April 11, 2014

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

I hear the whisperings of many:
“Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
“Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.”
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!

Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3a, 3bc-4, 5-6, 7

R. (see 7) In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
The breakers of death surged round about me,
the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me,
the snares of death overtook me.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
In my distress I called upon the LORD
and cried out to my God;
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

Gospel Jn 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him,
“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
“John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true.”
And many there began to believe in him.

Interactive Saints for Kids

St. Stanislaus

Feast Day: April 11
Born: 1030 :: Died: 1079

St. Stanislaus was born near Cracow, in Poland. His parents who were rich had prayed for thirty years for a child. Finally, when Stanislaus was born, they were so grateful to have him that they offered him to God.

When Stanislaus grew up, he studied at Gnesen and in Paris, France. After his parents died, he gave away all the money and property they had left him to the poor. Then he became a priest.

Stanislaus was made the bishop of Cracow when he was about forty years old. (Then hundreds of years later and before he became pope, our dearly beloved John Paul II was also bishop of Cracow in Poland.)

Bishop Stanislaus was loved by all his people, especially because of the way he took care of the poor, the widows and the orphans, often serving them himself.

Poland's king at that time was Boleslaus II. He was cruel and very sinful. The people were disgusted with his lifestyle and were afraid of him. Bishop Stanislaus first corrected him privately with respect and kindness. But he honestly and bravely told the king what he was doing wrong.

The king seemed sorry for a short while, but soon fell back into his bad ways again. He committed even more shameful sins. The bishop then had to put him out of the Church.

King Boleslaus flew into a terrible rage and to get revenge, he ordered two of his guards to kill St. Stanislaus. Three times they tried and failed. Then the king himself, in a fit of anger, rushed into the bishop's chapel and murdered St. Stanislaus as he was celebrating Mass. It was April 11, 1079.

God worked many miracles after St. Stanislaus' death. All the people called him a martyr.

Mark
	English: Douay-Rheims	Latin: Vulgata Clementina	Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000)
	John10
31.	The Jews then took up stones to stone him.	sustulerunt lapides Iudaei ut lapidarent eum	εβαστασαν ουν παλιν λιθους οι ιουδαιοι ινα λιθασωσιν αυτον
32.	Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?	respondit eis Iesus multa opera bona ostendi vobis ex Patre meo propter quod eorum opus me lapidatis	απεκριθη αυτοις ο ιησους πολλα καλα εργα εδειξα υμιν εκ του πατρος μου δια ποιον αυτων εργον λιθαζετε με
33.	The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God.	responderunt ei Iudaei de bono opere non lapidamus te sed de blasphemia et quia tu homo cum sis facis te ipsum Deum	απεκριθησαν αυτω οι ιουδαιοι λεγοντες περι καλου εργου ου λιθαζομεν σε αλλα περι βλασφημιας και οτι συ ανθρωπος ων ποιεις σεαυτον θεον
34.	Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods?	respondit eis Iesus nonne scriptum est in lege vestra quia ego dixi dii estis	απεκριθη αυτοις ο ιησους ουκ εστιν γεγραμμενον εν τω νομω υμων εγω ειπα θεοι εστε
35.	If he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken;	si illos dixit deos ad quos sermo Dei factus est et non potest solvi scriptura	ει εκεινους ειπεν θεους προς ους ο λογος του θεου εγενετο και ου δυναται λυθηναι η γραφη
36.	Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?	quem Pater sanctificavit et misit in mundum vos dicitis quia blasphemas quia dixi Filius Dei sum	ον ο πατηρ ηγιασεν και απεστειλεν εις τον κοσμον υμεις λεγετε οτι βλασφημεις οτι ειπον υιος του θεου ειμι
37.	If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.	si non facio opera Patris mei nolite credere mihi	ει ου ποιω τα εργα του πατρος μου μη πιστευετε μοι
38.	But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.	si autem facio et si mihi non vultis credere operibus credite ut cognoscatis et credatis quia in me est Pater et ego in Patre	ει δε ποιω καν εμοι μη πιστευητε τοις εργοις πιστευσατε ινα γνωτε και πιστευσητε οτι εν εμοι ο πατηρ καγω εν αυτω
39.	They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands.	quaerebant ergo eum prendere et exivit de manibus eorum	εζητουν ουν παλιν αυτον πιασαι και εξηλθεν εκ της χειρος αυτων
40.	And he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first; and there he abode.	et abiit iterum trans Iordanen in eum locum ubi erat Iohannes baptizans primum et mansit illic	και απηλθεν παλιν περαν του ιορδανου εις τον τοπον οπου ην ιωαννης το πρωτον βαπτιζων και εμεινεν εκει
41.	And many resorted to him, and they said: John indeed did no sign.	et multi venerunt ad eum et dicebant quia Iohannes quidem signum fecit nullum	και πολλοι ηλθον προς αυτον και ελεγον οτι ιωαννης μεν σημειον εποιησεν ουδεν παντα δε οσα ειπεν ιωαννης περι τουτου αληθη ην
42.	But all things whatsoever John said of this man, were true. And many believed in him.	omnia autem quaecumque dixit Iohannes de hoc vera erant et multi crediderunt in eum	και επιστευσαν πολλοι εκει εις αυτον

