Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings 11-May-2024

Paul came down to Antioch, where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers.

An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet, though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual earnestness and was accurate in all the details he taught about Jesus, he had only experienced the baptism of John. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him speak boldly in the synagogue, they took an interest in him and gave him further instruction about the Way.

When Apollos thought of crossing over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote asking the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived there he was able by God’s grace to help the believers considerably by the energetic way he refuted the Jews in public and demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

God is king of all the earth.

All peoples, clap your hands,

cry to God with shouts of joy!

For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,

great king over all the earth.

God is king of all the earth.

God is king of all the earth,

sing praise with all your skill.

God is king over the nations;

God reigns on his holy throne.

God is king of all the earth.

The princes of the people are assembled

with the people of Abraham’s God.

The rulers of the earth belong to God,

to God who reigns over all.

God is king of all the earth.

The Lord, who hung for us upon the tree,

has risen from the tomb.

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘I tell you most solemnly,

anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.

Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.

I have been telling you all this in metaphors,

the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in metaphors;

but tell you about the Father in plain words.

When that day comes you will ask in my name;

and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you,

because the Father himself loves you for loving me

and believing that I came from God.

I came from the Father and have come into the world

and now I leave the world to go to the Father.’

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments, questions, discussion.

1 posted on 05/11/2024 10:05:21 AM PDT by annalex

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2 posted on 05/11/2024 10:05:48 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

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3 posted on 05/11/2024 10:06:47 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

4 posted on 05/11/2024 10:07:06 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

John
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John 16
23.	And in that day you shall not ask me any thing. Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.	Et in illo die me non rogabitis quidquam. Amen, amen dico vobis : si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis.	και εν εκεινη τη ημερα εμε ουκ ερωτησετε ουδεν αμην αμην λεγω υμιν οτι οσα αν αιτησητε τον πατερα εν τω ονοματι μου δωσει υμιν
24.	Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.	Usque modo non petistis quidquam in nomine meo : petite, et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum.	εως αρτι ουκ ητησατε ουδεν εν τω ονοματι μου αιτειτε και ληψεσθε ινα η χαρα υμων η πεπληρωμενη
25.	These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh, when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father.	Hæc in proverbiis locutus sum vobis. Venit hora cum jam non in proverbiis loquar vobis, sed palam de Patre annuntiabo vobis :	ταυτα εν παροιμιαις λελαληκα υμιν αλλ ερχεται ωρα οτε ουκετι εν παροιμιαις λαλησω υμιν αλλα παρρησια περι του πατρος αναγγελω υμιν
26.	In that day you shall ask in my name; and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you:	in illo die in nomine meo petetis : et non dico vobis quia ego rogabo Patrem de vobis :	εν εκεινη τη ημερα εν τω ονοματι μου αιτησεσθε και ου λεγω υμιν οτι εγω ερωτησω τον πατερα περι υμων
27.	For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.	ipse enim Pater amat vos, quia vos me amastis, et credidistis, quia ego a Deo exivi.	αυτος γαρ ο πατηρ φιλει υμας οτι υμεις εμε πεφιληκατε και πεπιστευκατε οτι εγω παρα του θεου εξηλθον
28.	I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and I go to the Father.	Exivi a Patre, et veni in mundum : iterum relinquo mundum, et vado ad Patrem.	εξηλθον παρα του πατρος και εληλυθα εις τον κοσμον παλιν αφιημι τον κοσμον και πορευομαι προς τον πατερα

5 posted on 05/11/2024 10:10:15 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aguinas

16:23–28

23. And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

24. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

25. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.

26. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

27. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxix) Again our Lord shews that it is expedient that He should go: And in that day shall ye ask Me nothing.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. ci. 4) The word ask here means not only to seek for, but to ask a question: the Greek word from which it is translated has both meanings.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxix) He says, And in that day, i. e. when I shall have risen again, ye shall ask Me nothing, i. e. not say to Me, Shew us the Father, and, Whither goest Thou? since ye will know this by the teaching of the Holy Ghost: or, Ye shall ask Me nothing, i. e. not want Me for a Mediator to obtain your requests, as My name will be enough, if you only call upon that: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you. Wherein He shews His power; that neither seen, or asked, but named only to the Father, He will do miracles. Do not think then, He saith, that because for the future I shall not be with you, that you are therefore forsaken: for My name will be a still greater protection to you than My presence: Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

THEOPHYLACT. For when your prayers shall be fully answered, then will your gladness be greatest.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxix) These words being obscure, He adds, These things have I spoken to you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs: for forty days He talked with them as they were assembled, speaking of the kingdom of God. And now, He says, ye are in too great fear to attend to My words, but then, when you see Me risen again, you will be able to proclaim these things openly.

THEOPHYLACT. (adhuc.) He still cheers them with the promise that help will be given them from above in their temptations: At that day ye shall ask in My Name. And ye will be so in favour with the Father, that ye will no longer need my intervention: And I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself loveth you. But that they might not start back from our Lord, as though they were no longer in need of Him, He adds, Because ye have loved Me: as if to say, The Father loves you, because ye have loved Me; when therefore ye fall from My love, ye will straightway fall from the Fathers love.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cii) But does He love us because we love Him; or rather do not we love Him, because He loved us? This is what the Evangelist says, Let us love God, because God first loved us. (1 John 4:19) The Father then loves us, because we love the Son, (Diligamus Deum, Vulg.) it being from the Father and the Son, that we receive the love from the Father and the Son. He loves what He has made; but He would not make in us what He loved, except He loved us in the first place.

HILARY. (vi. de. Trin. c. 31) Perfect faith in the Son, which believes and loves what has come forth from God, and deserveth to be heard and loved for its own sake, this faith confessing the Son of God, born from Him, and sent by Him, needeth not an intercessor with the Father: wherefore it follows, And have believed that I came forth from God. His nativity and advent are signified by, I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. The one is dispensation, the other nature. To have come from the Father, and to have come forth from God, have not the same meaning; because it is one thing to have come forth from God in the relation of Sonship1, another thing to have come from the Father into this world to accomplish the mystery2 of our salvation. Since to come forth from God is to subsist as His Son3, what else can He be but God.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. lxxix) As it was consolatory to them to hear of His resurrection, and how He came from God, and went to God, He dwells again and again on these subjects: Again I leave the world, and go to the Father. The one was a proof that their faith in Him was not vain: the other that they would still be under His protection.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cii) He came forth from the Father, because He is of the Father; He came into the world, because He shewed Himself in the body to the world. He left the world by His departure in the body, and went to the Father by the ascension of His humanity, nor yet in respect of the government of His presence, left the world; just as when He went forth from the Father and came into the world, He did so in such wise as not to leave the Father. But our Lord Jesus Christ, we read, was asked questions, and petitioned after His resurrection: for when about to ascend to Heaven He was asked by His disciples when He would restore the kingdom to Israel; when in Heaven He was asked by Stephen, to receive his spirit. And who would dare to say that as mortal He might be asked, as immortal He might not? I think then that when He says, In that day ye shall ask Me nothing, He refers not to the time of His resurrection, but to that time when we shall see Him as He is: which vision is not of this present life, but of the life everlasting, when we shall ask for nothing, ask no questions, because there will remain nothing to be desired, nothing to be learnt.

