Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest
Lectionary: 412
Lectionary: 412
Moses said to the
people:
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
“When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore
to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
that he would give you,
a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner,
with cisterns that you did not dig,
with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant;
and when, therefore, you eat your fill,
take care not to forget the LORD,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear;
him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.”
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
“When the LORD, your God, brings you into the land which he swore
to your fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
that he would give you,
a land with fine, large cities that you did not build,
with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner,
with cisterns that you did not dig,
with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant;
and when, therefore, you eat your fill,
take care not to forget the LORD,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
The LORD, your God, shall you fear;
him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear.”
Responsorial PsalmPS 18:2-3A, 3BC-4, 47 AND 51
R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
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. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior!
You who gave great victories to your king,
and showed kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
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. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD live! And blessed be my Rock!
Extolled be God my savior!
You who gave great victories to your king,
and showed kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
AlleluiaSEE 2 TM 1:10
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelMT 17:14-20
A man came up to
Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Meditation: "Nothing will be impossible
to you"
What kind of faith does the Lord expect of us, especially when
we meet set-backs and trials? Inevitably there are times when each of us
disappoint others or disappoint ourselves when we suffer some kind of set-back
or failure. In this Gospel incident the disciples of Jesus fail to heal an
epileptic boy. Jesus' response seems stern; but it is really tempered with love
and compassion. We see at once Jesus' dismay with the disciples' lack of faith
and his concern to meet the need of this troubled boy and his father. With one
word of command Jesus rebukes the evil spirit that has caused this boy's
affliction and tells the spirit to "never enter him again".
Pray with expectant faith
Jesus tells his disciples that they can "remove mountains" if they have faith in God. The expression to "remove mountains" was a common Jewish phrase for removing difficulties. A wise teacher who could solve difficulties was called a "mountain remover". If we pray with expectant faith God will give us the means to overcome difficulties and obstacles. When you meet trials and disappointments how do you respond? With faith and trust in Jesus?
Jesus tells his disciples that they can "remove mountains" if they have faith in God. The expression to "remove mountains" was a common Jewish phrase for removing difficulties. A wise teacher who could solve difficulties was called a "mountain remover". If we pray with expectant faith God will give us the means to overcome difficulties and obstacles. When you meet trials and disappointments how do you respond? With faith and trust in Jesus?
"Lord Jesus, help my unbelief! Increase my faith and trust
in your saving power. Give me confidence and perseverance, especially in
prayer. And help me to bring your healing love and truth to those I meet".
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, MATTHEW 17:14-20
(Deuteronomy 6:4-13; Psalm 18)
(Deuteronomy 6:4-13; Psalm 18)
KEY VERSE: "Nothing will be impossible for you" (v 20).
TO KNOW: No sooner had Jesus come down from the heavenly glory on the mountain of the Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-13), than he was confronted with an earthly problem. He encountered a lack of faith, even among his own disciples. They were unable to heal a young man suffering from epilepsy, and his father begged Jesus to cure him. Jesus reproached the unbelievers in the same way that Moses rebuked the people when he returned from the mountain of Sinai and saw the people's lack of faith (Ex 32:19). Jesus healed the boy with a simple command, and then told his disciples that with enough faith, they could move mountains, a well-known metaphor for removing difficulties in one’s life. Jesus meant that with faith in God, even the hardest tasks could be accomplished. He told his humbled disciples that they only needed the smallest amount of faith, the size of a tiny mustard seed, to remove immense obstacles that blocked their path to God.
TO LOVE: What obstacles stand in the way of my serving the Lord?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, increase my faith when I face overwhelming problems.
Memorial of Dominic, priest
Dominic was born to wealthy Spanish nobility of the house of Guzman. His mother was Blessed Joan of Aza who, when pregnant, had a vision that her unborn child was a dog who would set the world on fire with a torch carried in its mouth. This became a symbol for the Dominicans, founded by Dominic as the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans) in 1215. The group lived a simple, austere life, and founded an order of nuns dedicated to the care of young girls. Legend says that when Dominic became discouraged at the progress of his mission, he received a vision from Our Lady who showed him a wreath of roses. She told him to say the rosary daily, and teach it to all who would listen. Dominic is often credited with the invention of the rosary, but it predates him. There is also a story that Dominic received a vision of a beggar who, like Dominic, would do great things for the Church. Dominic met the beggar the next day, embraced him and said, "You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power can withstand us." The beggar was St. Francis of Assisi.
