JULY 13 : FRIDAY OF THE FOURTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 387

Reading 1 Hos 14:2-10

Thus says the LORD:
Return, O Israel, to the LORD, your God;
you have collapsed through your guilt.
Take with you words,
and return to the LORD;
Say to him, "Forgive all iniquity,
and receive what is good, that we may render
as offerings the bullocks from our stalls.
Assyria will not save us,
nor shall we have horses to mount;
We shall say no more, 'Our god,'
to the work of our hands;
for in you the orphan finds compassion."
I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols?
I have humbled him, but I will prosper him.
"I am like a verdant cypress tree"--
because of me you bear fruit!

Let him who is wise understand these things;
let him who is prudent know them.
Straight are the paths of the LORD,
in them the just walk,
but sinners stumble in them.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 And 17

R. (17b) My mouth will declare your praise.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. My mouth will declare your praise.
Behold, you are pleased with sincerity of heart,
and in my inmost being you teach me wisdom.
Cleanse me of sin with hyssop, that I may be purified;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
R. My mouth will declare your praise.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. My mouth will declare your praise.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
R. My mouth will declare your praise.

Gospel Mt 10:16-23

Jesus said to his Apostles:
"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men,
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak
but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Brother will hand over brother to death,
and the father his child;
children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.
You will be hated by all because of my name,
but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to another.
Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel
before the Son of Man comes."

www.usccb.org

Meditation:  "I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”

What does Jesus mean when he says his disciples must be sheep in the midst of wolves? The prophet Isaiah foretold a time when wolves and lambs will dwell in peace (Isaiah 11:6 and 65:25). This certainly refers to the second coming of Christ when all will be united under the Lordship of Jesus after he has put down his enemies and established the reign of God over the heavens and the earth. In the meantime, the disciples must expect opposition and persecution from those who oppose the gospel. Jesus never hesitated to tell his disciples what they might expect if they followed him. Here Jesus says to his disciples: This is my task for you at its grimmest and worst; do you accept it? This is not the world's way of offering a job. After the defeat at Dunkirk, Churchill offered his country blood, toil, sweat, and tears. This is not the message we prefer to hear when the Lord Jesus commissions us in his service. Nonetheless, our privilege is to follow in the footsteps of the Master  who laid down his life for us. Are you willing to accept hardship and suffering in following after the Lord?
"Lord Jesus, help me to patiently and joyfully accept the hardships, adversities, and persecution which come my way in serving you. Strengthen my faith and give me courage that I may not shrink back from doing your will”.

www.dailyscripture.net

Divisions in the Family

Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Father Edward McIlmail, LC Listen to podcast version here.   Matthew 10:16-23 Jesus said to his Apostles: "Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes." Introductory Prayer: Lord, you are the one constant in my life. You are my beginning and my end. I love you as my savior. I trust you as my closest companion. I hope in you as the one who will welcome me into eternal joy. Petition: Grant me, Lord, a deeper union with you as the only one who will never fail me. 1. Trust, But Not Too Much: A key paradox of Jesus was that he loved us so much that he underwent the horrors of crucifixion to redeem us and give us a chance at salvation. Yet, he also knows our weaknesses. He knows how fickle the human heart can be. "Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well" (John 2:24-25). Likewise, Christ warns us not to put too much faith in other people. Like us, everyone else has weaknesses. Our faith in them should be relative and realistic. It shouldn´t be on the same level as our faith in Christ. Do I put "too much" faith in others? Do I realize that expecting too much from them leaves me open to needless anguish? 2. Betrayal for Siblings: Christ is the rock against which the waves of humanity crash. His demands cut to the heart of each of us, and require a personal response. How each person responds is a mystery. Some will say yes, some will say no. The division within each person can echo in divisions within families. Little wonder that kin can be our fiercest foes. Christ´s own show of steadfastness assures us that he remains more loyal than even family members. Can I accept that following Christ can cause friction with my loved ones? Can I offer up my trials for their salvation? 3. Love Without Sacrifice: Christ never promised his followers an easy life. If he had, there would be no shortage of disciples. He knows what really makes us mature in love: sacrifice. Sacrifice purifies us, ennobles us. Love without sacrifice is a fairy tale. To love means to share in another´s pain. "When men and women demand to be autonomous and totally self-sufficient," said Pope Benedict XVI in a speech February 9, 2008, "they run the risk of being closed in a self-reliance that … reduces them to an oppressive solitude." Similarly, if we close ourselves to God´s pleasure, we stay stuck in our littleness. Can I accept suffering for Christ as a way to break out of the cocoon of my comfort? Conversation with Christ: Jesus, it´s not easy being your follower. Opposition can arise on all sides, even from within the family. Help me bear all this well, for love of you. Grant me the serenity to persevere in the faith. I offer my sacrifices for the salvation of those who oppose my following you. Resolution: I will pray or make a sacrifice for a family member who is away from the faith.

