Second Week in Ordinary Time

January is the month dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus

January 18-25: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 2:30 Qualities of the Abbot - Ch 4:62 Humility

He stooped toward me and heard my cry.

JESUS, LOVER OF US,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

MARY, FULL OF GRACE,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

(1 Cor 6:19)

Welcome to the anything but ordinary Second Week in Ordinary Time, during the month of January dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus, and the commencement of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. During this week, we turn to Saint Maria Gabriella Sagheddu of Unity (1914-1939), to intercede for us. In the papal encyclical Ut Unum Sint The call for Christian unity, Pope Saint John Paul II wrote this: "Sister Maria Gabriella, called by her vocation to be apart from the world, devoted her life to meditation and prayer centered on chapter seventeen of Saint John's Gospel, and offered her life for Christian unity. This is truly the cornerstone of all prayer: the total and unconditional offering of one's life to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The example of Sister Maria Gabriella is instructive; it helps us to understand that there are no special times, situations or places of prayer for unity. Christ's prayer to the Father is offered as a model for everyone, always and everywhere" (27). Saint Maria Gabriella Sagheddu's remains are at the Cistercian monastery in Vittorchiano, Italy; I have been there. For this, I give thanks to God. 

When preparing for today with today's Gospel, what came to mind when I read, "... as he watched Jesus walk by ..." (John 1:36), were the passages that I marked in my Magnificat this past week: "As He passed by the Sea of Galilee" (Mark 1:16); "On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew ..." (Mk 1:29); A leper came to Him and kneeling down begged Him and said, 'If you wish, you can make me clean" (Mk 1:40); ... it became known that He was at home. Many gathered together ..." (Mk 2:1-2); and "As He passed by ..." (Mk 2:13). I took note of Jesus' movement, and if He wasn't on the move, people went to Him. I asked myself if I notice when Jesus walks or passes by, or when He is sitting or standing at home or anywhere else, do I go to Him. The straight answer is, no, I do not. What a pity. However, it is time to be more alert and pay attention. Jesus is always on the move, and He is always present in our midst. It is time to get up and follow Him more closely. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. We are not our own; it is time to glorify God with mind, heart, soul, and in body. May we make known the name of the Father, so that the love with which the Father loves us, may be in all others. Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.

The voices this week come from Helen Simonson, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand: A Novel (Random House, 2011). There are more than a few keepers in this engaging work. And the first one speaks of the importance of reading, no matter what.

You are right, of course, but I tell myself that it does not matter what one reads-favorite authors, particular themes-as long as we read something. It is not even important to own books.

(Mrs. Ali to Major Pettigrew, p. 63)

Memories are like tomb painting, thought the Major, the colors still vivid no matter how many layers of mud and sand time deposited. Scrape at them and they come up all red and blazing.

(p. 64)

"The world is full of small ignorances," said a quiet voice. Mrs. Ali appeared at his elbow and gave the young woman a stern look. "We must all do our best to ignore them and thereby keep them small, don't you think?"

(P. 66)

"You know my wife used to laugh at me in just the same manner," he said. "She said if I maintained my aversion to change I risked being reincarnated as a granite post."
(Major Pettigrew to Mrs. Ali, pp. 110-111)

"I don't believe the greatest views in the world are great because they are vast or exotic," she said. "I think their power comes from the knowledge that they do not change. You look at them and you know that they have been the same for a thousand years."

(Mrs. Ali to Major Pettigrew, p. 111)

"But on a spiritual level, there is something about the edge of the land that does make one feel closer to God. A sobering sense of one's smallness, I think."

(Major Pettigrew to Mrs. Ali, p. 193)

"A letter unposted is a heavy burden."

(Major Pettigrew to Mrs. Ali, p. 194)

"But I think a life of faith must start with remembering that humility is the first virtue before God."

(Major Pettigrew to Abdul Wahid, p. 203)

He had always assumed gossip to be the malicious whispering of uncomfortable truths, not the fabrication of absurdities. How was one to protect oneself against people making things up? Was a life of careful, impeccable behavior not enough in a world where inventions were passed around as fact."

(Major Pettigrew, p. 253)

"It is funny, isn't it? she said in a quiet voice. "A couple may have nothing in common but the color of their skin and the country of their ancestors, but the whole world will see them as compatible."

(Mrs. Ali, p. 265)

She hurried down the driveway and as she disappeared, blue dress into deep night, he knew he was a fool. Yet at the moment, he could not find a way to be a different man.

(Major Pettigrew, p. 266)

"You have no idea, Major, how hard it is to keep up with the world sometimes-just to keep up with ourselves. I guess I let myself dream I could get out for a while."

(Sandy, p. 280)

"Oh, I deserved it completely," said Grace. "It's so much easier to tell other people how to do their job than fix one's own shortcomings, isn't it?"

(Grace to Major Pettigrew, p. 288)

"You are mistaken, Ernest," she said at last. "There is only the passionate spark. Without it, two people living together may be lonelier than if they lived quite alone."

(Grace to Major Pettigrew, p. 291)

"Unlike you, who must do a cost-benefit analysis of every human interaction," he said, "I have no idea what I hope to accomplish. I only know that I must try to see her. That's what love is about, Roger. It's when a woman drives all lucid thought from your head; when you are unable to contrive romantic stratagems, and the usual manipulations fail you; when all your carefully laid plans have no meaning and all you can do is stand mute in her presences. You hope she takes pity on you and drops a few words of kindness into the vacuum of your mind."

(Major Pettigrew to his son Roger, p. 298)

"How can we not all feel it? We are small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for our own advantage and making the very mistakes for which we want to humiliate our neighbors."

(Major Pettigrew to Abdul Wahid, p. 341)

"But it's not enough to be in love. It's about how you spend your days, what you do together, who you choose as friends, and most of all it's what work you do."

(Amina to Major Pettigrew, p. 351)

SAINT FELIX OF NOLA,

SAINTS MAUR AND PLACID,

POPE SAINT MARCELLUS,

SAINT ITA,

SAINT REMIGIUS,

SAINT PAUL OF THEBES,

SAINT FURSA,

SAINT JOSEPH VAZ,

SAINT ANTHONY, ABBOT,

SAINT MARGARET OF HUNGARY, OP,

SAINT CHARLES OF SEZZE,

THE JESUIT MARTYRS OF THE REFORMATION,

SAINT WULSTAN,

SAINT FAOLAN,

SAINT HENRY OF UPPSALA,

SAINT CANUTE,

BLESSED ANDREW PESCHIERA,

POPE SAINT FABIAN, MARTYR,

SAINT SEBASTIAN, MARTYR,

MARY, QUEEN OF MARTYRS,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: I spotted this on a walk with my beloved sister. A hymn to our God. 

© Gertrude Feick 2024