“Son of David, have pity on me”

DAILY GOSPEL: 27/05/2010

«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68

Thursday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time

First Letter of Peter 2:2-5.9-12.
Like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk so that through it you may grow into salvation,
for you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
But you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises" of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Once you were "no people" but now you are God's people; you "had not received mercy" but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and sojourners to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against the soul.
Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that if they speak of you as evildoers, they may observe your good works and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Psalms 100:2.3.4.5.
Worship the LORD with cries of gladness; come before him with joyful song.
Know that the LORD is God, our maker to whom we belong, whosepeople we are, God's well-tended flock.
Enter the temple gates with praise, its courts with thanksgiving. Give thanks to God, bless his name;
good indeed is the LORD, Whose love endures forever, whose faithfulness lasts through every age.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:46-52.
They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, "Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man, saying to him, "Take courage; get up, he is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you." Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

Mc 10,46-52

Commentary of the day 
Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church
Homilies on the Gospels, no. 2

“Son of David, have pity on me”

Scripture rightly presents us with this blind man seated at the edge of the path and asking for alms, for Truth itself said, “I am the way” (Jn 14:6). Thus, whoever does not know the clarity of eternal light is blind.

Even if he already believes in the Redeemer, he is seated at the edge of the path. If he already believes but neglects to ask that eternal light be given to him, and if he neglects to pray, this blind person can be seated at the edge of the path, but he is not asking for alms. But if he believes, if he knows the blindness of his heart and prays so as to receive the light of truth, then he really is that blind man, who is seated at the edge of the path and also asking for alms.

Thus, may the person who recognizes the darkness of his blindness and who feels deprived of eternal light cry out from the bottom of his heart, may he cry with all his soul: “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”

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Thursday, 27 May 2010

St Augustine of Canterbury, Bishop (+ 605)

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SAINT AUGUSTINE
Bishop and Apostle of England
(+ 605)

        Augustine was prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on the Cœlian, and was appointed by St. Gregory the great chief of the missionaries whom he sent to England. St. Augustine and his companions, having heard on their journey many reports of the barbarism and ferocity of the pagan English, were afraid, and wished to turn back. But St. Gregory replied, "Go on, in God's name! The greater your hardships, the greater your crown. May the grace of Almighty God protect you, and give me to see the fruit of your labor in the heavenly country! If I cannot share your toil, I shall yet share the harvest, for God knows that it is not good-will which is wanting." The band of missionaries went on in obedience.

        Landing at Ebbsfleet, between Sandwich and Ramsgate, they met King Ethelbert and his thanes under a great oak-tree at Minster, and announced to him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instant and complete success attended their preaching. On Whit-Sunday, 596, King Ethelbert was baptized, and his example was followed by the greater number of his nobles and people. By degrees the Faith spread far and wide, and Augustine, as Papal Legate, set out on a visitation of Britain. He failed in his attempt to enlist the Britons of the west in the work of his apostolate through their obstinate jealousy and pride; but his success was triumphant from south to north. St. Augustine died after eight years of evangelical labors. The Anglo-Saxon Church, which he founded, is still famous for its learning, zeal, and devotion to the Holy See, while its calendar commemorates no less than 300 Saints, half of whom were of royal birth.

«Hijo de David, ten compasión de mí»

EVANGELIO DEL DÍA: 27/05/2010

¿ Señor, a quién iremos?. Tú tienes palabras de vida eterna. Jn 6, 68

Jesucristo, Sumo y Eterno Sacerdote - Fiesta

Epístola I de San Pedro 2,2-5.9-12.
Como niños recién nacidos, deseen la leche pura de la Palabra, que los hará crecer para la salvación,
ya que han gustado qué bueno es el Señor.
Al acercarse a él, la piedra viva, rechazada por los hombres pero elegida y preciosa a los ojos de Dios,
también ustedes, a manera de piedras vivas, son edificados como una casa espiritual, para ejercer un sacerdocio santo y ofrecer sacrificios espirituales, agradables a Dios por Jesucristo.
Ustedes, en cambio, son una raza elegida, un sacerdocio real, una nación santa, un pueblo adquirido para anunciar las maravillas de aquel que los llamó de las tinieblas a su admirable luz:
ustedes, que antes no eran un pueblo, ahora son el Pueblo de Dios; ustedes, que antes no habían obtenido misericordia, ahora la han alcanzado.
Queridos míos, yo los exhorto, como a gente de paso y extranjeros: no cedan a los deseos carnales que combaten contra el alma.
Observen una buena conducta en medio de los paganos y así, los mismos que ahora los calumnian como a malhechores, al ver sus buenas obras, tendrán que glorificar a Dios el día de su Visita.

