OCTOBER 06, 2017 : FRIDAY OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 459

Reading 1BAR 1:15-22

During the Babylonian captivity, the exiles prayed:
"Justice is with the Lord, our God;
and we today are flushed with shame,
we men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem,
that we, with our kings and rulers
and priests and prophets, and with our ancestors,
have sinned in the Lord's sight and disobeyed him.
We have neither heeded the voice of the Lord, our God,
nor followed the precepts which the Lord set before us.
From the time the Lord led our ancestors out of the land of Egypt
until the present day,
we have been disobedient to the Lord, our God,
and only too ready to disregard his voice.
And the evils and the curse that the Lord enjoined upon Moses, his servant,
at the time he led our ancestors forth from the land of Egypt
to give us the land flowing with milk and honey,
cling to us even today.
For we did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God,
in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us,
but each one of us went off
after the devices of his own wicked heart,
served other gods,
and did evil in the sight of the Lord, our God."

Responsorial PsalmPS 79:1B-2, 3-5, 8, 9

R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
They have given the corpses of your servants
as food to the birds of heaven,
the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the earth.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
They have poured out their blood like water
round about Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury them.
We have become the reproach of our neighbors,
the scorn and derision of those around us.
O LORD, how long? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;
may your compassion quickly come to us,
for we are brought very low.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.
Help us, O God our savior,
because of the glory of your name;
Deliver us and pardon our sins
for your name's sake.
R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

AlleluiaPS 95:8

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelLK 10:13-16

Jesus said to them,
"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon
at the judgment than for you.
And as for you, Capernaum, 'Will you be exalted to heaven?
You will go down to the netherworld.'
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me. 
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

www.usccb.org

Meditation: "He who hears you hears me"

If Jesus were to visit your community today, what would he say? Would he issue a warning like the one he gave to Chorazin and Bethsaida? And how would you respond? Wherever Jesus went he did mighty works to show the people how much God had for them. Chorazin and Bethsaida had been blessed with the visitation of God. They heard the good news and experienced the wonderful works which Jesus did for them. Why was Jesus upset with these communities? The word woe is also translated as alas. It is as much as an expression of sorrowful pity as it is of anger. 

Jesus calls us to walk in the way of truth and freedom - justice and holiness
Why does Jesus lament and issue a stern warning? The people who heard the gospel here very likely responded with indifference. Jesus upbraids them for doing nothing! Repentance demands change - a change of heart and way of life. God's word is life-giving and it saves us from destruction - the destruction of soul as well as body. Jesus' anger is directed toward sin and everything which hinders us from doing the will of God and receiving his blessing. In love he calls us to walk in his way of truth and freedom, grace and mercy, justice and holiness. Do you receive his word with faith and submission or with doubt and indifference?

"Lord Jesus, give me the child-like simplicity and purity of faith to gaze upon your face with joy and confidence in your all-merciful love. Remove every doubt, fear, and proud thought which would hinder me from receiving your word with trust and humble submission."

Daily Quote from the early church fathers: Christ speaks through the disciples, by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD)

"Christ gives those who love instruction the assurance that whatever is said concerning him by the holy apostles or evangelists is to be received necessarily without any doubt and to be crowned with the words of truth. He who hears them, hears Christ. For the blessed Paul also said, 'You desire proof that Christ is speaking in me' (2 Corinthians 13:3). Christ himself somewhere also said to the holy disciples, 'For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you' (Matthew 10:20). Christ speaks in them by the consubstantial Spirit. If it is true, and plainly it is, that they speak by Christ, how can they err? He affirms that he who does not hear them, does not hear Christ, and that he who rejects them rejects Christ, and with him the Father." (excerpt from COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 63)

www.dailyscripture.net

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, LUKE 10:13-16
Weekday
(Baruch 1:15-22; Psalm 79)

KEY VERSE: "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me" (v 16).
TO KNOW: Jesus centered much of his ministry in the cities around the Sea of Galilee. Like the ancient prophets, Jesus expressed profound displeasure with those who rejected God's truth. He gave the obstinate cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida a warning, saying that the Gentiles living in Tyre and Sidon never saw such mighty deeds. If they had, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes as did the Ninevites in Jonah's day (Jon 3:1-10). Capernaum, Jesus’ “headquarters” in Galilee, fared no better. There would be harsh consequences for those who closed their ears and hearts to the message Jesus preached. The mission of his disciples was Jesus’ mission: to bring forth God’s reign on earth. Because the gospel was the word of God, it was not to be treated lightly. Whoever heard the words of his disciples also heard Jesus. Whoever rejected them rejected Jesus and the one who sent him.
TO LOVE: In what ways am a messenger of good news to unbelieving people?
TO SERVE: Lord Jesus, help me to hear your voice spoken by the servants of your Church.

Optional Memorial of Saint Bruno, priest

St. Bruno was born in 1030 in Cologne, Germany. He became a priest and achieved fame as a professor of theology at Rheims. Critical of the worldliness he saw in his fellow clergy, he decided to leave the world and pursue a life of complete solitude and prayer. He established his hermitage in Chartreuse, near Grenoble, France. Soon he attracted disciples and he established the first monastery of Carthusian monks. Bruno and his brothers worked as manuscript copyists. In 1090, Bruno was brought to Rome, against his wishes, by Pope Urban II (whom he had taught at Rheims) as Papal Adviser in the reformation of the clergy.. Retiring from public life, he and his companions built a hermitage at Torre, where in 1095 the monastery of Saint Stephen was built. Bruno combined the eremetical (hermit) and the cenobitic (communal) in his religious life. His learning is apparent from his scriptural commentaries on the psalms and on St. Paul's epistles.​

Optional Memorial of Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, virgin
Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, whose canonization is pending, was born into a good Catholic family in Quebec City, Canada in 1811 as the tenth of eleven children. One of her brothers, a Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate priest, asked Marie, when she turned 18, to help at his parish where she served as a lay apostle for thirteen years. With the assistance of the Oblates, she established the first parish sodality in all of Canada. In 1843 she so impressed her Bishop that he asked her to found the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. In keeping with the Oblate mission of ministering to the poorest and most abandoned children, Marie Rose recruited many women to join. She died a happy death in 1849 and ten years later the Sisters expanded into the United States with a mission in Oregon. Pope John Paul II beatified Marie on May 23, 1982. ​

www.togetherwithgodsword.com

Friday 6 October 2017

St Bruno

Baruch 1:15-22. Psalm 78(79):5, 8-9. Luke 10:13-16.

For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us — Psalm 78(79):5, 8-9.

‘Whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

Just like the prophets who came before him, Jesus is very clear that God, whose Good News he comes to proclaim, has an urgent agenda. Now is the time to repent, to re-think those decisions, attitudes and values that little by little harden our hearts and block out our capacity to welcome what is holy.

Jesus speaks uncompromisingly about the desolation that clouds our judgment when we fall out of friendship with God, and reject God’s message of love and mercy. Lord, teach me to be generous, to serve you as you deserve….

www.pray.com.au

ST. BRUNO, FOUNDER

On Oct. 6, the Catholic Church commemorates Saint Bruno of Cologne, founder of the Carthusian order of monks who remain notable for their strictly traditional and austere rule of contemplative life.

Born in 1030, Bruno is said to have belonged to a prominent family in the city of Cologne. Little is known of his early years, except that he studied theology in the present-day French city of Reims before returning to his native land, where he was most likely ordained a priest in approximately 1055.

Returning to Reims the following year, he soon became head of the school he had attended there, after its director Heriman left to enter consecrated religious life in 1057. Bruno led and taught at the school for nearly two decades, acquiring an excellent reputation as a philosopher and theologian, until he was named chancellor of the local diocese in 1075.

Bruno's time as chancellor coincided with an uproar in Reims over the behavior of its new bishop Manasses de Gournai. Suspended by the decision of a local council, the bishop appealed to Rome while attacking and robbing the houses of his opponents. Bruno left the diocese during this period, though he was considered as a possible successor to Manasses after the bishop's final deposition in 1080.

The chancellor, however, was not interested in leading the Church of Reims. Bruno and two of his friends had resolved to renounce their worldly goods and positions and enter religious life. Inspired by a dream to seek guidance from the bishop later canonized as Saint Hugh of Grenoble, Bruno settled in the Chartreuse Mountains in 1084, joined by a small group of scholars looking to become monks.

In 1088, one of Bruno's former students was elected as Pope Urban II. Six years into his life as an alpine monk, Bruno was called to leave his remote monastery to assist the Pope in his struggle against a rival papal claimant as well as the hostile Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.

Bruno served as a close adviser to the Pope during a critical period of reform. Around this time, he also rejected another chance to become a bishop, this time in the Italian region of Calabria. While he obtained the Pope's permission to return to monastic life, Bruno was required to remain in Italy to help the Pope periodically, rather than returning to his monastery in France.

During the 1090s Bruno befriended Count Roger of Sicily and Calabria, who granted land to his group of monks and enabled the founding of a major monastery in 1095. The monks were known, then as now, for their strict practice of asceticism, poverty, and prayer; and for their unique organizational form, combining the solitary life of hermits with the collective life of more conventional monks.

St. Bruno died on October 6, 1101, after making a notable profession of faith which was preserved for posterity. In this final testimony, he gave particular emphasis to the doctrine of Christ's Eucharistic presence, which had already begun to be questioned in parts of the Western Church.

“I believe,” he attested, “in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation.”

Veneration of St. Bruno was given formal approval in 1514, and extended throughout the Latin Rite in 1623. More recently, his Carthusian Order was the subject of the 2006 documentary film “Into Great Silence,” chronicling the life of monks in the Grand Chartreuse monastery. 

www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=616

LECTIO DIVINA: LUKE 10,13-16

Lectio Divina: 

 Friday, October 6, 2017

Ordinary Time

1) Opening prayer

Father,
you show your almighty power
in your mercy and forgiveness.
Continue to fill us with your gifts of love.
Help us to hurry towards the eternal life your promise
and come to share in the joys of your kingdom.
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 - Luke 10,13-16

Jesus said: 'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. And still, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell.
'Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.'

3) Reflection

● The Gospel today continues speaking about the sending out of the seventy-two disciples (Lk 10,1-12). At the end, after sending them out, Jesus speaks about shaking off the dust from their shoes if the missionaries are not welcomed or accepted (Lk 10,10-12). Today's Gospel stresses and extends the threats upon those who refuse to receive the Good News.
● Luke 10, 13-14: Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! The place which Jesus travelled or covered in the three years of his missionary life was small. It measures only a few square kilometres along the Sea of Galilee around the cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin. In precisely this very small space Jesus works the majority of his miracles and presents his discourses. He has come to save the whole of humanity, and He hardly went out of the limited space of his land. But, tragically, Jesus had to see that the people of those cities do not want to accept the message of the Kingdom and are not converted. The cities fixed themselves in the rigidity of their beliefs, traditions and customs and they do not accept the invitation of Jesus to change their life. Alas for you, Chorazin; Alas for you Bethsaida! For if the miracle done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes". Jesus compares the two cities with Tyre and Sidon which in the past were unyielding enemies of Israel, ill-treating the people of God. For this reason they were cursed by the Prophets: (Is 23, 1; Jr 25, 22; 47, 4; Ez 26, 3; 27, 2; 28, 2; Jl 4, 4; Am 1, 10). And now Jesus says that these same cities, symbols of all the evil done to the people in the past, would have already converted if so many miracles would have been worked in them as in Chorazin and in Bethsaida.
● Luke 10, 15: And you Capernaum. "Did you want to be raised high as Heaven? You shall be flung down to hell. Jesus recalls the condemnation which Isaiah, the Prophet launched against Babylonia. Proud and arrogant, Babylonia thought: "I shall scale the heavens; higher than the stars of God I shall set my throne. I shall sit on the Mount of the Assembly far away to the north. I shall climb high above the clouds, I shall rival the Most High" (Is 14, 13-14). That is what it thought! But it completely deceived itself! The contrary happened. The Prophet says: "Now you have been flung down to Sheol, into the depths of the abyss!" (Is 14, 15). Jesus compares Capernaum with that terrible Babylonia which destroyed the monarchy and the temple and took the people as slaves, from which it never recovered. Like Babylonia, Capernaum thought it was something important, but it fell into the most profound hell. The Gospel of Matthew compares Capernaum with the city of Sodom, the symbol of the worse perversion, which was destroyed by God's anger (Gen 18, 16 to 19, 29). Sodom would have converted if it had seen the miracles which Jesus worked in Capernaum (Mt 11, 23-24). Today, the same paradox continues to exist. Many of us, Catholics since we were children, have such consolidated convictions that nobody is capable of converting us. In some places, Christianity, instead of being a source of change and of conversion, has become the refuge of the most reactionary forces of politics of the country.
● Luke 10, 16: "Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me. And those who reject me reject the one who has sent me". This phrase places the accent on the identification of the disciples with Jesus, in so far as He is despised by the authorities. In Matthew the same phrase of Jesus, placed in another context, underlines the identification of the disciples with Jesus accepted by the people (Mt 10, 40). In both cases, the disciples identify themselves with Jesus as total gift, and through this gift realize their encounter with God, that God allows himself to be found by those who seek him.

4) Personal questions

● Does my city and my country deserve the warning of Jesus against Capernaum, Corazin and Bethsaida?
● How do I identify myself with Jesus?

5) Concluding prayer

Protect me, O God, in you is my refuge.
To Yahweh I say,
'You are my Lord, my happiness is in none.'
My birthright, my cup is Yahweh;
you, you alone, hold my lot secure. (Ps 16,1-2,5)

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