www.regnumchristi.com

 My mouth will declare your praise

‘I am sending you out like sheep among the wolves.’
Jesus made it quite clear that following him was not going to be easy: ‘You will be universally hated on account of my name.’ The disciples must have noticed how Jesus was treated by the scribes and teachers of their community. These so-called leaders weren’t moved by his words or actions, as the crowds who followed him were. Instead they reviled and criticised him and plotted to kill him.

Jesus promised the disciples that the Spirit would be with them forever and if they stood firm they would be saved. This is what he tells us as he sends us out each day. He asks us to reach out to the lost sheep in our lives and communities and to offer healing, peace and love. Let us give thanks and be glad that we hear it today!

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

GOD'S TODAY

Don't let yourself be torn

between yesterday

and tomorrow.

Live always and only

God's today.

Accept surprises

that upset your plans,

shatter your dreams,

give a completely

different turn

to your day

and - who knows?

to your life.

It is not chance,

Leave the Father free

Himself to weave

The pattern of your days.

- Dam Helder Camara, A Thousand Reasons fOr Living, DLT, London, 1984

 

From A Canopy of Stars: Some Reflections for the Journey by Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ [David Lovell Publishing 2003]

www.churchresources.info

MINUTE MEDITATIONS 

Visible Sign
If we are to be a sacrament—a visible sign—of reconciliation, we must actively pursue those works of justice and mercy that will make this reconciliation possible.
— from Catholic Update Guide to Vocations

July 13
St. Henry
(972-1024)

As German king and Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was a practical man of affairs. He was energetic in consolidating his rule. He crushed rebellions and feuds. On all sides he had to deal with drawn-out disputes so as to protect his frontiers. This involved him in a number of battles, especially in the south in Italy; he also helped Pope Benedict VIII quell disturbances in Rome. Always his ultimate purpose was to establish a stable peace in Europe.

According to eleventh-century custom, Henry took advantage of his position and appointed as bishops men loyal to him. In his case, however, he avoided the pitfalls of this practice and actually fostered the reform of ecclesiastical and monastic life.

Henry II crowned Holy Roman Emperor.

Comment:

All in all, this saint was a man of his times. From our standpoint, he may have been too quick to do battle and too ready to use power to accomplish reforms. But, granted such limitations, he shows that holiness is possible in a busy secular life. It is in doing our job that we become saints.

Emperor Henry II and Empress Cunigunde tomb by Tilman Riemenschneider.
(at Bamberg Cathedral, Germany)

Quote:

“We deem it opportune to remind our children of their duty to take an active part in public life and to contribute toward the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own political community. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of their Christian faith and led by love, to insure that the various institutions—whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose—should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous man’s perfecting of himself in both the natural order and the supernatural.... Every believer in this world of ours must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying leaven amidst his fellow men. And he will be this all the more perfectly, the more closely he lives in communion with God in the intimacy of his own soul” (Blessed Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth, 146, 164).

