now with God in heaven. The sense of the Church’s liturgy is that very many are now in heaven with God. Great numbers are there, and they inspire us by the fact of their being with God and help us by their prayerful intercession. Today we think of all those who are saved, but who are not yet with God in heaven. They are being purified by God’s action in purgatory. There must be great, perhaps unimaginable numbers, in purgatory. Perhaps the number exceeds many times the present population of the world because we do not know how long is required for a soul to be purified after death. Let us think of all those baptised who require this purification, and all those who are not baptised. What numbers there may be! They cry out for our assistance - they cannot assist themselves as the possibility of acquiring merit ceases with death. But we can merit for them, and hasten their entry into the presence of God by our prayers, Masses, penances, almsgiving, and indulgences.

We know that we can help the dead because of the doctrine of the communion of the saints. Because we are in Christ, and because those in heaven are in Christ, and because those in purgatory are in Christ, there is a great communion between us all. We can share our goods with one another. Those in heaven can help those in Christ who are as yet not there. We here still below can pray to those in heaven, and we can help by our prayers those who have died and who are being purified of the stains of their sins. Let us then resolve to help the faithful departed. Imagine how those in purgatory who go to heaven more quickly as a result of our prayers and Masses will help us from heaven when we in our turn are in purgatory being purified of the results of our sins. They will be our friends for we will have been their benefactors. There are vast numbers to be helped - perhaps many times over the number to be helped at this point on  earth.
                                                                                                                                 
(E.J.Tyler)

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“All creation groans and is in agony… We ourselves… await the redemption of our bodies”
   (Rom 8:22-23)
Comment by St Ephrem (306 –– 373), Deacon and Doctor of the Church (Hymns on Paradise, no. 5)

The contemplation of Paradise delighted me by its peace and beauty. There, spotless beauty abides, there peace without alarm dwells. Happy the one who will deserve to receive it, if not through righteousness, then at least out of kindness; if not because of works, then at least out of pity……

When my spirit returned to the shores of earth, the mother of thorns, pain and evils of every kind presented themselves to me. Thus, I learned that our region is a prison. And yet, the captives who are locked in there weep when they leave it. I was also surprised by the fact that children cry when they leave the womb. They cry although they are going out from darkness towards the light, from a narrow space towards a vast universe. In the same way, for human beings, death is a kind of birth. Those who are born weep when they leave the universe, the mother of pain, in order to enter the Paradise of delights.

Oh Lord of Paradise, have pity on me! If it is not possible for me to enter into your Paradise, make me at least worthy of the pastures at its entrance. At the centre of Paradise is the table of the saints, but the fruit from its interior falls outside like crumbs for the sinners, who even there will live by your kindness.

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Christmas. The carols sing, “O come ye.” Let us go to him. He has been born. After contemplating how Mary and Joseph took care of the Child, I now dare to hint to you: Look at him again, gaze at him without ceasing.
                                             (The Forge, no.549)

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Thursday of the thirty first week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 3) St Martin de Porres (1579-1639) Born in Lima (Peru), he was the son of a Spanish father and a coloured mother. As a young man he learnt the art of a dispenser of medicines, and afterwards when he joined the Dominican Order as a lay brother he practised this for the sake of the poor. He lived a life of fasting, prayer, and penance, and was very devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and the sick and the poor.  
(Saints)


Scripture today:    
Romans 14: 7-12;   Psalm 27: bcde, 4, 13-14;    Luke 15: 1-10.

“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner” 
(Luke 15: 1-10)

It has been said that while youth is the time of great hopes, maturity is the time of regrets. This may be the case in terms of what people at different stages of their lives tend to do, but that ought not be the end of the matter. Just as the idealism of youth has to be assisted with prudence, so the regrets that come with extended experience must be tempered and transformed by the great prospects always ahead. That is to say, regrets must be transformed into life-giving repentance.

At whatever stage of life we choose to take stock and begin again, we ought remember who the God is in whose hands lie our prospects. He is a God of love who always pursues us with his offer of mercy. Our Lord tells us in our Gospel today
(Luke 15: 1-10) that God is like the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and goes after the one who is straying until he finds it. If there are many things a person regrets as he looks back, let him look on his regrets as a sign that God has begun to reclaim him with love. St Paul tells us elsewhere that nothing can come between us and the love that God has for us. Our Lord gives us another parallel. God is like the woman who finds the drachma she has lost, and she rejoices in her find (Luke 15: 1-10). Being found by God and brought back to union with him is something that transforms mere regrets into joy and hope for the future. Indeed, as our Lord tells us in the Gospel passage, it is a joy and a hope possessed by God and all in heaven.

Let us be striving for continual repentance, weekly, daily. Our repentance ought be a repentance from deliberate venial sin and from all lack of generosity with God. God is seeking to bring us back from the daily pathway of sin, for if we continue to follow it, holiness will be impossible. Our regrets will be nothing more than regrets. By the grace of God let us transform regrets into repentance, with the joy it brings.
                                                                                                                             
(E.J.Tyler)

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“Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.”  
(Luke 15: 1-10)
Comment by Isaac of the Star (? –– 1171), Cistercian monk  (Sermon 35, 2nd Sunday of Lent)

When the time of mercy had come (Ps 102:15), the Good Shepherd came down from the Father……, as had been promised from all eternity. He came to seek the one and only sheep, which had gotten lost. For her, the promise had been made since the beginning, for her, he was sent into time; for her, he was born and was given, eternally predestined for her. She is the only one, taken both from the Jews and the nations……, present in all peoples…… She is unique in her mystery, many in persons, many in the flesh according to nature, one through the Spirit according to grace. In short, one single sheep and a countless crowd……