(*) ουδεν παντα δε οσα ειπεν ιωαννης περι τουτου αληθη ην begins verse 42 in the translations.

31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him,
32. Jesus answered them, "Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?"
33. The Jews answered him, saying, "For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God."
34. Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?'
35. If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36. Say you of him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, you blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God?
37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him."

AUG. At this speech, I and My Father are one, the Jews could not restrain their rage, but ran to take up stones, after their hardhearted way: Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.

HILARY. The heretics now, as unbelieving and rebellious against our Lord in heaven, show their impious hatred by the stones, i.e. the words they cast at Him; as if they would drag Him down again from His throne to the cross.

THEOPHYL. Our Lord remonstrates with them; Many good works have I showed you from My Father, strewing that they had no just reason for their anger.

ALCUIN. Healing of the sick, teaching, miracles. He showed them of the Father, because He sought His Father's glory in all of them. For which of these works do you stone Me? They confess, though reluctantly, the benefit they have received from Him, but charge Him at the same time with blasphemy, for asserting His equality with the Father;

For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy; and because that You, being a man, make Yourself God.

AUG. This is their answer to the speech, I and My Father are one. Lo, the Jews understood what the Arians understand not. For they are angry, for this very reason, that they could not conceive but that by saying, I and My Father are one, He meant the equality of the Father and the Son.

HILARY. The Jew said, You being a man, the Arian, you being a creature: but both say, You make yourself God. The Arian supposes a God of a new and different substance a God of another kind, or not a God at all. He said, You are not Son by birth, you art not God of truth; you art a superior creature.

CHRYS. Our Lord did not correct the Jews, as if they misunderstood His speech, but confirmed and defended it, in the very sense in which they had taken it. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law,

AUG. i.e. the Law given to you, I have said, you are gods? God saith this by the Prophet in the Psalm. Our Lord calls all those Scriptures the Law generally, though elsewhere He spiritually distinguishes the Law from the Prophets. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

In another place He makes a threefold division of the Scriptures; All things must he fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. Now He calls the Psalms the Law, and thus argues from them; If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say you of Him whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, you blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God?

HILARY. Before proving that He and His Father are one, He answers the absurd and foolish charge brought against Him, that He being man made Himself God. When the Law applied this title to holy men, and the indelible word of God sanctioned this use of the incommunicable name, it could not be a crime in Him, even though He were man, to make Himself God.

The Law called those who were mere men, gods; and if any man could bear the name religiously, and without arrogance, surely that man could, who was sanctified by the Father, in a sense in which none else is sanctified to the Sonship; as the blessed Paul said, Declared to be the Son, of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness. For or all this reply refers to Himself as man; the Son of God being also the Son of man.