Bamberg Cathedral, Bamberg, Germany.

www.americancatholic.org

ST. TERESA OF JESUS 'DE LOS ANDES' (OCD), VIRGIN (M)

·                               

Liturgy: 

 Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Juana Fernandez Solar was born on 13th July 1900 at Santiago in Chile, to Christian middle-class parents. Two days after her birth, she was baptized. The example and the teaching of her parents were the foundation of her Christian education. She was confirmed on 22th October 1909 and made her First Communion on 11th September 1910.

On 7th May 1919, to the joy of her parents, she joined the Discalced Carmelite nuns in the city of Los Andes, taking the name of Teresa of Jesus. She was clothed in the habit on the following 14th October and then began her novitiate. But on Good Friday, 2nd April 1920 she caught typhus. On 5th April, she received the last sacraments and on the 6th, she made her religious profession, in articulo mortis. She died on 12th April 1920 after having spent only 11 months in Carmel, as a postulant and a novice. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21st March 1993 and proposed as an example for young people in today's Church.  

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TERESA DE JESÚS "DE LOS ANDES" (1900-1920) 
VIRGIN, DISCALCED CARMELITE NUNS 

The young woman who is today glorified by the Church with the title of Saint, is a prophet of God for the men and women of today. By the example of her life, TERESA OF JESUS OF LOS ANDES shows us Christ's Gospel lived down to the last detail.

She is irrefutable proof that Christ's call to be Saints is indeed real, it happens in our time, and can be answered. She is presented to us to demonstrate that the total dedication that following Christ involves, is the one and only thing that is worth this effort and that gives us true happiness.

Teresa of Los Andes with the language of her ardent life, confirms for us that God exists, that God is love and happiness, and that he is our fulfilment.

She was born in Santiago de Chile on 13 July 1900. At the font she was christened Juana Enriqueta Josefina of the Sacred Hearts Fernandez Solar. Those who knew her closely called her Juanita, the name by which she is widely known today.

She had a normal upbringing surrounded by her family: her parents Miguel Fernandez and Lucia Solar, three brothers and two sisters, her maternal grandfather, uncles, aunts and cousins.

Her family were well-off and were faithful to their Christian faith, living it with faith and constancy.

Juana was educated in the college of the French nuns of the Sacred Heart. Her brief but intense life unfolded within her family and at college. When she was fourteen, under God's inspiration, she decided to consecrate herself to him as a religious in the Discalced Carmelite Nuns.

This desire of hers was realized on 7 May 1919, when she entered the tiny monastery of the Holy Spirit in the township of Los Andes, some 90 kilometers from Santiago.

She was clothed with the Carmelite habit 14 October the same year and began her novitiate with the name of Teresa of Jesus. She knew a long time before that she would die young. Moreover the Lord revealed this to her. A month before she was to depart this life, she related this to her confessor.

She accepted all this with happiness, serenity and confidence. She was certain that her mission to make God known and loved would continue in eternity.

After many interior trials and indescribable physical suffering caused by a violent attack of typhus that cut short her life, she passed from this world to her heavenly Father on the evening of 12 April 1920. She received the last sacraments with the utmost fervour, and on 7 April, because of danger of death, she made her religious profession. She was three months short of her 20th birthday, and had yet 6 months to complete her canonical novitiate and to be legally able to make her religious profession. She died as a Discalced Carmelite novice.

Externally this is all there is to this young girl from Santiago de Chile. It is all rather disconcerting and a great question arises in us, "What was accomplished?" The answer to such a question is equally disconcerting: living, believing, loving.

When the disciples asked Jesus what they must do to carry out God's work, he replied, "This is carrying out God's work: you must believe in the one he has sent." (Jn 6, 28-29). For this reason, in order to recognize the value of Juanita's fife, it is necessary to examine the substance within, where the Kingdom of God is to be found.

She wakened to the life of grace while still quite young. She affirms that God drew her at the age of six to begin to spare no effort in directing her capacity to love totally towards him. "It was shortly after the 1906 earthquake that Jesus began to claim my heart for himself." (Diary n. 3, p. 26).

Juanita possessed an enormous capacity to love and to be loved joined with an extraordinary intelligence. God allowed her to experience his presence. With this knowledge he purified her and made her his own through what it entails to take up the cross. Knowing him, she loved him; and loving him, she bound herself totally to him.

