Posted on 07/24/2013 9:44:44 PM PDT by Salvation
Feast Day: July 25
Born: 1st century
Died: 44, Judea
Major Shrine: Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia (Spain)
Patron of: Veterinarians, equestrians, furriers, tanners, pharmacists
Feast Day: July 26
Born: Canaan
Died: 251, Asia Minor
Patron of: bachelors, transportation (drivers, sailors, etc.), travelling (especially for long journeys), storms, epilepsy, gardeners, holy death, toothache
Feast Day: July 25
Born: 368 Constantinople
Died: 25 July 408 at Nicomedia
St. James the Greater
Feast Day: July 25
Born: (around the time of Jesus) :: Died: (around 44 AD)
James was the son of Zebedee and Salome and the brother of St. John the Apostle. Fishermen like their father, James and John were on their father's boat mending his nets when the Lord passed by. Jesus called James and John, and asked them to follow him. He told them, as his disciples they would become fishers of men. They would help him to spread the Good News about God’s kingdom. Zebedee watched as his two sons left the boat to follow Jesus.
With St. Peter and St. John, James was a special companion of Jesus. Along with them James was allowed to see what the other apostles did not see. Together they watched as Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus to life. They went up the mountain with Jesus and saw him shining like the sun, with his robes white as snow. Then they heard God’s voice telling them this was his beloved son. This event is called Jesus' Transfiguration.
On Holy Thursday, the night before he died, Jesus led the apostles into the garden of Gethsemane. Matthew's Gospel tells us he invited Peter, James and John to go with him to a quiet area to pray. They watched as the Jesus’ face became sad with grief. Then in his great sorrow, his brow began to sweat drops of blood. It was heartbreaking to watch.
But the apostles were very tired and they fell asleep. When the enemies of Jesus finally came to take him away, St. James ran in fear. He was nowhere around when Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday. But on Easter Sunday evening in the upper room Jesus appeared to his apostles again. The resurrected Jesus came through the locked door and said, "Peace be to you."
St. James and the other apostles found that deep peace after the Holy Spirit's came upon them on Pentecost. St. James began his ministry as an in a very strong way. He asked Jesus for a seat of honor in his kingdom. He demanded that Jesus send fire down on the villages that did not receive the Lord. But he also had great faith in Jesus.
Eventually, James learned to become more humble and gentle. He traveled to Samaria, Judea and Spain preaching the Good News of salvation. He was given the honor of being the first apostle to die for Jesus. Chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that King Herod Agrippa had St. James put to death by the sword. As a martyr James gave the greatest witness of all.
Reflection: Despite St. James' weaknesses, Jesus loved him. Today we can pray for the grace to deeply recognize the love of Jesus.
Matthew | |||
English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
Matthew 20 |
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20. | Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him. | Tunc accessit ad eum mater filiorum Zebedæi cum filiis suis, adorans et petens aliquid ab eo. | τοτε προσηλθεν αυτω η μητηρ των υιων ζεβεδαιου μετα των υιων αυτης προσκυνουσα και αιτουσα τι παρ αυτου |
21. | Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom. | Qui dixit ei : Quid vis ? Ait illi : Dic ut sedeant hi duo filii mei, unus ad dexteram tuam, et unus ad sinistram in regno tuo. | ο δε ειπεν αυτη τι θελεις λεγει αυτω ειπε ινα καθισωσιν ουτοι οι δυο υιοι μου εις εκ δεξιων σου και εις εξ ευωνυμων σου εν τη βασιλεια σου |
22. | And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. | Respondens autem Jesus, dixit : Nescitis quid petatis. Potestis bibere calicem, quem ego bibiturus sum ? Dicunt ei : Possumus. | αποκριθεις δε ο ιησους ειπεν ουκ οιδατε τι αιτεισθε δυνασθε πιειν το ποτηριον ο εγω μελλω πινειν η το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθηναι λεγουσιν αυτω δυναμεθα |
23. | He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father. | Ait illis : Calicem quidem meum bibetis : sedere autem ad dexteram meam vel sinistram non est meum dare vobis, sed quibus paratum est a Patre meo. | και λεγει αυτοις το μεν ποτηριον μου πιεσθε και το βαπτισμα ο εγω βαπτιζομαι βαπτισθησεσθε το δε καθισαι εκ δεξιων μου και εξ ευωνυμων μου ουκ εστιν εμον δουναι αλλ οις ητοιμασται υπο του πατρος μου |
24. | And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren. | Et audientes decem, indignati sunt de duobus fratribus. | και ακουσαντες οι δεκα ηγανακτησαν περι των δυο αδελφων |
