DAILY GOSPEL: 11/08/2010
«Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68
Wednesday of the Nineteenth week in Ordinary Time
Book of Ezekiel 9:1-7.10:18-22.
Then he cried loud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city!
With that I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate which faces the north, each with a destroying weapon in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen, with a writer's case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.
Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer's case at his waist,
saying to him: Pass through the city (through Jerusalem) and mark an X on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it.
To the others I heard him say: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!
Old men, youths and maidens, women and children--wipe them out! But do not touch any marked with the X; begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the men (the elders) who were in front of the temple.
Defile the temple, he said to them, and fill the courts with the slain; then go out and strike in the city.
Then the glory of the LORD left the threshold of the temple and rested upon the cherubim.
These lifted their wings, and I saw them rise from the earth, the wheels rising along with them. They stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the LORD'S house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them.
these were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, whom I now recognized to be cherubim.
Each ohad four faces and four wings; something like human hands were under their wings.
Their faces looked just like those I had seen by the river Chebar; each one went straight forward.
Psalms 113(112):1-2.3-4.5-6.
Hallelujah! Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD both now and forever.
From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the LORD be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD; above the heavens God's glory.
Who is like the LORD, our God enthroned on high,
looking down on heaven and earth?
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 18:15-20.
If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, (amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Then he cried loud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city!
With that I saw six men coming from the direction of the upper gate which faces the north, each with a destroying weapon in his hand. In their midst was a man dressed in linen, with a writer's case at his waist. They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.
Then he called to the man dressed in linen with the writer's case at his waist,
saying to him: Pass through the city (through Jerusalem) and mark an X on the foreheads of those who moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced within it.
To the others I heard him say: Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!
Old men, youths and maidens, women and children--wipe them out! But do not touch any marked with the X; begin at my sanctuary. So they began with the men (the elders) who were in front of the temple.
Defile the temple, he said to them, and fill the courts with the slain; then go out and strike in the city.
Then the glory of the LORD left the threshold of the temple and rested upon the cherubim.
These lifted their wings, and I saw them rise from the earth, the wheels rising along with them. They stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the LORD'S house, and the glory of the God of Israel was up above them.
these were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, whom I now recognized to be cherubim.
Each ohad four faces and four wings; something like human hands were under their wings.
Their faces looked just like those I had seen by the river Chebar; each one went straight forward.
Psalms 113(112):1-2.3-4.5-6.
Hallelujah! Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
Blessed be the name of the LORD both now and forever.
From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the LORD be praised.
High above all nations is the LORD; above the heavens God's glory.
Who is like the LORD, our God enthroned on high,
looking down on heaven and earth?
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 18:15-20.
If your brother sins (against you), go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that 'every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, (amen,) I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Mt 18,15-20
Tertullian (c.155-220), theologian
On Repentance, 10 (c.f. trans. The Ante-Nicene Fathers)
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them"
Among brethren and fellow servants, where there is common hope, fear, joy, grief, suffering, (because there is a common Spirit from a common Lord and Father), why do you think the others to be anything different from yourself? Why flee from those who have known the same falls as if from people who would cheer on your own? The body cannot feel glad at the trouble of any one member; it must necessarily grieve as a whole and work towards their healing as a whole.
There where two of the faithful are together is the Church, but the Church is Christ. Therefore when you cling to the knees of your brethren, it is Christ you touch and Christ you entreat. Similarly, when the brethren shed tears over you, it is Christ who suffers, Christ who begs for mercy from the Father. And what a Son asks is ever speedily obtained.
There where two of the faithful are together is the Church, but the Church is Christ. Therefore when you cling to the knees of your brethren, it is Christ you touch and Christ you entreat. Similarly, when the brethren shed tears over you, it is Christ who suffers, Christ who begs for mercy from the Father. And what a Son asks is ever speedily obtained.
St. Clare, Virgin (1194-1253)
SAINT CLARE
Virgin
(1194-1253)
Virgin
(1194-1253)
On Palm Sunday, March 17, 1212, the Bishop of Assisi left the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, eighteen years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in her place. This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had learnt from St. Francis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for God alone. The same night she escaped, with one companion, to the Church of the Portiuncula, where she was met by St. Francis and his brethren. At the altar of Our Lady, St. Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sack-cloth, with his cord as a girdle. Thus she was espoused to Christ.
In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty.
While the Saracen army of Frederick II. was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare's convent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, prayed, "Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee." A voice from the Host replied, "My protection will never fail you." A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the Saint's convent was spared. During her illness of twenty-eight years the Holy Eucharist was her only support and spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands.
She died in 1253, as the Passion was being read, and Our Lady and the angels conducted her to glory.
In a miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty.
While the Saracen army of Frederick II. was ravaging the valley of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare's convent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, prayed, "Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee." A voice from the Host replied, "My protection will never fail you." A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to flight, and the Saint's convent was spared. During her illness of twenty-eight years the Holy Eucharist was her only support and spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands.
She died in 1253, as the Passion was being read, and Our Lady and the angels conducted her to glory.
