Saturday 12 June 2021
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
on Saturday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
The Immaculate Heart of Mary
A sermon of St Laurence Justinian
Mary kept all these things in her heart
As Mary pondered all she had learned from reading and from what she had heard and seen, how greatly did she increase in faith, advance in merit and become enlightened with wisdom! More and more she was consumed with burning love. Drawing life and inspiration from the heavenly mysteries which were being unlocked for her, she was filled with joy; she became alive with the Spirit, she was guided towards God and was kept humble in herself. The effects of divine grace are such indeed that they raise one from the depths to the heights, and transform one in an ever greater degree of glory. Entirely blessed was the mind of the Virgin which, through the direction of the Spirit dwelling in her, ever obeyed the command of the Word of God in all things. She was governed not by her own judgement or opinions, but she outwardly performed through her body whatever wisdom had indicated inwardly to her faith. It was surely fitting that divine Wisdom, which had built the house of the Church for its abode, should use most holy Mary as its instrument, where the observance of the law, purification of the heart, the doctrine of humility and spiritual offering were concerned.
Imitate her, O faithful soul. Enter into the temple of your heart that you may be purified in spirit and cleansed of the pollution of your sins. In everything we do God considers our disposition rather than our actions. And so, whether we retire mentally to God in earnest contemplation and remain at rest or whether we are intent on being of service to those around us with good works and worthy undertakings, let our object be that we are motivated only by love of Christ. So the really acceptable offering of purification of the spirit is that which is rendered not in a man-made temple but in the temple of the heart, where Christ the Lord is pleased to enter.
________
The ferial reading for today:
Saturday of week 10 in Ordinary Time
The Explanations of the Psalms by Saint Ambrose: Psalm 1
I shall sing in spirit, and with understanding
What is more pleasing than a psalm? David expresses it well: Praise the Lord, for a song of praise is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness and grace. Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, a hymn in praise of God, the assembly’s homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song. It is the voice of complete assent, the joy of freedom, a cry of happiness, the echo of gladness. It soothes the temper, distracts from care, lightens the burden of sorrow. It is a source of security at night, a lesson in wisdom by day. It is a shield when we are afraid, a celebration of holiness, a vision of serenity, a promise of peace and harmony. It is like a lyre, evoking harmony from a blend of notes. Day begins to the music of a psalm. Day closes to the echo of a psalm.
In a psalm, instruction vies with beauty. We sing for pleasure. We learn for our profit. What experience is not covered by a reading of the psalms? I come across the words: A song for the beloved, and I am aflame with desire for God’s love. I go through God’s revelation in all its beauty, the intimations of resurrection, the gifts of his promise. I learn to avoid sin. I see my mistake in feeling ashamed of repentance for my sins.
What is a psalm but a musical instrument to give expression to all the virtues? The psalmist of old used it, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, to make earth re-echo the music of heaven. He used the dead gut of strings to create harmony from a variety of notes, in order to send up to heaven the song of God’s praise. In doing so he taught us that we must first die to sin, and then create in our lives on earth a harmony through virtuous deeds, if the grace of our devotion is to reach up to the Lord.
David thus taught us that we must sing an interior song of praise, like Saint Paul, who tells us: I shall pray in spirit, and also with understanding; I shall sing in spirit, and also with understanding. We must fashion our lives and shape our actions in the light of the things that are above. We must not allow pleasure to awaken bodily passions, which weigh our soul down instead of freeing it. The holy prophet told us that his songs of praise were to celebrate the freeing of his soul, when he said: I shall sing to you, God, on the Lyre, holy one of Israel; my lips will rejoice when I have sung to you, and my soul also, which you have set free.
________
In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Blessed Alphonsus Mary Mazurek and Companions, Priest and Martyrs
From the addresses of Pope John Paul II
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness
“Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Mt 5:10) In a particular way, this beatitude places the events of Good Friday before our eyes. Christ was condemned to death as a criminal, and then crucified. On Calvary it seemed he had been abandoned by God and left at the mercy of people’s derision.
The Gospel proclaimed by Christ was put to a radical test: those who were present at the event cried out, “He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him” (Mt 27:42). Christ does not descend from the cross since he is faithful to his Gospel. He suffers human injustice. Only in this way, in fact, is he able to accomplish the justification of mankind.
Above all, he wanted the words of the sermon on the mount to be verified in himself: “Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you” (Mt 5:11-12).
To whom do these words still apply? To many, many people throughout humanity’s history, to whom it was given to suffer persecution for the sake of justice. We know that the first three centuries after Christ were marked by persecutions, at times terrible, particularly under some Roman emperors from Nero to Diocletian. Even though these ceased from the time of the Edict of Milan, nevertheless they broke out again in various historical eras, in numerous places throughout the world.
