Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label Jan Brueghel the Elder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan Brueghel the Elder. Show all posts
Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, Scotland, India)
At that time: Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’
Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.’
A Man for All Seasonsis a movie made in 1966, written by Robert Bolt and based on his stage play with the same title. It is based on the life of St Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England during the time of King Henry VIII. His position would be similar to that of Prime Minister today. More refuses to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of the King to Catherine of Aragon who had not borne him a son. Eventually More is found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death.
Gospel Matthew 16:21-27 (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England &
Wales, Scotland, India)
At that time:
Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the
third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying,
‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and
said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are
not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’
Then Jesus told
his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in
return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the
glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he
has done.’
A Man for All Seasonsis a movie made in 1966, written by Robert Bolt and based on his stage
play with the same title. It is based on the life of St Thomas More, Lord
Chancellor of England during the time of King Henry VIII. His position would be
similar to that of Prime Minister today. More refuses to sign a letter
asking Pope Clement VII to annul the marriage of the King to Catherine of
Aragon who had not borne him a son. Eventually More is found guilty of high
treason and sentenced to death.
During his trial Sir Thomas More discovers that
Richard Rich, who had given perjured testimony against him, had been made
Attorney General for Wales as a reward for this. The laws of England were about
to be extended to Wales, a country of 20,779 square kilometres in the west of
the island of Britain which also includes England and Scotland. More says to
Rich, Why,Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his
soul for the whole world - but for Wales? [3:30 - 4:20 in the video
above].
On Sundays
in Ordinary Time the First Reading and the Gospel are linked thematically
whereas the Second Reading is from one of the Letters of St Paul read over the
course of a number of Sundays. But this Sunday it is closely related to the
other two readings in that it reminds us that as followers of Jesus we are
called to be living sacrifices:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy
and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your
mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is
good and acceptable and perfect (Romans
12:1-2).
The Prophet Jeremiah discovers the cost of doing
God's will: I have become a laughing-stock all the day; everyone
mocks me . . . For the word of the Lord has become for me a
reproach and derision all day long (Jeremiah 20:7,8).
St Peter cannot abide the thought of any such thing
happening to Jesus: God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.
He receives an extraordinary rebuke from Jesus: Get behind me, Satan!
You are a hindrance to me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of
God but on the things of man.
The Crucifixion of St Peter
Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art] If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
St Peter in giving unwanted and unhelpful 'advice'
to Jesus had no idea of the price he himself would pay for following in the
footsteps of the Lord. He was following human thinking, not God's. This
incident shows that our thinking has consequences. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus, says St Paul in
Philippians 2:5. This is what our baptism calls us to. Everything we do is
meant to be in accordance with God's thinking, with God's will. Since 2019 here in the Republic of Ireland which has an estimated population of about five-and-a-half million, about 60,000 children have been legally killed before birth. The law allowing this
came into effect on New Year's Day 2019, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God.
The law was the foreseen consequence of a referendum in May 2018 when
two-thirds of those who voted chose to 'repeal' Article 8 of the Constitution
that protected the life of the unborn child and of the mother. Based on the
census of 2016 nearly eighty per-cent of the voters identified themselves as
Catholic. The majority of legislators who legalised abortion-on-demand were
Catholics by background, one of them a regular lector at Sunday Mass in her
parish.
This is a glaring example of what the late Fr Jaime Bulatao SJ, a Filipino,
labelled in 1966 Split-level Christianity. (I took some classes under Fr
Bulatao in the summer of 1974). Promoting or supporting abortion is
incompatible with the Catholic Christian faith.
In his encyclical Laudato si'No 120, Pope Francis states: Since
everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also
incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the
importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or
inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its
presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? 'If personal and social
sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of
acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away'.
Some politicians who identify themselves as Catholics are now promoting
abortion as a 'right'. And many people who work for the dignity of every human
life from conception to death are condemned as persons with no interest in the
welfare of children and others after birth, a total lie. Mary Wagner is a Canadian woman who has spent much time
in prison for peacefully proclaiming the humanity of the unborn child and for
trying to offer mothers an alternative to abortion. Another Canadian who has
spent much time in prison for totally silent witness outside abortion centres
is Linda Gibbons. I am sure that these two extraordinary
witnesses to our Christian faith must have experienced what the Prophet
Jeremiah expresses in today's First Reading: If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any
more in his name”, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my
bones and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. Please pray for them. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow me.
Consider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matthew 6:28-29; Gospel).
GospelLuke 18:1-8 (English Standard
Version, Anglicised)
At that time: Jesus told his disciples a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, “Give me justice against my adversary.” For a while he refused, but afterwards he said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.” ’
And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
Pope Leo will declare St John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church on Saturday 1 November. This report describes Doctors of the Church as a select group of saints recognized for their enduring contribution to Catholic theology and spirituality. He is especially noted for his insights on the development of doctrine and the role of conscience.