Salmo 100,2.3.4.5.
Sirvan al Señor con alegría, lleguen hasta él con cantos jubilosos.
Reconozcan que el Señor es Dios: él nos hizo y a él pertenecemos; somos su pueblo y ovejas de su rebaño.
Entren por sus puertas dando gracias, entren en sus atrios con himnos de alabanza, alaben al Señor y bendigan su Nombre.
¡Qué bueno es el Señor! Su misericordia permanece para siempre, y su fidelidad por todas las generaciones.

Evangelio según San Marcos 10,46-52.
Después llegaron a Jericó. Cuando Jesús salía de allí, acompañado de sus discípulos y de una gran multitud, el hijo de Timeo -Bartimeo, un mendigo ciego- estaba sentado junto al camino.
Al enterarse de que pasaba Jesús, el Nazareno, se puso a gritar: "¡Jesús, Hijo de David, ten piedad de mí!".
Muchos lo reprendían para que se callara, pero él gritaba más fuerte: "¡Hijo de David, ten piedad de mí!".
Jesús se detuvo y dijo: "Llámenlo". Entonces llamaron al ciego y le dijeron: "¡Animo, levántate! El te llama".
Y el ciego, arrojando su manto, se puso de pie de un salto y fue hacia él.
Jesús le preguntó: "¿Qué quieres que haga por ti?". El le respondió: "Maestro, que yo pueda ver".
Jesús le dijo: "Vete, tu fe te ha salvado". En seguida comenzó a ver y lo siguió por el camino. 

Mc 10,46-52

Leer el comentario del Evangelio por 
San Gregorio Magno (hacia 540-604), papa y doctor de la Iglesia
Homilías sobre los evangelios, nº 2

«Hijo de David, ten compasión de mí»

     Con razón la Escritura nos presenta a este ciego al borde del camino y pidiendo limosna, porque el que es la misma Verdad ha dicho: «Yo soy el camino» (Jn 14,6). Así pues, cualquiera que desconoce la claridad de la luz eterna es un ciego.

     Si ya cree en el Redentor, está sentado al borde del camino. Si ya cree pero descuida pedir que le sea dada la luz eterna y descuida orar, este ciego puede estar sentado al borde del camino, pero no pide limosna. Pero si cree, si conoce la ceguera de su corazón y ora pidiendo recibir la luz de la verdad, entonces se puede decir que él es ese ciego sentado al borde del camino y que pide limosna.

     Aquel, pues, que reconoce las tinieblas de su ceguera y sufre por estar privado de la luz eterna, que clame desde el fondo de su corazón, que grite con toda su alma: «¡Jesús, Hijo de David, ten compasión de mí!»

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jueves 27 Mayo 2010

San Agustìn de Cantorbery

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San Agustín de Cantorbery


Obispo († c. a. 605)
Desde el monasterio romano de San Andrés, año 597 fue enviado a Inglaterra por san Gregorio Magno, para predicar el Evangelio.


Consagrado obispo de Cantorbery y con ayuda del rey Etelberto convirtió a muchos a la fe y fundó muchas iglesias, sobre todo, en el reino de Kent.

Murió el 26 de Mayo hacia el año 605.

http://liberaciondeposeidos.blogspot.com/

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  Oremos

Dios nuestro, que por la predicación del obispo San Agustín de Cantorbery hiciste brillar la luz del Evangelio sobre el pueblo de Inglaterra, haz que la semilla de sus trabajos apostólicos continúe dando frutos en tu Iglesia. Por nuestro Señor Jesucristo, tu Hijo.

"To give his life as a ransom for many"

DAILY GOSPEL: 26/05/2010

«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68

Wednesday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time

First Letter of Peter 1:18-25.
Realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a (pure) heart.
You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God,
for: "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts;
but the word of the Lord remains forever." This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.

Psalms 147:12-13.14-15.19-20.
Glorify the LORD, Jerusalem; Zion, offer praise to your God,
Who has strengthened the bars of your gates, blessed your children within you,
Brought peace to your borders, and filled you with finest wheat.
The LORD sends a command to earth; his word runs swiftly!
The LORD also proclaims his word to Jacob, decrees and laws to Israel.
God has not done this for other nations; of such laws they know nothing. Hallelujah!

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:32-45.
They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." 

 Mc 10,32-45

Commentary of the day 
Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Works, vol.14

"To give his life as a ransom for many"

A God who serves, who sweeps the house and gives himself to the most onerous work – a single one of these reflections should be enough to fill us with love! When our Savior began preaching his Gospel he made himself «the servant of all», himself asserting that «he had not come to be served, but to serve». It was as though he had said he wanted to be servant to everyone. And Saint Bernard says that, at the end of his life, he was not satisfied «with having taken the condition of a servant that he might place himself at our service but he wanted to take on the appearance of an unworthy slave and be struck and undergo the punishment due to us by reason of our sins.»

       See how our Lord, as an obedient servant to all, undergoes the sentence of Pilate, unjust as it is, and yields to his executioners... In this way has this God so loved us that, out of love for us, he wanted to obey like a slave even to death and die a death that was both painful and humiliating: the torture of the cross (Phil 2,8).


       Yet in all this he obeyed, not as God but as man, as the slave whose condition he had assumed. There are holy men who have surrendered themselves as slaves in order to redeem a poor man and have won the world's admiration by this heroic act of charity. But what sort of charity is this compared with that of the Redeemer? Being God; desiring to redeem us from the slavery due to us to the devil and death, he made himself as slave, allowing himself to be bound and nailed to the cross. «That the servant might become lord,» Saint Augustine says, «God willed to make himself a servant.»

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Wednesday, 26 May 2010

St. Philip Neri, Priest (1515-1595) - Memorial

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SAINT PHILIP NERI
Priest
(1515-1595)

        Philip was one of the noble line of Saints raised up by God in the sixteenth century to console and bless His Church. After a childhood of angelic beauty the Holy Spirit drew him away from Florence, the place of his birth, showed him the world, that he might freely renounce it, led him to Rome, modelled him in mind and heart and will, and then, as by a second Pentecost, came down in visible form and filled his soul with light and peace and joy. He would have gone to India, but God reserved him for Rome.

        There he went on simply from day to day, drawing souls to Jesus, exercising them in mortification and charity, and binding them together by cheerful devotions; thus, unconsciously to himself, under the hands of Mary, as he said, the Oratory grew up, and all Rome was pervaded and transformed by its spirit.

        His life was a continuous miracle, his habitual state an ecstasy. He read the hearts of men, foretold their future, knew their eternal destiny. His touch gave health of body; his very look calmed souls in trouble and drove away temptations. He was gay, genial, and irresistibly winning; neither insult nor wrong could dim the brightness of his joy.

        Philip lived in an atmosphere of sunshine and gladness which brightened all who came near him. "When I met him in the street," says one, "he would pat my cheek and say, 'Well, how is Don Pellegrino?' and leave me so full of joy that I could not tell which way I was going."

        Others said that when he playfully pulled their hair or their ears, their hearts would bound with joy. Marcio Altieri felt such overflowing gladness in his presence that he said Philip's room was a paradise on earth.

        Fabrizio de Massimi would go in sadness or perplexity and stand at Philip's door; he said it was enough to see him, to be near him. And long after his death it was enough for many, when troubled, to go into his room to find their hearts lightened and gladdened. He inspired a boundless confidence and love, and was the common refuge and consoler of all. A gentle jest would convey his rebukes and veil his miracles. The highest honors sought him out, but he put them from him.

        He died in his eightieth year, in 1595, and bears the grand title of Apostle of Rome.