Now what this shepherd acknowledges as his own, “no one shall snatch them out of his hand.” (Jn 10:28) For true power cannot be forced, wisdom cannot be deceived, charity cannot be destroyed. And he also speaks with assurance when he says: …… “I have not lost one of those you gave me.” (Jn 18:9)……

He was sent as truth for the abused, as way for the lost, as life for those who were dead, as wisdom for those who are without sense, as medicine for the sick, as ransom for the captives, and as food for those who were dying of starvation. For all of these, we can say that he was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24), so that they might not be lost forever. He was sent as a soul into an inert body, so that at his coming, the members might be warmed and live again with a new, supernatural and divine life. That is the first resurrection (Rev 20:5). And he himself can say: “An hour is coming, has indeed come, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have heeded it shall live.” (Jn 5:25) And thus he can say of his sheep: “The sheep will follow him because they recognize his voice. They will not follow a stranger.” (Jn 10:4-5)

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Although it pains us to admit it - and I ask God to increase that sorrow in us - you and I have our share in the death of Christ. For the sins of men were the hammer-blows which stitched him to the Cross with nails.
                                             (The Forge, no.550)

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Friday of the thirty first week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 4) St Charles Borromeo, bishop (1538-1584) Born in Italy, he was a doctor in law, a cardinal and Archbishop of Milan. He was one of the chief agents of the successful conclusion of the Council of Trent and the drafting of the Catechism. In his diocese, he zealously applied the spirit of the Council, established Sunday schools, houses for orphans and the poor, and renewed the moral life of the clergy and religious. He established diocesan seminaries, for which he wrote rules that became the model.
(Saints)

Scripture readings:   Romans 15: 14-21;    Psalm 98: 1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4;   Luke 16: 1-8.

“I am to carry out my priestly duty by bringing the Good News to the pagans”.
(Rom 15: 14-21)

Especially since the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church has constantly insisted on the distinctive character of the ministerial priesthood. The ministerial priesthood is essentially different from the universal priesthood of all Christ’s faithful. Nevertheless the universal priesthood is immensely important for the Church and the world, and must be appreciated and constantly lived if God’s saving plan is to have its effect. All the faithful are called, in their own fashion, to share in Christ’s priestly work of offering sacrifices to the Father. Their whole life and work with its fruits are the spiritual sacrifice which they offer as members of Christ.

St Paul makes a remark in today’s first reading
(Romans 15: 14-21) that throws light on this matter. He has, he writes, his work of "performing the priestly service of the Gospel of God", and the offering he is to make to God is the pagan peoples to whom he has the duty of bringing the Good News. By means of the preaching of the Gospel he makes “them acceptable as an offering, made holy by the Holy Spirit.”

Since that is a priestly work, the laity share in it then, in their measure and according to their own vocation, by bringing the Good News to those around them in the world. In this way they too are priests of Jesus Christ and share in preparing a holy offering to God. Being apostolic is a priestly work. Let us all, whatever be our vocation, strive by our daily work and apostolic activity to prepare a holy offering to God our Father in union with our High Priest his only Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holiness is the acceptable offering to God. So let us live in holiness ourselves and bring the holiness of Christ to all around us.
                                                                                                                              
(E.J.Tyler)

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The good use of riches  
(Luke 16: 1-8)
Comment by Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
(Autobiographical Manuscript B, 4r)

Oh Jesus, I know that love is repaid only with love, and I have sought and have found the way to soothe my heart by returning to you Love for Love. “Make friends for yourselves through your use of this world’s goods, so that when they fail you, a lasting reception will be yours.” (Lk 16:9) That is the advice you gave your disciples, Lord, after telling them that “the children of darkness are more capable of looking after their affairs than the children of light.” As a child of light, I understood that my desire to be everything, to embrace every vocation, was a wealth that could easily make me unjust, so I used it to make friends for myself. I remembered Elisha’s request of his father Elijah when he dared to ask him for a “double portion of his spirit” (2 Kings 2:9), and I came before the angels and the saints and told them: “I am the smallest of creatures, I know my destitution and my weakness, but I also know how much noble and generous hearts love to do good. So I beg you, oh blessed inhabitants of Heaven, I beg you to adopt me as your child. To you alone will be the glory that you let me acquire, but deign to hear my prayer. It is foolhardy, I know, however I dare to ask you to obtain for me a double portion of your Love.”

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Saint Joseph. One cannot love Jesus and Mary without loving the Holy Patriarch.
                                                                                                                   (The Forge, no.551)

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Saturday of the thirty first week of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Sylvia  (Saints)


Scripture readings:   Romans 16: 3-9, 16, 22-27;   Psalm 145: 2-3, 4-5, 10-11;   Luke 16: 9-15.

“My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked death”
   
(Romans 16: 3-9, 16, 22-27)

Consider the picture of the Church that shines through in Paul’s letter in our passage today. Paul thanks various persons whom he highly praises. Prisca and Aquila were fellow workers of his. They risked their lives to save his. All the churches among the pagans knew them. Others are mentioned who had been Christians a long time - Epaenetus, Andronicus and Junias. Others were Paul’s friends, such as Ampliatus and Stachys. They are unknown to us, mere names. They were ordinary Christians giving themselves generously for the Church and the spread of the Gospel. They had a burning appreciation of the saving power of what they had embraced. During the first four centuries the Church grew largely because of the apostolic spirit of the ordinary laity. The little person has great importance in the saving plan of God for the world.

