Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the
Church
Lectionary: 468
Lectionary: 468
Brothers and
sisters:
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
for Jew first, and then Greek.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;
as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”
The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven
against every impiety and wickedness
of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
For what can be known about God is evident to them,
because God made it evident to them.
Ever since the creation of the world,
his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity
have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.
As a result, they have no excuse;
for although they knew God
they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks.
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen.
I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes:
for Jew first, and then Greek.
For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith;
as it is written, “The one who is righteous by faith will live.”
The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven
against every impiety and wickedness
of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
For what can be known about God is evident to them,
because God made it evident to them.
Ever since the creation of the world,
his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity
have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.
As a result, they have no excuse;
for although they knew God
they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks.
Instead, they became vain in their reasoning,
and their senseless minds were darkened.
While claiming to be wise, they became fools
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God
for the likeness of an image of mortal man
or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.
Therefore, God handed them over to impurity
through the lusts of their hearts
for the mutual degradation of their bodies.
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie
and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen.
Responsorial PsalmPS 19:2-3, 4-5
R. (2a) The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
GospelLK 11:37-41
After Jesus had
spoken,
a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.
He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see
that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you.”
a Pharisee invited him to dine at his home.
He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see
that he did not observe the prescribed washing before the meal.
The Lord said to him, “Oh you Pharisees!
Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish,
inside you are filled with plunder and evil.
You fools!
Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside?
But as to what is within, give alms,
and behold, everything will be clean for you.”
Meditation: "Give alms from what you have within"
Is the
Lord welcomed at your table and are you ready to feast at his table? A
Pharisee, after hearing Jesus preach, invited him to dinner, no doubt, because
he wanted to hear more from this extraordinary man who spoke the word of God as
no one else had done before. It was not unusual for a rabbi to give a teaching
over dinner. Jesus, however, did something which offended his host. He did not
perform the ceremonial washing of hands before beginning the meal. Did Jesus
forget or was he deliberately performing a sign to reveal something to his
host? Jesus turned the table on his host by chiding him for uncleanness of
heart. Which is more important to God – clean hands or a clean mind and heart?
Jesus chided the Pharisees for harboring evil thoughts that make us unclean spiritually
– such as greed, pride, bitterness, envy, arrogance, and the like. Why does he
urge them, and us, to give alms? When we give freely and generously to those in
need we express love, compassion, kindness, and mercy. And if the heart is full
of love and compassion, then there is no room for envy, greed, bitterness, and
the like. Do you allow God's love to transform your heart, mind, and actions
toward your neighbor?
"Lord
Jesus, fill me with your love and increase my thirst for holiness. Cleanse my
heart of every evil thought and desire and help me to act kindly and justly and
to speak charitably with my neighbor."
 Laws That Bind or Free |
|
Memorial of Saint
Teresa of Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church
|
|
Father Daniel Ray,
LC
Luke 11: 37-41
After Jesus had spoken, a Pharisee invited
him to dine at his home. He entered and reclined at table to eat. The
Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing
before the meal. The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees! Although you
cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with
plunder and evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the
inside? But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be
clean for you."
Introductory Prayer: Lord, I believe that you are present here as
I turn to you in prayer. I trust and have confidence in your desire to give
me every grace I need to receive today. Thank you for your love, thank you
for your immense generosity toward me. I give you my life and my love in
return.
Petition: Lord, grant me this grace of conversion.
1. Law for the Law’s Sake: The Mosaic Law was intended to
free them for worship, delivering them from slavery to pagan gods and
from slavery to sin. When the Law (and the added customs and regulations)
became an end in itself, it was truncated and severed from the One to whom it
was meant to lead. Today in the Catholic Church there are enough laws,
customs and regulations to make even the most rigorous Pharisee proud. The
danger is that we can fall into one of two traps. First, we can adhere to
them with such vigor that we lose sight of the One they are freeing us to
worship. We don’t allow our hearts and minds to be educated and formed by
them, we just follow them blindly. We wind up cleaning the outside of the cup
and stopping there, without going on to see God’s love and let it purify our
hearts.