Saturday 8 August 2015
SAT 8TH.
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.
Judith
8:11-17, 28-31 / Colossians 3:12-17.Into your hands, O Lord, I entrust my
spirit—Ps 31(32):1-5, 7-8. Matthew 6:25- 34.
‘This
little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine ...’
Marianne
Williamson once wrote: ‘Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond
measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us ... We are
all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.’
These
words, often attributed to Nelson Mandela, mirror the message of Jesus in the
Sermon on the Mount:
‘You are
the light of the world ... your light must shine in the sight of men and
women.’ How many of us have the courage to be a lighthouse beaming,
uninhibited? How many realise that as we let our own light shine we
unconsciously give others the permission to do the same?
Can we be
liberated from our own fear and be the spark that enlightens others? Do we have
the courage to live and speak from the beacon of the Spirit living within
us?
MINUTE MEDITATIONS
|
Beyond Our Faults
|
As we really face our selfishness, as we really face our unjust
angers, as we really face the grudges that we hold, as we really face the
bitterness that is there, we don’t have to sweep it under the carpet. We can
look at it and know that God loves us as we are and is willing to help us grow
beyond these faults and failings.
August
8
St. Dominic
(1170-1221)
St. Dominic
(1170-1221)
If he hadn’t taken a trip with his bishop, Dominic would probably
have remained within the structure of contemplative life; after the trip, he
spent the rest of his life being a contemplative in active apostolic work.
Born in
old Castile, Spain, he was trained for the priesthood by a priest-uncle,
studied the arts and theology, and became a canon of the cathedral at Osma,
where there was an attempt to revive the apostolic common life described
in the Acts of the Apostles.
On a
journey through France with his bishop, he came face to face with the then
virulent Albigensian heresy at Languedoc. The Albigensians (Cathari, “the
pure”) held to two principles—one good, one evil—in the world. All matter is
evil—hence they denied the Incarnation and sacraments. On the same principle,
they abstained from procreation and took a minimum of food and drink. The inner
circle led what some people regarded as a heroic life of purity and asceticism
not shared by ordinary followers.
Dominic
sensed the need for the Church to combat this heresy, and was commissioned to
be part of the preaching crusade against it. He saw immediately why the
preaching was not succeeding: the ordinary people admired and followed the
ascetical heroes of the Albigenses. Understandably, they were not impressed by
the Catholic preachers who traveled with horse and retinues, stayed at the best
inns and had servants. Dominic therefore, with three Cistercians, began
itinerant preaching according to the gospel ideal. He continued this work for
10 years, being successful with the ordinary people but not with the leaders.
His
fellow preachers gradually became a community, and in 1215 he founded a
religious house at Toulouse, the beginning of the Order of Preachers
(Dominicans).
His
ideal, and that of his Order, was to link organically a life with God, study
and prayer in all forms, with a ministry of salvation to people by the word of
God. His ideal: contemplata tradere: “to pass on the fruits of
contemplation” or “to speak only of God or with God."
Story:
Legend
has it that Dominic saw the sinful world threatened by God’s anger but saved by
the intercession of Mary, who pointed out to her Son two figures: One was
Dominic himself, the other a stranger. In church the next day he saw a ragged
beggar enter—the man in the vision. He went up to him, embraced him and said,
“You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly
power can withstand us.” The beggar was Francis of Assisi. The meeting of the
two founders is commemorated twice a year, when on their respective feast days
Dominicans and Franciscans celebrate Mass in each other’s churches and
afterward sit at the same table “to eat the bread which for seven centuries has
never been wanting” (Butler’s Lives of the Saints).
Comment:
The Dominican ideal, like that of all religious communities, is for the imitation, not merely the admiration, of the rest of the Church. The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God, and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity.
The Dominican ideal, like that of all religious communities, is for the imitation, not merely the admiration, of the rest of the Church. The effective combining of contemplation and activity is the vocation of truck driver Smith as well as theologian Aquinas. Acquired contemplation is the tranquil abiding in the presence of God, and is an integral part of any full human life. It must be the wellspring of all Christian activity.
