DAILY GOSPEL: 03/09/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Friday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
First Letter to the Corinthians 4:1-5.
Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself;
I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.
Psalms 37(36):3-4.5-6.27-28.39-40.
Trust in the LORD and do good that you may dwell in the land and live secure.
Find your delight in the LORD who will give you your heart's desire.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act
And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.
Turn from evil and do good, that you may inhabit the land forever.
For the LORD loves justice and does not abandon the faithful. When the unjust are destroyed, and the children of the wicked cut off,
The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.
The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:33-39.
And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."
And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"
Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.
It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or any human tribunal; I do not even pass judgment on myself;
I am not conscious of anything against me, but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the one who judges me is the Lord.
Therefore, do not make any judgment before the appointed time, until the Lord comes, for he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will manifest the motives of our hearts, and then everyone will receive praise from God.
Psalms 37(36):3-4.5-6.27-28.39-40.
Trust in the LORD and do good that you may dwell in the land and live secure.
Find your delight in the LORD who will give you your heart's desire.
Commit your way to the LORD; trust that God will act
And make your integrity shine like the dawn, your vindication like noonday.
Turn from evil and do good, that you may inhabit the land forever.
For the LORD loves justice and does not abandon the faithful. When the unjust are destroyed, and the children of the wicked cut off,
The salvation of the just is from the LORD, their refuge in time of distress.
The LORD helps and rescues them, rescues and saves them from the wicked, because in God they take refuge.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:33-39.
And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."
And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"
Lc 5,33-39
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Sermons on the Song of Songs, no.84 (©Classics of Western spirituality)
"The bridegroom is with them"
Let the soul remember that she was first sought, and first loved, and that it is because of this that she seeks and loves...
"I have sought," says the Bride [of the Song of Songs], "him whom my soul loves" (3:1). This is what the kindness of him who goes before you urges you to do, he who both sought you first and loved you first. You would not be seeking him or loving him unless you had first been sought and loved.
You have been forestalled not only in one blessing but in two, in love and in seeking. The love is the cause of the seeking, and the seeking is the fruit of the love; and it is its guarantee. You are loved, so that you may not think that you are sought so as to be punished; you are sought, so that you may not complain that you are loved in vain. Both these sweet gifts of love make you bold and drive diffidence away, and they persuade you to return and move you to loving response. Hence comes the zeal, the ardor to «seek him whom your soul loves,» for you cannot seek unless you are sought and now that you are sought you cannot fail to seek.
"I have sought," says the Bride [of the Song of Songs], "him whom my soul loves" (3:1). This is what the kindness of him who goes before you urges you to do, he who both sought you first and loved you first. You would not be seeking him or loving him unless you had first been sought and loved.
You have been forestalled not only in one blessing but in two, in love and in seeking. The love is the cause of the seeking, and the seeking is the fruit of the love; and it is its guarantee. You are loved, so that you may not think that you are sought so as to be punished; you are sought, so that you may not complain that you are loved in vain. Both these sweet gifts of love make you bold and drive diffidence away, and they persuade you to return and move you to loving response. Hence comes the zeal, the ardor to «seek him whom your soul loves,» for you cannot seek unless you are sought and now that you are sought you cannot fail to seek.
St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (c.540-604)
SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Pope and Doctor of the Church
(540-604)
Pope and Doctor of the Church
(540-604)
Gregory was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young was governor of Rome. On his father's death he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Cœlian Hill into a monastery, which now bears his name, and for some years lived as a perfect monk.
The Pope drew him from his seclusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; and he did great service to the Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the Imperial court at Constantinople. While still a monk the saint was struck with some boys who were exposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. "And of what race are they?" he asked. "They are Angles." "Worthy indeed to be Angels of God," said he. "And of what province?" "Of Deira," was the reply. "Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their king?" "He is called Ella." "It is well," said Gregory; "Alleluia must be sung in their land to God." He at once got leave from the Pope, and had set out to convert the English when the murmurs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles were not forgotten, and one of the Saint's first cares as Pope was to send from his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to England.
On the death of Pope Pelagius II., Gregory was compelled to take the government of the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed schisms; revived discipline; saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste; aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians; and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, which the English had put out in blood.
He set in order the Church's prayers and chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerable letters, and preached incessantly, most effectually by his own example.
He died A. D. 604, worn out by austerities and toils; and the Church reckons him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. Gregory the Great.
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