AUG. Or sanctified, i.e. in begetting, gave Him holiness, begat Him holy. If men to whom the word of God came were called gods, much more the Word of God Himself is God. If men by partaking of the word of God were made gods, much more is the Word of which they partake, God.

THEOPHYL. Or, sanctified, i.e. set apart to be sacrificed for the world: a proof that He was God in a higher sense than the rest. To save the world is a divine work, not that of a man made divine by grace.

CHRYS. Or, we must consider this a speech of humility, made to conciliate men. After it he leads them to higher things; If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; which is as much as to say, that He is not inferior to the Father. As they could not see His substance, He directs them to His works, as being like and equal to the Father's. For the equality of their works, proved tile equality of their power.

HILARY. What place has adoption, or the mere conception of a name then, that we should not believe Him to be the Son of God by nature, when He tells us to believe Him to be the Son of God, because the Father's nature showed itself in Him by His works?

A creature is not equal and like to God: no other nature has power comparable to the divine. He declares that He is carrying on not His own work, but the Father's, lest in the greatness of the works, the nativity of His nature be forgotten.

And as under the sacrament of the assumption of a human body in is the womb of Mary, the Son of God was not discerned, this must be gathered from His work; But if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the works.

Why does the sacrament of a human birth hinder the understanding of the divine, when the divine birth accomplishes all its work by aid of the human? Then He tells them what they should gather from His works; That you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. The same declaration again, I am the Son of God: I and the Father are one.

AUG. The Son does not say, The Father is in Me, and I in Him, in the sense in which men who think and act aright may say the like; meaning that they partake of God's grace, and are enlightened by His Spirit. The Only-begotten Son of God is in the Father, and the Father in Him, as an equal in an equal.

39. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand,
40. And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode.
41. And many resorted to him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spoke of this man were true.
42. And many believed in him there.

BEDE. The Jews still persist in their madness; Therefore they sought again to take Him.

AUG. To lay hold of Him, not by faith and the understanding, but with blood thirsty violence. Do you so lay hold of Him, that you may have sure hold; they would fain have laid hold on Him, but they could not: for it follows, But He escaped out of their hand. They did lay hold of Him with the hand of faith. It was no great matter for the Word to rescue His flesh from the hands of flesh.

CHRYS. Christ, after discoursing on some high truth, commonly retires immediately, to give time to the fury of people to abate, during His absence. Thus He did now: He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized. He went there that He might recall to people's minds, what had gone on there; John's preaching and testimony to Himself.

BEDE. He was followed there by many: And many resorted to Him, and said, John did no miracle.

AUG. Did not cast out devils, did not give sight to the blind, did not raise the dead.

CHRYS. Mark their reasoning, John did no miracle, but this Man did; wherefore He is the superior. But lest the absence of miracles should lessen the weight of John's testimony, they add, But all things that John spoke of this Man were true.

Though he did no miracle, yet every thing he said of Christ was true, whence they conclude, if John was to be believed, much more this Man, who has the evidence of miracles. Thus it follows, And many believed in Him.

AUG. These laid hold of Him while abiding, not, like the Jews, when departing. Let us approach by the candle to the day. John is the candle, and gave testimony to the day.

THEOPHYL. We may observe that our Lord often brings out the people into solitary places, thus ridding them of the society of the unbelieving, for their furtherance in the faith: just as He led the people into the wilderness, when He gave them the old Law.

Mystically, Christ departs from Jerusalem, i.e. from the Jewish people; and goes to a place where are springs of water, i.e. to the Gentile Church, that has the waters of baptism. And many resort to Him, passing over the Jordan, i.e. through baptism.

Catena Aurea John 10

Why is faith in Jesus Christ not enough?

How many sacraments are there, and what are their names?

The Church has seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.

Why do we need sacraments in the first place?

We need sacraments in order to outgrow our petty human life and to become like Jesus through Jesus: children of God in freedom and glory.

In Baptism the fallen children of men become cherished children of God; through Confirmation the weak become strong, committed Christians; through Penance the guilty are reconciled; through the Eucharist the hungry become bread for others; through Matrimony and Holy Orders individualists become servants of love; through the Anointing of the Sick the despairing become people of confidence. The sacrament in all the sacraments is Christ himself. In him we men, lost in selfishness, grow and mature into the true life that has no end.

Why is faith in Jesus Christ not enough? Why does God give us the sacraments, too?

We can and should come to God with all our senses, not just with the intellect. That is why God gives himself to us in earthly signs especially in bread and wine, the Body and Blood of Christ.

People saw Jesus, heard him, could touch him and thereby experience salvation and healing in body and soul. The sensible signs of the sacraments show this same signature of God, who desires to address the whole man, not just his head. (YOUCAT questions 172-174)

Dig Deeper: CCC section (1146-1152) and other references here.

Part 2: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (1066 - 1690)

Section 1: The Sacramental Economy (1076 - 1209)

Chapter 2: The Sacramental Celebration of the Paschal Mystery (1135 - 1209)

Article 1: Celebrating the Church's Liturgy (1136 - 1199)

II. HOW IS THE LITURGY CELEBRATED? ⇡

Signs and symbols ⇡

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1146

Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place. As a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual realities through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs and symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions. The same holds true for his relationship with God.

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God speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented to man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator.¹⁶ Light and darkness, wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God and symbolize both his greatness and his nearness.

16.

Cf. Wis 13:1; Rom 1:19 f.; Acts 14:17.

1148

Inasmuch as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of expressing the action of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who offer worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator.

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The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes, integrates and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring on them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus Christ.

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Signs of the covenant. The Chosen People received from God distinctive signs and symbols that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations of cosmic cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of God's mighty deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old Covenant are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests, laying on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in these signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New Covenant.

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Signs taken up by Christ. In his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs of creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God.¹⁷ He performs healings and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures.¹⁸ He gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to the Exodus and the Passover,¹⁹ for he himself is the meaning of all these signs.

17.

Cf. Lk 8:10.

18.

Cf. Jn 9:6; Mk 7:33 ff.; 8:22 ff.

19.

Cf. Lk 9:31; 22:7-20.

1152

Sacramental signs. Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that the Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. The sacraments of the Church do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and symbols of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfill the types and figures of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation wrought by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of heaven.

Catholic Culture

Daily Readings for:April 11, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)

Collect: O God, for whose honor the Bishop Saint Stanislaus fell beneath the swords of his persecutors, grant we pray, that we may persevere strong in faith even until death. 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 Pierogi

o Polish Potato Pancakes

ACTIVITIES

o Namedays

o What is a Nameday?

PRAYERS

o Prayer for the Fifth Week of Lent

o To Keep A True Lent

o Novena to St. Bernadette

LIBRARY

o Now Is the Time to Remember All These Martyrs and to Pay Them Due Honour | Pope John Paul II

o We Give Praise and Thanks to God That the Gospel Seed Has Borne Abundant Fruit | Pope John Paul II

· Lent: April 11th

· Optional Memorial of St. Stanislaus, bishop & martyr

Old Calendar: St. Leo I, pope and doctor

St. Stanislaus was the Bishop of Cracow, Poland. A champion of the liberty of the Church and of the dignity of man, he defended the lonely and the poor. When he reproached King Boleslaus II for his immoral life, the king himself killed him during Mass. He is the patron saint of Poland.

According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, May 7, is the feast of St. Stanislaus. In Poland his feast is celebrated on May 8, which is the day he died.

Also the feast of St. Leo the Great is today and in the Ordinary Form his memorial is celebrated on November 10.

Stational Church

St. Stanislaus of Cracow
Stanislaus was born in 1030 and was educated at Gnesen and at Paris. After his ordination to the priesthood he was made a canon of the cathedral at Cracow as well as archdeacon and preacher. Upon the death of the bishop of Cracow, he was nominated bishop of the diocese by Pope Alexander II.

The king at the time, Boleslaus II, trying to strengthen his own power, led an expedition against the grand duchy of Kiev, making himself very unpopular with the nobles of the country, who opposed his policies. St. Stanislaus of Cracow sided with the nobles, led by the king's brother, Ladislaus, and this brought him into conflict with the king.

Stanislaus had opposed the king before for his tyrannical ways and once confronted him boldly for his immoral behavior when Boleslaus had abducted the wife of a Polish nobleman and carried her off to his castle. No one seemed willing to face the king from a fear of his rage, but Stanislaus boldly went to the king and threatened excommunication if he did not change his ways. Furious, the king promised revenge on the bishop. Later, Stanislaus sided with the nobles in their opposition to the king's political policies, and the king accused him of being a traitor and condemned him to death.

At first the king commanded his soldiers to kill the bishop when he was celebrating Mass at St. Michael's chapel in Cracow, but the soldiers refused, fearing to bring down upon themselves the wrath of God. Undeterred, the king himself entered the church, drew his sword, and killed the bishop, ordering his soldiers to dismember the body.

Pope Gregory VII placed the country under interdict and Boleslaus fell from power, fleeing to Hungary, where he entered the monastery of Osiak to do penance for his crime. Stanislaus, canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253, is one of the patron saints of Poland. — The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

Patron: Archdiocese of Cracow, Poland; Poland.

Symbols: Bishop being hacked to pieces at the foot of an altar.

Things to Do:

Sometimes evil has to be confronted boldly, whatever the consequences. Brave men like St. Stanislaus of Cracow risked death in facing evil. There is little chance today that we will ever be in that danger, but we must always be willing to defend the truth, and it should be very clear, in the face of genuine evil, where we stand. Christ our Lord can expect no less from us. Say an extra prayer today for the gift of fortitude.
Learn a little more about the city of Kracow where both St. Stanislaus and Pope John Paul II came from.
For those who are extremely interested in knowing more about Polish history this online book, Polish Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland may prove to be a good source of information.
The final work of Franz Liszt is the unfinished oratorio St. Stanislaus, for which he left two scenes (one and four) and two polonaises. Learn more about this oratorio here and if you are able find a copy and listen.

The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Stephen on Monte Celio. This church of the great proto-martyr was chosen as the place where the faithful were to assemble on the Friday of Passion week.

The Word Among Us

Meditation: Jeremiah 20:10-13

Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr

The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion. (Jeremiah 20:11)

“Terror, terror on every side!” That’s how Jeremiah’s enemies portrayed him. They accused him of needlessly stirring up fear among the people by talking about God’s coming judgment. And so employing the rumor mill that was part of the court in Jerusalem, they spread gossip and slander that made life downright dangerous for the prophet. But Jeremiah didn’t back down. He had entrusted his life to God, and he knew that God would be his champion and keep him safe.

God is indeed a mighty champion for all of us—not just in life-and-death situations like Jeremiah’s but even in the everyday “dangers” that we face. He is with the housewife who worries about keeping her children in line, cleaning her home, and preparing meals for her family. He is with the student struggling against peer pressure. He is with the lonely widower facing a troubling diagnosis and the prison inmate trying to change his life in often brutal surroundings. Whether we are facing a real war or just a battle within our minds and hearts, God is our champion, ready to fight for us and defend us.

Sometimes, though, it’s hard to ask the Lord for help. We have been so conditioned by life in this world to think we have to fight all by ourselves. We are told that religion is just a crutch and that we should be strong enough to handle whatever comes our way. Or we have been told that it’s normal to live with a certain level of anxiety and worry and that only naïve fools are happy all the time. We should just grow up and get used to our problems because life is unfair, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Don’t listen to these voices! You have a God in heaven who cares for you and who wants to do good for you. He is very near to you, waiting for you to call on him. A true champion, he will take up your cause and give you his grace, his wisdom, and his insights to help you through every challenge. You don’t have to walk this path alone!