2. The Second Trap: The second trap we can fall into is at the
other extreme: to give ourselves an easy pass by presuming that “if my heart
is in the right place, I don’t need to worry about all these rules and such.”
With a lax attitude we permit ourselves to ease up on fulfilling these laws
which in truth will free us. “I know today is Sunday and I should go to Mass,
but it’s vacation! God knows I’m a good person.” Yet it is in the Sunday Mass
that we receive the many graces necessary toward our being that “good
person”. The commandment to keep the Sabbath holy, as with any of the Ten
Commandments and customs of the Church, is there to lead us to God. These
free us from our often confused subjective conclusions about how we should
worship God and live our lives.
3. Cleaning the Cup: “Charity covers a multitude of sin” (1 Peter
4:8). The law of love is the most important of all the commandments of the
Lord. In Chapter 12 of the Gospel of Mark, Christ responds to a scribe’s
question about the first of all the commandments: “The first is this: ‘Hear,
O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all
your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Love of God and
neighbor is both the source and the summit of the Law of the Old Covenant and
of the New. Living these two greatest commandments purifies and cleanses our
hearts—the inside of the cup. So when Christ says to give alms, he is telling
the Pharisees to love their neighbors. Then their hearts will be clean.
Conversation with Christ: Lord, I want my heart always to be focused
on you. I need your guidance, for I can’t do it alone. I need you to teach me
how to love you, how to worship and serve you. The laws you give me free me
and guide me toward you. Help me to see your hand leading me ever closer to
you.
Resolution: If there is a rule or custom of the Church
that I don’t understand or don’t practice, I will read up on it to come to
understand better how it frees me and guides me in my relationship with
Christ.
|
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, LUKE 11:37-41
(Romans 1:16-25; Psalm 19)
(Romans 1:16-25; Psalm 19)
KEY VERSE: "Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil" (v 39).
READING: When Jesus was invited to dine at the home of a Pharisee, he was criticized by his host for failing to wash his hands before eating. This was not a matter of cleanliness but of the Pharisaic practice which prescribed that hands must be washed before a meal in a certain way to avoid ritual impurity. Jesus' reply was a full-scale condemnation of the legalistic religious attitude of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were scrupulous about the smallest details of ritual cleanliness, whereas Jesus was more concerned with moral purity than with outward observance of rituals. He made the comparison of tableware that had been washed clean on the outside but remained filthy inside. These religious leaders were contaminating the people with their emphasis on externals while ignoring the essence of the law of Moses, which was charity and justice.
REFLECTING: Do I serve the Lord out of devotion or obligation?
PRAYING: Lord Jesus, cleanse me from all my unknown offenses.
Memorial of Teresa of Jesus, virgin and doctor
of the Church
Saint Teresa of Ávila, also called Saint Teresa of Jesus,
was the daughter of a Spanish noble. Crippled by disease in her youth, she was
cured after prayer to St. Joseph. She entered a Carmelite house at 17, and soon
after taking her vows she became gravely ill, and never fully recovered her
health. She began receiving visions, and was examined by Dominicans and
Jesuits, including St. Francis Borgia, who pronounced the visions to be holy
and true. She determined to found a new convent that went back to the basics of
a contemplative order: a simple life of poverty devoted to prayer. She is the
founder of the Discalced Carmelites. She founded several other houses, often
against fierce opposition from local authorities. Teresa also set up two houses
for men who wished to adopt the reforms. John of the Cross and Anthony of Jesus
helped with this. She died in 1582. In 1970 she was declared a Doctor of the
Church by Pope Paul VI for her writing and teaching on prayer, along with Saint
Catherine of Siena, making them the first women to be awarded the distinction.
