Daily Gospel, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Sunday, 22 June 2014

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi) - Solemnity - Year A

St. Thomas More, Martyr (1478-1535), St. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr (1459-1535)

Commentary of the day
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] : "Whoever eats this bread will live forever"

Jn 6:51-58.

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] (1891-1942), Carmelite, martyr, co-patron of Europe
Poem « I will remain with you », 1938 (trans. ©Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 1992)

"Whoever eats this bread will live forever"

This Heart of the Trinity,
beats for us in a small tabernacle
Where it remains mysteriously hidden
In that still, white host.

That is your royal throne on earth, 0 Lord,
Which visibly you have erected for us,
And you are pleased when I approach it.

Full of love, you sink your gaze into mine
And bend your ear to my quiet words
And deeply fill my heart with peace.

Yet your love is not satisfied
With this exchange that could still lead to separation:
Your heart requires more.

You come to me as early morning's meal each daybreak.
Your flesh and blood become food and drink for me
And something wonderful happens.

Your body mysteriously permeates mine
And your soul unites with mine: .
I am no longer what once I was.

You come and go, but the seed
That you sowed for future glory, remains behind (Mk 4,26; Jn 12,24),
Buried in this body of dust.

A luster of heaven remains in the soul,
A deep glow remains in the eyes,
A soaring in the tone of voice.

There remains the bond that binds heart to heart,
The stream of life that springs from yours
And animates each limb (1Co 12,27).

How wonderful are your gracious wonders!
All we can do is be amazed and stammer and fall silent
Because intellect and words fail.

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Daily Gospel reading Sunday, 15 June 2014

Sunday, 15 June 2014

The Most Holy Trinity - Solemnity - Year A
The Most Holy Trinity - Solemnity - Year C

Sts. Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia, Martyrs, St. Aurelian

Commentary of the day
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] : « Then the angel showed me the river of Life…flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb » (Rv 22,1)

Jn 3:16-18.

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein] (1891-1942), Carmelite, martyr, co-patron of Europe
Poem « I will remain with you », 1938 (trans. ©Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 1992)

« Then the angel showed me the river of Life…flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb » (Rv 22,1)

You reign at the Father's right hand (Ps 109 (110),1)
In the kingdom of his eternal glory
As God's Word from the beginning. (Jn 1,1)

You reign on the Almighty's throne
Also in transfigured human form,
Ever since the completion of your work on earth (Jn 17,4; 19,30).
I believe this because your word teaches me so,
And because I believe, I know it gives me joy,
And blessed hope blooms forth from it.

For where you are, there also are your own, (Jn 17,24)
Heaven is my glorious homeland,
I share with you the Father's throne. (Ap 3,21)

The Eternal who made all creatures,
Who, thrice holy, encompasses all being,
In addition has a silent, special kingdom of his own.

The innermost chamber of the human soul
Is the Trinity's favorite place to be,
His heavenly throne on earth.

To deliver this heavenly kingdom from the hand of the enemy,
The Son of God has come as Son of Man,
He gave his blood as the price of deliverance.
In the heart of Jesus, which was pierced, (Jn 19,34)
The kingdom of heaven and the land of earth are bound together.
Here is for us the source of life. (Jn 7,38)

This heart is the heart of the triune Divinity,
And the center of all human hearts
That bestows on us the life of God.

It draws us to itself with secret power, (Jn 12,32)
It conceals us in itself in the Father's bosom
And floods us with the Holy Spirit.

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Cogito

a thought:    ;P
Knowing not-knowing is knowing unknown!!!

In italian,

it goes,  Conoscere non-conoscere è conoscere sconosciuto!!!

Un filosofo privo di pensiero non è un filosofo ma un storico...