We too in due course will be mere names. Our lives will have passed and little record of us will be present. But God will know. Our lives every day are hastening towards their end. All that will matter then will be degree to which we, like those St Paul mentions in our passage from Romans today, have given over our lives to Christ and his revelation. We do have faith in him and true conviction as to the truth of the Gospel. What we must do, though, is be lovingly dedicated to it in the work God has placed before us in life. Do we have the dedication of these unknown persons St Paul mentions today?  Paul mentions them and they stand as heroes for the little people.  The time will come for our Lord to mention us to his heavenly Father. He will do this if our names are found written in the book of life.
                                                                                                                                 
(E.J.Tyler)

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“You cannot serve both God and money” 
Luke 16: 9-15
Commentary from Clement of Alexandria (150 –– around 215), Theologian

There is a wealth that sows death wherever it rules. Free yourselves of it and you will be saved. Purify your soul. Make it poor so as to be able to hear the call of the Saviour who repeats to you: “Come and follow me.” (Mk 10:21) He is the way on which the person with a pure heart walks. God’s grace does not slip into a soul that is encumbered and torn by many possessions.

The person who considers his fortune, his gold and his silver, his houses to be God’s gifts, shows God his gratitude by using his possessions to help the poor. He knows that he owns them more for his brethren than for himself. He remains the master over his riches instead of becoming their slave. He does not lock them up in his soul, nor does he make them his life; rather, without tiring, he pursues a divine work. And if one day his fortune disappears, he accepts his ruin with a free heart. God declares that person to be “happy”; he calls him “poor in spirit”, a sure heir to the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5:3)……

On the other side, there is the person who nestles in his heart his wealth rather than the Holy Spirit. That person keeps his lands to himself, he endlessly accumulates his fortune and is only concerned with getting ever more. He never raises his eyes to heaven; he gets bogged down in what is material. In reality, he is only dust and will return to dust. How can the person who carries within himself a field or a mine instead of a heart feel a desire for the Kingdom, he whom death will inevitably take by surprise in the midst of his passions? “For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” (Mt 6:21)

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There are many good reasons to honour St Joseph, and to learn from his life. He was a man of strong faith. He earned a living for his family - Jesus and Mary - with his own hard work. He guarded the purity of the Blessed Virgin, who was his Spouse. And he respected - he loved! - God’s freedom, when God made his choice: not only his choice of Our Lady the Virgin as his  Mother, but also his choice of Saint Joseph as the Husband of Holy Mary.
                                                            (The Forge, no.552)

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Thirty second Sunday of Ordinary Time A

Today let us think of St. Leonard and St. Bertile   (Saints)


Wisdom 6: 12-16;   Psalm 63: 2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8;  1 Thess 4: 13-18 or 4: 13-14;  Matthew 25: 1-13

“But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him!”
   
(Matthew 25: 1-13)

  In his parable in today’s Gospel our Lord speaks of the sudden arrival of the bridegroom. At midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” (Matthew 25: 1-13) These words are quoted by the Catechism of the Catholic Church in its discussion of those who choose a life of virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. This is what the Catechism says: “From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model.” (No.1618). It is a beautiful thing to find a spouse and to marry, and both family and the Church celebrate it. But the Church teaches that it is a still nobler calling to have Christ as one’s exclusive spouse.

  In the Old Testament God often referred to himself as Israel’s Husband. Israel is his spouse by his deliberate choice. This theme recurs especially in the prophets who time and again preach that the people are acting as an unfaithful spouse. I am not aware of any other ancient peoples who understood their god as their husband. I think it is unique to what we call revealed religion. Now, our Lord took over these inspired terms and called himself the bridegroom. Calling himself this suggested that he now occupied the place of Yahweh, and that the new people of God he was founding was to be his spiritual spouse. Christ is the bridegroom, the Church is his spouse.

  When we think of the great religions of the world, one notable feature in Christianity relates to this. For instance, Islam reveres its founder Mahomet as a prophet, indeed it thinks he is the greatest prophet. Now apart from the obvious differences in doctrine between the Catholic religion which Christ founded and the religion founded by Mahomet, there is this difference too. It is that the Church sees Christ as her Spouse and her Lord, and as not only the teacher of her revealed doctrine. The Church loves Christ himself and sees him as her love and the object of her whole life. By contrast, the Muslim sees Mahomet as just the greatest prophet, and God - certainly not Mahomet - is the object of his life. I do not think any other religion looks on its founder as we look on ours. They revere the founder for his doctrine. We love and obey Christ as the very object of our religion.  Christ himself is the object of our life. He is the centre of the whole of Christian life, and our bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, whether they be family bonds or social. This is because Christ himself is our God and our Redeemer.

(Incidentally, and by way of an aside, whenever we hear of Mahomet being referred to as The Prophet, we ought remember that the application of the term to the person of Mahomet is not recognised by the Church. A prophet in the Church's language is one who uttered God's sanctioned revelation to the people, and the inspired writings of the prophets in the Old Testament make up part of Revelation. The last of the prophets - the Church teaches - was our Lord, but of course being God he was far greater than any mere prophet. The Church teaches that all of Revelation was summed up in Christ and was completed, terminated and fulfilled in him. Mahomet lived nearly six hundred years later (contemporaneously with Pope St. Gregory the Great) and did not bring a further revelation from God to the people. In fact he taught serious errors, such as that Christ was simply a prophet and was not the Son of God. So Mahomet is not a prophet nor is Islam is a revealed religion, whereas Christianity and Judaism are. Mahomet was the founder of a world religion, and was influenced by various Jewish and Christian teachings in interpreting and developing many aspects of his own profound experience of God. Because he drew on revealed religion (consciously or unconsciously as the case may be), Islam has much in common with Christianity and Judaism. This enables us to look on Muslims as our brothers under Abraham.)

