DAILY GOSPEL: 16/12/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Thursday of the Third week of Advent
Book of Isaiah 54:1-10.
Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor, For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband, says the LORD.
Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.
For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; Your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.
Fear not, you shall not be put to shame; you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced. The shame of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.
For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of hosts; Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.
The LORD calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God.
For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.
This is for me like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should never again deluge the earth; So I have sworn not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Psalms 30:2.4.5-6.11-12.13.
I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
LORD, you brought me up from Sheol; you kept me from going down to the pit.
Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God's holy name.
For divine anger lasts but a moment; divine favor lasts a lifetime. At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.
Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
With my whole being I sing endless praise to you. O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 7:24-30.
When the messengers of John had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out to the desert to see--a reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.
Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom scripture says: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.'
I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, and who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God;
but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)
Raise a glad cry, you barren one who did not bear, break forth in jubilant song, you who were not in labor, For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife than the children of her who has a husband, says the LORD.
Enlarge the space for your tent, spread out your tent cloths unsparingly; lengthen your ropes and make firm your stakes.
For you shall spread abroad to the right and to the left; Your descendants shall dispossess the nations and shall people the desolate cities.
Fear not, you shall not be put to shame; you need not blush, for you shall not be disgraced. The shame of your youth you shall forget, the reproach of your widowhood no longer remember.
For he who has become your husband is your Maker; his name is the LORD of hosts; Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.
The LORD calls you back, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, A wife married in youth and then cast off, says your God.
For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment I hid my face from you; But with enduring love I take pity on you, says the LORD, your redeemer.
This is for me like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah should never again deluge the earth; So I have sworn not to be angry with you, or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, My love shall never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Psalms 30:2.4.5-6.11-12.13.
I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
LORD, you brought me up from Sheol; you kept me from going down to the pit.
Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful; give thanks to God's holy name.
For divine anger lasts but a moment; divine favor lasts a lifetime. At dusk weeping comes for the night; but at dawn there is rejoicing.
Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper."
You changed my mourning into dancing; you took off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.
With my whole being I sing endless praise to you. O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 7:24-30.
When the messengers of John had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out to the desert to see--a reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.
Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom scripture says: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.'
I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, and who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God;
but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)
Lc 7,24-30
Venerable Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), hermit and missionary in the Sahara desert
Letter of the 19 May 1898 to Père Jerome
"What did you go out to the desert to see?"
One has to pass through the desert, spending time there, if one is to receive the grace of God. It is there that we empty ourselves, getting rid of everything that is not God, and completely emptying this little house of our souls to leave all the room to God alone. The Hebrews travelled through the desert, Moses lived there before he received his mission, Saint Paul and Saint John Chrysostom were also made ready in the desert... It is a time of grace, a period during which all souls who want to bear fruit necessarily have to pass. They need this silence, recollection and forgetfulness of all created things in the midst of which God establishes his reign and forms a spirit of interiority within them: life in intimacy with God, conversation of the soul with God in faith, hope and love. Later on the soul will produce fruit in precisely the measure to which this interior man has been formed within it (Eph 3,16)...
We can only give what we have and it is in solitude, in that life alone with God alone, that profound recollection of the soul who forgets all else to live alone in union with God, that God gives himself wholly to the one who is thus given wholly to him. Give yourselves wholly to him alone... and he will give himself wholly to you... Look at Saint Paul, Saint Benedict, Saint Patrick, Saint Gregory the Great and so many others – what long periods of recollection and silence they spent! Go higher: look at Saint John the Baptist, look at our Lord. Our Lord had no need of it but he wanted to set us an example.
We can only give what we have and it is in solitude, in that life alone with God alone, that profound recollection of the soul who forgets all else to live alone in union with God, that God gives himself wholly to the one who is thus given wholly to him. Give yourselves wholly to him alone... and he will give himself wholly to you... Look at Saint Paul, Saint Benedict, Saint Patrick, Saint Gregory the Great and so many others – what long periods of recollection and silence they spent! Go higher: look at Saint John the Baptist, look at our Lord. Our Lord had no need of it but he wanted to set us an example.
St. Eusebius, Bishop († c. 371)
SAINT EUSEBIUS
Bishop
(† c. 371)
Bishop
(† c. 371)
St. Eusebius was born of a noble family, in the island of Sardinia, where his father is said to have died in prison for the Faith. The Saint's mother carried him and his sister, both infants, to Rome. Eusebius having been ordained, served the Church of Vercelli with such zeal that on the episcopal chair becoming vacant he was unanimously chosen, by both clergy and people, to fill it.
The holy bishop saw that the best and first means to labor effectually for the edification and sanctification of his people was to have a zealous clergy. He was at the same time very careful to instruct his flock, and inspire them with the maxims of the Gospel. The force of the truth which he preached, together with his example, brought many sinners to a change of life.
He courageously fought against the heretics, who had him banished to Scythopolis, end thence to Upper Thebais in Egypt, where he suffered so grievously as to win, in some of the panegyrics in his praise, the title of martyr.
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