25. | But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them. | Jesus autem vocavit eos ad se, et ait : Scitis quia principes gentium dominantur eorum : et qui majores sunt, potestatem exercent in eos. | ο δε ιησους προσκαλεσαμενος αυτους ειπεν οιδατε οτι οι αρχοντες των εθνων κατακυριευουσιν αυτων και οι μεγαλοι κατεξουσιαζουσιν αυτων |
26. | It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister: | Non ita erit inter vos : sed quicumque voluerit inter vos major fieri, sit vester minister : | ουχ ουτως δε εσται εν υμιν αλλ ος εαν θελη εν υμιν μεγας γενεσθαι εσται υμων διακονος |
27. | And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant. | et qui voluerit inter vos primus esse, erit vester servus. | και ος εαν θελη εν υμιν ειναι πρωτος εστω υμων δουλος |
28. | Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many. | Sicut Filius hominis non venit ministrari, sed ministrare, et dare animam suam redemptionem pro multis. | ωσπερ ο υιος του ανθρωπου ουκ ηλθεν διακονηθηναι αλλα διακονησαι και δουναι την ψυχην αυτου λυτρον αντι πολλων |
Central panel (157 x 180 cm): Coronation of the Virgin; side panels (117 x 40 cm each): St Jerome, St Francis, St Dominic, Mary Magdalene; upper panels, whose sequence has not been definitively reconstructed (49 x 38 cm each): St John the Baptist in the Desert, The Execution of St Peter Martyr, St Thomas Aquinas, St Francis Receiving the Stigmata.
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In the central panel the Virgin is shown being crowned by Christ, in the presence of God the Father and the Holy Ghost.
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Thursday, July 25
Liturgical Color: Green
Pope Paul VI canonized St. Margaret
Ward, a martyr of England, on this day
in 1970. She was hung, then drawn
and quartered in 1588 for providing aid to a
Catholic priest, and refusing
to reveal his name.
Daily Readings for: July 25, 2013
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Almighty ever-living God, who consecrated the first fruits of your Apostles by the blood of Saint James, grant, we pray, that your Church may be strengthened by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
o Green String Beans Saint Jacques
ACTIVITIES
o Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
o Namedays
o Religion in the Home for Elementary School: July
o Religion in the Home for Preschool: July
PRAYERS
o Litany of the Fourteen Holy Helpers
o Motorist's Prayer to St. Christopher
Old Calendar: St. James, apostle; St. Christopher
St. James, known as the Greater, in order to distinguish him from the other Apostle St. James, our Lord's cousin, was St. John's brother. With Peter and John he was one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, as later he was also of the agony in the garden. He was beheaded in Jerusalem in 42 or 43 on the orders of Herod Agrippa. Since the ninth century Spain has claimed the honour of possessing his relics, though it must be said that actual proof is far less in evidence than the devotion of the faithful. The pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella in the Middle Ages attracted immense crowds; after the pilgrimage to Rome or the Holy Land, it was the most famous and the most frequented pilgrimage in Christendom. The pilgrim paths to Compostella form a network over Europe; they are dotted with pilgrims' hospices and chapels, some of which still exist. St. James is mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass.
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is also the feast of St. Christopher who suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor about the year 250. The devotion of our fathers, taking its due from his name (Christopher means bearer of Christ), caused them to place colossal statues of the saint bearing the infant Christ on his shoulders at the entrance to cathedrals. Thus arose the legend of the giant who carried the child Jesus over a river... and the devotion to St. Christopher as the patron of motorists and all forms of transport. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
St. James
El Senor Santiago, the patron saint of horsemen and soldiers, and his great shrine at Santiago de Compostela in that country has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries. He is one of those that Jesus called Boanerges, "son of thunder," the brother of John the Evangelist and the son of Zebedee the fisherman from Galilee.
St. James the Greater and his brother John were apparently partners with those other two brothers, Peter and Andrew, and lived in Bethsaida, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. How and where James first met Jesus, we do not know; but there is an old legend that makes Salome, his mother, a sister of Mary, and if this were the case, he would have known Jesus from childhood.