Once this child understood that love demonstrates itself in deeds rather than words, the result was that she expressed her love through every action of her life. She examined herself sincerely and wisely and understood that in order to belong to God it was necessary to die to herself in all that did not belong to him.

Her natural inclinations were completely contrary to the demands of the Gospel. She was proud, self-centred, stubborn, with all the defects that these things suppose, as is the common lot. But where she differed from the general run, was to carry out continual warfare on every impulse that did not arise from love.

At the age of ten she became a new person. What lay immediately behind this was the fact that she was going to make her first Communion. Understanding that nobody less that God was going to dwell within her, she set about acquiring all the virtues that would make her less unworthy of this grace. In the shortest possible time she managed to transform her character completely.

In making her first Communion she received from God the mystical grace of interior locutions, which from then on supported her throughout her fife. God took over her natural inclinations, transforming them from that day into friendship and a fife of prayer.

Four years later she received an interior revelation that shaped the direction of her life. Jesus told her that she would be a Carmelite and that holiness must be her goal.

With God's abundant grace and the generosity of a young girl in love, she gave herself over to prayer, to the acquiring of virtue and the practice of a life in accord with the Gospel. Such were her efforts that in a few short years she reached a high degree of union with God.

Christ was the one and only ideal she had. She was in love with him and ready each moment to crucify herself for him. A bridal love pervaded her with the result that she desired to unite herself fully to him who had captivated her. As a result, at the age of fifteen she made a vow of virginity for 9 days, continually renewing it from then on.

The holiness of her life shone out in the everyday occurrences, wherever she found herself: at home, in college, with friends, the people she stayed with on holidays. To all, with apostolic zeal, she spoke of God and gave assistance. She was young like her friends, but they knew she was different. They took her as a model, seeking her support and advice. All the pains that are part of living, Juanita felt keenly, and the happiness she enjoyed deeply, all in God.

She was cheerful, happy, sympathetic, attractive, communicative and involved in sport. During her adolescence she reached perfect psychic and spiritual equilibrium. These were the fruit of her asceticism and prayer. The serenity of her face was a reflection of the divine guest within. Her life as a nun, from 7 May 1919, was the last rung on the ladder to holiness. Only eleven months were necessary to bring to an end the process of making her life totally Christ-like.

Her community was quick to discover the hand of God in her past life. The young novice found in the Carmelite way of life the full and efficient channel for spreading the torrent of life that she wanted to give to the Church of Christ. It was a way of life that, in her own way, she had lived amongst her own and for which she was born. The Order of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel fulfilled the desires of Juanita. It was proof to her that God's mother, whom she had loved from infancy, had drawn her to be part of it.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Santiago de Chile on 3 April 1987. Her remains are venerated in the Sanctuary of Auco-Rinconada of Los Andes by the thousands of pilgrims who seek in her and find guidance, light and a direct way to God.

SAINT TERESA OF JESUS OF LOS ANDES is the first Chilean to be declared a Saint. She is the first Discalced Carmelite Nun to become a Saint outside the boundaries of Europe and the fourth Saint Teresa in Carmel together with Saints Teresa of Avila, of Florence and of Lisieux.

(from Vatican News)

BLS. LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN, PARENTS OF THERESE OF LISIEUX (M)

Liturgy: 

 Friday, July 13, 2012

Louis Martin (1823-1894) and Zelie Guerin (Martin) (1831-1877) were beatified on Mission Sunday October 19, 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI. Louis was born into a military family and spent his early years at various French military posts. At the age of twenty-two he sought to enter religious life at an Augustinian monastery. He had difficulty learning the required Latin and eventually left the monastery. He eventually settled down in Alencon France and became a successful watchmaker.

Zelie Guerin (1831-18977), also born into a military family, and as a young lady also sought to enter religious life, but soon abandoned her hopes and learned the lace-making techniques. She started her own successful lace-making business.

