Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Saints + Scripture

Simplex Complex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows (A.K.A. Our Lady of the Seven Dolours, of Compassion, etc.): Madonna-link ūna, Madonna-link duæ, Madonna-link tria, & Wikipedia-link.


Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth Minute Meditations from the Popes:
O Lord, ease the pain of those who have lost children to drugs or violence. Console those whose children are rebelling & ungrateful. May they learn from Mary's trust, & share in her gentle love.
'Tis also the festival of Saints Emilas, Deacon, & Jeremiah, Martyrs (died 852), martyred in the reign of the Umayyad king Abd ar-Rahman II, two of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba: Martyr-link Echo, Martyr-link Juliett, & Wikipedia-link (List); Wikipedia-link Córdoba.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Anton Maria Schwartz, Priest (1852-1929), founder of the Calasanzian Congregation (1889), formally the Pious Workers of Saint Joseph Calasanctius of the Mother of God: Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Pious Workers.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Pascual Penadés Jornet, Priest & Martyr (1894-1936), martyred by Spanish Communist "Republicans" (Rojos), one of the two hundred thirty-three Martyrs of València (A.K.A. Blessed José Aparicio Sanz & Two Hundred Thirty-two Companions): Martyr-link ūnus & Martyr-link duo; Wikipedia-link València.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Władysław Miegoń, Priest & Martyr (1892-1942), martyred in the reign of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, one of the One Hundred Eight Blessed Polish Martyrs: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link (List, № 75); Martyrs-link Polska & Wikipedia-link Polska.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Paolo Manna, Priest, P.I.M.E. (1872-1952), Superior General of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (1924-1934, P.I.M.E.), founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union (1916, P.M.U.): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link P.I.M.E. & Wikipedia-link P.M.U.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
The First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter twelve, verses twelve, thirteen, fourteen, & twenty-seven thru thirty-one(a);
Psalm One Hundred (R/. three), verses one(b) & two, three, four, & five;
The Gospel according to John, chapter nineteen, verses twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter three, verses thirty-three, thirty-four, & thirty-five.

Commentary: Gospel reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):
Friends, we hear in today’s Gospel that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus looked to his mother and the disciple whom he loved, and he said to Mary, “Woman, behold, your son,” and then to John, “Behold, your mother.”

We are told that “from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” This text supports an ancient tradition that the Apostle John would have taken Mary with him when he travelled to Ephesus in Asia Minor and that both ended their days in that city. Indeed, on the top of a high hill overlooking the Aegean Sea, just outside of Ephesus, there is a modest dwelling that tradition holds to be the house of Mary.

Immaculate Mary, the Mother of God, assumed body and soul into heaven, is not of merely historical or theoretical interest, nor is she simply a spiritual exemplar. Instead, as “Queen of all the saints” (another of her titles), Mary is an ongoing presence, an actor in the life of the Church.

In entrusting Mary to John, Jesus was, in a real sense, entrusting Mary to all those who would be friends of Jesus down through the ages.
Video reflection by Deacon Arthur L. Miller (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.


Mass Readings—Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter five, verses seven, eight, & nine;
Psalm Thirty-one (R/. seventeen), verses two & three(a), three(c/d) & four, five & six, fifteen & sixteen, & twenty;
Sequence Stabat Mater;
The Gospel according to John, chapter nineteen, verses twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven;
or, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter three, verses thirty-three, thirty-four, & thirty-five.

Commentary: Wikipedia-link Stabat Mater.


Papal Quote o' the Day
"Mary not only leads us to the Mystery of the Cross like a teacher; she also participates in that Mystery. She suffers with Jesus & suffers with us. With Jesus she also confronts & defeats the powers of evil."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast: 22 October)
Saint Quote o' the Day
"There are men who think that God is so great that He disdains to look down upon us, our doings & our fortunes. But He who did not find it beneath His Majesty to make us, does not think it beneath Him to observe & to visit us."
—St. John Henry Newman, Cong. Orat. (1801-1890, feast: 9 October)
Mother Teresa Quote o' the Day
"You can pray while you work. Work doesn't stop prayer & prayer doesn't stop work. It requires only that small raising of the mind to Him: I love You God, I trust You, I believe in You, I need You now. Small things like that. These are wonderful ways to pray & wonderful prayers."
—St. Teresa of Calcutta, M.C. (1910-1997, feast: 5 September)
Archbishop Sheen Quote o' the Day
"The Lord has His Sacrament. It's very much like marriage. The marriage act of husband & wife is a kind of sacrifice because the lover dies to himself & submits to the beloved. The beloved dies to herself & submits to the lover, & out of that mutual death there comes the ecstasy of love. That is the sacrifice. Do a husband & wife have a love that is only manifested in that sacrificial act? Are there not any courtesies of companionship which would even surpass in the quiet silence the ecstasy of two in one flesh? As Maeterlinck said: A friend is one in whose presence you can keep silence. As a matter of fact, their happiness, one with another, depends upon the deep consciousness that each one is a sacrament of the other. So our Lord has a Sacrament. He is really & truly present, Body & Blood, soul & divinity in the holy Eucharist. And if we know how to love, we become sensitive & responsive, & when we come into visit Him, He will talk to us. We take on His likeness; as Moses' face shone because He was with God. So, too, St. Paul tells us that we grow in splendor because we are in the presence of God. Moses' splendor grew as he returned again to the mountain; this splendor rises in us, because we return to Christ. We reflect, says Saint Paul, as in a mirror, the splendor of the Lord, & thus we are transfigured into His likeness, from splendor to splendor. That is what the Eucharist does"
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

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