Along with Peter and his brother John, James was part of the inner circle of Jesus, who witnessed the Transfiguration, were witnesses to certain of His miracles, like the raising of the daughter of Jairus, and accompanied Him to the Garden of Gethsemani. Like his brother, he was active in the work of evangelization after the death of Jesus, and one legend, very unlikely, even has him going to Spain after Jesus' resurrection.
His prominence and his presence in Jerusalem must have been well known, for scarcely a dozen years after the Resurrection, he became involved in the political maneuverings of the day and was arrested and executed by King Herod Agrippa. This was followed by the arrest of Peter also, so his death must have been part of a purge of Christian leaders by Agrippa, who saw the new Christian movement as a threat to Judaism.
Jesus had foretold this kind of fate when He prophesied that James and his brother John would "drink of the same chalice" of suffering as Himself. The two brothers had asked to be seated at the right of Jesus and at His left in His kingdom, and Jesus told them that they would be with Him in a far different way than they expected.
James's death is the only biblical record we have of the death of one of the Apostles, and he was the first of that chosen band to give his life for his Master.
Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens
Patron: Against arthritis; against rheumatism; Antigua, Guatemala; apothecaries; blacksmiths; Chile; Compostela, Spain; druggists; equestrians; furriers; Galicia, Spain; Guatemala; horsemen; knights; laborers; Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Nicaragua; pharmacists; pilgrims; Pistoia, Italy; rheumatoid sufferers; riders; soldiers; Spain; Spanish conquistadors; tanners; veterinarians.
Symbols: Cockle shell; dark-bearded man holding a book; dark-bearded man holding a scroll; dark-bearded man holding a sword; dark-bearded man with a floppy pilgrim's hat, long staff, water bottle, and scallop shell; elderly, bearded man wearing a hat with a scallop shell; key; man with shells around him; mounted on horseback, trampling a Moor; pilgrim with wallet and staff; pilgrim's hat; pilgrim's staff; scallop shell; sword.
Things to Do:
St. Christopher
St. Christopher, one of the "Fourteen Sainted Helpers," has been highly venerated since ancient times in both the Eastern and Western Churches. The older martyrologies say that he suffered death for Christ; in more recent centuries piety has woven garlands of legend about his name. Christopher has become a giant who wished to enter the service of the most powerful of lords. He first thought that the emperor qualified; later he selected the devil, and finally he discovered Christ to be the most powerful Sovereign over all the world. From then on he served Him with greatest fidelity.
Because Christopher was of giant stature, he practiced charity by carrying pilgrims across a certain river. Once a child asked to be taken across. He complied as usual. While carrying the child on his shoulders through the river, it became heavier and heavier, and finally he could hardly support it. Then the revelation was made: "You are carrying the Lord of the world!" It was Christ (Christopher means "Christ-carrier").
The legend has the nature of a symbol. Bishop Vida gives the following exposition: "Because you, O Christopher, always carried Christ in your heart, the artists place Christ on your shoulders. Because you suffered much, they paint you standing deep in the waters. And because you could not accomplish this without being large of stature, they have made you a giant, bigger than great temples; therefore do you live under the open heavens during the greatest cold. And since you conquered all that is difficult, they have given you a blossoming palm as traveling staff."
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Archers; automobile drivers; automobilists; bachelors; boatmen; bus drivers;, cab drivers; floods; fruit dealers; fullers; hailstorms; holy death; lorry drivers; mariners; market carriers; motorists; porters; Rab, Croatia; sailors; storms; sudden death; taxi drivers; toothache; transportation; transportation workers; travellers; truck drivers; truckers; watermen.
Symbols: Giant; torrent; tree; man with Christ on his shoulders.
Things to Do:
Saint James, Apostle
“You do not know what you are asking.” (Matthew 20:22)
The apostle James, whose feast we celebrate today, was there, with John and Peter, when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:37-43). He also saw Jesus’ Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-2). Yet even though James was so close to Jesus, today’s Gospel reveals just how far he had rto go.
When we read of James and John’s maneuvering—Mom asking for “preferred seating” in the kingdom—we wonder how they could have sought godly greatness in such worldly terms. And we might shake our heads at their bold assertion that they could drink the same cup as Jesus. Of course we wouldn’t have been so dense, we think. But then, hindsight is always twenty-twenty.
