The Presentation of the Lord

Year of Saint Joseph

Catholic Schools Week

RB: Ch 7:44-48

Mass: Mal 3:1-4; Resp Ps 24; Heb 2:14-18; Lk 2:22-40 

Who is this king of glory? It is the Lord!

YOUR MERICFUL LOVE, O GOD, WE HAVE RECEIVED IN THE MIDST OF YOUR TEMPLE. YOUR PRAISE, O GOD, LIKE YOUR NAME, REACHES THE ENDS OF THE EARTH; YOUR RIGHT HAND IS FILLED WITH SAVING JUSTICE.

(Entrance Antiphon, Mass)

I have with me a picture postcard of The Descent from the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). The masterpiece hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium. Sadly, I've not seen it in person. The image with me is a detail of the work, with Simeon in the Temple holding the child Jesus in his arms. "Righteous and devout" Simeon, with the Holy Spirit upon him (Lk 2:25). Simeon is looking toward Heaven and blessing God, "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word ... " (Lk 2:29). I also see most precious Anna, who "never left the temple, but worshipped night and day with fasting and prayer" (Lk 2:37). She comes forward filled with delight and gives thanks to God (Lk 2:38).

Filled with awe and wonder, let us join Simeon and Anna today and bless God and give thanks.

Come and be enlightened, so as to be not merely carrying lamps but to be very lamps yourselves, shining inside and out, for yourselves and for your neighbors. Be a lamp then in heart, in hand, in lips.

(Guerric of Igny)

Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds over the peoples;

But upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears His glory.

Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance.

(Is 60:1-3)

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Becca strikes again with this look at Flapjack Lakes, Olympic National Park, Washington.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Other saints: Saint Brigid of Kildare (451?-525)

Catholic Schools Week

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:35-43

Mass: Heb 11:32-40; Resp Ps 31; Mk 5:1-20

Let your hearts take comfort, all who hope in the Lord.

LET YOUR FACE SHINE ON YOUR SERVANT. SAVE ME IN YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE. O LORD, LET ME NEVER BE PUT TO SHAME, FOR I CALL ON YOU.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

Welcome to February. It is also Monday so musings are brief.

First, with today's Gospel, my mind goes to the man with an unclean spirit who had frequently been bound with shackles and chains. I keep asking myself what shackles and chains are keeping me from staying focused and seeking the things that are above (Col. 3:1).

Second, we are immersed in Saint Benedict's chapter on humility, today in the fourth step of humility. All the steps of humility present challenges to us so that we grow in humility so as to better love and serve the Lord and our neighbor. For example, let's focus today on this: "In truth, those who are patient amid hardships and unjust treatment are fulfilling the Lord's command: When struck on one cheek, they turn another; when deprived of their coat, they offer their cloak also; when pressed into service for one mile, they go two (Mt 5:39-41). With the Apostle Paul, they bear with false brothers, endure persecution, and bless those who curse them (2 Cor 11:26; 1 Cor 4:12). (RB 7:42-43).

SAINT BRIGID OF KILDARE,

PRAY FOR US.

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: This morning 5:20am. You should have seen it in person. Wow. 😊

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Catholic Schools Week

In other years: Saint John Bosco (1815-1888)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:34

Mass: Dt 18:15-20; Resp Ps 95; 1 Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.

I SHOULD LIKE YOU TO BE FREE FROM ANXIETIES.

(1 Cor 7:32)

Thank you for this Saint Paul. No matter our state in life, we go on with anxieties about this and that. Sometimes we lose sight of what we are about as disciples of Jesus who keep our minds fixed on Him and constantly "seek the things that are above" (Col. 3:1). We strive to do the will of God in all things and yet we get distracted with the daily in the form of struggles, aches and pains, misunderstandings, irritations, joys and sorrows too. And our anxieties are exacerbated in these difficult times. Yet Saint Paul tells the Corinthians and us about the cause of some anxieties in today's first reading for this reason: "I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint on you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction" (Cor 7:35). 

