Thursday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint: Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, Doctor of the Church  (1559-1619)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 42 Silence after Compline

Mass: Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13; Resp Ps 36; Mt 13:10-17

Your justice is like the mountains of God.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

PRAY FOR US.

Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven have been granted to you.

(Mt 13:11)

Blessed are your eyes, says the Lord, because they see, and your ears because you hear (Mt 13:16). It is our privilege. May we be open, then, so that we see with our eyes and hear with our ears. The one who hears the word and understands it, indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold (Mt 13:23).

We turn to today's saint, Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, whose most important task in life was preaching. However, "he took care to ensure that his preaching was backed by sound learning, so that he could preach to and not at his audiences. Let us take care that our own apostolate is similarly well founded" (Universalis).

For the word of the Lord is light to the mind and a fire to the will. It enables man to know God and to love Him. And for the interior man who lives by the Spirit of God through grace, it is bread and water, but a bread sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, a water better than wine and milk. For the soul it is a spiritual treasure of merits yielding an abundance of gold and precious stones. Among the hardness of the heart that persists in wrongdoing, it acts as a hammer. Against the world, the flesh and the devil it serves as a sword that destroys all sin.

(From a sermon by Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, priest, in Office of Readings, July 21)

I have not forgotten about the Holy Rule of Saint Benedict. Another favorite chapter is up for today, Ch 42 Silence after Compline. Benedict begins the chapter telling us that "monks should diligently cultivate silence at all times, but especially at night, when, after Compline (or Night Prayer, the last prayer of the day), no will be permitted to speak further (RB 42:1, 8). It is the time of the Summum Silentium, the grand silence. And the privileged way to enter the night comes at the conclusion of Compline and the singing of the Salve Regina. The last word on our lips, then, each and every day, is a name, the name of the mother of Jesus, Mary. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria ... O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. 

SAINT LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI,

MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Another one from Mount Rainier is fitting for today, here with bear grass in abundance. O Lord, your mercy reaches to heaven; your faithfulness to the clouds.

© Gertrude Feick 2022