Later, in Gethsemane, James didn’t know what to make of Jesus’ agonizing prayer. Yet after Jesus revealed himself to the apostles on Easter and after they received the Spirit at Pentecost, James came to understand what Jesus meant when he said that he came to give his life as a ransom (Matthew 20: 28). In fact, James’ vision became so clear that he decided to spread the good news about Jesus perhaps as far as Spain. Finally, when the moment of supreme witness came, he didn’t draw back. James was the first of the apostles to drink the cup of Jesus’ passion when King Herod Agrippa had him “killed by the sword ” (Acts 12:1-2).
In the end, James proved himself to be one of the great heroes of the early Church. He gave up his whole life to follow Jesus, and in the end he sacrificed that life out of love for the Lord and his people. Ironically, James did end up sitting at Jesus’ right hand, along with his fellow apostles and martyrs. Only now, instead of basking in his exalted position, he is worshipping the Lord and urging us to follow his example of heroic dedication. May we all follow his example.
“Lord, Almighty ever-living God, who consecrated the first fruits of your Apostles by the blood of Saint James, grant, we pray that your Church may be strengthened by his confession of faith and constantly sustained by his protection.” (Roman Missal)
2 Corinthians 4:7-15; Psalm 126:1-6
ONE OF THE BOANERGES: SAINT JAMES
Feast day: July 25
JAMES, son of Zebedee and brother of John, was a fisherman by trade before Jesus called him (Mark 1:19-20). This type of hard physical labor probably made James tough in body as well temperament. Seeing James determination and desire to serve God, Jesus included him with Peter and John as one of His more intimate friends. He was present when Jesus raised Jairus daughter from the dead (Mark 5:37), witnessed Jesus transfigured (Mark 9:2), and was with Jesus as He suffered His agony in Gethsemane (Mark 14:33).
Throughout his time with Jesus, James experienced a progressive stripping of his old life of self-reliance so that he could receive from Jesus the new life of the Spirit. For example, when a Samaritan town refused to welcome Jesus, James and his brother wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy it (Luke 9:54). Such a response earned them Jesus rebuke and may have been the reason for their nickname Boanerges Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17).
At another time, when James and his brother (John) asked Jesus boldly for prominent places in the Kingdom, He took the opportunity to show the two brothers how their thinking was in strong conflict with the true nature of discipleship (Mark 10:35-45). Ultimately, this stripping process meant the loss of James very life, and yet by that point James had freely embraced the life of Christ and was willing to give everything to glorify his Master and Friend (Acts 12:1-2).
Just as He did with James, Jesus wants to strip us of our self-love. Through our attention to Gods word and openness to the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist, we can make ourselves available to Jesus and let Him refashion us in His image. We may not die a martyrs death, but we will find ourselves progressively freed from sin and darkness. Jesus will reign more and more in our hearts and fill us more and more with His wisdom and strength. Let us ask Jesus to show us where we need to be stripped, so that there might be less of us and more of Him (see John 3:30). Let us rejoice in our position as heirs of His Kingdom.
Daily Marriage Tip for July 25, 2013:
As humans we all seek happiness, but what the world suggests will make us happy is often temporary bliss. Being happy often results from giving it away. Bring some happiness to another today. Start with your spouse.
Dom Mark
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2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Psalm 125: 1-2ab, 2cd-3, 4-5, 6
Matthew 20:20-28
Treasure in Earthen Vessels
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). Another translation puts it this way: “We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power.” The contrast is striking: treasure held in earthen vessels. But what is the treasure? In verse 6, Saint Paul says, “It is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the Face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). The treasure, then, is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the Face of Christ.
An Eye-Witness of the Transfiguration
When one considers that James was an eye-witness of the Transfiguration, the deeper meaning of today’s First Reading comes into focus. While James looked on, together with Peter and with his brother John, Jesus “was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light” (Mt 17:2). The splendour of Jesus’ Face burned itself indelibly into the heart of James. Contemplating the Face of the transfigured Jesus, James was filled with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). This is the treasure that Saint James carried in a shell of fragile earthenware: his own human weakness.