  In thinking of Christ the Bridegroom today, our point is this. Countless numbers of the Church’s faithful in the past, and very many now, receive from our Lord the invitation to belong to him exclusively, as one would to a spouse. Their vocation and their privilege is to forego marriage and family life for something much greater and more beautiful, which is to belong to Christ himself. Instead of an earthly spouse, they have a heavenly one here and now, day by day. The Church teaches that this is a worthier and nobler and more beautiful vocation than that of marriage, and the Church, God’s family, is more fruitful as a result. If you are young I invite you to consider this calling. It may be lived out in numerous ways in the life of the Church - as a priest, as a religious sister, as a member of one or other of the different kinds of consecrated or non-consecrated communities that flourish in the life of the Church today. Consider giving your life to Christ. If you are a parent I invite you to encourage this holy ambition among their children. 
                                                                                                                                 (Fr. E.J.Tyler)

Suggested Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church 1618-1620 (Virginity for the Kingdom)

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“At midnight”  (Matthew 25: 1-13)
Commentary from St Augustine (354-430), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Sermon 93)

The ten virgins all wanted to go out to meet the bridegroom. What does going out to meet the bridegroom mean? It is to go out with their heart, it is to live in expectation of his coming. But he delayed his coming, and “they all fell asleep.” …… What do those words mean: “they all fell asleep”? There is a sleep that no one can escape. Remember the words of the apostle Paul: “We would have you be clear about those who sleep in death” (1 Thess 4:13), that is to say, those who have died…… Thus they have all fallen asleep. Do you think the sensible virgin can escape death? No, whether they be sensible or foolish, they all have to pass by way of the sleep of death……

“At midnight someone shouted.” What does that mean? It happens at the time when no one is thinking of it, when no one is expecting it…… He will come at the time when you are least thinking of it. Why will he come like that? Because he says: “The exact time is not yours to know. The Father has reserved that to himself.” (Acts 1:7) The apostle Paul says: “The day of the Lord is coming like a thief in the night.” (1 Thess 5:2) So keep watch during the night so as not to be surprised by the thief. For whether you want it or not, the sleep of death will necessarily come.

However, it will only come when a cry is heard at midnight. What is that cry if not the one about which the apostle Paul said: “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Cor 15:52) After the cry that will resound at midnight: “The groom is here”, what will happen? “They all got up.”

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Saint Joseph, our Father and Lord: most chaste, most pure. You were found worthy to carry the Child Jesus in your arms, to wash him, to hug him. Teach us to get to know God, and to be pure, worthy of being other Christs. And help us to do and to teach, as Christ did. Help us to open up the divine paths of the earth, which are both hidden and bright; and help us to show them to mankind, telling our fellow men that their lives on earth can have an extraordinary and constant supernatural effectiveness.
                                               (The Forge, no.553)

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Monday of the thirty second week of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Carina and her Companions   (Saints)


Scripture today:     Wisdom 1: 1-7;    Psalm 139: 1b-3, 4-6, 9-10;    Luke 17: 1-6.

“Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them!”   
(Luke 17: 1-6)

A danger which lies before the one who has embarked on any project is that of weariness in the face of the obstacles that are sure to come. A young couple get married and their project is to found a family together with the investment of their entire lives. Obstacles are sure to arise, stemming from within them and outside of them. A person sets out on establishing a business. He knows that most small businesses fail and that therefore obstacles are sure to arise. Beyond the sphere of one’s own personal life, there is the life of society and the life of nations. Again, obstacles are sure to arise. The twentieth century was dominated by the terrible tragedies of Nazism, Fascism, Communism, greedy and excessive Capitalism, and many other systems. Now we are faced with a murderous terrorism. The danger will be that of giving in to the weariness that accompanies obstacles.

Our Lord tells his disciples in today’s Gospel passage
(Luke 17: 1-6) that “obstacles are sure to come.” Our Lord is referring to the obstacles that lead a persona away from life in him and the fulfilment of God’s commandments. We must keep alive a constant vigilance and spiritual readiness to resist such obstacles and all weariness attendant on them. Especially must we be vigilant lest we ourselves become obstacles to the spiritual flourishing of others, through our carelessness and mediocrity in the fulfilment of our daily duties. It comes down to maintaining a living and growing faith in God and Christ, and making this faith a very practical matter. In this way we shall grow spiritually amid the inevitable difficulties and obstacles, and be increasingly careful not to be obstacles to others.
                                                                                                                      
(E.J.Tyler)
 
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“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed” 
(Luke 17: 1-6)
Comment by Silouane (1866-1938), Orthodox monk (Writings)

In the past, I thought the Lord only did miracles in response to the prayers of the saints, but now I have understood that the Lord also does miracles for the sinner as soon as his soul humbles itself; for when a person learns humility, the Lord hears his prayers.

Many inexperienced people say that such and such a saint worked a miracle, but I have understood that it is the Holy Spirit dwelling in the person who does the miracles. The Lord wants everyone to be saved and to live with him eternally, and that is why he hears the prayers that the sinner brings before him for the good of others or for his own good.

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Love St Joseph a lot. Love him with all your soul, because he, together with Jesus, is the person who has most loved our Blessed Lady and been closest to God. He is the person who has most loved God, after our Mother. He deserves your affection, and it will do you good to get to know him, because he is the Master of the interior life, and has great power before the Lord and before the Mother of God.
                                            (The Forge, no.554)

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Tuesday of the thirty second week of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Godfrey   (Saints)


Scripture today:     Wisdom 2:23-3:9;      Psalm 34: 2-3, 16-17, 18-19;    Luke 17: 7-10.