Her books include her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, The Interior
Castle, as well as her other important work The Way of
Perfection."Let
nothing trouble you, let nothing make you afraid. All things pass away. God
never changes. Patience obtains everything. God alone is enough." St. Teresa of Ávila," (Nada te turbe)
The heavens proclaim the glory of
God.
The one who is righteous by faith will live.We all wear masks at different times in order to be accepted, to cover up hurt, to hide our problems - to appear different from who we are. The Pharisees were particularly good at doing this. Jesus denounced them continually for attempting to make the outside look good while the inside was filthy. Today is a good time to examine our own motives for doing things. What are the reasons behind our serving others? Do we believe we are chalking up points with God by our ‘doing’? Let us pray the verses from Psalm 139: ‘Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns. See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.’ God does listen and God will reveal to us what is in the depths of our hearts.
www.churchresources.info
October 15
St. Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582)
Teresa lived in an age of exploration as well as political, social
and religious upheaval. It was the 16th century, a time of turmoil and reform.
She was born before the Protestant Reformation and died almost 20 years
after the closing of the Council of Trent.
The gift
of God to Teresa in and through which she became holy and left her mark on the
Church and the world is threefold: She was a woman; she was a contemplative;
she was an active reformer.
As a
woman, Teresa stood on her own two feet, even in the man's world of her time.
She was "her own woman," entering the Carmelites despite strong
opposition from her father. She is a person wrapped not so much in silence as
in mystery. Beautiful, talented, outgoing, adaptable, affectionate, courageous,
enthusiastic, she was totally human. Like Jesus, she was a mystery of
paradoxes: wise, yet practical; intelligent, yet much in tune with her
experience; a mystic, yet an energetic reformer. A holy woman, a womanly woman.
Teresa
was a woman "for God," a woman of prayer, discipline and compassion.
Her heart belonged to God. Her ongoing conversion was an arduous lifelong
struggle, involving ongoing purification and suffering. She was misunderstood,
misjudged, opposed in her efforts at reform. Yet she struggled on, courageous
and faithful; she struggled with her own mediocrity, her illness, her
opposition. And in the midst of all this she clung to God in life and in
prayer. Her writings on prayer and contemplation are drawn from her experience:
powerful, practical and graceful. A woman of prayer; a woman for God.
Teresa
was a woman "for others." Though a contemplative, she spent much of
her time and energy seeking to reform herself and the Carmelites, to lead them
back to the full observance of the primitive Rule. She founded over a
half-dozen new monasteries. She traveled, wrote, fought—always to renew, to
reform. In her self, in her prayer, in her life, in her efforts to reform, in
all the people she touched, she was a woman for others, a woman who inspired
and gave life.
Her
writings, especially the Way of Perfection and The
Interior Castle, have helped generations of believers.
In 1970,
the Church gave her the title she had long held in the popular mind: doctor of
the Church. She and St. Catherine of Siena (April 29)were the first women so
honored.
Comment:
Ours is a time of turmoil, a time of reform and a time of liberation. Modern women have in Teresa a challenging example. Promoters of renewal, promoters of prayer, all have in Teresa a woman to reckon with, one whom they can admire and imitate.
Ours is a time of turmoil, a time of reform and a time of liberation. Modern women have in Teresa a challenging example. Promoters of renewal, promoters of prayer, all have in Teresa a woman to reckon with, one whom they can admire and imitate.
Quote:
Teresa knew well the continued presence and value of suffering (physical illness, opposition to reform, difficulties in prayer), but she grew to be able to embrace suffering, even desire it: "Lord, either to suffer or to die." Toward the end of her life she exclaimed: "Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value."
Teresa knew well the continued presence and value of suffering (physical illness, opposition to reform, difficulties in prayer), but she grew to be able to embrace suffering, even desire it: "Lord, either to suffer or to die." Toward the end of her life she exclaimed: "Oh, my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value."