Gethsemani
The Transfiguration reveals the treasure; the agony in the garden of Gethsemani reveals to us the fragility of the earthen vessels. To Peter, James, and John, Jesus said, “Remain here and watch with me” (Mt 26:38), but after His prayer to the Father, he found them sleeping. Again, a second time, He asked these, his intimate companions, to watch and pray, warning them of the weakness of the flesh, and again He came and “found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy” (Mt 26:43). And so it happened a third time but, by then, the hour of Jesus’ betrayal was already at hand (Mt 26:45). The radiant memory of Jesus transfigured, “the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6), was held in earthen vessels: in the hearts of men who could not watch even one hour with their Master in his agony.
Discouraged and Weary
Tradition recounts that after Pentecost Saint James went to preach the Gospel in far off Spain. There his work met with little response. In fact, the Apostle found hostility and active resistance to his preaching. James grew discouraged and, in his weariness, began to question his mission. In this, there is not a priest alive who, at certain moments, cannot identify with Saint James.
Our Lady of the Pillar
The Apostle was painfully aware of his own weakness; he knew himself to be an earthen vessel and, for a time, the bright memory of the Transfiguration seemed to have been eclipsed in his heart. It was at that moment that the Mother of Jesus -- still alive at the time and living with his brother, Saint John -- appeared to Saint James to comfort him in his mission. He saw the Blessed Virgin Mary atop a pillar. This tradition is at the origin of the sanctuary of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, a place of pilgrimage even to the present day.
Prayer for Priests
Today’s feast invites us to pray for all priests who, in their mission, encounter indifference, resistance, criticism, hostility, and even persecution. So many priests suffer dejection. Some are called to share in the loneliness of Jesus in Gethsemani; their particular vocation is to repeat the words of their Master, brokenhearted in His solitude: “Insults have broken my heart so that I am in despair. I looked for pity but there was none; and for comforters but I found none” (Ps 68:20).
Mary, Comforter of Priests
All priests are in need of the encouraging presence of the Mother of God. She appeared to Saint James on a pillar of stone to give him something to lean on in his weakness and dejection. Strengthened by the Blessed Virgin, Saint James pursued his preaching in Spain, and then returned to Jerusalem to face his final sufferings.
The Science of the Cross: Mary and the Eucharist
Jesus said to the sons of Zebedee, “My chalice indeed you shall drink” (Mt 20: 23). For Saint James, the highest degree of the knowledge of the glory of God was found in Jerusalem: in drinking of the chalice of suffering and of a violent death. Suffering -- what Saint Teresa-Benedicta of the Cross calls “the science of the Cross”-- fills the soul with a dark brightness that, for all its obscurity, is nonetheless “knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6). It is nonetheless foolhardy and presumptuous to seek “the science of the Cross” without two things: entrustment (or consecration) of oneself to the all-holy Mother of God, and the sustenance of the Most Holy Eucharist.
Never at a Loss
Saint Paul describes the disciple’s participation in the Cross. “We are being hampered everywhere, yet still have room to breathe, are hard put to it, but never at a loss; persecution does not leave us unbefriended, nor crushing blows destroy us; we carry about continually in our bodies the dying state of Jesus, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies too” (2 Cor 4:8-11).
The Chalice of the Knowledge of the Glory of God
The Precious Blood of Christ, that flows eucharistically through the Church, is the communication to each one of us of the life of “the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28). The knowledge of the glory of God is found in the face of the transfigured Christ; it is just as truly found in the chalice of the Blood that soaked the earth in Gethsemani and flowed on Calvary. And we, like Saint James, comforted by the Mother of Jesus, carry that treasure in earthen vessels.
Dom Mark
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Image courtesy of the Fatebenefratelli of Saint John of God.
CHAPTER XXXVI. Of the Sick Brethren
15 Mar. 15 July. 14 Nov.
Before all things and above all things care is to be had of the sick, that they be served in very deed as Christ Himself, for He hath said: "I was sick, and ye visited Me." And, "What ye have done unto one of these little ones, ye have done unto Me." And let the sick themselves remember that they are served for the honour of God, and not grieve the brethren who serve them by unnecessary demands. Yet must they be patiently borne with, because from such as these is gained a more abundant reward. Let it be, therefore, the Abbot's greatest care that they suffer no neglect. And let a cell be set apart by itself for the sick brethren, and one who is God-fearing, diligent and careful, be appointed to serve them. Let the use of baths be allowed to the sick as often as may be expedient; but to those who are well, and especially to the young, let it be granted more seldom. Let the use of flesh meat also be permitted to the sick and to those who are very weakly, for their recovery: but when they are restored to health, let all abstain from meat in the accustomed manner. The Abbot must take all possible care that the sick be not neglected by the Cellarer or servers; because whatever is done amiss by his disciples is laid to his charge.