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Dream

        I have a question, by the way, have you ever dreamed that you, your parents and your siblings praying together in the church, attending Holy Mass, listening sermons and meditating, and praying a family rosary in front of the altar in your home? Or, have you done it and it has become a monotonous to you and to your family.
    It was my dream that one day we (my parents and my siblings) will pray together, attend Holy Mass. i remember my early childhood where all memories are blurred by the time. It was in the 1990s, I was a little boy. On Sunday mornings around 7:30, my father, mother and I we start marching toward the Catholic Church. The city we live is called Phruso, a small town with few inhabitants more or less 2,000. I normally place myself between my parents, holding their hands and marching, trying to equal my pace with them walking. I listened to their discussion then looking up their faces. Oh i forgot to mention, i am not the only son, i have a younger sister who, at that time was with my grandparents, then i alone remained with my parents. Arriving at the church I used to go move around in the church, leaving my father's pew and moving toward the pew where my mother sits. Since my father and my mother they sit differently because in Myanmar most of the churches have differently placed pews for men and women. Men usually sit at the left and women are placed at the right side of the church. So this was my chance to move around in the church while the service is going-on.
     This memory, though decades have passed, yet still remains clear in my head. These moments of going to the church in Phruso did not happen for so long. There are various reasons pushing things from bad to worse. It was a time Myanmar is ruled by Military Junta, whose mercy is dried, guns are always ready to open fire at any citizens, without distinction of men or women, young or old, black or white. Yes, they were very ruthless. Because of their stay in power, Myanmar is sanctioned from trade with other countries. So then, the citizens suffer so much, our tiny family was one of the many who suffer difficult situations. In those difficult moments, I still remember we had to eat corn which is intended only for farm animals since we had no money to buy rice for our daily sustenance.
         Carrying these burdens, my parents have nothing else to continue to bear. The salary as teachers of Government public school cannot grant us, though our family is composed of only three persons, enough food, dress, and housing. My parents, looking at my face and smiled yet in their hearts they are not really happy nor have courage to smile. They were afraid of tomorrow. On the other side, they too have to be afraid of Government forces who are roaming around the city, who would shoot any innocent peoples then later tell the relatives to come to pick up the corpse. So it was a kind of hell experience. No safety for the citizen, no enough salary, no enough food, no enough shelter.
         Life is as hard as it is. Then there was a time that my grandpa was seriously ill and my mom had to go to see her if she wants him to see his final days, according to a telegraph short message. She went back to her home town which is 500 km far from our place, together with my two younger brothers.



to be continued...

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One of the interesting points, marked by US so called the big brother...

When the Americans left the Philippines in 1992, they left behind some 50,000 children born to Filipino women. Now the US government does not recognize the descendants as Americans

Read more at: http://www.ucanews.com/news/filipino-amerasians-the-forgotten-americans/71055

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Daily Gospel, Sunday, 01 June 2014, Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A

Sunday, 01 June 2014

Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year A

St. Justin, Martyr (+ c. 165) - Memorial

Commentary of the day
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI: "I revealed your name"

Jn 17:1-11a.

When Jesus had said this, he raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours,
and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.

Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day :

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013]
Der Gott Jesu Christi (trans. The God of Jesus Christ, Ignatius press 2008, p. 23)

"I revealed your name"

What, then, does "the name of God" mean?... The Revelation of John speaks of the adversary of God, the "beast". This beast, the power opposed to God, has no name, but a number. The seer tells us: "Its number is six hundred and sixty-six" (Rv 13,18). It is a number, and it makes men numbers. We who lived through the world of the concentration camps know what that means. The terror of that world is rooted in the fact that it obliterates men's faces... But God has a name, and God calls us by our name. He is a Person, and he seeks the person. He has a face, and he seeks our face. He has a heart, and he seeks our heart. For him, we are not some function in a "world machinery". On the contrary, it is precisely those who have no function that are his own. A name allows me to be addressed. A name denotes community.

This is why Christ is the true Moses, the fulfillment of the revelation of God's name. He does not bring some new word as God's name; he does more than this, since he himself is the face of God. He himself is the name of God. In him, we can address God as "you", as person, as heart. His own name, Jesus, brings the mysterious name at the burning bush to its fulfillment (Ex 3,14); now we can see that God had not said all that he had to say but had interrupted his discourse for a time. This is because the name "Jesus" in its Hebrew form includes the word "Yahweh" and adds a further element to it: God "saves". "I am who I am"-thanks to Jesus, this now means: "I am the one who saves you." His Being is salvation.

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