Patron Saint of:
Headaches
www.americancatholic.orgHeadaches
LECTIO: LUKE
11,37-41
Lectio:
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Ordinary Time
1) Opening prayer
Lord,
our help and guide,
make your love the foundation of our lives.
May our love for you express itself
in our eagerness to do good for others.
You live and reign with the Father and the
Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2) Gospel Reading - Luke 11,37-41
Jesus had just finished speaking when a
Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at table.
The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the
meal. But the Lord said to him, 'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup
and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and
wickedness. Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?
Instead, give alms from what you have and, look, everything will be clean for
you.
3) Reflection
• In today’s Gospel there is the continuation
of the tense relationship between Jesus and the religious authority of his
time. But in spite of the tension there was a certain familiarity between Jesus
and the Pharisees. Invited to eat at their house, Jesus accepts the invitation.
He does not lose his freedom before them; neither do the Pharisees before him.
• Luke 11, 37-38: The admiration of the
Pharisees before the liberty of Jesus. “At that time after Jesus had finished
speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down
at table. The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed
before the meal”. Jesus accepts the invitation to eat at the house of the
Pharisee, but he does not change his way of acting, sitting at table without
washing his hands. Neither does the Pharisee change his attitude before Jesus,
because he expresses his admiration for the fact that Jesus did not wash his
hands. At that time, to wash the hands before eating was a religious
obligation, imposed upon people in the name of purity, ordered by the law of
God. The Pharisee was surprised by the fact that Jesus does not observe this
religious norm. But in spite of their total difference, the Pharisee and Jesus
have something in common: for them life is serious. The way of doing of the
Pharisee was the following: every day, they dedicated eight hours to study and
to the meditation of the law of God, another eight hours to work in order to be
able to survive with the family and the other eight hours to rest. This serious
witness of their life gives them a great popular leadership. Perhaps because of
this, in spite of the fact of being totally diverse, both, Jesus and the
Pharisees, understood and criticized one another, without losing the
possibility to dialogue.
• Luke 11, 39-41: The response of Jesus. “You
Pharisees you clean the outside of the cup and plate, while inside yourselves
you are filled with extortion and wickedness. Fools! Did not he who made the
outside make the inside too? Instead, give alms from what you have and, look,
everything will be clean for you”. The Pharisees observed the law literally.
They only looked at the letter and because of this they were incapable to
perceive the spirit of the law, the objective that the observance of the law
wanted to attain in the life of the persons. For example, in the law it was
written: “Love the neighbour as yourself” (Lv 19,18). And they commented: “We
should love the neighbour, yes, but only the neighbour, not the others!” And
from there arose the discussion around the question: “Who is my neighbour?” (Lk
10, 29) Paul the Apostle writes in his second Letter to the Corinthians: “The
letter kills, the spirit gives life” (2 Co 3, 6). In the Sermon on the Mountain,
Jesus criticizes those who observe the letter of the law put transgress the
spirit (Mt 5, 20). In order to be faithful to what God asks us it is not
sufficient to observe the letter of the law. It would be the same thing as to
clean the cup on the outside and to leave the inside all dirty: robbery and
injustice so on. It is not sufficient not to kill, not to rob, not to commit
adultery, not to swear. Only observe fully the law of God, of he who, beyond
the letter, goes to the roots and pulls out from within the desires of “robbery
and injustice” which can lead to murder, robbery, adultery, It is in the
practice of love that the fullness of the law is attained (cf. Mt 5, 21-48).
4) Personal questions
• Does our Church today merit the accusation
which Jesus addressed against the Scribes and the Pharisees? Do I deserve it?
• To respect the seriousness of life of others
who think in a different way from us, can facilitate today dialogue which is so
necessary and difficult. How do I practice dialogue in the family, in work and
in the community?
5) Concluding prayer
Let your faithful love come to me, Yahweh,
true to your promise, save me!
Give me an answer to the taunts against me,
since I rely on your word. (Ps 119,41-42)
www.ocarm.org
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét