DAILY GOSPEL: 01/10/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Friday of the Twenty-sixth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Job 38:1.12-21.40:3-5.
The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said :
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place
For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface?
The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment;
But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.
Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?
Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all:
Which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness,
That you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths?
You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great!
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.
Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.
Psalms 139(138):1-3.7-8.9-10.13-14.
For the leader. A psalm of David. I LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.
Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.
If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:13-16.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said :
Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place
For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface?
The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment;
But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered.
Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss?
Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell me, if you know all:
Which is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the abode of darkness,
That you may take them to their boundaries and set them on their homeward paths?
You know, because you were born before them, and the number of your years is great!
Then Job answered the LORD and said:
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you? I put my hand over my mouth.
Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again; though twice, I will do so no more.
Psalms 139(138):1-3.7-8.9-10.13-14.
For the leader. A psalm of David. I LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.
My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.
Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.
If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.
You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 10:13-16.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.'"
Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
Lc 10,13-16
Saint Clement of Alexandria (150- around 215), theologian
Protreptic, 9 ; PG 8, 195-201 (SC 2, p. 143)
«Hear, my people... I will testify against you» (Ps 50[49],7)
«Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers proved Me by trial... they shall not enter into My rest»... For great is the grace of His promise, if today we hear His voice. And that «today» is lengthened out day by day, while it is called today. And to the end the today and the instruction continue; and then the true today, the never-ending day of God, extends over eternity. Let us then ever obey the voice of the divine word. For the «today» signifies eternity. And day is the symbol of light; and the light of men is the Word (Jn 1,9), by whom we behold God.
Rightly, then, to those who have believed and obey, grace will superabound; while with those who have been unbelieving... and have not known the Lord's ways... God is incensed, and these He threatens. And, indeed, the old Hebrew wanderers in the desert received in type the end of this threatening; for they are said not to have entered into the rest, because of their unbelief.
But the Lord, in His love, invites all to a knowledge of the truth (1Tm 2,4) and for this end sends the Paraclete... Hear, then, «you who are far off, hear you who are near» (Ep 2,17): the word has not been hidden from any; light is common, it shines on all... Let us haste to salvation, to regeneration; let us who are many haste that we may be brought together into one love. The union of many in one...becomes one symphony following one choir-leader and teacher, the Word, reaching and resting in the same truth, and crying «Abba, Father» (Rm 8,15).
Rightly, then, to those who have believed and obey, grace will superabound; while with those who have been unbelieving... and have not known the Lord's ways... God is incensed, and these He threatens. And, indeed, the old Hebrew wanderers in the desert received in type the end of this threatening; for they are said not to have entered into the rest, because of their unbelief.
But the Lord, in His love, invites all to a knowledge of the truth (1Tm 2,4) and for this end sends the Paraclete... Hear, then, «you who are far off, hear you who are near» (Ep 2,17): the word has not been hidden from any; light is common, it shines on all... Let us haste to salvation, to regeneration; let us who are many haste that we may be brought together into one love. The union of many in one...becomes one symphony following one choir-leader and teacher, the Word, reaching and resting in the same truth, and crying «Abba, Father» (Rm 8,15).
St. Therese of Lisieux, Virgin & Doctor of the Church (1873-1897) - Memorial
Saint Therese of Lisieux
Virgin and Doctor of the Church
(1873-1897)
Virgin and Doctor of the Church
(1873-1897)
Thérèse Martin was born at Alençon, France on 2 January 1873. Two days later, she was baptized Marie Frances Thérèse at Notre Dame Church. Her parents were Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin. After the death of her mother on 28 August 1877, Thérèse and her family moved to Lisieux.
Towards the end of 1879, she went to confession for the first time. On the Feast of Pentecost 1883, she received the singular grace of being healed from a serious illness through the intercession of Our Lady of Victories. Taught by the Benedictine Nuns of Lisieux and after an intense immediate preparation culminating in a vivid experience of intimate union with Christ, she received First Holy Communion on 8 May 1884. Some weeks later, on 14 June of the same year, she received the Sacrament of Confirmation, fully aware of accepting the gift of the Holy Spirit as a personal participation in the grace of Pentecost.