Patron Saint of:
Astronomers
Dominican Republic
Astronomers
Dominican Republic
LECTIO DIVINA:
MATTHEW 17, 14-20
Lectio:
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Ordinary Time
1)
PRAYER
Show us your continued kindness, Father,
and watch your people,
as we acknowledge your guide and your lead.
renews the work of your creation
and guard what you have renewed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ ...
and watch your people,
as we acknowledge your guide and your lead.
renews the work of your creation
and guard what you have renewed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ ...
2)
READING
From the Gospel according to Matthew 17.14-20
At that time, when they came to the crowd a man approached,
knelt down before Jesus, and said, "Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a
lunatic and suffers severely; often he falls into fire, and often into water. I
brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him." Jesus said in
reply, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me." Jesus rebuked him and
the demon came out of him, and from that hour the boy was cured. Then the
disciples approached Jesus in private and said, "Why could we not drive it
out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to
you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this
mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be
impossible for you."
3)
REFLECTION
• Context. Our passage has Jesus in his work of healing. After
having stayed with the disciples alone in the region of Caesarea Philippi
(16.13 to 28) Jesus climbs a high mountain and is transfigured before three
disciples (from 17.1 to 10) and then reaches the crowd (17.14 - 21) attempts a
new approach to Galilee to regain (7.22). What to think of these geographical
shifts of Jesus? It is not excluded that they could have a value of
geographical, but Matthew press submit their role of spiritual journey. In his
journey of faith community is increasingly called upon to retrace that
spiritual which marked the life of Jesus from Galilee of his public and that
his resurrection by way of the cross. A spiritual journey in which the power of
faith plays a crucial role.
• The power of faith. Jesus, after his transfiguration, with its
small community of disciples returned from the crowd, before returning to
Galilee (v. 22) and arrive in Capernaum (v.24). And while in the crowd a man
approached him and begged him to urgently intervene in the evil that keeps his
imprisoned son. The description preceding the intervention of Jesus really
clear: this is a case of epilepsy with all its pathological consequences on the
psychic level. At the time of Jesus, this type of illness was traced to evil
forces and specifically the action of Satan, enemy of God and man, and
therefore the origin of evil and all evil. Faced with such a situation arise in
which evil forces far beyond human capabilities to the disciples find
themselves powerless to heal the child (vv.16-19) and because of their lack of
faith (V.20). For the evangelist, this young epileptic is a symbol of those who
devalue the power of faith (V.20), not mindful of the presence of God in their
midst (V.17). The presence of God in Jesus, Emmanuel, is not recognized, the
fact understand something of Jesus is not enough, we need the true faith. After
Jesus rebuked the crowd, you bring the boy: "Bring him here" (V.17),
heals and frees it when rebuked the devil. Not simply the miracle of healing a
single person "" you must also heal the weak and uncertain faith of
the disciples. Jesus approaches them who are confused or dazed for their
impotence: "Because we could not throw it out?" (V.20). Jesus' answer
is clear: "For your wavering faith". Jesus calls for faith that can
move mountains of his heart to identify with his person, his mission, his
divine power. It is true that the disciples have left everything to follow
Jesus but have failed to heal the epileptic boy because of "little faith."
It is not lack of faith, only that it is weak, vacillating for sure, with a
predominance of mistrust and doubt. It is a faith that is rooted entirely in
relationship with Christ. Jesus goes beyond the language when he says: "if
you have faith like a mustard seed" can move mountains, is an exhortation
to be guided by the power of faith in action, which becomes especially strong
in times of trial and suffering and attains maturity when no offense most of
the scandal of the cross. Faith can do anything, provided waivers to rely on
their human capacity, can move mountains. The disciples, the early community
have experienced that unbelief can not be won by prayer and fasting, but you
must join the death and resurrection of Jesus
4)
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
• Through musical meditation we observed that the disciples are
placed in relation to epileptic and Jesus himself. You also find your way
relationship with Jesus and with others using the power of faith?
• On the cross Jesus gives witness to the Father and reveals
completely. Jesus' words that you thought you asked the total membership: you
feel every day committed to move the heart of the mountains that stand between
your self-interest and the will of God?
5)
FINAL PRAYER
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, stronghold in times
of trouble. Those who honor your name trust in you; you never forsake those who
seek you, LORD. (Psalm 9)
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