Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: We saw the star in the East, and we came to worship Him (Mt 2:2)
Sunday of the Word of God
In other years: Saint Marianne Cope, "Beloved Mother of the Outcasts" (1838-1918); Blessed Henry Suso, OP, Rheinland Mystic along with Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler (-1366)
Readings of the Day
Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 5:14-19 Obedience
Mass: Nehemiah 8:2-4a; 5-6, 8-10; Resp Ps 19: 1 Cor 12:12-30; Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and Life.
DO NOT BE SADDENED THIS DAY,
FOR REJOICING IN THE LORD MUST BE YOUR STRENGTH!
(Nehemiah 8:10)
As yesterday, today is certainly another busy day in the Church. Still in the Year of the Family (March 19, 2021-June 26, 2022), we continue to pray for Christian Unity (January 18-25). And this Third Sunday of Ordinary Time brings us to Sunday of the Word of God as issued "Motu Proprio", by Pope Francis personally in the Apostolic Letter Aperuit Illis "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures", dated December 30, 2019, the Feast of Saint Jerome. In other years too, there would be more powerful saints to intercede for us, including German born Marianne Cope (formerly Koob), who immigrated to the United States with her family in 1839. After she entered the Sisters of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York, Marianne was instrumental in the founding of several schools and hospitals for immigrants. Sister Marianne eventually led a group of sisters to the Hawaiian Islands to care for the poor, especially those suffering from leprosy. Her work led her to Molokai where she opened a home for girls with leprosy, then took over the home that Saint Damien of Molokai (1840-1889) built for boys. Saint Marianne was beatified (2005) and canonized (2012) by Pope Benedict XVI (Universalis, January 23, 2022). Whew! This may be enough for one day. Nevertheless, we keep going, united as we are in faith and prayer, with a bit more.
On this Sunday, "a day given over entirely to the word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and His people", we are able to "experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of His word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world" (Aperit Illis, 2). Ask Jesus to open your mind and heart to understand the Scriptures, especially the word of God as proclaimed in today's readings at Mass. The constant dialogue between the Lord and His people continues. We are there in the open space before the Water Gate with the assembly of men, women, and children old enough to understand (Neh 8:1-2), when Ezra reads from the book of the law of God. We are there when Saint Paul addresses the Corinthians, "Brothers and sisters: As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ" (1 Cor 12:12). We are there in the synagogue at Nazareth with all our eyes looking intently at Jesus. Listen to Him: Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing (Lk 4:20-21). What is Jesus saying to you? How will you proclaim the unfathomable riches of His word before the world?
Listen readily to holy reading, and devote yourself often to prayer.
(Rule of Saint Benedict, 4:55-56)
Who is able to understand, Lord, all the richness of even one of your words? There is more than eludes us than we can understand. We are like the thirsty drinking from a fountain. Your word has as many aspects as the perspectives of those who study it. The Lord has coloured His word with diverse beauties, so that those who study it can contemplate what stirs them. He has hidden in His word all His treasures, so that each of us may find a richness in what he or she contemplates.
(Saint Ephrem the Syrian, 306-373, Commentary on the Diatessaron, 1, 18)
O God, eternal Shepherd, who inspired Maria Gabriella, virgin, to offer her life for the unity of all Christians, grant that through her intercession, the day may be hastened in which all believers in Christ, gathered around the table of your Work and of your Bread, may praise you with one heart and one voice. Through Christ our Lord.
UT UNUM SINT.
(Prayer on the back of a holy card from the Shrine of Blessed Maria Gabriella Segheddu, the Chapel of Unity, Vitorchiano, Italy, home of the Cistercian nuns of our Order)
SAINT MARIANNE COPE, BELOVED MOTHER OF THE OUTCASTS,
SAINT DAMIAN OF MOLOKAI,
BLESSED HENRY SUSO,
MEISTER ECKHART,
JOHANNES TAULER,
SAINT IRENAEUS, DOCTOR UNITATIS,
BLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDU,
PRAY FOR US.
Today's photo: Welcome to a glorious sunset at Ft. Myers Beach, Florida, witnessed by my dear brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. JA Feick.
© Gertrude Feick 2022
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