Louis and Zelie met in Alencon and were married on July 13th, 1858. During the next fifteen years, they had nine children; seven girls and two boys. Within a three year period, the two baby boys, and two daughters aged five years and six-and-a-half weeks all died. Their last child was born on January 2nd, 1873 and named her Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin. A century later, people would know her as St. Therese of Lisieux and call her the ‘Little Flower’.

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BEATIFICATION OF LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN, THE PARENTS OF ST. THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS

Martin family.

  

On October 19, 2008, World Mission Sunday, Louis Martin and Marie Zelie Guerin, the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, were declared blessed in Lisieux, France, by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, retired prefect of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints. It was only the second time in history that a married couple has been beatified. (The first couple being Luigi and Maria Quattrocchi of Italy, in 2001.) Here are excerpts from their biography, read during the ceremony by Father Antonio of the Mother of God, O.C.D., Vice Postulator:


Louis Martin was born in Bordeaux on August 22, 1823. At the end of his studies in Alençon, he didn’t turn toward a military career like his father, but chose the profession of watchmaker. A man of faith and of prayer, for a time Louis wished to enter the priesthood. In 1845, he went to the Swiss Alps to enter a Carthusian monastery, where his first task was to learn Latin. He tried to learn it but in the end gave up. Having finished his watchmaking studies in Rennes and Strasbourg, he returned to Alençon, where he dedicated himself to his work as a watchmaker-jeweler with diligence and honesty.

Zelie Guerin was born at Gandelain, near Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, on December 23, 1831. When her father retired in 1844, the family moved to Alençon. Zelie studied under the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She received training that made her a very skillful lacemaker. She made the famous Point d’Alençon, and she was in charge of sales for her own lacemaking business. Like her sister Marie-Louise, now a religious at the Visitation convent in Le Mans, Zelie wanted to consecrate herself to the Lord. After a discussion with the Superior of the Daughters of Charity at the Alençon hospital, she understood that it was not the will of God.

A providential meeting united these two young people thirsty for the Absolute. One day, as Zelie crossed the Saint-Leonard Bridge, she passed a young man with a noble face, a reserved air, and a demeanor filled with an impressive dignity. At that very moment, an interior voice whispers in secret, "This is he whom I have prepared for you." The identity of the passer-by was soon revealed. She came to know Louis Martin.

The two young people quickly came to appreciate and love each other. Their spiritual harmony established itself so quickly that a religious engagement sealed their mutual commitment without delay. They did not see their marriage as a normal arrangement between two middle-class families of Alençon, but as a total opening to the will of God.

From the beginning, the betrothed couple place their love under the protection of God, who, in their union, would always be "the first served." Their marriage was celebrated at midnight on July 13th, 1858 in the parish of Notre-Dame d’Alençon.

Louis and his spouse decide at the beginning of their marriage to maintain perfect chastity. Shortly thereafter, they welcome into their home a five-year-old boy whose widowed father was crushed by the burden of raising eleven children. However, Divine Wisdom, which leads all with "strength and gentleness," has other views for this couple, and at the end of ten months, on the advice of a priest friend, they change their minds. They now desire to have many children in order to raise them and offer them to the Lord.

The union of Louis and Zelie is blessed by the birth of nine children. The work of both spouses obtains for them a certain wealth, but their family life is not without trials. In this time of high infant mortality, they lose four children at an early age, at a time when they want to have a son to become a priest. But neither the bereavement nor the trials weaken their confidence in the goodness of God’s plans, and they abandon themselves with love to His Will. (The surviving children, five girls, will all become nuns, four of them in the carmelite monastery.)

The education of the children is at the same time joyful, tender, and demanding. Very early, Zelie teaches them the morning offering of their hearts to the good God, the simple acceptance of daily difficulties "to please Jesus." An indelible mark that is the basis of the little way taught by the most celebrated of their children: Therese. One cannot conceive of the growth in holiness of Therese and the religious vocations of her sisters independent of the spiritual life of Mr. and Mrs. Martin, at the heart of their vocation to family life.

Towards the end of 1876, an old growth in Mrs. Martin’s breast returns. Discovered too late, the cancer is inoperable. At half past midnight on August 28, 1877, she dies in Alençon. Louis is left with five children: Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine, and Therese, who is four and a half years old.

Louis consults with his elder daughters, and decides to move to Lisieux to live close to the family of his brother-in-law, Isidore Guerin, and thus to ensure a better future for his children. Life at the Buissonnets, the new house in Lisieux, is more austere and withdrawn than at Alençon. But the most admirable work of this father, an exemplary educator, is the offering to God of all his daughters and then of himself. In his unshakable submission to the will of God, like Abraham, he places no obstacle to these vocations and considers the offering of his children to the Lord as a very special grace granted to his family.

Shortly after the entry of Therese into the Carmel of Lisieux, during a visit to the parlor of the monastery, Louis tells his daughters that at the Church of Notre-Dame of Alençon (May 1888), as he was reconsidering his life, he had said: "My God, I am too happy. It’s not possible to go to Heaven like that. I want to suffer something for you." "And," said he, "I offered myself." Louis doesn’t dare pronounce the word "victim," but his daughters understand this. This confidence really strikes Therese, who, several years later, offered herself as a victim to the Merciful Love of God (June 9, 1895).

The last years of the life of Mr. Martin, "the patriarch", as he is affectionately called by those close to him, are marked by several health problems. He knows the humiliation of illness: a cerebral arteriosclerosis with a long hospitalization at the Bon Sauveur in Caen in 1889, where he filled those around him with admiration and respect. Returning to Lisieux in May 1892, from then on paralyzed and almost unable to speak, he dies peacefully on Sunday, July 29, 1894.

On March 26, 1994, the Servant of God, John Paul II, declares the individual heroic virtues of the Martin couple. In 2008, the Medical Commission of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared inexplicable by science and general knowledge the healing of the young Pietro Schiliro, of Monza, Italy. Born on May 25, 2002, Pietro suffered from a serious condition following the inhalation of meconium, which led to serious pulmonary complications. The unexpected healing came about on June 29, 2002, after a novena of prayers to the Venerable Servants of God Louis and Zelie Martin. On July 3, Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle of Pietro’s healing, accomplished by God through the intercession of the Venerable Servants of God, Louis and Zelie, "incomparable" parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, and he set October 19, 2008, as the date of their beatification, and July 12 as their feast day on the liturgical calendar.

In his homily, Cardinal Saraiva Martin, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said that in a time of crisis for the family, the family has in the Martin couple a true model. He also offered them as a model for people who face illness and death, as Zelie died of cancer, leaving Louis to live on through the trial of cerebral arteriosclerosis. He said that they teach us to face death, abandoning ourselves to God. Here are excerpts from his homily:

Therese wrote in a letter to Father Belliere, and that many people now know by heart: "God gave me a father and a mother who were more worthy of heaven than of earth". This beatification of Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin, whom Therese defined as "parents without equal, worthy of heaven, holy ground permeated with the perfume of purity" is very important in the Church.

My heart is full of gratitude to God for this exemplary witness of conjugal love, which is bound to stimulate Christian couples in practicing virtue just as it stimulated the desire for holiness in Therese. While reading the Apostolic Letter of the Holy Father, I thought of my father and mother, and now I invite you to think of your parents that together we may thank God for having created and made us Christians through the conjugal love of our parents. The gift of life is a marvelous thing, but even more wonderful for us is that our parents led us to the Church which alone is capable of making us Christians. For no one becomes a Christian by oneself.

Among the vocations to which individuals are called by Providence, marriage is one of the highest and most noble. Louis and Zelie understood that they could become holy not in spite of marriage, but through, in, and by marriage, and that their becoming a couple was the beginning of an ascent together. Today the Church celebrates not only the holiness of these children of Normandy, a gift to us all, but admires, as well, in the Blessed couple that which renders more splendid and beautiful the wedding robe of the Church. The conjugal love of Louis and Zelie is a pure reflection of Christ’s love for his Church, but it is also a pure reflection of the "resplendent love without stain or wrinkle, but holy and immaculate" (Ep 5, 27) as the Church loves its Spouse, Christ.