ALCUIN. This is His meaning then: In the world to come, ye shall ask Me nothing: but in the mean time while ye are travelling on this wearisome road, ask what ye want of the Father, and He will give it you: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cii) The word whatsoever, must not be understood to mean any thing, but something which with reference to obtaining the life of blessedness is not nothing. That is not sought in the Saviour’s name, which is sought to the hindering of our salvation; for by, in My name, must be understood not the mere sound of the letters or syllables, but that which is rightly and truly signified by that sound. He who holds any notion concerning Christ, which should not be held of the only Son of God, does not ask in His name. But he who thinks rightly of Him, asks in His name, and receives what he asks, if it be not against his eternal salvation: he receives when it is right he should receive; for some things are only denied at present in order to be granted at a more suitable time. Again, the words, He will give it you, only comprehend those benefits which properly appertain to the persons who ask. All saints are heard for themselves, but not for all; for it is not, will give, simply, but, will give you; what follows: Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name, may be understood in two ways: either that they had not asked in His name, because they had not known it as it ought to be known; or, Ye have asked nothing, because with reference to obtaining the thing ye ought to ask for, what ye have asked for is to be counted nothing. That therefore they may ask in His name not for what is nothing, but for the fulness of joy, He adds, Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. This full joy is not carnal, but spiritual joy; and it will be full, when it is so great that nothing can be added to it.

AUGUSTINE. (1. de Trin. c. 8) And this is that full joy, than which nothing can be greater, viz. to enjoy God, the Trinity, in the image of Whom we are made.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cii) Whatsoever then is asked, which appertained to the getting this joy, this must be asked in the name of Christ. For His saints that persevere in asking for it, He will never in His divine mercy disappoint. But whatever is asked beside this is nothing, i. e. not absolutely nothing, but nothing in comparison (computatione) with so great a thing as this. It follows: These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. The hour of which He speaks may be understood of the future life, when we shall see Him, as the Apostle saith, face to face, (1 Cor. 13:12) and, These things have I spoken to you in proverbs, of that which the Apostle saith, Now we see as in a glass darkly. But I will shew you that the Father shall be seen through the Son; For no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him. (Mat. 11:17)

GREGORY. (xxx. Moral. viii.) When He declares that He will shew them plainly of the Father, He alludes to the manifestation about to take place of His own majesty, which would both shew His own equality with the Father, and the procession of the coeternal Spirit from both.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. cii. c. 3) But this sense seems to be interfered with by what follows: At that day ye shall ask in My name. What shall we have to ask for in a future life, when all our desires shall be satisfied? Asking implies the want of something. It remains then that we understand the words of Jesus going to make His disciples spiritual, from being carnal and natural beings. The natural man so understands whatever he hears of God in a bodily sense, as being unable to conceive any other. Wherefore whatever Wisdom saith of the incorporeal, immutable substance are proverbs to him, not that he accounts them proverbs, but understands them as if they were proverbs. But when, become spiritual, he hath begun to discern all things, though in this life he see but in a glass and in part, ye doth he perceive, not by bodily sense, not by idea of the imagination, but by most sure intelligence of the mind, perceive and hold that God is not body, but spirit: the Son sheweth so plainly of the Father, that He who sheweth is seen to be of the same nature with Him who is shewn. Then they who ask, ask in His name, because by the sound of that name they understand nothing but the thing itself which is expressed by that name. These are able to think that our Lord Jesus Christ, in so far as He is man, intercedes with the Father for us, in so far as He is God, hears us together with the Father: which I think is His meaning when He says, And I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you. To understand this, viz. how that the Son does not ask the Father, but Father and Son together hear those who ask, is beyond the reach of any but the spiritual vision.

Catena Aurea John 16

6 posted on 05/11/2024 10:11:15 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

Ascension

Crete, 15 Century

7 posted on 05/11/2024 10:12:05 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

Saint Gengulphus

Gangulphus, Gengoux, Gengoult, Gangolf, Gingolph

Saint Gengulphus was a Burgundian knight of Varennes-sur-Amance in the present
département of Haut Marne in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. He was a man of outstanding piety and charitableness who served as a soldier under Pepin the Short, and whose martyrdom took the unusual form of being murdered (ca 760) by his wife’s lover. His name is entered as a saint and martyr in the Roman Martyrology on 11th May, which is generally accepted to have been the date of his death. Whilst being particularly regarded as the patron saint of deceived husbands and unhappy marriages, St Gengulphus also has traditional associations with shoe-makers, tanners, glove-makers, horsemen, knights and huntsmen.