+++
The Opening Prayer in today’s Mass starts with these words: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .
This prayer is a synopsis, a summary of what the Christian life is: following Jesus and, with him, submitting our own will to the will of the Father., as Jesus himself did. In John 6:38 Jesus tells us:For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
We receive the gift of faith through baptism and God nourishes that faith through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments. We cooperate with God when we pray.
The First Reading and the Gospel today are specifically about prayer. Moses prays for the Hebrew soldiers as they battle with the Amalekites. He holds his arms outstretched as he prays, Aaron and Hur supporting them. Jesus in the gospel invites us to continually pray for our needs and assures us that God will hear us and respond: And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?(Luke 18:7).
Our baptism and our prayer bring us into relationship with a loving God. Pope Francis canonised St John Henry Newman on 13 October 2019. The saint's motto as a cardinal was Cor ad cor loquitur – Heart speaks to heart. This goes right to the heart of the Christian life in every sense. Pope Benedict spoke beautifully about this at the Mass during which Cardinal Newman was beatified in Birmingham on 19 September 2010: Cardinal Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or ‘Heart speaks unto heart’, gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, ‘a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles’.
St Paul puts it this way: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). While Moses didn’t know Jesus Christ, he tried all his life as leader of the Hebrews, the position to which God called him, to have this mind in him that was in God, with whom he spoke heart to heart. And he persisted in praying to God on behalf of his people, most especially when they sinned. While scolding his people he never ceased to pray for them. Like the widow in the parable ‘pestering’, ‘bothering’, ‘wearing out’ - different English translations - the unjust judge, Moses did the same to God in his prayer.
St John Henry Newman was a great theologian, a great preacher and, above all, a great priest. Pope Benedict in his homily focused on how Newman lived the priesthood, a pastor of souls: visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial.
The Pope made reference to the beautiful description of the Christian life that Newman wrote and that recognises the specific, unique call or vocation each of us has: God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.
These words of the English saint expand on our Opening Prayer: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .
Mission Sunday, 19 October 2025
Pope Leo's Message for Mission Sunday
Traditional Latin Mass
What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful (Benedict XVI).
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 10-19-2025 if necessary).
Epistle: Ephesians 4:23-28. Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14.
Gospel Luke 18:1-8 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India)
Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they
ought always to pray and not lose heart.He said, “In a certain city
there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man.And there was a widow in that city who kept
coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’For a while he refused, but afterwards he
said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,yet because this widow keeps bothering me,
I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual
coming.’”And the Lord said, “Hear
what the unrighteous judge says.And will not God give justice to his
elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?I tell you, he will give justice to
them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on earth?”
The Opening Prayer in today’s Mass starts with these words: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .
This prayer is a synopsis, a summary of what the Christian life is: following Jesus and, with him, submitting our own will to the will of the Father., as Jesus himself did. In John 6:38 Jesus tells us:For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
We receive the gift of faith through baptism and God nourishes that faith through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments. We cooperate with God when we pray.
The First Reading and the Gospel today are specifically about prayer. Moses prays for the Hebrew soldiers as they battle with the Amalekites. He holds his arms outstretched as he prays, Aaron and Hur supporting them. Jesus in the gospel invites us to continually pray for our needs and assures us that God will hear us and respond: And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?(Luke 18:7).
Our baptism and our prayer bring us into relationship with a loving God. Pope Francis canonised St John Henry Newman on 13 October 2019. The saint's motto as a cardinal was Cor ad cor loquitur – Heart speaks to heart. This goes right to the heart of the Christian life in every sense. Pope Benedict spoke beautifully about this at the Mass during which Cardinal Newman was beatified in Birmingham on 19 September 2010: Cardinal Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or ‘Heart speaks unto heart’, gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, ‘a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles’.
St Paul puts it this way: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). While Moses didn’t know Jesus Christ, he tried all his life as leader of the Hebrews, the position to which God called him, to have this mind in him that was in God, with whom he spoke heart to heart. And he persisted in praying to God on behalf of his people, most especially when they sinned. While scolding his people he never ceased to pray for them. Like the widow in the parable ‘pestering’, ‘bothering’, ‘wearing out’ - different English translations - the unjust judge, Moses did the same to God in his prayer.
St John Henry Newman was a great theologian, a great preacher and, above all, a great priest. Pope Benedict in his homily focused on how Newman lived the priesthood, a pastor of souls: visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial.
The Pope made reference to the beautiful description of the Christian life that Newman wrote and that recognises the specific, unique call or vocation each of us has: God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.
These words of the English saint expand on our Opening Prayer: Almighty ever-living God, grant that we may always conform our will to yours and serve your majesty in sincerity of heart . . .
