DAILY GOSPEL: 03/02/2011
Thursday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the day
Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Founder of the Friars Minor
Earlier Rule, §8-9 (©Classics of Western Spirituality)
Thursday, 03 February 2011
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Thursday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
Letter to the Hebrews 12:18-19.21-24.
You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm
and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them,
Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
Psalms 48(47):2-3.4.9.10-11.
Great is the LORD and highly praised in the city of our God: The holy mountain,
fairest of heights, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon, the city of the great king.
God is its citadel, renowned as a stronghold.
What we had heard we now see in the city of the LORD of hosts, In the city of our God, founded to last forever. Selah
O God, within your temple we ponder your steadfast love.
Like your name, O God, your praise reaches the ends of the earth. Your right hand is fully victorious.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:7-13.
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them."
So they went off and preached repentance.
They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
You have not approached that which could be touched and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness and storm
and a trumpet blast and a voice speaking words such that those who heard begged that no message be further addressed to them,
Indeed, so fearful was the spectacle that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and God the judge of all, and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.
Psalms 48(47):2-3.4.9.10-11.
Great is the LORD and highly praised in the city of our God: The holy mountain,
fairest of heights, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon, the city of the great king.
God is its citadel, renowned as a stronghold.
What we had heard we now see in the city of the LORD of hosts, In the city of our God, founded to last forever. Selah
O God, within your temple we ponder your steadfast love.
Like your name, O God, your praise reaches the ends of the earth. Your right hand is fully victorious.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:7-13.
He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick--no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic.
He said to them, "Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them."
So they went off and preached repentance.
They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Mc 6,7-13
Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Founder of the Friars Minor
Earlier Rule, §8-9 (©Classics of Western Spirituality)
"No money in their belts"
The Lord commands us in the Gospel: «Watch, be on your guard against all malice and greed» (cf. Lk 12:15). «Guard yourselves against the preoccupations of this world and the cares of this life» (cf. Mt 6,25; Lk 21:34). Therefore, none of the brothers, wherever he may be or wherever he goes, should in any way carry, receive, or have received either money or coins, whether for clothing or books or payment for any work-indeed, for no reason-unless it is for the evident need of the sick brothers; for we must not suppose that money or coins have any greater value than stones. And the devil would like to blind those who desire it or consider it better than stones. Therefore, let us who have left all things behind take care that we do not lose the kingdom of heaven for so little (cf. Mt 19:27; Mk 10,24.28). And if we were to find coins in any place, let us give them no more thought than the dust which we crush with our feet; for all this is «vanity of vanities, and all is vanity» (Eccl 1:2).
All the brothers should strive to follow the humility and the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ... And they must rejoice when they live among people who are considered to be of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside. And when it may be necessary, let them go for alms. And they should not be ashamed, but rather recall that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living and all-powerful God... was a poor man and a transient and lived on alms, he and the Blessed Virgin, and His disciples
All the brothers should strive to follow the humility and the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ... And they must rejoice when they live among people who are considered to be of little worth and who are looked down upon, among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars by the wayside. And when it may be necessary, let them go for alms. And they should not be ashamed, but rather recall that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living and all-powerful God... was a poor man and a transient and lived on alms, he and the Blessed Virgin, and His disciples
St. Blase, Bishop & Martyr (+ 316)
SAINT BLASE
Bishop and Martyr
(+ 316)
Bishop and Martyr
(+ 316)
St. Blase devoted the earlier years of his life to the study of philosophy, and afterwards became a physician. In the practice of his profession he saw so much of the miseries of life and the hollowness of worldly pleasures, that he resolved to spend the rest of his days in the service of God, and from being a healer of bodily ailments to be- come a physician of souls.
The Bishop of Sebaste, in Armenia, having died, our Saint, much to the gratification of the inhabitants of that city, was appointed to succeed him. St. Blase at once began to instruct his people as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of this servant of God were attested by many miracles. From all parts the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills.
Agricolaus, Governor of Cappadocia and the Lesser Armenia, having begun a persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius, our Saint was seized and hurried off to prison. While on his way there, a distracted mother, whose only child was dying of a throat disease, threw herself at the feet of St. Blase and implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, the Saint offered up his prayers, and the child was cured; and since that time his aid has often been effectually solicited in cases of a similar disease.
Refusing to worship the false gods of the heathens, St. Blase was first scourged; his body was then torn with hooks, and finally he was beheaded in the year 316.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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