St Gangolf (Stuttgarter Passionale ca. 1150)

Heiliger Gangolf. Illumination from the Passionary of Weissenau (Weißenauer Passionale); Fondation Bodmer, Coligny, Switzerland; Cod. Bodmer 127, fol. 66v, by unknown master or ‘Frater Rufillus’, 1170-1200

In this day and age of increasing numbers of divorces, broken and unhappy marriages it seems appropriate to try to breathe some new life into this neglected cultus. We have completed research of the music for the office of St Gengulphus. It appears that most of the office music written for St Gengulphus has not been sung for over 500 years – very possibly longer – maybe some 600 years! Here and there from the late C15th to the French revolution maybe a Magnificat antiphon or respond, a couple of readings with a related respond in matins and a commerative prayer, an intercession appeal in a litany – little evidence of much more. In the late C18th (before the French revolution) a text of of a new hymn was published in Paris. After 1800 the commemeration of our Saint pretty much disappeared!

Commerative prayer for St Gengulphus – Southern Netherlands (Thorn Abbey)
left page – manuscript C16th – the reference to page 297 is illustrated below. A C16th template for a commerative respond for several Saints – including our own St Gengulphus – Southern Netherlands (Thorn Abbey manuscript).

A very possible reason? St Gengulphus has suffered from the peculiar disadvantage that there are elements in the earliest versions of his biography which subsequent ages have found coarse or indelicate. These concern not the blameless life of the Saint himself but the unusual nature of the miraculous punishments inflicted upon his adulterous wife and upon her paramour, and have been the subject of censorship and criticism.

The Psalterium Foundation is very thankful to Paul Trenchard (author/researcher of all the text in the original site – last edited in 2008/9 – a most serious research effort!) for permission to retrieve this site from the Internet Archive. (It had been offline for almost a decade). And to expand and utilize it as an instrument to inform the public and market our planned recording of the St. Gengoux office in May of 2022 (original planning was for autumn of 2020, but delayed due to uncertainties surrounding Covid-19). It is now completed as of May 2022. Editing of the recorded material is anticipated by June 2023.

And, for what it’s worth, to encourage – no doubt with great optimism – a revival of the devotion to St. Gengulphus to support those today faced with marital challenges.

We are pleased to include below Paul Trenchard’s own foreword (written in 2006) for the original site location. Please read it – it is well worth it!

Chapelle St. Gangolf , Lautenbach

It would be disgraceful if the light of so good and great a man
were to remain concealed under the bushel of silence, and not be published… (Vita I)

So wrote the anonymous author of the C10th prose life of St Gengulph. It has, however, been the fate of this saint that the earliest biographical material relating to his life has not been readily available to the ordinary reader. This is because the subject matter – though full of historical and human interest – contains elements which previous ages have considered indelicate or distasteful. The great French literary historian Alexis Paulin Paris, for example, reflected a widespread opinion when in 1841 he referred to ‘l’histoire assez peu édifiante de S. Jangon‘,^a whilst the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould in his monumental Lives of the Saints, wrote even more decisively, ‘It is impossible, even in Latin,^b to give the account of the miraculous punishments inflicted on the murderer and the [saint’s] wife’.^c

That however was 1872. Today it would be not only disgraceful but absurd if our knowledge of this great man – a military leader of early Carolingian France; a companion of Pepin the Short; a significant figure in the religious history of Burgundy, and a saint of outstanding generosity and patience whose cultus extends widely through six countries of western Europe and beyond, were to be restricted by sensitivities derived from the age of the crinoline.

It should be stressed, moreover, that those elements of St Gengulph’s story which some ages have found coarse or unedifying are connected not with the exemplary life of the saint himself, but with the retribution visited upon his adulterous wife and her lover – who would win a perverse and ironic victory if the nature of the punishments inflicted upon them was allowed to eclipse the merits and sanctity of their victim.