“It was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover.”  
(Wisdom 2:23-3:9)

Day after day we read and see news of death and destruction. There are terrible natural disasters and disasters brought on man by his fellow man. Evil and death roll on and on, presenting a constant threat and struggle. There is talk of the pandemic bird flu. St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that sin entered the world through on man and with sin has come death, and death has spread through the hole human race. In this he is repeating the teaching of the Old Testament of which we have a specimen in today’s first reading from the book of Wisdom. Wisdom tells us that “God did make man imperishable, he made him in the image of his own nature; it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover.” 
(Wisdom 2:23-3:9)

So let us look on the calamities and sufferings characteristic of life in our world as symptoms and reminders of someone and something far more sinister and foreboding that lives and operates out of visible sight. It reminds us of the personal and moral evil which is at the origin of the profound disfunction rampant in the world. The devil did it once, and he is trying to do it again and again. So then, when we see suffering and evil let us resolve not to be “partners” of the one who initiated it. Let us in our hearts renounce sin and “the devil’s envy.” Let us by contrast resolutely pursue the path of the virtuous who “are in the hands of God.” The path of the virtuous is that of gold being tested in a furnace. God will accept such a one as a holocaust. Let us make our choice for God and without compromise live it out amid the difficulties that will surely come.  
                                                                                                                           
(Fr. E.J.Tyler)

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“We are useless servants”  
(Luke 17: 7-10)
Comment from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of Charity.  (A Simple Path)

Don’t worry about looking for the causes of humankind’s big problems; be satisfied with doing what you can to solve them by giving your help to those who need it. Some people tell me that by giving charity to others, we are clearing the States of their responsibilities towards the needy and the poor. However, I’m not worried, for in general the States don’t give love. I simply do what I can, the rest is not my domain.

God has been so good to us! To work with love is always a way of coming closer to him. Look at what Christ did during his life on earth. He spent it doing good (Acts 10:38). I remind my sisters that he spent the three years of his public life caring for the sick, the lepers, the children and others more. That is exactly what we are doing when we preach the Gospel by our actions.

We believe that serving others is a privilege, and we try at every moment to do it with all our heart. We know very well that our action is only a drop in the ocean, but without our action, that drop would be missing.

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Our Lady. Who could be a better Teacher of the love of God than this Queen, this Lady, this Mother, who has the closest bond with the Trinity: Daughter of God the Farther, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit? And at the same time she is our Mother! Go and pray personally for her intercession.
                                               (The Forge, no.555)

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Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica

(November 9) The Lateran basilica is the cathedral of the Pope’s diocese of Rome. It was built in the time of Constantine and was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324. This feast became a universal celebration in honour of the basilica called “the mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the world” as a sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.   (Saints)


Ezechiel 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12;  Psalm 46: 2-3, 5-6, 8-9;   1 Corinthians 3: 9c-11, 16-17;  John 2: 13-22.

There are many things we can think of on the feast of the dedication of the Lateran basilica, the cathedral of the diocese of Rome. It is from that “cathedra” (teaching chair) that the Pope as Bishop of Rome teaches the faithful of his own diocese and that of the world. So we are reminded of the universal Church’s communion in the one faith taught and handed on by the successors of the Apostles in union with the successor of the Apostle Peter. The Church is a communion in the one faith. But the Church is also a great communion in prayer and worship. We are surely reminded of this when we think of the Lateran cathedral. It is a great house of prayer and worship and the entire Church worships in union with the liturgy celebrated by the Pope in his cathedral. We think then of the universal Church worshipping in the communion   of one faith.

Let us consider for a moment how important is our local church were we gather to worship the Father in union with the Son with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Consider the zeal of our Lord for his Father’s house as it manifested itself in today’s Gospel
(John 2: 13-22): he drove out of the Temple all who were desecrating it. It was the house of his Father. Our own love for our local church and the One who dwells there constantly in the tabernacle ought lead to the utmost reverence whenever we enter it, shunning small talk and taking care that our time in His presence is filled with prayer and union with him in the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries. Let us be deeply aware not only of the Eucharistic Jesus who dwells there in such a lowly and humble manner, but let us remember the entire Church that continually unites herself to him as she gathers constantly in worship and prayer. The church is the great gathering place of our lives, and we are reminded of this on the feast of the dedication of the St John Lateran basilica.
                                                                                                                              
(E.J.Tyler)

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“He was talking about the temple of his body”  
(John 2: 13-22)
Comment by Saint Hilary (around 315-367), Bishop and Doctor of the Church (Treatise on Psalm 64)

The Lord said: “This is my resting place forever,” and he “chose Zion as the place where he will dwell.” (Ps 132:14) But the temple is destroyed. Where will God’s eternal throne be? Where will his resting place be forever? Where will his temple be for him to dwell there? The apostle Paul gives us an answer: “You are the temple of God, …… the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16). That is the house and temple of God. They are filled with his teaching and his power. They are the dwelling place for the holiness of God’s heart.

But it is God who builds this dwelling place. If it were built by human hands, it would not last, not even if it were founded on human teaching. Our fruitless work and our worries are not enough to protect it. The Lord goes about this in a different way: he did not found it on earth or on moving sand, but it rests on the prophets and the apostles (Eph 2:20); it is built constantly out of living stones (1 Pet 2:5). It will develop to the ultimate dimension of Christ’s body. Its construction continues constantly. Many houses go up all around it and they will resemble one another in one big and happy city (Ps 122:3).

