Saturday 3 October 2020
Saturday of week 26 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Saturday of week 26 in Ordinary Time
A book on Christian life by St Gregory of Nyssa
Fight the good fight of faith
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation; the old has passed away. Now by the “new creation” Paul means the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a heart that is pure and blameless, free of all malice, wickedness or shamefulness. For when a soul has come to hate sin and has delivered itself as far as it can to the power of virtue, it undergoes a transformation by receiving the grace of the Spirit. Then it is healed, restored and made wholly new. Indeed the two texts: Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new one, and: Let us celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, support those passages which speak about the new creation.
Yet the tempter spreads many a snare to trap the soul, and of itself human nature is too weak to defeat him. This is why the Apostle bids us to arm ourselves with heavenly weapons, when he says: Put on the breastplate of righteousness and have your feet shod with the gospel of peace and have truth around your waist as a belt. Can you not see how many forms of salvation the Apostle indicates, all leading to the same path and the same goal? Following them to the heights of God’s commandments, we easily complete the race of life. For elsewhere the Apostle says: Let us run with fidelity the race that has been set before us, with our eyes on Jesus, the origin and the goal of our faith.
So a man who openly despises the accolades of this world and rejects all earthly glory must also practise self-denial. Such self-denial means that you never seek your own will but God’s, using God’s will as a sure guide; it also means possessing nothing apart from what is held in common. In this way it will be easier for you to carry out your superior’s commands promptly, in joy and in hope; this is required of Christ’s servants who are redeemed for service to the brethren. For this is what the Lord wants when he says: Whoever wishes to be first and great among you must be the last of all and a servant to all.
Our service of mankind must be given freely. One who is in such a position must be subject to everyone and serve his brothers as if he were paying off a debt. Moreover, those who are in charge should work harder than the others and conduct themselves with greater submission than their own subjects. Their lives should serve as a visible example of what service means, and they should remember that those who are committed to their trust are held in trust from God.
Those, then, who are in a position of authority must look after their brothers as conscientious teachers look after the young children who have been handed over to them by their parents. If both disciples and masters have this loving relationship, then subjects will be happy to obey whatever is commanded, while superiors will be delighted to lead their brothers to perfection. If you try to outdo one another in showing respect, your life on earth will be like that of the angels.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
The Blessed Martyrs of Sussex
From the Speech of Blessed William Howard, Viscount Stafford, before his execution on Tower Hill
I have no reason to be ashamed of my religion
By the permission of Almighty God, I am this day brought hither to suffer death, as if I were guilty of High Treason. I do most truly, in the presence of the Eternal, Omnipotent and all-knowing God, protest upon my salvation, that I am as innocent as it is possible for any man to be so much as in a thought of the crimes laid to my charge.
Since my long imprisonment, I have considered often what could be the original cause of my being thus accused, and I cannot believe it to be upon any other account than my being of the Church of Rome. I have no reason to be ashamed of my religion, for it teacheth me nothing but the right worship of God, obedience to the King, and due subordination to the temporal laws of the Kingdom. And I do submit to all Articles of Faith believed and taught in the Catholic Church, believing them to be most consonant to the Word of God.
I believe and profess that there is one God, one Saviour, one holy Catholic Church, of which through the mercy, grace and goodness of God I die a member. To my great and unspeakable grief, I have offended God in many things, by many great offences; but I give Him most humble thanks, not in any of those crimes of which I was accused.
I shall end with my hearty prayers for the happiness of His Majesty, that he may enjoy all happiness in this world and the world to come, and govern his people according to the laws of God, and that the people may be sensible what a blessing God hath so miraculously given them, and obey him as they ought. I ask pardon of Almighty God, for all the great offences that I have committed against His Divine Majesty, and hope through the Merits and Passion of Christ Jesus to obtain Everlasting Happiness. Into His hands I commit my spirit, asking pardon of every person that I have done any wrong unto. I do freely forgive all that have any ways wronged me. I do with all the devotion and repentance that I can, humbly invoke the mercy of Our Blessed Saviour. I beseech God not to revenge my innocent blood on the nation, or on those that were the causes of it; I do with my last breath truly assert my innocency, and hope the Omnipotent, All-Seeing, Just God will deal with me accordingly.
Copyright © 1996-2020 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.