Monday 4 April 2022
Monday of the 5th week of Lent
(optional commemoration of Saint Isidore, Bishop, Doctor)
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Monday of the 5th week of Lent
From the commentary on the penitential psalms (1555) by St John Fisher, bishop and martyr
If anyone should sin, we have an advocate before the Father
Christ Jesu is our bishop, his most precious body is our sacrifice, which he offered upon a cross for the redemption of all the world.
The blood shed for our redemption was not the blood of goats or calves as in the old law, it was the very blood most innocent of our saviour Jesus Christ.
The temple wherein our bishop did sacrifice was not made by man’s hand but only by the power of God, he shed his precious blood for our redemption in the face of all the world, which is the temple made only by the hand of God.
This temple has two divers parts, one is the earth whereon we inhabit, the other is not yet known to us mortal creatures.
First he did sacrifice in the earth when he suffered his passion. After, in a new clothing or garment, the vesture of immortality, and with his own precious blood he entered into sanctum sanctorum [the Holy of Holies] that is to say into heaven when he shewed his said most precious blood before the throne of his father which he shed for all sinners 7 times.
By this holy sacrifice almighty God must needs have pity and execute his mercy to all true penitents and this sacrifice shall continue not only year by year as the manner was of Jews, but also it is daily offered for our comfort, and every hour and moment for our most strong succour, wherefore saint Paul says Having obtained eternal redemption.
By it we are redeemed for ever. Every contrite and true penitent person not willing to fall again but with a full purpose to continue in virtuous living is partaker of this holy sacrifice.
As saint John shews in his first epistle: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Other choices for today:
Saint Isidore, Bishop, Doctor
A painting (1655) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), at Seville Cathedral.
From the Book of Sentences, by St Isidore
The scribe who is learned about the Kingdom of Heaven
We are purified by prayer and we are instructed by reading. Each of these is good, if it is possible to do both. But if we cannot do both, it is better to pray than to read.
If anyone wants to be always with God, he ought to pray often and to read often as well. For when we pray, it is we who talk to God, whereas when we read, it is God who speaks to us.
All spiritual progress derives from reading and meditation. For in reading we learn things of which we were ignorant, and in meditation we preserve what we have learned.
The reading of scripture brings a two-fold benefit: in the first place it enriches the understanding, and in the second place it draws men away from the vanities of the world and leads them to the love of God.
Reading has a double object – first how the scriptures can be properly understood, and secondly, in what way they can be usefully and worthily proclaimed. For in the first place a man will be ready to understand what he has read, and the ability to convey to others what he has learned will come as a consequence.
The zealous student will be very ready to put into action what he has read, rather than only to understand it. For there is less hardship in not knowing what you want than in not being able to carry out what you know.
The only way of understanding the meaning of sacred scripture is through familiarity with the text, as it is written: ‘Prize her highly, and she will exalt you: she will honour you if you embrace her.’
The more conscientious one is in becoming familiar with the sacred writings, the richer an understanding one will draw from them: as with the earth – the more it is cultivated, the more abundant is its harvest.
Some people are naturally endowed with intelligence, but they neglect the pursuit of reading and they despise by their neglect the things which they might have been able to know by reading. On the other hand, some people have a love of knowledge, but are hindered through a slowness of understanding; but they do manage through constant reading to acquire the wisdom which the cleverer people in their idleness do not.
Just as the one who is slow at understanding, nevertheless gains the prize for good study because of his application, so the one who neglects the natural ability to understand, which he has been given by God, stands as a culprit to be condemned, since he despises the gift he has received, and sins through idleness.
Teaching that is poured into the ears without the aid of grace, never descends to the heart; it makes a great noise outside, but it never gives profit inside. The word of God, heard with the ears, only then reaches the depths of the heart, when the grace of God touches the mind within, so that it can understand.
Copyright © 1996-2022 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.