July 1, 2013

Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Abraham and the men who had visited him by the Terebinth of Mamre
set out from there and looked down toward Sodom;
Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way.
The LORD reflected: “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,
now that he is to become a great and populous nation,
and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing in him?
Indeed, I have singled him out
that he may direct his children and his household after him
to keep the way of the LORD
by doing what is right and just,
so that the LORD may carry into effect for Abraham
the promises he made about him.”
Then the LORD said:
“The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great,
and their sin so grave,
that I must go down and see whether or not their actions
fully correspond to the cry against them that comes to me.
I mean to find out.”

While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom,
the LORD remained standing before Abraham.
Then Abraham drew nearer to him and said:
“Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?
Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city;
would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it
for the sake of the fifty innocent people within it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing,
to make the innocent die with the guilty,
so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike!
Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?”
The LORD replied,
“If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom,
I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
Abraham spoke up again:
“See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord,
though I am but dust and ashes!
What if there are five less than fifty innocent people?
Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?”
He answered, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”
But Abraham persisted, saying, “What if only forty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it for the sake of forty.”
Then Abraham said, “Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on.
What if only thirty are found there?”
He replied, “I will forbear doing it if I can find but thirty there.”
Still Abraham went on,
“Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord,
what if there are no more than twenty?”
He answered, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
But he still persisted:
“Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time.
What if there are at least ten there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it.”

The LORD departed as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham,
and Abraham returned home.

Responsorial Psalm PS 103:1b-2, 3-4, 8-9, 10-11

R. (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
he heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
he crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Gospel Mt 8:18-22

When Jesus saw a crowd around him,
he gave orders to cross to the other shore.
A scribe approached and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,
and let the dead bury their dead.”

Interactive Saints for Kids

Blessed Junipero Serra

Feast Day: July 01
Born: 1713 :: Died: 1784

Miguel Jose Serra was born in Petra, Spain. When he was fifteen, he became a student at the Franciscan school in Palma, twenty-five miles away. He then joined the Franciscan order a few months before his seventeenth birthday taking the name Junipero after the friend of St. Francis.

During his training to become a priest, Junipero read the life stories of Franciscan saints. The saint whose life fascinated him most was St. Francis Solano, a missionary priest to South America who had been declared a saint just a few years earlier. Young Junipero decided that, if it was God's will, he too would be a missionary.

Junipero was ordained a priest in 1736 and became a professor of philosophy. Twenty years, later, he was given the wonderful opportunity to go as a missionary to a place called "New Spain" in Mexico and California.

Junipero and his close friend, Friar Francisco Palou, joined the group of missionaries at a seaport city in Spain called Cadiz. From there they sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to Vera Cruz, Mexico and arrived there on December 6, 1749.

Soon after they landed, Junipero got bitten by a mosquito that left one leg swollen. He also suffered from asthma (making it difficult to breathe at times). This made walking a painful process for the rest of his life. But he and another friar walked the next part of the journey from Vera Cruz to Mexico City, a distance of 240 miles which took them more than fifteen days.

From Mexico City, Junipero and Friar Francisco Palou were sent to work among the Pame Indians (a tribe of Red Indians) at the Franciscan Mission of the Sierra Gorda. Several of the friars then traveled to missions in Lower California. Junipero, Francisco and a handful of other Franciscans were asked to bring the Gospel to the native peoples in Upper California.

Junipero started Mission San Diego on July 16, 1769, when he was fifty-six years old. The mission was an open invitation to his beloved people to come and meet Jesus who slowly began to trust the friars. Some people were baptized and began to live the Christian faith. Father Serra and the friars loved and protected their people. They trained many of them in European methods of agriculture, cattle husbandry, and othe crafts.

Then the golden chain of new missions grew: Mission San Carlos in Monterey; Mission San Antonio de Padua; Mission San Gabriel Archangel; Mission San Luis Obispo; Mission San Francisco de Asis; Mission San Juan Capistrano; Mission Santa Clara de Asis; Mission San Buenaventura.

He founded twenty-one missions and finally, six thousand native peoples were baptized and became followers of Jesus. Junipero helped the Church to grow on the west coast of the United States.

Blessed Junipero made his final tour of the missions in Upper California which lasted about six months. He died peacefully at Mission San Carlos on August 28, 1784, and is buried there. In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared Father Junipero Serra "blessed."