We have to be reminded day in and day out and throughout each day too not to be distracted. It seems that the great Saint John Bosco was someone able to keep focused in the midst of many distractions including a cholera epidemic that hit Turin [Italy] in 1854. John and his co-workers looked after the sick and dying while the population as a whole refused to handle them. By the time the epidemic receded, "with a death toll of 1,400", neither John nor any of  his "boys" were infected. 

On Easter Sunday 1934, John Bosco was canonized a saint. At his canonization, Pope Pius XI, who had visited John Bosco some 50 years earlier, recalled this: "A man who was attentive to everything that happened around him and yet at the same time could not be said to be concerned about anything, his thoughts being elsewhere. And it was really so: he was elsewhere, he was with God". Saint John Bosco was extraordinary. At his funeral, "forty thousand people filed past his body while it lay in the church, and virtually the whole population of Turin lined the streets for his funeral ... he was the first canonized saint in whose honour a national holiday was declared in Italy, for the day following his canonization" (Butler's Lives of the Saints, January, pp. 226-230).

God will always save His Church, and the Madonna, who visibly protects the contemporary world, will know how to make redeemers rise up.

(Saint John Bosco)

May the Virgin Mary, who always kept Jesus' words and gestures in her heart, and followed Him with total willingness and faithfulness, help us to listen to Him and follow Him, to experience the signs of His salvation in our life.

(Pope Francis, Sunday Angelus Address, January 31, 2021) 

SAINT JOHN BOSCO,

PRAY FOR US.

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Saturday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:31-33

Mass: Heb 11:1-2, 8-19; Resp Ps (Lk 1); Mk 4:35-41

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel; He has come to His people.

FAITH IS THE REALIZATION OF WHAT IS HOPED FOR AND 

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN.

(Heb 11:1)

I like it when Jesus asks questions. In a boat with the disciples, Jesus sleeps while the disciples are afraid and anxious about the wind and waves that rock the boat. After being awakened by the frightened disciples, then rebuking the wind and calming the sea, Our Lord poses two questions for us to ponder: Why were you terrified? Do you not yet have faith? (Mk 4:40). Today seems like another good day to pray with the man whose son was possessed by a mute spirit: "I do believe, help my unbelief!" (Mk 9:24), and remember words of Our Lord: Everything is possible to one who has faith (Mk 9:23).

We turn to Mary, comforter of the afflicted, to please pray for us. 

Knowing in advance 

the course and outcome of all miseries

she sooths our fear

she awakens our faith

she strengthens our hope

she dispels our lack of confidence

she bolsters our timidness,

(Saint Bernard of Clairvaux)

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

National March for Life

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:24-30

Mass: Heb 10:32-39; Resp Ps 37; Mk 4:26-3

Take delight in the Lord, and He will grant you your heart's desire.

HEART OF JESUS, SALVATION OF THOSE WHO TRUST IN THEE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Some 20 years ago, shortly after I entered the monastery, I went to greet Sister Philomena of happy memory in the back garden. She looked me in the eyes and said: "I will pray for your perseverance." At that time I could not for the life of me figure out why someone would pray for my perseverance. I now better understand what she meant. As we hear in the Letter to the Hebrews, "You need great endurance to do the will of God and receive what He has promised" (Heb 10:36). We keep going though, for "we are not among those who draw back and perish, but among those who have faith and will possess life" (Heb 10:39). Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain (Ps 127:1). 

SAINT JOSEPH, GLORY OF HOME LIFE,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Yes, another look at the sky.😊

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor (1225-1274)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:19-23

Mass: Heb 10:19-25; Resp Ps 24; Mk 4:21-25

The Lord's is the earth and it fullness; the world and those who dwell in it.

IS A LAMP BROUGHT IN TO BE PLACED UNDER A BUSHEL BASKET OR UNDER A BED, AND NOT TO BE PLACED ON A LAMPSTAND?