The Saint first came to my notice in 1964 when, on inheriting my grandfather’s copy of the Ingoldsby Legends, I discovered with delight the Revd R. H. Barham’s burlesque but safely sanitized Lay of St Gengulphus. Now, after an acquaintanceship of more than forty years, it is with pleasure that I attempt in this small way to reverse his unjustifiable neglect.

^{Paul Trenchard
Urbs Sancti Jangulfi
MMVI}

Notes:

a    Les Manuscrits François de la Bibliothèque du Roi. pp 88-89 (translation: the rather unedifying story of S. Jangon)
b    My own italics.
c    Baring-Gould s.d. 11th May

gengulphus.com

8 posted on 05/11/2024 10:26:29 AM PDT by annalex (fear them not)

NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

First Reading:

From: Acts 18:23-28

Galatia and Phrygia
-------------------
[23] After spending some time there he (Paul) departed and went from place to place through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

Apollos in Ephesus and Corinth
------------------------------
[24] Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures. [25] He had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. [26] He began to speak boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately. [27] And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, [28] for he powerfully confuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

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Commentary:

18:23 - 21:26. Paul's third apostolic journey starts, like the earlier ones, from Antioch, but it ends with his imprisonment in Jerusalem (Acts 21:27ff). It was a long journey, but Luke devotes most attention to events in Ephesus.

To begin with Paul tours the cities he already evangelized in Galatia and Phrygia: this would have taken him from the last months of 53 to early 54. Then he goes to Ephesus, where he stays for almost three years and meets up with all kinds of contradictions (cf. 2 Cor 1:8), as he describes it in his letter to the Corinthians in spring 57: "To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless.... We have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscourings of all things" (1 Cor 4:11, 13). Despite this, or perhaps because of it, his apostolate was very fruitful and the Christian message spread through all proconsular Asia, to important cities like Colossae, Laodicae, Hierapolis, etc. and to countless towns; as he put it in a letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 16:9), "a wide door for effective work has opened to me".

The Apostle had to leave Ephesus on account of the revolt of the silversmiths, moving on towards Macedonia and Achaia to visit the churches he founded on his second journey--Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth. He stayed there the three months of the winter of 57/58. On his return journey (to Jerusalem, to bring money collected) he went via Macedonia to avoid a Jewish plot. He embarked at Neapolis (the port near Philippi), stopping off at Troas, Miletus (where he met with the elders from Ephesus whom he had called to come to him), Tyre and Caesarea, and managing to reach Jerusalem in time for the Passover.

24. Priscilla and Aquila knew how valuable a man with Apollos' qualities would be if he could be got to dedicate himself to the Lord's service; so they took the initiative and spoke to him. St J Escriva sees this episode as a good lesson about boldness in speaking about God, as "an event that demonstrates the wonderful apostolic zeal of the early Christians. Scarcely a quarter of a century had passed since Jesus had gone up to heaven and already his fame had spread to many towns and villages. In the city of Ephesus a man arrived, Apollos by name, 'an eloquent man, well versed in the scriptures'. . . . A glimmer of Christ's light had already filtered into the mind of this man. He had heard about our Lord and he passed the news on to others. But he still had some way to go. He needed to know more if he was to acquire the fulness of the faith and so come to love our Lord truly. A Christian couple, Aquila and Priscilla, hear him speaking; they are not inactive or indifferent. They do not think: 'This man already knows enough; it's not our business to teach him.' They were souls who were really eager to do apostolate and so they approached Apollos and 'took him and expounded to him the way of God more accurately"' ("Friends of God", 269).

This was the kind of zeal the first Christians had; a little later on St Justin wrote: "We do our very best to warn them [Jews and heretics], as we do you, not to be deluded, for we know full well that whoever can speak out the truth and fails to do so shall be condemned by God" ("Dialogue with Tryphon", 82, 3).