Reflection: "All my life I have wanted to be a missionary. I have wanted to carry the gospel message to those who have never heard of God and the kingdom he has prepared for them."- Bl. Junipero

Catholic Culture

Ordinary Time: July 1st

Optional Memorial of Blessed Junipero Serra, priest (USA); St. Oliver Plunket, bishop & martyr (some places)

Daily Readings for: July 01, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, who by your ineffable mercy have been pleased through the labors of your priest Blessed Junipero Serra to count many American peoples within your Church, grant by his intercession that we may so join our hearts to you in love, as to carry always and everywhere before all people the image of your Only Begotten Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

RECIPES

o Fig Raisen Cake

ACTIVITIES

o Religion in the Home for Elementary School: July

o Religion in the Home for Preschool: July

PRAYERS

o July Devotion: The Precious Blood

o Chaplet of the Most Precious Blood

o Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

o Seven Offerings of the Precious Blood

o O Precious Blood of Jesus

o Offering in Reparation to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

o Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Junipero Serra

LIBRARY

o None

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

Old Calendar: Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Miguel Jose Serra was born on the island of Mallorca, Spain. He took the name Junipero when he entered the Franciscan Order in 1730. Ordained in 1737, he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Padua for twelve years. At age 37, he went to Mexico City where he spent the rest of his life working for the conversion of the peoples of the New World. Largely responsible for the spread of the Church on the West Coast of the United States, Junipero founded 21 missions and converted thousands of Native Americans.

St. Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh and the last Catholic martyr of England was born in Loughcrew, County Meath, Ireland. He want to Rome where he entered the Irish Collage and received ordination in 1654.

Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Precious Blood of our Savior, the life giving spring made ever open by the redeeming Cross! You wash away the stains of the whole world and in the Church, Paradise regained, you bring forth flowers of sanctity.

Bl. Junipero Serra
In 1776, when the American revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a gray-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions established under the direction of this indomitable Spaniard. Born on Spain's island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order, taking the name of Saint Francis' childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was thirty-five, he spent most of his time in the classroom-first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of Saint Francis Solanus in South America. Junipero's desire was to convert native peoples in the New World.

Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero's left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross, often life-threatening, the rest of his life. For eighteen years he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there.

Enter politics: the threat of a Russian invasion south from Alaska. Charles III of Spain ordered an expedition to beat Russia to the territory. So the last two conquistadores-one military, one spiritual-began their quest. Jose de Galvez persuaded Junipero to set out with him for present-day Monterey, California. The first mission founded after the nine-hundred-mile journey north was San Diego (1769). That year a shortage of food almost canceled the expedition. Vowing to stay with the local people, Junipero and another friar began a novena in preparation for Saint Joseph's day, March 19, the scheduled day of departure. On that day, the relief ship arrived.

endif]>Other missions followed: Monterey/Carmel (1770); San Antonio and San Gabriel (1771); San Luis Obispo (1772); San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano (1776); Santa Clara (1777); San Buenaventura (1782). Twelve more were founded after Serra's death.

Junipero made the long trip to Mexico City to settle great differences with the military commander. He arrived at the point of death. The outcome was substantially what Junipero sought: the famous "Regulation" protecting the Indians and the missions. It was the basis for the first significant legislation in California, a "Bill of Rights" for Native Americans.

Because the Native Americans were living a nonhuman life from the Spanish point of view, the friars were made their legal guardians. The Native Americans were kept at the mission after Baptism lest they be corrupted in their former haunts — a move that has brought cries of "injustice" from some moderns.

Junipero's missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military commanders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquenchable zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight until dawn. He baptized over six thousand people and confirmed five thousand. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988.

Excerpted from Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

Things to Do:

Read about Bl. Junipero Serra and the California Missions here and here.
Send someone an e-card for Bl. Junipero's feast.
Purchase a copy of The Man Who Founded California: The Life of Blessed Junipero Serra from Amazon.com.

St. Oliver Plunket
Oliver Plunket was born on 1 November 1625 into an influential Anglo-Norman family at Loughcrew, near Oldcastle, Co Meath. In 1647, he went to the Irish College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained a priest in 1654. The arrival of Cromwell in Ireland in 1649 initiated the massacre and persecution of Catholics. Cromwell left in 1650 but his legacy was enacted in anti-Catholic legislation. During the 1650s, Catholics were expelled from Dublin and landowners were dispossessed. Catholic priests were outlawed and those who continued to administer the sacraments were hanged or transported to the West Indies. To avoid persecution, Plunket petitioned to remain in Rome, and in 1657 became a professor of theology.

When anti-Catholicism eased, Plunket returned to Ireland. In 1657 he became archbishop of Armagh. He set about reorganizing the ravaged Church, and built schools both for the young and for clergy whom he found 'ignorant in moral theology and controversies'. He tackled drunkenness among the clergy, writing 'Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint.'

In 1670, he summoned an episcopal conference in Dublin, and later held numerous synods in his own arch diocese. However, he had a long standing difference with the archbishop of Dublin, Peter Talbot, over their rival claims to be primate of Ireland. He also antagonized the Franciscans, particularly when he favored the Dominicans in a property dispute.

With the onset of new persecution in 1673, Plunket went into hiding, refusing a government edict to register at a seaport and await passage into exile. In 1678, the so-called Popish Plot concocted in England by Titus Oates led to further anti-Catholicism. Archbishop Talbot was arrested, and Plunket again went into hiding. The privy council in London was told he had plotted a French invasion.

In December 1679, Plunket was imprisoned in Dublin Castle, where he gave absolution to the dying Talbot. Taken to London, he was found guilty in June 1681 of high treason on perjured evidence from two disaffected Franciscans. On 1 July 1681, Plunket became the last Catholic martyr in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. He was beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1975, the first new Irish saint for almost seven hundred years.

—Excerpted from Irelandseye.com and contributors

This account was taken from Bishop Burnet's, History of his own Time, 1724

Dr. Oliver Plunket was. arraigned at the King's Bench, May 3, 1681, for "high treason, in endeavoring and compassing the king's" death, and to levy war in Ireland, and to alter the true religion there, and to introduce a foreign 'power.' The particulars of his trial, as well as his speech at the place of execution, may be found in the third volume of the State Trials, p. 294, Margrave's edit. Dr. Burnet gives us no very favorable idea of the equity of the proceedings against him. ' Some lewd Irish priests (says he) and others of that nation, ' hearing that England was at that time disposed to hearken to good swearers, thought themselves well qualified for the employment; so they came over to swear, that there was a great plot in Ireland, to bring over a French army, and to massacre all the English. The witnesses were brutal and profligate men, yet the earl of Shaftsbury cherished them much: they were examined by the parliament at Westminster and what they said was believed. Upon that encouragement it was reckoned, that we should have witnesses come over in whole companies. Lord Essex told me, that this Plunket was a wise and sober man, who was always in a different interest from the two Talbots; the one of these being the titular primate of Dublin, and the other came to be raised afterwards to be Duke of Tirconnell. These were meddling and factious men, whereas Plunket was for their living quietly, and in due submission to the government, without engaging into intrigues of state. Some of these priests had been censured by him for their lewdness: and they drew others to swear as they directed them. They had appeared the winter before, upon a bill offered to the grand jury: but as the foreman of the jury, who was a zealous Protestant, told me, they contradicted one another so evidently, that they would not find the bill. But now they laid their story better together and swore against Plunket, that he had got a great bank of money to be prepared, and that he had an army listed, and was in a correspondence with Franco, to bring over a fleet from thence. He had nothing to say in his own defense, but to deny all: so he was condemned; and suffered very decently, expressing himself in many particulars as became a bishop. He died denying every thing that had been sworn against him.

The following account of the manner of his execution is given in a little work, entitled, Ireland's Case: briefly stated; or a summary Account of the most remarkable Transactions in that Kingdom, since the Reformation. 1675.

On the first of July 1681, Mr. Sheriff demanded his prisoner, who was carried to him on a sledge to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. In his passage to the place of execution, he made many ejaculatory prayers, full of the love of God, and charity to his neighbors. When he arrived at Tyburn, and was tied up, before the cart was drawn from under him, he made with wonderful cheerfulness this following: 'discourse.'

His speech ended, and his cap drawn over his eyes, he again recommended his happy soul with.raptures of devotion into the hands of Jesus, his Savior, for whose sake he died, till the cart was drawn from under him. Thus then he hung betwixt heaven and earth, an open sacrifice to God for innocence and religion. As soon.as he expired, the executioner ripped up his belly and breast, and pulling out his heart and bowels, threw them into the fire, ready kindled near the gallows for that purpose: the rest of his body, having been begged of the king, was carried by his friends to a house near St. Giles's church; the trunk, whereof was placed in a coffin, his head and arms to the elbow, being reserved out of the coffin, and disposed of elsewhere; then the body was interred in the church.yard, and a copper plate placed on his breast, whereon was engraven these following words, set here down for the satisfaction of the curious: "In this tomb resteth the body of the right reverend Oliver Plunket, archbishop of Armagh, and primate of Ireland, who in hatred of religion was accused of false witnesses, and for the same condemned, and executed at Tyburn; his heart and bowels being taken out and cast into the fire: he suffered martyrdom with constancy, the 1st of July, 1681, in the reign of king, Charles II."

Patron: Archdiocese of Armagh, Ireland.

Things to Do:

Read St. Oliver Plunket's moving speech at his execution.
Read this Life of St. Oliver Plunket.
Visit the Shrine of St. Oliver Plunket and also Tyburn Convent.

The Most Precious Blood of Jesus
July is traditionally associated with the Precious Blood of Our Lord. It may be customary to celebrate the votive Mass of the Precious Blood today.