She wished to embrace the contemplative life, as her sisters Pauline and Marie had done in the Carmel of Lisieux, but was prevented from doing so by her young age. On a visit to Italy, after having visited the House of Loreto and the holy places of the Eternal City, during an audience granted by Pope Leo XIII to the pilgrims from Lisieux on 20 November 1887, she asked the Holy Father with childlike audacity to be able to enter the Carmel at the age of fifteen.
On 9 April 1888 she entered the Carmel of Lisieux. She received the habit on 10 January of the following year, and made her religious profession on 8 September 1890 on the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In Carmel she embraced the way of perfection outlined by the Foundress, Saint Teresa of Jesus, fulfilling with genuine fervour and fidelity the various community responsibilities entrusted to her. Her faith was tested by the sickness of her beloved father, Louis Martin, who died on 29 July 1894. Thérèse nevertheless grew in sanctity, enlightened by the Word of God and inspired by the Gospel to place love at the centre of everything. In her autobiographical manuscripts she left us not only her recollections of childhood and adolescence but also a portrait of her soul, the description of her most intimate experiences. She discovered the little way of spiritual childhood and taught it to the novices entrusted to her care. She considered it a special gift to receive the charge of accompanying two "missionary brothers" with prayer and sacrifice. Seized by the love of Christ, her only Spouse, she penetrated ever more deeply into the mystery of the Church and became increasingly aware of her apostolic and missionary vocation to draw everyone in her path.
On 9 June 1895, on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, she offered herself as a sacrificial victim to the merciful Love of God. At this time, she wrote her first autobiographical manuscript, which she presented to Mother Agnes for her birthday on 21 January 1896.
Several months later, on 3 April, in the night between Holy Thursday and Good Friday, she suffered a haemoptysis, the first sign of the illness which would lead to her death; she welcomed this event as a mysterious visitation of the Divine Spouse. From this point forward, she entered a trial of faith which would last until her death; she gives overwhelming testimony to this in her writings. In September, she completed Manuscript B; this text gives striking evidence of the spiritual maturity which she had attained, particularly the discovery of her vocation in the heart of the Church.
While her health declined and the time of trial continued, she began work in the month of June on Manuscript C, dedicated to Mother Marie de Gonzague. New graces led her to higher perfection and she discovered fresh insights for the diffusion of her message in the Church, for the benefit of souls who would follow her way. She was transferred to the infirmary on 8 July. Her sisters and other religious women collected her sayings. Meanwhile her sufferings and trials intensified. She accepted them with patience up to the moment of her death in the afternoon of 30 September 1897. "I am not dying, I am entering life", she wrote to her missionary spiritual brother, Father M. Bellier. Her final words, "My God..., I love you!", seal a life which was extinguished on earth at the age of twenty-four; thus began, as was her desire, a new phase of apostolic presence on behalf of souls in the Communion of Saints, in order to shower a rain of roses upon the world.
She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 17 May 1925. The same Pope proclaimed her Universal Patron of the Missions, alongside Saint Francis Xavier, on 14 December 1927.
Her teaching and example of holiness has been received with great enthusiasm by all sectors of the faithful during this century, as well as by people outside the Catholic Church and outside Christianity.
On the occasion of the centenary of her death, many Episcopal Conferences have asked the Pope to declare her a Doctor of the Church, in view of the soundness of her spiritual wisdom inspired by the Gospel, the originality of her theological intuitions filled with sublime teaching, and the universal acceptance of her spiritual message, which has been welcomed throughout the world and spread by the translation of her works into over fifty languages.
Mindful of these requests, His Holiness Pope John Paul II asked the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which has competence in this area, in consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with regard to her exalted teaching, to study the suitability of proclaiming her a Doctor of the Church.
On 24 August, at the close of the Eucharistic Celebration at the Twelfth World Youth Day in Paris, in the presence of hundreds of bishops and before an immense crowd of young people from the whole world, Pope John Paul II announced his intention to proclaim Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face a Doctor of the Universal Church on World Mission Sunday, 19 October 1997.
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