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You will become a saint if you have charity, if you manage to do the things which please others and do not offend God, though you find them hard to do.
                                                                  (The Forge, no.556)

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Thursday of the thirty second week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 10) St Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church (died 451). During his pontificate the Council of Chalcedon (451) defined that there is in Christ one divine person and two natures, divine and human. It was a confirmation of his Epistola Dogmatica (Tome) to the Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople. He vigorously defended the unity of the Church. He pushed back the onrush of the barbarians under Attila.  
(Saints)


Scripture today:    
Wisdom 7: 22b-8:1;   Psalm 119: 89, 90, 91, 135, 175;    Luke 17: 20-25

“Over Wisdom evil can never triumph. She deploys her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things for good.”  
(Wisdom 7: 22b-8:1)

Our experience of life involves the experience of persons of influence, be it influence for good or influence for what is not good, and we ourselves influence for good or for evil. From childhood influences bear down on us, and we see influences bearing down on others around us. Great changes come about in the world in the course of our lifetime and as history proceeds, and in large measure these changes are due to personal influence. Thus it is that the crux of the issue of good or evil prevailing in the world will be the degree to which true wisdom is in possession. We could say that the world will rise or fall on the victory or otherwise of true wisdom. It is plain that if a person possesses wisdom and lives by it, the influence he has will be for the good.

The Old Testament book of Wisdom speaks of the glory and the power of true wisdom, and that wisdom is the Wisdom of God. What this inspired text teaches is that the Wisdom of God can and is given to men who are disposed for it and who humbly ask for it. Over “wisdom evil can never triumph”, and she orders “all things for good.”
(Wisdom 7: 22b-8:1) The book reminds us that it is imperative that we obtain from God the gift of divine wisdom if we are ever to attain our true end, the end to which God has called us - which is holiness of life and union with God, and the completion of our God-given work in life. Let us then ask the Holy Spirit our Counsellor and Guide for the gift of divine wisdom, and the help to live according to it.
                                                                                                                              
(E.J.Tyler)

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“The reign of God is in your midst” 
(Luke 17: 20-25)

Comment by Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), Carmelite and Doctor of the Church
(Autobiographical Manuscript A, 84 r°)

It is above all the Gospel which supports me during my prayer. There I find all that my poor little soul needs. There, I always discover new lights, hidden and mysterious meaning.

I understand and know from experience “that the reign of God is in our midst”. Jesus doesn’t need books or scholars to teach souls, he who is the Scholar of scholars teaches without the noise of words. I have never heard him speak, but I feel that he is in me. He guides me at every moment, he inspires me with what I have to say or do. Just when I need it, I discover lights that I had not seen yet. Most often, this does not happen above all during my prayer, but rather in the midst of my day’s occupations.

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Saint Paul has given us a wonderful recipe for charity: bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfil the law of Christ. Is this what happens in your life?
                                                                          (The Forge, no.557)

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Friday of the thirty second week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 11) St Martin of Tours, bishop (316-397) Born to pagan parents in Hungary, he was first a soldier before he was baptized. He founded a monastery in France and later became Bishop of Tours. He sent missionaries to evangelize the country and to educate the clergy. 
(Saints)


Scripture today:     
Wisdom 13: 1-9;     Psalm 19: 2-3, 4-5ab;     Luke 17: 26-37.

“From the good thin
gs that are seen (they) have not been able to discover Him-who-is”
   (W
isdom 13: 1-9)

The book of Wisdom tells us what St Paul’s letter to the Romans repeats, that the world we see helps us discover the Creator whom we cannot see. Well then, let us take this to heart in our daily spiritual life. Living in the world as we do we are surrounded with constant reminders of the living God. These reminders - his creatures - speak to us of him, and we can easily understand the language being spoken if we are disposed to be open to it. That is to say, an immense amount depends on our fundamental (religious) dispositions. This is the case in so many other matters of life. We shall never learn a language, we shall never come to know a person and to attuned to that person in love and sympathy if we are not oriented and disposed accordingly. So too with God. We shall never attain the living God who is behind the veil of creation if we are not duly disposed to him. Let us then pray for the right dispositions, and for the help to guard them and to live according to them.

The passage today from Wisdom
(Wisdom 13: 1-9) speaks also of the danger that creatures pose to fallen man. The beauty of God’s creation can engross man’s heart and lead him to forget and be disinterested in the beauty of its maker. If this happens it will be understandable, but at the same time blameworthy. Let us strive to be attached to God with all our mind, heart and soul, using creatures to be the more attached to the creator. It means all our lives working at being attached to God and detached from creatures - or putting it differently, being attached to creatures only  in God and according to the mind of God.
                                                                                                                           
(E.J.Tyler)

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“They ate and drank, they bought and sold”  
(Luke 17: 26-37)
Comment by St Gregory of Nyssa (335-395), Monk and Bishop (Homily 11 on the Song of Songs)

The Lord gave his disciples important recommendations so that they might shake off like dust everything earthly in their nature and might thus be raised to the desire for supernatural realities. According to one of these recommendations, those who turn towards life on high must be stronger than sleep and must always remain watchful…… I am talking about the drowsiness that arises among those who are plunged in life’s lie through illusory dreams such as honours, riches, power, pomp, the fascination of pleasure, ambition, the thirst for enjoyment, vanity and everything that their imagination leads superficial people to seek madly. All these things pass away with the fleeting nature of time; they belong to the domain of appearances…… Hardly have they seemed to exist when they disappear like the waves of the sea……

So that our minds might be free of these illusions, the Word invites us to shake this deep sleep from the eyes of our soul, so that we might not slip away from the true realities by becoming attached to that which has no consistency. That is why he suggests that we be watchful when he says: “Let your belts be fastened around your waists and your lamps be burning ready.” (Lk 12:35) For when the light shines before our eyes, it chases sleep away, and when our kidneys are held tight by a belt, they prevent the body from succumbing to it…… The person who has fastened the belt of temperance lives in the light of a pure conscience; the trust of a child illuminates his life like a lamp…… If we live like that, we will enter into a life that is like that of the angels.