LECTIO: MATTHEW 10,16-23

Lectio: 

 Friday, July 13, 2012

Ordinary Time
 
1) Opening prayer
Father,
through the obedience of Jesus,
your servant and your Son,
you raised a fallen world.
Free us from sin
and bring us the joy that lasts for ever.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2) Gospel Reading - Matthew 10,16-23
Jesus said to his disciples: “Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as snakes and yet innocent as doves. 'Be prepared for people to hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence to them and to the gentiles. But when you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.
'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will come forward against their parents and have them put to death. You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you in that, take refuge in another. In truth I tell you, you will not have gone the round of the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes.

3) Reflection
• To the community of his disciples, called and gathered together around him and invested with his same authority as collaborators, Jesus entrusts them directives in view of their future mission. 
• Matthew 10, 16-19: Danger and trust in God. Jesus introduces this part of his discourse with two metaphors: sheep in the midst of wolves; prudent as serpents, simple as the doves. The first one serves to show the difficult and dangerous context to which the disciples are sent. On the one hand, the dangerous situation is made evident in which the disciples sent on mission will find themselves; on the other the expression “I send you” expresses protection. Also regarding the astuteness of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove Jesus seems to put together two attitudes: trust in God and prolonged and attentive reflection on the way in which we should relate with others. 
Jesus, then, following this gives an order that seems, at first sight, filled with mistrust: «beware of men...”, but, in reality, it means to be attentive to possible persecutions, hostility, and denouncement. The expression “will deliver you” does not only refer to the accusation in the tribunal but, above all, it has a theological value: the disciples who is following Jesus can experience the same experience of the Master of “being delivered in the hands of man” (17, 22). The disciples must be strong and resist in order “to give witness”, The fact of being delivered to the tribunal should become a witness for the Jews and for the Pagans, it is the possibility to be able to draw them to the person and the cause of Jesus and, therefore, to the knowledge of the Gospel. This positive implication is important as a result of witnessing: characterized by the credible and fascinating faith. 
• Matthew 10, 20: the divine help. So that all this may take place in the mission-witness of the disciples it is essential to have the help that comes from God. That is to say that we should not trust our own security and resources, but the disciples in critical, dangerous and aggressive situations, for their lives found help and solidarity in God. For their mission as disciples is also promised the Spirit of the Father (v.20), he is the one who acts in them when they are committed in their mission of evangelization and of witnessing, the Spirit will speak through them. 
• Matthew 10, 21-22: Threat-consolation. Once again the announcement of threat is repeated in the expression “will be delivered”: Brother will betray brother, a father against his son, the sons against the parents. It is a question of a true and great disorder in the social relationships, the breaking up of the family. Persons who are bound by the most intimate family relationships – such as parents, children, brothers and sisters – will fall in the misfortune of mutually hating and eliminating one another. In what sense does such a division of the family have to do with the witness in behalf of Jesus? Such breaking up of the family relationships could be caused by the diverse attitudes that are taken within the family, regarding Jesus. The expression “you will be hated” seems to indicate the theme of the hostile acceptance on the part of the contemporaries and of those he sent. The strong sense of the words of Jesus find a comparison in another part of the New Testament: «Blessed are you if you are insulted for the sake of Christ’s name, because the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests upon you. No one of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or evil doer or as a spy. But if one suffers as a Christian, do not blush, because of this name, rather give glory to God”. After the threat, follows the promise of consolation (v.3). The greatest consolation for the disciples will be that of “being saved”, of being able to live the experience of the Saviour, that is to say, to participate in his victories.

4) Personal questions
• What do these dispositions of Jesus teach us today for understanding the mission of the Christian? 
• Do you know how to trust on divine help when you experience conflicts, persecutions and trials?

5) Concluding Prayer
Give me back the joy of your salvation, 
sustain in me a generous spirit.
Lord, open my lips, 
and my mouth will speak out your praise. (Ps 51,12.15)

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