St.Augusitine writing Confessions
While remembering all his youthful follies, he remembers how God's unfarthomable grace has been a shield for him, how grace leads to discover his faith into Three in One God.
Divine Illumination
St: Augustine receive divine illumination from Jesus the Son of God and Mary, the mother of Jesus, enlightening him while he is writing his discourse.
St.MONICA and St.AUGUSTINE at Ecstacy at Ostia
Two saints, mother and son receive a vision of heaven at Ostia, near Rome. It was the last moment of the two being together, looking heaven ward, and later St.Monica died and was buried there.
Seminarians on the wall.
With co-seminarians, where trying to escape the scourging sunlight, sitting on the fence and keeping ourselves calm with jokes.
Rosary Garden at Tabor Hill, Talamban
A place of prayer and peace, a place of love and charity where being together with the mother of our Divine Lord, and recitation of Holy Rosary knocks the doors of Heaven.
31 January, 2013
Interesting Bible Facts
30 January, 2013
Daily Gospel
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
St. Angela Merici, Virgin (c. 1470-1540)
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose : "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing"
Reading
Lk 1:1-4.4:14-21.
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Commentary on Psalm 1, §33 ; CSEL 64, 28-30
"Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing"
Drink first of the Old Testament so as to drink afterward of the New. If
you do not drink of the first you will not be able to quench your thirst at
the second. Drink of the first to take your thirst away, of the second to
staunch it completely... Drink of the cup of both the Old Testament and the
New for in these two you drink Christ. Take away your thirst with Christ
for he is the vine, he is the rock that caused water to gush forth, he is
the spring of life. Drink Christ for he is “the stream whose runlets
gladden the city of God”, he is peace and “from his breast flow rivers of
living water”. Drink Christ to quench your thirst with the blood of your
redemption and the Word of God. The Old Testament is his word and so is the
New. We drink Holy Scripture and we eat it and then the eternal Word
descends into the veins of the spirit and the life of the soul: “Not by
bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the
mouth of God”. Therefore, quench your thirst with this Word yet in its
proper order: first drink it in the Old Testament and then, without
delaying, in the New. He himself says almost insistently: “People who walk
in darkness, see this great light; you who dwell in a land of death, a
light has shone upon you”. So drink without delay and a great light will
enlighten you: no longer the ordinary light of day, whether that of the sun
or the moon, but the light that casts out the shadow of death.(Biblical
references : Jn 15,1; 1Co 10,4; Ps 36[37],10; 45[46],5; Eph 2,14; Jn 7,38;
Dt 8,3; Mt 4,4; Is 9,1 LXX; Mt 4,16; Lk 1,79)
20 January, 2013
Daily Gospel
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C
Week of prayer for Christian unity
St. Sebastian, Martyr (c. 257-c. 288)
Commentary of the day
Saint Maximus of Turin : The new wine of true joy
Reading
Jn 2:1-11.
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."
(And) Jesus said to her, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom
and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Saint Maximus of Turin (?-c.420), Bishop
Sermon 23 ; PL 57, 274
The new wine of true joy
It is written that our Lord went to the wedding feast to which he had been
invited. So the Son of God went to that wedding feast to sanctify by his
presence the marriage he had already instituted. He went to a wedding of
the old law to choose a bride for himself among the pagans, who would
remain for ever a virgin. He, who was not born of human wedlock, went to
the wedding. He went there, not to participate in a joyful feast, but to
make himself known by means of a truly wonderful miracle. He went there,
not to drink wine but to give it. For as soon as the guests lacked wine
blessed Mary said to him: “They have no wine”. Jesus, seemingly annoyed,
answered her: “Woman, what do you want of me?”... By responding that: “My
hour has not yet come” he was surely announcing the glorious hour of his
Passion, or else the wine shed for the salvation and life of all. Mary
asked for a temporal favor whereas Christ was preparing an eternal
joy.However, our good Lord did not hold back from granting small things
while awaiting the coming of the great. Blessed Mary, because she was truly
the mother of the Lord, saw in her mind what was about to take place and
knew beforehand the Lord's intention. That is why she carefully warned the
servants in these words: “Do whatever he tells you”. His holy mother most
certainly knew that her son and Lord's words of reproach did not contain
the feelings of an angered man but a mystery of compassion... And now,
see!, suddenly those waters began to gain strength, to take on color, to
shed a good odor, to acquire taste and, at the same time, to completely
change their nature. And this transformation of water into another
substance testified to the presence of the Creator, for no one apart from
the one who created water out of nothing could have transformed it into
something else.
13 January, 2013
Daily Gospel
The Baptism of the Lord - Feast
St Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (c. 315- c. 367), St. Veronica of Binasco, Religious (144-1497)
Commentary of the day
Saint John Chrysostom : "The holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove"
Reading
Lk 3:15-16.21-22.
The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying, "I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire.
After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened
and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day
Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407), priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church
Homilies on Saint Matthew's Gospel, no.12 ; PG 57, 201
"The holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove"
Let us consider the great miracle that took place following the Savior's
baptism; it is prelude to what would shortly follow. Not the Paradise of
old but heaven itself opens: “After Jesus was baptized... behold, the
heavens were opened” (Mt 3,16). Why did heaven open when Jesus Christ was
baptized? To teach that the same thing invisibly happens at your own
baptism: at that moment God calls you to your homeland in heaven and
invites you to have nothing further in common with earth... If we do not
now see the same signs nevertheless we receive the same graces of which
these signs were the symbol.Then a dove was seen descending: it showed John
the Baptist and the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God. It would also teach
each one of us that the holy Spirit comes down on our soul at the moment of
baptism. It no longer comes in visible form because we no longer need it
to: faith is enough now...Why does the Holy Spirit appear in the form of a
dove? Because the dove is gentle and pure and the Holy Spirit is a spirit
of gentleness and peace. This dove also reminds us of an event we read
about in the Old Testament: when the earth was inundated by the flood and
the whole human race in danger of perishing, the dove appeared to announce
the end of the disaster; it carried an olive branch bearing the good news
of the restoration of peace in the world. Now all this was a prefiguration
of of what was to come... When all was lost, deliverance and renewal came
about. What formerly took place through the deluge of water now takes place
today as if by a deluge of grace and mercy... It is no longer only one man
that the dove calls to leave the ark to repopulate the earth; it draws all
men to heaven. Instead of an olive branch, it brings to all humankind the
dignity of adoption as children of God.