Wednesday 7 October 2020
Our Lady of the Rosary
on Wednesday of week 27 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Our Lady of the Rosary
Virgin and Child with a Rosary (c.1650) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), Museo del Prado, Madrid.
From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux
We should meditate on the mysteries of salvation
The child to be born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the Word of the Father on high. Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become flesh, so that even though, as he says: I am in the Father and the Father is in me, it is still true for him to say: “I came forth from God and am here.”
In the beginning was the Word. The spring was gushing forth, yet still within himself. Indeed, the Word was with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light. And the Lord said from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. Yet your thought was locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not know; for who knew the mind of the Lord, or who was his counsellor?
And so the idea of peace came down to do the work of peace: The Word was made flesh and even now dwells among us. It is by faith that he dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our imagination. What concept could man have of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, he was invisible and unthinkable, but now he wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.
But how, you ask, was this done? He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer. He hung on a cross, grew pale in death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose again on the third day, and showed the apostles the wounds of the nails, the signs of victory; and finally in their presence he ascended to the sanctuary of heaven.
How can we not contemplate this story in truth, piety and holiness? Whatever of all this I consider, it is God I am considering; in all this he is my God. I have said it is wise to meditate on these truths, and I have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root; and Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this sweetness to overflow for us.
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The ferial reading for today:
Wednesday of week 27 in Ordinary Time
From St Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Trallians
Faith is the body of the Lord and love is his blood
Take on meekness. Be renewed in faith, which is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. Let none of you have a grudge against his neighbour. Give no occasion to the heathen: do not let the congregation of God be blasphemed because of the behaviour of a few foolish persons. For Woe to him who makes anyone blaspheme my name without a cause.
Be deaf therefore when anyone preaches to you without mentioning Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, who was truly born of Mary, who truly ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who was also truly raised from the dead, when his Father raised him up — just as his Father will raise us up, believers in Christ Jesus without whom we have no true life.
Flee from these preachers, these wicked offshoots that bear deadly fruit, one taste of which is fatal. These have not been planted by the Father; if they had been, they would grow as branches of the Cross and their fruit would be incorruptible. Through the Cross he calls you, who are parts of his own body, to himself. A head cannot come into being alone, without the rest of the body; for God promises unity, as he himself is unity.
I greet you from Smyrna together with the Churches of God that are present with me, men who in all things have given me solace in the flesh and in the spirit. I carry my chains for the sake of Jesus Christ, praying that I may attain to God; and these chains appeal to you to continue in your present harmony and in prayer with one another. For it is right that each of you, and especially the presbyters, should give the bishop peace of mind, to the honour of the Father, of Jesus Christ, and of the Apostles. I appeal to you to listen to me in love, so that this letter can never be used in evidence against you. And pray for me also, for I have need of your love in the mercy of God, that I may be granted the lot which I am set to obtain, and not be rejected.
The love of the Smyrnaeans and Ephesians greets you: remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, of which I am the most undeserving member. Farewell in Jesus Christ. Submit yourselves to the bishop as you would to God’s commandments, submit to the clergy likewise. Let each of you individually love one another with an undivided heart. My spirit is consecrated to you not only now, but also when I reach the presence of God. I am still in peril, but the Father can be trusted in Jesus Christ to fulfil both your prayers and mine. May you be found blameless in Christ.
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.