The extraordinary importance of the saving Blood of Christ has ensured a central place for its memorial in the celebration of this cultic mystery: at the centre of the Eucharistic assembly, in which the Church raises up to God in thanksgiving "the cup of blessing" (1 Cor 10, 16; cf Ps 115-116, 13) and offers it to the faithful as a "real communion with the Blood of Christ" (1 Cor 10, 16); and throughout the Liturgical Year. The Church celebrates the saving Blood of Christ not only on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, but also on many other occasions, such that the cultic remembrance of the Blood of our redemption (cf 1 Pt 1, 18) pervades the entire Liturgical Year. Hence, at Vespers during Christmastide, the Church, addressing Christ, sings: "Nos quoque, qui sancto tuo redempti sumus sanguine, ob diem natalis tui hymnum novum concinimus." In the Paschal Triduum, the redemptive significance and efficacy of the Blood of Christ is continuously recalled in adoration. During the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday the Church sings the hymn: "Mite corpus perforatur, sanguis unde profluit; terra, pontus, astra, mundus quo lavanturflumine", and again on Easter Sunday, "Cuius corpus sanctissimum in ara crucis torridum, sed et cruorem roesum gustando, Deo vivimus (194).

In Some places and in certain particular calendars, the feast of the Most Precious Blood of Christ is still observed on 1 July. This feast recalls the various titles of the Redeemer.

Excerpted from Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

Vultus Christi

Dixit Dominus Domino meo

Dom Mark

on July 1, 2013 4:44 PM |

CHAPTER XVIII. In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

23 Feb. 24 June. 24 Oct.

Vespers are to be sung every day with four Psalms. And let these begin from the hundred and ninth, and go on to the hundred and forty-seventh, omitting those of their number that are set apart for other Hours - that is, from the hundred and seventeenth to the hundred and twenty-seventh, the hundred and thirty-third, and the hundred and forty-second. All the rest are to be said at Vespers. And as there are three Psalms wanting, let those of the aforesaid number which are somewhat long be divided, namely the hundred and thirty-eighth, the hundred and forty-third, and the hundred and forty-fourth. But let the hundred and sixteenth, as it is short, be joined to the hundred and fifteenth. The order of the Psalms at Vespers being thus disposed, let the rest, that is, the lessons, responses, hymns, verses and canticles, be said as already laid down. At Compline the same Psalms are to be repeated every day: namely the fourth, ninetieth, and hundred and thirty-third.

Christ, Priest and King

Saint Benedict begins the weekly cycle of psalms at Vespers with Psalm 109 on Sunday evening. Psalm 109, a mysterious revelation of Christ as Priest and KIng, holds a place of choice in our traditional Benedictine cursus of the Psalter.

When Our Lord Jesus Christ looked into the psalms He saw His own face as in a mirror. So too, does His Spouse, the Church see the Face of Christ, her Bridegroom, her King, and her Priest in the psalms. Jesus quotes Psalm 109, saying, "David himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet.' David himself calls him Lord; so how is he his son?" (Mark 12:36). An allusion to the same Psalm 109 recurs at the very end of Saint Mark's gospel: "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).

Both Lord and Christ

On the morning of Pentecost, Saint Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preaches the mystery of the risen and ascended Christ saying, "David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make thy enemies a stool for thy feet.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:34-36). Psalm 109 is the ground of some of the most important Christological doctrines of the New Testament. Saint Paul alludes to it in Romans (8:34), Ephesians (1:20), and Colossians (3:1). We discover Psalm 109 four times in the Letter to the Hebrews.

Sit on My Right

From the time of the Apostles, Psalm 109 has been a mirror wherein the Church contemplates the mystery of Christ in His suffering and triumph. The use of Psalm 109 in the sacred liturgy continues in the Church Jesus' own understanding of it passed on to the Apostles. Deep in her collective memory the Church cherishes the incomparable seventh mode antiphon that, for centuries, has opened the evening sacrifice of praise on Sunday: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Dede a dextris meis (Psalm 109:1). She hears the voice of Christ repeating for her what the Father said to Him on the day of resurrection: "Sit at my right" (Psalm 109:1).

Psalm Titles

The medieval monastic Psalters place a Christological title at the beginning of each psalm. These old titles of the psalms -- there are many series of them -- say, in some way, "Here is the mystery of Christ in this psalm. Contemplate His Face as in a mirror, and hear in this psalm the sound of His voice." One ancient series of psalm titles has this for Psalm 109: "Of the divinity, the humanity, the kingship, and the priesthood of Christ."