“I love you, Lord, my strength … my rock, my fortress, my deliverer!” (Psalm 18:2-3)

Psalm 18:2-7; John 10:31-42

Vultus Christi

Friday of the Sorrowful Mother

Thursday, 10 April 2014 20:13

The Virgin of Sorrows is the Portress of the Holy Mysteries, the Keeper of the Door of Christ’s Pierced Heart, the Mother of our Joy. On the Friday of Passion Week, the Church keeps the Solemn Commemoration of the Sorrows and Compassion of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a Proper Mass.

The sequence of tomorrow’s Mass, the Stabat Mater, is a thirteenth century text, attributed to the Franciscan friar, Jacopone da Todi. The Stabat Mater is strong medicine for those who, being of a more abstract or cerebral disposition, would approach the Passion of Christ without getting bloodied, without being set ablaze, without feeling a melting in their breast.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Translated by Denis Florence MacCarthy (1817-1882)

Although I grew up with the beautiful Caswell translation of the Stabat Mater, my favourite English translation was done by the Irish author, poet, and translator Denis Florence MacCarthy. Three strophes are particularly noteworthy:

By the cross, on which suspended,
With his bleeding hands extended,
Hung that Son she so adored,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
She whose heart, its silence keeping,
Grief had cleft as with a sword.

Oh, that Mother’s sad affliction–
Mother of all benediction–
Of the sole-begotten One;
Oh, the grieving, sense-bereaving,
Of her heaving breast, perceiving
The dread sufferings of her Son.

What man is there so unfeeling,
Who, his heart to pity steeling,
Could behold that sight unmoved?
Could Christ’s Mother see there weeping,
See the pious Mother keeping
Vigil by the Son she loved?

For his people’s sins atoning,
She saw Jesus writhing, groaning,
‘Neath the scourge wherewith he bled;
Saw her loved one, her consoler,
Dying in his dreadful dolour,
Till at length his spirit fled.

O thou Mother of election,
Fountain of all pure affection,
Make thy grief, thy pain, my own;
Make my heart to God returning,
In the love of Jesus burning,
Feel the fire that thine has known.

Blessed Mother of prediction,
Stamp the marks of crucifixion
Deeply on my stony heart,
Ever leading where thy bleeding
Son is pleading for my needing,
Let me in his wounds take part.

Make me truly, each day newly
While life lasts, O Mother, duly
Weep with him, the Crucified.
Let me, ’tis my sole demanding,
Near the cross, where thou art standing,
Stand in sorrow at thy side.

Queen of virgins, best and dearest,
Grant, oh, grant the prayer thou hearest.
Let me ever mourn with me;
Let compassion me so fashion
That Christ’s wounds, his death and passion,
Be each day renewed in me.

Oh, those wounds, do not deny me;
On that cross, oh, crucify me;
Let me drink his blood, I pray:
Then on fire, enkindled, daring,
I may stand without despairing
On that dreadful judgment-day.

May that cross be my salvation;
Make Christ’s death my preservation;
May his grace my heart make wise;
And when death my body taketh,
May my soul when it awaketh
Ope in heaven its raptured eyes.

Regnum Christi

Actions Speak Louder than Words

| SPIRITUAL LIFE | SPIRITUALITY

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Father Alex Yeung, LC

John 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, ´I said, "You are gods"´? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ´I am the Son of God´? If I do not perform my Father´s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." And many there began to believe in him.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you are life and truth and goodness. You are also peace and mercy. How grateful I am to have this moment to turn to you. Without you I can do nothing good. In fact, when I do good, it is you working through me, despite my failings. Thank you, Lord. Here I am ready to love you more.

Petition: Lord, help me to put my faith into action.