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Jesus Our Lord loved men so much that he became incarnate, took to himself our nature, and lived in daily contact with the poor and the rich, with the just and with sinners, with young and old, with Gentiles and Jews. He spoke to everyone: to those who showed good will to him, and to those who were only looking for a way to twist his words and condemn him. You should try to act as Our Lord did.
                                         (The Forge, no.558)

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Saturday of the thirty second week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 12) St Josaphat, bishop and martyr (1580-1623). Born in Ukraine (Russia) of Orthodox parents, be became a Catholic and a Basilian monk. Chosen bishop he worked faithfully for the unity of the Church until he was martyred by a mob.   (Saints)


Scripture today:  
Wisdom 18: 14-16; 19: 6-9;  Psalm 105: 2-3, 36-37, 42-43;  Luke 18: 1-8

“Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart”
 
(Luke 18: 1-8)

St Alphonsus Ligouri palced an enormous stress on the prayer of petition. He wrote that a fundamental reason why we do not make the spiritual progress we could make is that we do not ask for the graces that are necessary. He said that we do not receive much if we do not ask for much, and that the more we ask for from God the more we receive. What, then, is the problem? The problem all too often is that we tend to give up asking, we tend to lose heart and then give up on God. We secretly think it will make little difference and that the prayer of petition is a futile exercise. All too often we just do not ask at all, and all because God is not the reality in our hearts that he should be. A test of our faith in God is the readiness with which we ask him for what we need, and the perseverence with which we continue to ask for them.

In today’s Gospel parable our Lord teaches the importance of persevering in our prayers of petition. God knows the best time and the best way to answer our prayers, but if we give up asking and let our active faith drain away because of mere appearances, in effect we are losing interest in God. It is high praise we can offer to God to keep up our prayer, refusing to give in to the thought that he does not have the power or the love to respond. In fact the power of God is shown precisely in his mercy. Our Lord guarantees that God will hear the persevering prayers of “his chosen who cry to him day and night even when he delays to help them.” Placing our faith in the word of Christ then, and resolving to believe in the power and the love of God, let us fill up our days with persevering prayer of petition for both ourselves and all those in need.
                                                                                                                                 
(E.J.Tyler)

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“We must pray always and not lose heart”  
(Luke 18: 1-8)
Comment by Master Eckhart (1260-1327), Dominican theologian. (Spiritual Conversations)

Someone asked me the following: Many people would like to withdraw completely from the world and to live in solitude so as to find peace there, or to remain in church. Could it be that this is the best one can do? I say: No! And this is why.

The person with an upright attitude is at ease everywhere and with everybody; but the person who is lacking in integrity is uncomfortable everywhere and with everybody. The person who possesses God alone has in mind only God, and all things become God alone for him. Such a person carries God in all he does and in every place, and that person’s every activity takes on a divine character……

Certainly, for this, zeal and love are necessary as well as attentive watchfulness over one’s conscience, vigilant, true and effective intelligence, which directs our entire spiritual attitude where things and people are concerned. One cannot acquire that intelligence through an evasive attitude by fleeing from things in order to find refuge in solitude, far away from the external world. On the contrary, one has to learn an interior solitude wherever and with whomever one might be. One has to learn to penetrate to the bottom of things so as to take hold of God there…… That is how we must be filled with the presence of God, remodelled after the form of the God of love, and we must be entirely one with him, so that God’s presence might illuminate us without our least effort.

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Loving souls for God’s sake will make us love everyone: understanding, excusing, forgiving all. We should have a love that can cover the multitude of failings contrived by human wretchedness. We have to have a wonderful charity, defending the truth, without hurting anyone.
                                                                                              (The Forge, no.559)

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Thirty third Sunday of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini and St. Stanislaus Kostka  (Saints)


Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; Psalm 128: 1-2,3,4-5; 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-6; Matthew 25: 14-30

“Sir,” he said, “you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made.”
  
(Matthew 25: 14-30)

 Recently I read a news item that described the beliefs of an Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Australia. His beliefs are typically protestant and one in particular I noted in my mind. He puts very little importance on the Church. In the Creed which we proclaim all together each Sunday after the homily we profess to believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. The communion of saints in heaven, on earth and in purgatory is, of course, the Church. The Church is a communion of persons embracing all the Church’s members, united with one another due to their union with her Head, Christ. We the Church’s members all make up one body sharing in the divine life of our Head.

 This notion that the Church is a body, a mystical body as we call it, is taught by St Paul and it provides us with food for thought in our understanding of the Church as a communion. If I want to be healthy in mind and body, I should eat properly and get good exercise. That fact alone shows that the health and good of one part of the body contributes to the general good of the whole. And if one part is suffering from some affliction - for instance if there is gangrene in the person’s foot, or if his heart is weak - then the whole body will be affected, and not just the body but the mind and the soul also. As is well known, a person’s psychological balance and mental health will also affect a person’s physical state. So there is a deep interconnection between all elements that make up the human person and the health of these elements affect the health of the whole.

  St Paul tells us that the Church is like that. We are members of one body, of which Christ is the head. Since all the members form one body, the good of each is passed on to and affects the others. Thus there is a communion of persons and a sharing of spiritual goods among the Church’s members, be they on earth, in heaven or in purgatory, because what we all share in common is our being in Christ. Christ, being the head of the Church, shares with the members of his body the riches which have their source in him. These riches coming from him are the common fund shared in various degrees by all, and they reach us primarily through the preaching and teaching of the word of God and the administration of the sacraments. But there is another aspect of this fact that the Church is a communion of persons  which we can easily overlook. It is that the goods generated by each member of the Church also become part of a common fund that serves the good of other members. That is to say, in Christ we are called to contribute to the good of the whole, and this is made possible by the communion of saints.

