Monday 1 February 2021
Monday of week 4 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Monday of week 4 in Ordinary Time
From a treatise on the psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers
The hearts and minds of all believers were one
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity! It is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity, because when they do so their association creates the assembly of the Church. The term “brothers” describes the bond of affection arising from their singleness of purpose.
We read that when the apostles first preached, the chief instruction they gave lay in this saying: The hearts and minds of all believers were one. So it is fitting for the people of God to be brothers under one Father, to be united under one Spirit, to live in harmony under one roof, to be limbs of one body.
It is pleasant and good for brothers to dwell in unity. The prophet suggested a comparison for this good and pleasant activity when he said: It is like the ointment on the head which ran down over the beard of Aaron, down upon the collar of his garment. Aaron’s oil was made of the perfumes used to anoint a priest. It was God’s decision that his priest should have his consecration first, and that our Lord should be so anointed, but not visibly, by those who are joined with him. Aaron’s anointing did not belong to this world; it was not done with the horn used for kings, but with the oil of gladness. So afterwards Aaron was called the anointed one as the Law prescribed.
When this oil is poured out upon men of unclean heart, it snuffs out their lives, but when it is received as an anointing of love, it exudes the sweet odour of harmony with God. As Paul says, we are the goodly fragrance of Christ. So just as it was pleasing to God when Aaron was anointed priest with this oil, so it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity.
Now the oil ran down from his head to his beard. A beard adorns a man of mature years. We must not be children before Christ except in the restricted scriptural sense of being children in wickedness but not in our way of thinking. Now Paul calls all who lack faith, children, because they are too weak to take solid food and still need milk. As he says: I fed you with milk rather than the solid food for which you were not yet ready; and you are still not ready.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Blessed Benedict Daswa, Martyr
Photograph from Southern Cross magazine, 2017.
From the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Africae Munus" of Pope Benedict XVI
Cultivate interior life and relationship with God in all circumstances
In Africa’s present situation the Church is called to make the voice of Christ heard. Through her ability to see the face of Christ on the face of children, the sick, the needy and those who suffer, the Church is helping slowly but surely to forge a new Africa. In her prophetic role, whenever peoples cry out to her: “Watchman, what of the night?” (Is 21:11), the Church wants to be ready to give a reason for the hope she bears within her (cf.1 Pet 3:15), because a new dawn is breaking on the horizon (cf.Rev 22:5). Only by rejecting people’s dehumanization and every compromise prompted by fear of suffering or martyrdom can the cause of the Gospel of truth be served. “In the world”, said Christ, “you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).
Through her lay members, the Church is present and active in the world. Lay people have an important role to play in the Church and in society. Lay men and women, in fact, are “ambassadors of Christ” (2 Cor 5:20) in the public sphere, in the heart of the world! Their Christian witness will be credible only if they are competent and honest professional people.
Lay men and women are called, above all, to holiness, a holiness which is to be lived in the world. Dear members of the faithful: cultivate your interior life and your relationship with God, so that the Holy Spirit may enlighten you in all circumstances. In order to ensure that the human person and the common good remain effectively at the centre of all human, political, economic or social activity, deepen your union with Christ, so as to know and love him by devoting time to God in prayer and in the reception of the sacraments. Allow yourselves to be enlightened and instructed by God and by his Word.
I would like to dwell again on the distinctive feature of a Christian’s professional life. In a word, it means bearing witness to Christ in the world by showing, through your example, that work can be a very positive setting for personal development and not primarily a means of making profit. Your work enables you to participate in the work of creation and to serve your brothers and sisters. Acting in this way, you will be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”, as the Lord asks of us. In daily life, put into practice the preferential option for the poor, whatever your position in society, in accordance with the spirit of the Beatitudes (cf.Mt 5:3-12), so as to see in them the face of Jesus who calls you to serve him (cf.Mt 25:31-46).
“May the memory of the great witnesses who gave their lives in service of the Gospel and the common good, or for the defence of truth and human rights, be kept alive and faithfully recalled”. For the saints are the true stars of our life, those “who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by — people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way.”
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Blessed Candelaria of Saint Joseph, Virgin
From a circular letter by Blessed Candelaria of Saint Joseph
I wish for you to receive this advice as having been inspired by God
Having given you my blessing, in the name of God, [I write to you] in fulfilment of a duty. On the eleventh day of this month, at 9 o’clock in the morning, in the great hall of the holy Novitiate, the following authorities were gathered: his Excellency Signor Dottor Sixto Sosa, most worthy diocesan bishop, accompanied by Monsignor Dottor José Maria Pibernat, Domestic Prelate of His Holiness, Vicar General of the Episcopate, and the Reverend Father Costantino de la Vega, capuchin.
Prayers having been said, in accordance with Carmelite ritual, Monsignor Pibernat read out paragraphs 248 to 274 of our holy Constitutions. Following completion of these readings, your servant resigned her office to the Prelate (an office she had held for twelve years), returned the seal, asked forgiveness for her failings and received signs of gratitude expressed by the Prelate in the form of a brief verbal exhortation [...].
You can imagine the sadness it brings me to hand over this Congregation to the Most Reverend Mother Luisa Teresa.
Every one of us must seek to be a good religious, to make our contribution. We must commit ourselves to strive for every virtue and seek to stand in the presence of God, who one day will judge us: let us serve him with respect, as even the angels tremble in his presence. We are bound to love him with all of our heart, our life and our intellect. Each of us has received invaluable graces, which we must not disregard.
We must observe our Constitutions, which have been approved by Monsignor Sosa for the Carmelite Sisters of Venezuela; we must take part in the Holy Mass respectfully and pray assiduously; we must practice the daily litanies, visit the Most Holy Sacrament, take spiritual communion; let us not be found lacking in moderation of appearance and language, in our commitment to scrupulously observe silence and to speak of God in our leisure times. Inspire all with devotion to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Most Holy Virgin and to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The best way to achieve this is to observe silence in imitation of the profound silence which He observes in the Host. The words of the religious must always be very pure, as to speak of forbidden things is deplorable and a sin against the Holy Spirit.
For the love of God, we must all love each other; let us avoid specific friendships. Let us avoid gossip, and instead correct the defects we observe in our Sisters with our own good example. Call upon the assistance of the Most Holy Virgin. Let us be attentive during morning meditation and during the reading of the Constitutions. Let us strive not to be indolent; let us raise our hearts to God in order to reap the spiritual fruits of our good deeds.
Beloved sisters, I wish for you to understand me fully: I wish for you to receive this advice as having been inspired by God. I furthermore exhort you to undertake the special examination for weekly confession, with the five points indicated by the Holy Church in Catechism: the examination of conscience, the pain of our sins, the promise to never commit them again, the confession of our sins to the confessor and the satisfaction of penitence. All of this will help us to stand serene and in the grace of God, who awaits us with open arms on the day on which we must appear before his awesome judgement.
Copyright © 1996-2021 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.