1. The Works Give Testimony: In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us that our faith is based not only on what God has promised, but also on what he has done. Christ points to his works as the basis for faith in him as the Son: “Even if you do not believe me, believe the works….” The greatest of all these works is his resurrection from the dead, which we will commemorate a few days from now. Works are always more powerful than words. Words may convince the mind, but works move the will to action – to decision. Jesus still continues to do the works of the Father today, especially in the Eucharist and in sacramental confession, as well in the other sacraments. Do I see these works as they really are – true actions of Christ with the power to transform?

2. The World Needs the Testimony of Holy Lives: We can never underestimate the importance and the power of personal testimony in today’s world. We are inundated with information and external stimuli of all types. Words and images and slogans abound. Yet against this cacophonous backdrop, the works of true holiness speak louder than ever before. Pope Paul VI said it best: “Contemporary man needs testimony more than arguments.” In our personal case, do our works match our words? Do our works speak for themselves of what we profess? Or are we “all words and no works?”

3. Let Your Light Shine in the World so that They Might Believe: God’s word has a special ability to penetrate the human heart and conscience. We need to trust the transforming ability of Scripture. When that word is assimilated in the lives of believers, its power is multiplied even more. The tremendous and even virulent opposition Jesus meets at the hands of his adversaries cannot keep others from believing in him. This mystery is repeated over and over again in the life of the Church. Where there is the greatest opposition to the Gospel message, there are also the greatest conversions. “Where sin abounds, grace abounds more abundantly,” (Romans 5:20) to paraphrase Saint Paul. This proven truth should protect us from discouragement in our own efforts to evangelize.

Conversation with Christ:

I believe in you, Lord,

when I cast out my nets one and one hundred times,

and I draw them in wet, empty, almost broken.

I believe that you test your chosen ones,

because when the seed is sunk down into the earth

then it can better take root in God.

I want to abandon myself to you,

that you may place me near you,

as a seal on your heart.

Resolution: I will strive today to make my works match what I profess to believe.

One Bread, One Body

Language: English | Español

All Issues > Volume 30, Issue 3

<< Friday, April 11, 2014 >>

St. Stanislaus

Jeremiah 20:10-13
View Readings

Psalm 18:2-7

John 10:31-42
Similar Reflections

LOVE, SUFFERING, AND EVANGELIZATION

"Many came to believe in him." —John 10:42

The Lord will use you to lead many to believe in Him. However, before the Lord breaks through in the lives of those you are evangelizing, the evil one will usually try to intimidate you and pressure you to shut up. For instance, before the "many" in today's Gospel reading believed in Jesus, some attempted to execute Jesus by stoning Him (Jn 10:31). Before the three-thousand believers of the first Christian Pentecost reached thousands more, Peter and John and then all the apostles were thrown in jail. Also, before these thousands of believers reached hundreds of thousands with the gospel of Jesus, many of the first Christians were persecuted and martyred.

Today, as in all Christian history, the Lord gives us the power to bear much fruit. If we will only fall to the earth and die like grains of wheat, we will bear much fruit (Jn 12:24). No matter how limited we may be or how inadequate we may feel, we will lead many to believe in Jesus if we love people enough to bear our "share of the hardship which the gospel entails" (2 Tm 1:8) and continually "carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus" (2 Cor 4:10). Love, suffer, and bear fruit abundantly (see Jn 15:5).

Prayer: Father, "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Tertullian). Use my life and death as Your seed.

Promise: "He has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!" —Jer 20:13

Praise: St. Stanislaus advised preparing for spiritual battles with innocence of heart, integrity of faith, and dedication to virtue.

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Wednesday, April 11
Liturgical Color: Violet
Today is the Memorial of St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr. Stanislaus was the bishop of Krakow, Poland. Angry because Stanislaus excommunicated him, the king of Poland murdered the bishop in 1079 as he celebrated Mass.

Day 123 - How many sacraments are there? // Why do we need the sacraments? // Why is faith in Jesus Christ not enough?

Meditation: Jeremiah 20:10-13

Marriage=One Man and One Woman 'Til Death Do Us Part

One Bread, One Body

LOVE, SUFFERING, AND EVANGELIZATION