  In our Gospel passage today
(Matthew 25: 14-30) our Lord tells us a parable very rich in meaning. The master entrusts his wealth to his servants, depending on their ability. This detail of the parable immediately reminds us of the riches that have flowed to us from Christ our Head because of our communion with him. But these gifts are a responsibility and we must put them to work so as to increase the general capital. In the parable the master returns to see how the wealth he had given to his servants had been increased. Those who had put it to good use were rewarded with more. The one who had not done a thing with it was left with nothing.

  Now, all this shows that our Lord looks to us to add to the spiritual capital, as we could call it, that is available for the good of the Church. Of course, all true spiritual wealth comes from God, but in his plan we are granted the dignity of increasing it by our loving service of him. By our daily prayers we are adding to the Church’s treasury of spiritual wealth. By our dedication to our responsibilities we are adding to that treasury. By our penances we are adding to that treasury. When we suffer failures and when there is seemingly little result coming from our efforts to do good, this can be offered up to God as an addition to the Church’s treasury. It will be applied by God to wherever the Church needs it. In this way no matter who we are nor how lowly in the eyes of men may be our work and position, we can contribute invisibly to the good of the whole. This is because we are part of the communion of saints that is the Church. Let us live this doctrine of the communion of saints enabling it to give inspiration to our lives.
                                                                                                                                (E.J.Tyler)

Further Reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, no.946-959 (The Communion of Saints)

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Making the gifts of the Holy Spirit fruitful 
(Matthew 25: 14-30)
Commentary from the 2nd Vatican Council (Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium §§ 34)

The supreme and eternal priest, Christ Jesus, since he wills to continue his witness and service also through the laity, vivifies them in this Spirit and increasingly urges them on to every good and perfect work.

For besides intimately linking them to his life and his mission, he also gives them a sharing in his priestly function of offering spiritual worship for the glory of God and the salvation of men. For this reason, the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them. For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavours, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne —— all these become "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 2:5). Together with the offering of the Lord's body, they are most fittingly offered in the celebration of the Eucharist. Thus, as those everywhere who adore in holy activity, the laity consecrate the world itself to God.

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When I speak to you of good example, I mean to tell you, too, that you have to understand and excuse, that you have to fill the world with peace and love.
                                                                            (The Forge, no.560)

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Monday of the thirty third week of Ordinary Time 1

Today let us think of St. Sidonius and St. Laurence O'Toole  (Saints)


1 Maccabees 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63;  Psalm 119: 53, 61, 134, 150, 155, 158; Luke 18: 35-43

“All the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion”
  
(1 Maccabees 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63)

In her spiritual teaching the Church alerts her faithful against one great enemy to their attaining the perfection of the love of God. It is what Scripture calls “the world.” The world, the flesh and the devil conspire to lead us astray into infidelity and sin, and the wages of sin is death. The “world” consists of those influences external to us (excepting Satan) that oppose the plan of God for our salvation and sanctification. We have in our first reading today
(1 Maccabees 1: 10-15, 41-43, 54-57, 62-63) a vivid instance of the influence of the world on the children of Israel in the time of the Maccabees.

In this case it was embodied in the will of the ruler Antiochus Epiphanes and those among the people of Israel who wished “to practise pagan observances” and who submitted “to the heathen rule as willing slaves of impiety.” We are told in the text that “all the pagans conformed to the king’s decree, and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the Sabbath.” That was one instance but the pattern has recurred time and again within the life of the Church and within the lives of her faithful.

We all of us must be alert to the insidious influence of those who wish to conform to the world rather than to Christ. Christ referred to the devil as the “prince of this world”, and he (Satan) will be making use of the world’s influence, and it will also be enticing to “the flesh.” Let us in the first place be on guard lest we come to think as the world thinks rather than thinking according to the mind of Christ. As St Paul tells us, let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let us then pray for the grace to make that the foundation of our life, and the source of our resistance to all influence from the “world,” the “flesh” and the devil.
                                                                                                                            (E.J.Tyler)

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“Son of David, have mercy on me”  
(Luke 18: 35-43)
Commentary by Symeon the New Theologian (949 –– 1022), Orthodox monk. (Ethics 5)

My friend, you have learned that the Kingdom of Heaven is in you (Lk 17:21), if you wish, and that all the eternal goods are in your hands. So hurry to see, to take hold of and to obtain within yourself the goods that are reserved…… Groan, prostrate yourself. Like the blind man in the past, you now also say: “Have mercy on me, Son of God, and open the eyes of my soul so that I might see the Light of the world that you are, oh my God (Jn 8:12), and that I too might become a child of that divine light (Jn 12:36). O clement one, send the Consoler upon me, as well, so that he himself might teach me (Jn 14:26) what concerns you and what is mine, O God of the universe. Dwell in me, too, as you said, so that I in turn might become worthy to dwell in you (Jn 15:4). Let me know how to enter into you and to know that I possess you in myself. O invisible One, deign to take form in me so that, seeing your inaccessible beauty, I might bear your image, oh heavenly One, and I might forget all visible things. Give me the glory that the Father gave you (Jn 17:22), O Merciful One, so that, resembling you like all your servants, I might share your divine life according to grace and I might be constantly with you, now and always and forever.”

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Ask yourself often: am I making a real effort to be more refined in my charity towards the people I live with?
                             (The Forge, no.561)

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Tuesday of the thirty third week of Ordinary Time 1

(November 15) St Albert the Great, bishop and doctor of the Church (1206-1280). German by birth, he studied in Padua and Paris. He entered the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans) and taught Theology. In Paris St Thomas was his pupil. A man of great wisdom and encyclopaedic know