Before All Things and Above All Things
Saint Benedict places care of the sick before all things and above all things. One finds comparable expressions in the Holy Rule with regard to the love of Christ (Chapter IV:21) and the Work of God (Chapter XLIII). The sick brother is a real presence of Christ in the monastery. Our Constitutions make this clear:
150. The community will show their sick brethren the most tender compassion in both word and deed. Believing that, save in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, Our Lord is nowhere more present in the monastery than in the person of a monk brought low by infirmity, the monks will treat him with the greatest charity, making allowance for his weaknesses and bearing his burdens.
Living Sickness Well
As for the sick themselves, they must not take advantage of the love shown them, by becoming capricious, cranky, and demanding. If they are served with tenderness and reverence, it is for God's sake. It is easy for a sick brother to begin to see himself as the centre of the universe, to become self-absorbed, and anxious over many things. The brother who falls into these faults has lost sight of the meaning of his monastic oblation. By Baptism, by the seal of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and by virtue of every Holy Communion he receives, as well as by virtue of his monastic profession and consecration, the monk is a victim, that is one offered irrevocably to God in sacrifice.
Victimhood
The vocabulary of victim and victimhood has been much abused and is often misunderstood and manipulated. It is, nonetheless, indispensable, because it belongs to the liturgy of the Church (the lex orandi), wherein it is applied, again and again, to all the baptized insofar as they are united to Christ in the mystery of His Sacrifice. A victim, in the traditional liturgical sense of the term, is not one to whom something bad has happened; a victim is a sacrificial offering placed upon the altar, whence it ascends to God. We pray, for instance, in the Secret of the Votive Mass of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest:
O Lord, may Jesus Christ, our Mediator,
render these offerings acceptable to Thee,
and may He present us with Himself as victims agreeable to Thee.
Who being God, liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost,
forever and ever.
Union With the Passion of Christ
A monk living with chronic illness will find a serene joy in the midst suffering once he begins to place himself with Our Lord on the altar of His sacrifice. Then he will be caught up in the immense movement out of self and into the infinity of God to which the priest invites the people in every Holy Mass: Sursum corda! Hearts on high! The monk, who accepts his illness in the light of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, will begin to see his sickroom as a sanctuary, his bed as an altar, and himself as an oblation -- a sacrificial victim -- in the hands of Christ the Priest. Illness, weakness, and fatigue, be they physical or mental, or both at the same time, can become life-giving when infused with the dispositions of the Heart of Jesus, Priest and Victim in His Passion, and in the Sacrament of His Love, that Passion's abiding memorial.
We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but we perish not: Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake; that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:9-12)
Bound to Jesus Christ Suffering and Dying
Our Constitutions invite the monk struggling with illness, and faced with death, to enter into the victimal dispositions of the Heart of Jesus:
148. As victims destined for sacrifice, monks, though living are always being delivered unto death for Jesus' sake; that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in their mortal flesh. The infirmary is, ordinarily, the place in which, though death be at work in us, He who raised up Jesus, will raise us up also with Him. Like the outer court of the temple, wherein the victims of the Old Law were put to death, or the amphitheatre in which the holy martyrs, exposed to the furor of beasts and the rage of tyrants, caused their faith and their love to shine forth, although those who are languishing or close to death be in the hands of brethren who desire only to succour them in their need, it will sometimes happen that Divine Providence allows their sufferings to increase by the very remedies that ought to have relieved them.
Were a monk free to choose his manner of death, zeal would, undoubtedly, move him to shed his blood in sacrifice at the foot of the altar so as to offer some proof of love to Him who there resides. But, as by the sacrifice of his vows, a monk has no longer any right over himself, nor the freedom to do as he chooses, he will submit his heart's holiest ardours to the law of the will of God, so as to die at the time and in the place pleasing to Him, regarding his sickbed as the place of holocaust whereupon his sufferings bind him to Jesus Christ suffering and dying.