27. God uses people, in this case Apollos, to channel his grace to the faithful. They are instruments of his; they preach his word and reap an apostolic harvest, but it is God himself who makes the harvest grow, by providing his grace. "It depends not upon man's will or exertion, but upon God's mercy" (Romans 9:16). "It is not we who save souls and move them to do good. We are quite simply instruments, some more, some less worthy, for fulfilling God's plans for salvation. If at any time we were to think that we ourselves were the authors of the good we do, then our pride would return, more twisted than ever. The salt would lose its flavor, the leaven would rot and the light would turn into darkness" (St J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 250).

Hence the importance of supernatural resources in apostolic activity: building is in vain if God does not support it (cf. Psalm 127:1). "All the exterior effort is a waste of time, if you lack Love. It's like sewing with a needle and no thread" (St J. Escriva, "The Way", 967).

9 posted on 05/11/2024 11:08:39 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

Gospel Reading:

From: John 16:23b-28

Fullness of Joy (Continuation)
------------------------------
(Jesus said to His disciples,) [23b] Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in My name. [24] Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

[25] "I have said this to you in figures; the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to in figures but tell you plainly of the Father. [26] In that day you will ask in My name; and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; [27] for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from the Father. [28] I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father."

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Commentary:

25-30. As can be seen also from other passages in the Gospels, Jesus spent time explaining His doctrine in more detail to His Apostles than to the crowd (cf. Mark 4:10-12 and paragraph)--to train them for their mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world (cf. Matthew 28:18-20). However, our Lord also used metaphors or parables when imparting instruction to the Apostles, and He does so in this discourse of the Last Supper--the vine, the woman giving birth, etc.: He stimulates their curiosity and they, because they do not understand, ask Him questions (cf. verses 17-18). Jesus now tells them that the time is coming when He will speak to them in a completely clear way so that they will know exactly what He means. This He will do after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1:3). But even now, since He knows their thoughts, He is making it ever plainer to them that He is God, for only God can know what is happening inside someone (cf. 2:25). Verse 28, "I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father" summarizes the mystery of Christ's Person (cf. John 1:14; 20:31).

10 posted on 05/11/2024 11:08:55 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

11 posted on 05/11/2024 11:15:14 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

Please join Cardinal Burke’s novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’ (Started March 12—Never too late to join!)

Let us pray.

O Virgin Mother of God, we fly to your protection and beg your intercession against the darkness and sin which ever more envelop the world and menace the Church. Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gave you to us as our mother as He died on the Cross for our salvation. So too, in 1531, when darkness and sin beset us, He sent you, as Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Tepeyac to lead us to Him Who alone is our light and our salvation.

Through your apparitions on Tepeyac and your abiding presence with us on the miraculous mantle of your messenger, Saint Juan Diego, millions of souls converted to faith in your Divine Son. Through this novena and our consecration to you, we humbly implore your intercession for our daily conversion of life to Him and the conversion of millions more who do not yet believe in Him. In our homes and in our nation, lead us to Him Who alone wins the victory over sin and darkness in us and in the world.

Unite our hearts to your Immaculate Heart so that they may find their true and lasting home in the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Ever guide us along the pilgrimage of life to our eternal home with Him. So may our hearts, one with yours, always trust in God's promise of salvation, in His never-failing mercy toward all who turn to Him with a humble and contrite heart. Through this novena and our consecration to you, O Virgin of Guadalupe, lead all souls in America and throughout the world to your Divine Son in Whose name we pray. Amen.

12 posted on 05/11/2024 11:15:45 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

“God of power and might, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, banish all sadness, fill us with the joy of your Spirit, and center our lives on your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

(From Magnificat magazine)

13 posted on 05/11/2024 11:18:14 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

May is the month of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary:

14 posted on 05/11/2024 11:18:37 AM PDT by fidelis (👈 Under no obligation to respond to rude, ignorant, abusive, bellicose, and obnoxious posts.)

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