(Mk 4:21)

I am no Thomist. However, I did have the privilege of studying for several years at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas in Rome, commonly called, the Angelicum. There I studied under and with, was advised and supported by Dominicans from all over the world, as well as many other bright and gracious people. It is fitting and right then to honor the teachers, students, and staff at the Angelicum by turning to Saint Thomas Aquinas for today's reflections.

Not unrelated to today's Gospel, especially Jesus' words to His disciples included above, we turn to the Angelic Doctor and his Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 188, where Thomas Aquinas writes "Of the Different Kinds of Religious Life". In the Sixth Article, he addresses whether a religious Order devoted to the contemplative life is more excellent than one that is given to the active life. Among other wisdom, Thomas Aquinas teaches this: "Accordingly we must say that the work of the active life is twofold. One proceeds from the fullness of contemplation, such as teaching and preaching. Wherefore Gregory says that the words of Psalm 144(145):7, "They shall publish the memory ... of Thy sweetness", refers to perfect men returning from their contemplation. And this work is more excellent than simple contemplation. For even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so it is better to give to others the fruit of one's contemplation than merely to contemplate ..."

Not unrelated to today's reading from the Holy Rule, we turn to the Summa, II-II, q. 83, "Of Prayer" with its seventeen articles. God is praised. Most specifically, we look to the Ninth Article on the Lord's Prayer. First though, Saint Benedict has something to say about the Lord's Prayer when writing on humility: "Truly, we are forbidden to do our own will, for Scripture tells us: Turn away from your desires. And in the Prayer too we ask God that his will be done in us" (RB 7:19-20). On the Lord's Prayer in general then, Thomas Aquinas calls the Prayer "most perfect, because, as Augustine says, if we pray rightly and fittingly, we can say nothing else but what is contained in this prayer of Our Lord ... Now in the Lord's Prayer not only do we ask for all that we may rightly desire, but also in the order wherein we ought to desire them, so that this prayer not only teaches us to ask, but also directs our affections". And on the words "thy will be done" specifically, Aquinas writes that they "rightly signify, 'May Thy commandments be obeyed' on earth as in heaven, i.e., by men as well as by angels".

How blessed we are with our faith tradition. In the midst of the Church he opened his mouth, and the Lord filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding and clothed him in a robe of glory (Entrance Antiphon, Mass).

And in the far chance that you ever get your hands on the December 2020 issue of The American Benedictine Reivew, see an article by Dominican Father Andrew Hofer, "St. Thomas Aquinas on St. Benedict". 

ANYONE WHO HAS EARS OUGHT TO HEAR.

(Mk 4:23)

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Another nice look at our second field this past Monday morning around 9am.

© Gertrude Feick 2021

Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540), Foundress of the Congregation of the Ursulines, the "oldest and most considerable teaching Order in the Roman Catholic Church"

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 7:10-18

Mass: Heb 10:11-18; Resp Ps 110; Mk 4:1-20

Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor.

IF YOU DO NOT TAKE YOUR STAND ON ME, YOU WILL NOT STAND FIRM.

(Is 7:9)

Today's Gospel brings to mind the passage from the Prophet Isaiah above. Who and what led me to the Prophet's words were Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in his Introduction to Christianity (Ignatius, 2004). One of the back cover blurbs is a fitting description of the book: "This is solid food that must be eaten slowly, but it is very nourishing and worth the effort." In a section entitled "Faith as Standing Firm and Understanding", J. Ratzinger writes: "Faith is ... defined as taking up a position, as taking a stand trustfully on the ground of the word of God" (p. 69). We must stand on the firm ground of the word of God and trust. May we be ones sown on rich soil, those who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and hundredfold (Mk 4:20). I believe, help my unbelief. 

Through prayer a new incarnation of the Word takes place. And we are the 'tabernacles' where the words of God want to be welcomed and preserved , so that they may visit the world ... through prayer, the word of God comes to abide in us and we in it ... the word inspires good intentions and sustains actions. 

(Pope Francis, General Audience, January 27, 2021)

Do in life what you would have wanted to do in death.

(Saint Angela Merici)

© Gertrude Feick 2021