Called to Be Servants | ||
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Feast of Saint James, Apostle
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Father Alex Yeung, LC Matthew 20: 20-28 Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, in spite of my many failures, I know you continue to call me. Your Spirit continues to guide me. I trust in you, love you and praise you for all your gifts to me. Amen. Petition: Lord Jesus, grant me a renewed sensitivity to the deepest needs of others. 1. Called to Serve: In an era of Catholicism in which catch-phrases such as “called to serve” have been overused to the point of becoming clichés, we risk forgetting how central service is to the Christian life. The minutes of our lives are consumed in an incessant cascade of apparently important and urgent things to do. Doesn’t it happen, however, that in the midst of all this we actually miss any number of opportunities to serve? Called to serve, yes, but we miss the call! And our service gets sidelined. If service to my brothers and sisters is not an ordinary element of my daily life as a Christian, I can be sure that I have succumbed to self-deception or taken a critically wrong turn somewhere. 2. A Continuation of Christ: We are called to give ourselves unreservedly to others as a continuation of Christ. “A continuation of Christ”: now, wouldn’t that make a wonderful epitaph?! For truly, if our Christian service is not a prolongation, an extension of Jesus’ love, if we are not giving him to others, if those whom we serve are not discovering him in us, then our service is simply not service. It might be philanthropy, it might be empathy, but it falls short of genuine Christian service if those whom we serve do not discover Christ in us. Like John the Baptist, we must become less so that Jesus can become more in us, so that our brothers and sisters are not cheated out of encountering that Christ whom they secretly long to discover in each of us. 3. What Service Means: Here it will be helpful simply to examine ourselves on some of the essentials of Christian service. Is my daily life characterized by a concern for the genuine good of others and by a readiness to do all the good I can for my brothers and sisters? Do I actually engage in daily acts of service, whether big or small? Do I examine myself frequently on the sin of omission? Do I strive, in carrying on the ordinary service required by my state in life, to do so with extraordinary deliberateness and full, conscious self-giving? Conversation with Christ: Father, you call me to serve, and I know that service also means suffering at times. If suffering is to be a part of your plan for me, give me the grace to collaborate with Christ your son in the salvation of souls by offering that suffering generously to you. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Resolution: Out of love for Christ, present in the least of my brothers and sisters, I will examine myself on what genuine Christian service means to me in practice, and what place it usually has in my daily life. |
Today is the feast of St. James, a.k.a Santiago, brother of John, one
of Zebedee’s sons. He was present at the Transfiguration and most of
Jesus’ miracles. He was the first disciple to be martyred, around the
year 42AD.
The martyrdom of St. James is significant in light of today’s
Gospel. Whereas he was the first of the apostles to be martyred, he
was also one of those who dared to ask Jesus for a special place in the
kingdom. Recall that James and John, accompanied by their mother,
approached Jesus and asked that they be seated on Jesus’ right and left
when Jesus reigns in his kingdom. They were asking for places of
honor, the best seats in the house, but Jesus could only ask them in
response, “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” James and John
answered in the affirmative, and indeed, like Jesus, James died for his
faith.
There is something in us that wants to be given importance. We feel
good when we are praised or affirmed, and rightly so. But sometimes we
start doing things for the sake of being praised. While this is a very
human impulse, Jesus turns the table on us and says that “anyone who
wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants
to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came
not to be served but to serve….”
Here we have in summary Jesus’ radical idea of servant leadership. To
be great is not to be recognized or acknowledged as such, but to be a
humble servant. To be first is not to get ahead of all the others, but
to be their slave. This goes against the wisdom of the world. Even
when we try to be servant leaders, people can still praise us for it,
and that’s fine as long as our motivations are clear. Besides, those
moments of praise and adulation do not last. In the end, servant
leadership is a lifestyle, something we try to
do day in and day out, especially when no one is looking. It is to
fulfill our daily duties and commitments with humility and love, even
when we are not appreciated for it. At times we may even be persecuted
or ridiculed for our commitments. At times we may have to swallow our
pride for the sake of the greater good.
Let us be like James. Let us acknowledge our all too human feelings of
self-importance, and then learn to be humble servants of the Lord.
PRAYER
“Lord Jesus, make me a servant of love for your kingdom, that I may
seek to serve rather than be served. Inflame my heart with love that I
may give generously and serve joyfully for your sake.”
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