Daily Reflections

The LORD Is Risen, alleluia!

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

3 John 11; 1 Peter 2:19

Do not imitate an evil example
but follow what is good.
– By doing good you will become a child of God, alleluia.

Grace is at work in the one who endures suffering
for the sake of God.
– By doing good you will become a child of God, alleluia.

Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saint Bede the Venerable, Confessor, Doctor of the Church (Traditional)

Saint Augustine of Canterbury Bishop, Confessor 

St. John I, Pope, Martyr (Traditional)

SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE, CONFESSOR, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH 

Saint Bede was born in England in the eighth century . A Benedictine, he was “the most observant and the happiest of all monks.” His writings were so full of sound doctrine that he was called “Venerable” while still alive. He wrote commentaries on Holy Scripture and treatises on theology and history. He died at Jarrow, England. He died in 735 A.D.

SAINT AUGUSTINE, BISHOP, CONFESSOR 

St. Augustine of Canterbury, pray for !

St. Augustine was born in Rome and died in Canterbury, England, in 604. 
Augustine carried out the difficult mission that was envisioned by Saint Gregory the Great—the 6th century evangelisation of the Anglo-Saxons in England.
When Pope Gregory I heard that the pagans of Britain were disposed to accept the Catholic Faith, he sent the prior of Saint Andrew, Augustine, and forty of his Benedictine brethren to England. But, on the way, the company hesitated, daunted by the prospect of the rough pagans and the great difficulties involved in the task assigned to him. Augustine was sent to beg a reprieve. Gregory, however, simply sent him back to the party with new direction and authority. Augustine proceeded to Kent, where he preached the Good News to King Ethelbert. The success of their preaching was immediate. King Ethelbert permitted the monk-missionaries to establish a community, and shortly thereafter asked for Baptism. He was baptized on Pentecost Sunday, 596 A.D., and the greater part of the nobles and people soon followed his example. Gregory wrote proudly of the conversion of 10,000 pagans that followed. Saint Augustine died as the first Archbishop of Canterbury. His feast is celebrated in the Extraordinary Form on May 28.

SAINT JOHN I, POPE, MARTYR

St. John I, pray for us!

St. John died in a dungeon from the hardships he had to endure, in 526A.D.

From a sermon by a sixth century African author
(Sermo 8, 1-3: PL 65, 743-744)

The Church in its Unity speaks in the Language of every nation

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the Presence of the Holy Ghost: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realize, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Ghost by whom Love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Ghost in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Ghost, speaks in the language of every people.

Therefore if somebody should say to one of us, “You have received the Holy Ghost, why do you not speak in tongues?” his reply should be, “I do indeed speak in the tongues of all men, because I belong to the Body of Christ, that is, the Church, and She speaks all languages. What else did the Presence of the Holy Ghost indicate at Pentecost, except that God’s Church was to speak in the language of every people?”

This was the way in which the LORD’s promise was fulfilled: No one puts new wine into old wineskins. New wine is put into fresh skins, and so both are preserved. So when the disciples were heard speaking in all kinds of languages, some people were not far wrong in saying: They have been drinking too much new wine. The truth is that the disciples had now become fresh wineskins, renewed and made holy by Grace. The new wine of the Holy Ghost filled them, so that their fervour brimmed over and they spoke in manifold tongues. By this spectacular miracle they became a sign of the Catholic Church, which embraces the language of every nation.

Keep this feast, then, as members of the One Body of Christ. It will be no empty festival for you if you really live what you are celebrating. For you are the members of that Church which the LORD acknowledges as His own, being Himself acknowledged by Her, that same Church which He fills with the Holy Ghost as She spreads throughout the world. He is like a bridegroom who never loses sight of his own bride; no one could ever deceive him by substituting some other woman.

To you men of all nations, then, who make up the Church of Christ, you, the members of Christ, you, the Body of Christ, you, the Bride of Christ, to all of you the Apostle addresses these words: Bear with one another in love; do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Notice that when Paul urges us to bear with one another, he bases his argument on love, and when he speaks of our Hope of unity, he emphasizes the bond of peace. This Church is the House of God. It is his delight to dwell here. Take care, then, that He never has the sorrow of seeing it undermined by schism and collapsing in ruins.

Following Jesus: Our Only Concern

I prayed to the beam in a blithe mood,
with great zeal….
My spirit was pushed towards an outward path.
I felt many pangs of longing.
It is now my life’s hope that I will find the victory-wood
alone more often than other men, worship it well.
My will for that is great in my spirit,
and my safety is right in that Cross.
I have few friends powerful on earth,
since they have departed from the world’s joys,
sought wonder’s king, and live now in Heaven
with the High Father, and dwell in glory.
And every day I look for that time when
the LORD’s Cross,
which I once beheld here on earth,
will fetch me in this fleeting life
and bring me where the bliss is great, Joy in Heaven,
where the LORD’s hosts are seated at the Banquet.
Endless bliss is there.
It will set me where for ever I will dwell in wonders,
taste well happiness with the holy.
May the LORD be my friend,
He who earlier suffered here on earth,
on this gallows tree for our trespasses.
He redeemed us and returned our lives,
gave us a Heavenly Home….
The Son, Mighty and successful, was Victorious
in that quest,
when He came with many, a host of spirits
into God’s Glorious Kingdom, the Almighty Ruler,
to the bliss of angels and all the saints
who earlier dwelt in Glory in Heaven,
when their Creator came, Almighty LORD,
back to the land of His home.

From The Dream of the Rood

The Dream of the Rood is an Anglo-Saxon mystical poem about Christ’s cross (known as the “rood” in Old English). [From Anglo-Saxon Spirituality: Selected Writings (CWS), translated and introduced by Robert Boenig. © 2000

Acts 15:8-9; 11:18

God who can read the hearts of all
sent His Spirit to the Gentiles
just as He did to us.
– He made no distinction between them and us,
and He cleansed their hearts by Faith, alleluia.

God also gave Life-giving repentance to the Gentiles.
– He made no distinction between them and us,
and He cleansed their hearts by Faith, alleluia.