The Whole Mystery of Christ

Going through the psalm, verse by verse, we see in verse 1 Christ enthroned at the right hand of the Father, an image that recurs in the Gloria of the Mass and in the Te Deum. In verse 3 we hear the voice of the Father saying, "From the womb before the daystar I begot thee" (Psalm 109:3). Verse 4 is the declaration of Christ's eternal priesthood: "Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech" (Psalm 109:4). Verses 5 and 6 describe the triumph of Christ over the powers of death. In the last verse of the psalm the whole mystery of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection is summed up: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way -- the torrent of His bitter sufferings -- therefore He shall lift up his head -- in the glory of the resurrection and ascension" (Psalm 109:7).

Drinking of the Torrent

How does all of this relate to our life? When we begin to see the Face of Christ in the psalms as in a mirror, we can begin to relate them to our own monastic journey as well. We are all of us called, in some way, to "drink of the torrent [of humiliation and suffering] in the way" (Psalm 109:7). At the same time, our indefectible hope is that, like Christ and with him, we too shall "lift up our heads." All that is said to Christ by the Father is spoken to us. All that was accomplished in Christ our Head must fulfilled in his Body and in each of his members. And so so we sing the psalms of David, the psalms of Christ, as we advance day after day and week after week.

Vultus Christi

Little Hours

Dom Mark

on July 1, 2013 6:32 AM |

CHAPTER XVIII. In What Order the Psalms Are to Be Said

22 Feb. 23 June. 23 Oct.

At Tierce, Sext and None on Monday are to be said the nine remaining parts of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, three parts at each Hour. This Psalm having thus been said through in two days, that is, Sunday and Monday, let the nine Psalms from the hundred and nineteenth to the hundred and twenty-seventh be said on Tuesday at Tierce, Sext and None - three at each Hour. And these Psalms are to be repeated at the same Hours every day until Sunday; the arrangement, moreover, of hymns, lessons and versicles remaining the same throughout, so as always to begin on Sunday from the hundred and eighteenth Psalm.

Condensed Moments of Prayer

The so-called Little Hours are intense and condensed moments of prayer occurring more or less every three hours throughout the day. Each of the Little Hours is associated with a mystery in the Passion of Our Lord, and with an even in in the life of the early Church related in the Acts of the Apostles. In recalling these mystery-events, the Church experiences anew the grace that they signify, and this, day after day.

At Silverstream Priory we hold to the four Little Hours: Prime, Tierce, Sext, and None, as I explained in a previous commentary. They constitute the rhythmic pulsation of a prayer that, in obedience to the word of the Lord in the Gospel (Luke 18:1) and the teaching of the Apostle (1 Thessalonians 5:17), we endeavour to make ceaseless.

Before and After

The post-Conciliar reform of the Divine Office (the Liturgia Horarum) effectively discouraged the prayer of the Little Hours by making two out of three of them optional on any given day, and by presenting them in a confusing manner. Paradoxically, before the post-Conciliar renewal there was, even among lay Catholics, a certain enthusiasm for the Little Hours, due in large part, to the beautiful pastoral presentation of them in the Collegeville editions of the Roman Breviary and the Short Breviary, with explanatory notes by Dr. Pius Parsch.

A healthy liturgical piety, based on the Missal and the Breviary, flourished -- especially among thriving lay movements such as the Legion of Mary, the Catholic Worker, Madonna House, and the Grail -- in the years between the Second World War and the Second Vatican Council; only after the Second Vatican Council did this liturgical piety begin to wane and, in some places, shrivel up and disappear. Private devotions, revelations, and extraneous pious practices, some of a charismatic stamp, soon swelled to fill the void left by a shrinking Liturgical Movement. But all of that is matter for another discussion on another day.

Tierce: The First Station in a Daily Via Crucis

The Hour of Tierce recalls Jesus being charged with the wood of the Cross. It is the beginning of the Church's daily liturgical via crucis condensed into three stations.

And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And he released unto them him who for murder and sedition, had been cast into prison, whom they had desired; but Jesus he delivered up to their will. And as they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us. For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? And there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death. (Luke 23:24-32)

We ought to pray to and invoke the Holy Spirit, for each one of us greatly needs His protection and His help. The more a man is deficient in wisdom, weak in strength, borne down with trouble, prone to sin, so ought he the more to fly to Him who is the never-ceasing fount of light, strength, consolation, and holiness. (Pope Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus, 9 May 1897)

The Third Hour Pentecost

The Hour of Tierce also recalls, as I have explained in a previous commentary, the mystery of Pentecost. Each morning, at the Hour of Tierce the Church invokes the Holy Ghost. Those who would argue that traditional Catholic piety gives scant attention to the Holy Ghost have little knowledge or experience of the daily liturgical Pentecost, that is the Hour of Tierce. It is sufficient to meditate the hymn of Tierce, given here in Blessed John Henry Newman's translation, to grasp something of the Church's intense traditional "devotion" to the Holy Ghost.

Come, Holy Ghost, who ever One
Art with the Father and the Son;
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls possess
With thy full flood of holiness.

In will and deed, by heart and tongue,
With all our powers, thy praise be sung;
And love light up our mortal frame,
Till others catch the living flame.

When the Church, in her liturgy, evokes a particular mystery of Christ, that mystery is rendered present in an efficacious and penetrating way. It is, in some way, renewed in the souls of the those who, surrendering to the prayer of the Church, allow the liturgy to possess them and carry them, like feathers on the wind, ad Patrem, towards the Father, with the Son, in the Holy Ghost.

And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. (Acts 2:1-4)

Sext: Christ Lifted Up from the Earth

The Hour of Sext, the second station in the Church's daily via crucis, recalls the crucifixion of Jesus. Nailed to the wood of the Cross, He is fixed in a position of offering to the Father as the Redeemer of Men. "Now is the judgment of the world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself. Now this he said, signifying what death he should die."

For the Salvation of All Nations

At the same time, the Hour of Sext recalls the revelation to Saint Peter that the salvation wrought by Christ upon the Cross is open to every nation on earth. "And Peter opening his mouth, said: In very deed I perceive, that God is not a respecter of persons. But in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh justice, is acceptable to him." (Acts 12:34-35)

None: The Blood and the Water

The Hour of None recalls the saving death of Jesus upon the Cross; it recalls His sacred side opened by the soldier's lance, and the blood and water that flowed out from His pierced Heart. By celebrating the Hour of None, the Church has always kept the memorial of what modern devotions, building upon a tender medieval piety, rightly present as The Hour of Mercy.

Source of Healing

At the same time, the Hour of None recalls the healing of the crippled man by the Apostles Peter and John, that Saint Luke relates in the Acts of the Apostles:

Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. And a certain man who was lame from his mother' s womb, was carried: whom they laid every day at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, that he might ask alms of them that went into the temple. He, when he had seen Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked to receive an alms. But Peter with John fastening his eyes upon him, said: Look upon us. But he looked earnestly upon them, hoping that he should receive something of them. But Peter said: Silver and gold I have none; but what I have, I give thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise, and walk. And taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up, and forthwith his feet and soles received strength. And he leaping up, stood, and walked, and went in with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew him, that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him" (Acts 3:1-10).

Immense in Their Implications

The so-called Little Hours are immense in their implications for a truly Catholic piety. One who prays them daily, whether within the cloister, or amidst the noise and chaos of the world, will experience the healing effects of the Passion of Christ and the operations of the Holy Ghost who is, at every hour, active and working in the Church

Regnum Christi

Determined Discipleship

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 8:18-22

When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. A scribe approached and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."

Introductory Prayer: Lord, I come to you in this meditation ready to do whatever you ask. Left to myself I often take the easy and convenient path, yet I know the way of a Christian is through the narrow gate. In you I find the reason to abandon the easy path for a more perfect mission of love. I’m ready to learn the meaning of your command: “Follow me.”

Petition: Lord Jesus, help me to seek true holiness by following after you.

1. Follow His Footsteps: The transition to becoming a disciple is not an easy one. While a disciple generously hands over his own will to the Lord unconditionally, the scribe in today’s passage still seeks his own will, as noble as it may be. A disciple is born from an invitation: “Follow me.” This scribe does not yet have the total freedom of heart that life with Christ demands. Where do I stand? One becomes identified with Christ not through a mere accumulation of doctrine, principles and techniques, but by living a common life with Christ born from union with the Master’s will. May I hear Christ’s voice setting the pace of holiness in my life and inviting me to leave behind my own will for the new life he presents.

2. Choosing the Better Way: Christ does not coldly ignore the scribe, but seeks to attract him to a different way of life, a life of simple poverty. Our Lord’s own self-emptying poverty goes beyond the lot of the poorest of men. What Christ’s poverty shows, however, is not misery. Rather, it compels and attracts, for it is an infallible sign of the richness of God from whom Christ lives and moves. Christ’s living example empowers men to leave their world for something better, nobler and more worthy of the life they have been given. May my example also compel others to find a better way, a holier way.

3. Shunning Shoddy Sophisms: There is an almost ruthless quality to Christ’s response to the sophisms and excuses offered to avoid following him. Detachment from all personal wants and desires is the way to simplicity of heart. Simplicity of heart requires us to be brutally honest with ourselves. What comes first in our life? What is really moving our heart to make the choices we make? Is it God’s will? God’s will for us is never complicated; perhaps it may be difficult, but it is never complicated. Sometimes, under the pretext of doing good, we rationalize not doing what is better. We do not need sophisticated analyses assessing how many obstacles there are to doing God’s will. All we need to clear the path to its perfect fulfillment is a generous heart.

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I know you have called me; I ask for your strength to respond with simplicity and fortitude. I have heard your voice and I now answer.

Resolution: Today I will live better my vocation in life and, in particular, fulfill some obligation that I normally put off.

18. Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him He gave commandment to depart to the other side.
19. And a certain Scribe came, and said to him, Master, I will follow you wherever you go.
20. And Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
21. And another of his disciples said to him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
22. But Jesus said to him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

CHRYS. Because Christ not only healed the body, but purified the soul also, He desired to show forth true wisdom, not only by curing diseases, but by doing nothing with ostentation; and therefore it is said, Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he commanded his disciples to cross over to the other side. This He did at once teaching us to be lowly, softening the ill-will of the Jews, and teaching us to do nothing with ostentation.

REMIG. Or; He did this as one desiring to shun the thronging of the multitude. But they hung upon Him in admiration, crowding to see Him. For who would depart from one who did such miracles? Who would not wish to look upon His open face, to see His mouth that spoke such things? For if Moses' countenance was made glorious, and Stephen's as that of an Angel, gather from this how it was to have been supposed that their common Lord must have then appeared; of whom the Prophet speaks, Your form is fair above the sons of men.

HILARY; The name disciples is not to be supposed to be confined to the twelve Apostles; for we read of many disciples besides the twelve.

AUG. It is clear that this day on which they went over the lake was another day, and not that which followed the one on which Peter's mother-in-law was healed, on which day Mark and Luke relate that He went out into the desert.

CHRYS. Observe that He does not dismiss the multitudes, that He may not offend them. He did say to them, Depart you, but bade His disciples go away from thence, thus the crowds might hope to he able to follow.

REMIG. What happened between the command of the Lord given, and their crossing over, the Evangelist purposes to relate in what follows; And one of the Scribes came to him and said, Master, I will follow you wherever you go.

JEROME; This Scribe of the Law who knew but the perishing letter, would not have been turned away had his address been, 'Lord, I will follow You.' But because He esteemed the Savior only as one of many masters, and was a man of the letter (which is better expressed in Greek,) not a spiritual hearer, therefore He had no place where Jesus might lay His head. It is suggested to us that He sought to follow the Lord, because of his great miracles, for the sake of the gain to be derived from them; and was therefore rejected; seeking the same thing as did Simon Magus when he would have given Peter money.

CHRYS. Observe also how great his pride; approaching and speaking as though he disdained to be considered as one of the multitude; desiring to show that he was above the rest.

HILARY; Otherwise; This Scribe being one of the doctors of the Law, asks if he shall follow Him, as though it were not contained in the Law that this is to whom it were gain to follow. Therefore He discovers a feeling of unbelief under the diffidence of his inquiry. For the taking up of the faith is not by question but by following.

CHRYS. So Christ answers him not so such to what He had said, but to the obvious purpose in his mind. Jesus says to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay it is head?; as though He had said;

JEROME; Why do you seek to follow me for the sake of the riches and gain of this world, when my poverty is such that I have neither lodging nor home of my own?

CHRYS. This was not to send him away, but rather to convict him of evil intentions at the same time permitting him if he would to follow Christ with the expectation of poverty.

AUG. Otherwise The Son of man has not where to lay his head; that is, in your faith The foxes have holes, in your heart, because you are deceitful. The birds of the air have nests, in your heart, because you are proud. Deceitful and proud follows me not; for how should guile follow sincerity?

GREG. Otherwise; The fox is a crafty animal, lying hid in ditches and dens, and when it comes abroad never going in a straight path, but in crooked windings; birds raise themselves in the air. By the foxes then are meant the subtle and deceitful demons, by the birds the proud demons; as though He had said; Deceitful and proud demons have their abode in your heart; but my lowliness finds no rest in a proud spirit.

AUG. He was moved to follow Christ because of the miracles; this vain desire of glory is signified by the birds; but he assumed the submissiveness of a disciple, which deceit is signified by the foxes.

RABAN. Heretics confiding in their art are signified by the foxes, the evil spirits by the birds of the air, who have their holes and their nests, that is, their abodes in the heart of the Jewish people. Another of his disciples says to him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

JEROME; in what one thing is this disciple like the Scribe? The one called Him Master, the other confesses Him as his Lord. The one from filial piety asks permission to go and bury his father; the other offers to follow, not seeking a master, but by means of his master seeking gain for himself.

HILARY; The disciple does not ask whether he shall follow Him; for he already believed that he ought to follow, but prays to be suffered first to bury. his father

AUG. The Lord when He prepares men for the Gospel will not have any excuse of this fleshly and temporal attachment to interfere, therefore it follows; Jesus said to him, Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.

CHRYS. This saying does not condemn natural affection to our parents, but shows that nothing ought to be more binding on us than the business of heaven; that to this we ought to will apply ourselves with all our endeavors, and not to be slack, however necessary or urgent are the things that draw us aside. For what could be more necessary than to bury a father? What more easy? For it could not need much time. But in this the Lord rescued him from much evil, Weeping, and mourning, and from the pains of expectation. For after the funeral there must come examination of the will, division of the inheritance, and other things of the same sort; and thus trouble following trouble, like the waves, would have borne him far from the port of truth. But if you are not yet satisfied, reflect further that oftentimes the weak are not permitted to know the time, or to follow to the grave; even though the dead be father, mother, or son; yet are they not charged with cruelty that hinder them; it is rather the reverse of cruelty. And it is a much greater evil to draw! One away from spiritual discourse; especially when there were who should perform the rites; as here, Leave the dead to bury their dead.

AUG. As much as to say; Your father is dead; but there are also other dead who shall bury their dead, because they are in unbelief

CHRYS This moreover shows that this dead man was not his; for, I suppose, he that was dead was of the unbelieving. If you wonder at the young man, that in a matter so necessary he should have asked Jesus, and not have gone away of his own accord, for much more that he abode with Jesus after he was bidden to depart; which was not from lack of affection, that he might not interrupt a business yet more necessary.

HILARY; Also, because we are taught in the beginning of the Lord's prayer, first to say, Our Father, who art in heaven; and since this disciple represents the believing people; he is here reminded that he has one only Father in heaven, and that between a believing son and an unbelieving. father the filial relation does not hold good. We are also astonished that the unbelieving dead are not to be mingled with the memories of the saints, and that they are also dead who live out of God; and the dead are buried by the dead, because by the faith of God it behoves the living to cleave to the living (God.)

JEROME; But if the dead shall bury the dead, we ought not to be careful for the dead but for the living, lest while we are anxious for the dead, we ourselves should be counted dead.

GREG. The dead also bury the dead, when sinners protect sinners. They who exalt sinners with their praises, hide the dead under a pile of words.

RABAN. From this we may also take occasion to observe, lesser goods are to be sometimes forfeited for the sake of things greater.

AUG. Matthew relates that this was done when He gave them commandment that they should go over the lake, Luke, that it happened as they walked by the way; etch is no contradiction, for they must have walked by the way that they might come to the lake.

Catena Aurea Matthew 8

Each “+” (cross) represents 10,000 deaths (or fraction thereof)

Revolutionary War 6,188
+

War of 1812 4,505
+

Mexican War 4,152
+

U. S. Civil War (both sides) 498,332
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Spanish-American War 2,446
+

World War I 116,516
+ + + + + + + + + + + +

World War II 405,399
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Korea 54,246
+ + + + + +

Vietnam 58,167
+ + + + + +

Desert Storm 293
+

Afghanistan/Iraq Liberation 3,500
+

Grand Total all U.S. Wars 1,150,744
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Abortions in the U.S. (Since Roe v. Wade in 1973) 54,559,615
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Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Matthew
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	Matthew 8
18.	And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water.	Videns autem Jesus turbas multas circum se, jussit ire trans fretum.	ιδων δε ο ιησους πολλους οχλους περι αυτον εκελευσεν απελθειν εις το περαν
19.	And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou shalt go.	Et accedens unus scriba, ait illi : Magister, sequar te, quocumque ieris.	και προσελθων εις γραμματευς ειπεν αυτω διδασκαλε ακολουθησω σοι οπου εαν απερχη
20.	And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.	Et dicit ei Jesus : Vulpes foveas habent, et volucres cæli nidos ; Filius autem hominis non habet ubi caput reclinet.	και λεγει αυτω ο ιησους αι αλωπεκες φωλεους εχουσιν και τα πετεινα του ουρανου κατασκηνωσεις ο δε υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ εχει που την κεφαλην κλινη
21.	And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.	Alius autem de discipulis ejus ait illi : Domine, permitte me primum ire, et sepelire patream meum.	ετερος δε των μαθητων αυτου ειπεν αυτω κυριε επιτρεψον μοι πρωτον απελθειν και θαψαι τον πατερα μου
22.	But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.	Jesus autem ait illi : Sequere me, et dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos.	ο δε ιησους ειπεν αυτω ακολουθει μοι και αφες τους νεκρους θαψαι τους εαυτων νεκρους

Ordinary Time: July 1st

Optional Memorial of Blessed Junipero Serra, priest (USA); St. Oliver Plunket, bishop & martyr (some places)

Meditation: Genesis 18:16-33

Dixit Dominus Domino meo

Little Hours

Foxes, Birds, and the Son of Man

One Bread, One Body

A LOVE TO DIE FOR