Even our century has written a great martyrology. I myself, over the twenty years of my pontificate, have elevated to the glory of the altar numerous groups of martyrs: Japanese, French, Vietnamese, Spanish, Mexican. How many there were during the period of the Second World War and under the communist totalitarian system! They suffered and gave their life in the Hitlerian or Soviet extermination camps.
The time has now come to remember all these victims and to render due honour to them. These are often Nameless, “unknown soldiers” as it were, of God’s great cause, as I wrote in the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (37). It is also good to speak of them on Polish land, since here there was a particular sharing in this contemporary martyrology. They are an example for us to follow. From their blood we should draw strength for the sacrifice of our life, which we ought to offer to God every day. They are an example for us to give a courageous witness of fidelity to the Cross of Christ, as they did.
I am happy that I was able to beatify, among the one hundred and eight martyrs, Blessed Father Alphonsus Mary Mazurek, a pupil, and much later, a well-deserving educator in the minor seminary connected to the Discalced Carmelite monastery. I had an occasion of meeting personally with this witness to Christ, who in 1944, as prior of the Czerna monastery, sealed his faithfulness to God with death through martyrdom. I kneel in veneration before his relics which rest in the church of Saint Joseph and I thank God for the gift of the life, the martyrdom and sanctity of this great religious.
________
Blessed Hilary Januszewski, Priest, Martyr
From the Canonical Process for the beatification of Hilary Januszewski, priest and martyr
He gave his life that others might live
Paweł Januszewski was born in Krajenki, Poland, June 11, 1907. At the age of twenty he sensed a vocation to the Carmelite Order and entered the Order in the friary of Cracow, taking the religious name Hilary. He was sent to Rome, to the International College of St Albert, for his theological studies, and there be made his solemn vows, and in 1934 he was ordained to the priesthood. The following year, having earned the degree of Lector in Theology and having won the prize awarded to the best prepared student by the Roman Academy of St Thomas Aquinas, be returned to his homeland. There he was named prefect of clerics and sacristan in the friary of Cracow. In 1939, when war was immanent, he was named prior of the same friary.
Father Hilary was inflexible in his demands on himself, but very charitable with others. He showed special concern for the sick and the needy. He was widely known for his devotion, a quality particularly evident in his apostolic zeal, in his celebration of Holy Mass, in his prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, in other religious practices and in his fervent love for his Order. He spent long periods before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the church of Cracow. He gave frequent, well-prepared conferences to the clerics, and he took great pains as bursar to see to it that everyone without distinction – clerics, brothers, priests – had what he needed.
On December 4, 1940, the Gestapo arrested several religious. Father Hilary, who spoke German fluently, did everything possible to free them; he even offered himself in place of an aged and infirm confrère. So began his Calvary, which was to end in the concentration camp at Dachau.
There he was assigned to the arduous labour in the fields; regardless of his situation, he never forgot he was a priest and religious: a man of prayer who gave good example and exhorted the others to hope for a better future. He encouraged them, he ministered to them, he helped them. When he received some little gift from his confrères in Cracow, he shared it with them in all simplicity. He consoled his fellow prisoners with the hope of returning to Poland, and he inspired them saying: “You are to return to Cracow and work in the Lord’s vineyard.”
Evenings, after the final roll call, the Carmelite prisoners gathered together, always secretly, for prayer. Carmelites of other countries also participated, such as the Dutch Carmelite Blessed Titus Brandsma.
When the war was almost over and rescue seemed finally near, an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out. None of those responsible for the care of the victims was willing to help them.
At that point the authorities turned to the priests: thirty-two of them volunteered for this service, fully aware that they were facing almost certain death. Among them was Father Hilary.
Archbishop Kozlowski, a Jesuit, survived the camp and provided the following testimony: “Their decision was truly heroic, dictated by true love of neighbour. What we experienced during those five years could have annihilated any ideals. The ruthless struggle for survival could have been a source of selfishness and indifference toward others. But these heroic priests are a clear witness that the commandment of love, love of neighbour, promulgated by Christ is not pure utopianism, but rather an authentic reality that conquers even where blind hatred is master.”
Father Hilary confided in one of his friends, “I have made my decision, even though I am aware I will not come out of there alive.” He served the infected victims for twenty days, with some hundred dying each day. He himself died on the Feast of the Annunciation in 1945, a few days before the death camp was freed. Fr Hilary Paweł Januszewski was called to the glory of Christ, and so – filled with hope – ended his young life.
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.