Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 10-10-05

October 10, 2005
Monday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Psalm: Monday 44

Reading I
Rom 1:1-7

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus,
called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God,
which he promised previously through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
the Gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh,
but established as Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him we have received the grace of apostleship,
to bring about the obedience of faith,
for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 98:1bcde, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

R. (2a) The Lord has made known his salvation.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has made known his salvation.

Gospel
Lk 11:29-32

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them,
“This generation is an evil generation;
it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it,
except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites,
so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
At the judgment
the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation
and she will condemn them,
because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon,
and there is something greater than Solomon here.
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it,
because at the preaching of Jonah they repented,
and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

Catholic Culture

Collect:
Lord, our help and guide, make your love the foundation of our lives. May our love for you express itself in our eagerness to do good for others. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Recipes:

Activities:

October 10, 2005

Monday of the Twenty-Eighth Week of Ordinary Time

Old Calendar: St. Francis Borgia, Confessor

Before the reform of the Roman Calendar in 1969, this was the memorial of St. Francis Borgia, a descendant of the notorious Alexander VI. He spent a part of his life in collecting titles and offices of importance. Certain reverses of fortune caused him to reflect on his life. He was already a Franciscan tertiary, but this was not enough for him; he became a Jesuit, at first secretly and then publicly in 1550 having made provision for his eight children. In 1565 he became General of the Society of Jesus. He was a man of wide experience, a clever diplomat and ranks as the second founder of his Order. He died in Rome on October 1, 1572.

St. Francis Borgia

Francis Borgia, viscount of Catalonia and third general of the Jesuits, was born in 1510. On his father's side he was a great-grandchild of Pope Alexander VI; on his mother's side he was the great-grandchild of a son of Ferdinand the Catholic. His holy life atoned for the sins of his ancestors.

As viscount and duke at the palace of Emperor Charles V, Francis stood in high honor. The sudden death of the beautiful Empress Isabella (May 1, 1539) and the sight of her disfigured face as her body was taken to Granada made him resolve to leave the world and serve the King of kings alone.

After the death of his wife (1546), he entered the Society of Jesus with the holy resolve of leading a hidden life and of closing the door forever to all earthly honors. His example of humility exercised an influence upon Charles V when he considered renouncing the throne. Devoted to labor and severe mortification, Francis held himself in such little esteem that he called himself the "poor sinner." In 1565 he became General of the Order. He died at Rome.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

Patron: Against earthquakes; Portugal; Rota; Marianas.

Symbols: Skull crowned with an emperor's diadem.

Things to Do:

Although Francis lived a holy life, he was deeply moved and changed his life even more profoundly after seeing the corpse of the young and once beautiful Empress Isabella — it was totally disfigured and unrecognizable. This made him realize the transcience of life and the worthlessness of riches. We should follow his example and meditate on this.
Learn more about the infamous Borgia family tree.
Cook or bake some Spanish dishes, such as tapas, paella, gazpacho.
Read more about St. Francis Borgia.

Homily of the Day

Title:	Is Your Life Proclaiming the Good News?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Monday, October 10, 2005

Romans 1:1-7 / Lk 11:29-32

Paul begins today's epistle by stating his credentials. "I'm a servant of Christ," he says "and I've been called to proclaim the gospel of God." And that's what he did, fearlessly and with energy and imagination till the day he died: preaching, debating, writing letters, and even challenging St. Peter to rethink some of his most cherished ideas.

Paul was special, no doubt about it. But there's something important that every one of us Christians has in common with him, namely, that we're all called to proclaim God's good news. We have that call by virtue of our Baptism. For each of us, answering that call will take a different shape, depending upon our gifts. Most of us won't be preachers or debaters or writers of great letters, and that's probably a mercy in a world of too much talk! But all of us face the challenge of crafting a lifestyle that unambiguously proclaims the Good News.

What would such a lifestyle look like? If we believe that God is a loving father who has destined us for eternal life with him, and if we believe that the only way to reach our destiny is to become like our father — in other words, to become first-class lovers &@0151; then our lives are going to take on quite a distinctive shape. If we really believe, even our faces will look different: peaceful, confident, happy, and free of fear.

And that brings us to today's question: What kind of news is your lifestyle proclaiming to the world? What is your face telling all who see it? Is it good news? I hope so, but if it's not, why settle for second best even one more day? Take in the Lord's Good News and let it shine from the inside out.

The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the LORD
lack no good thing.
Psalm 34:10

Thought...

While even the fiercest hunters cannot
ensure their security and nourishment,
those whose hunger is for God will find
themselves nourished, blessed, and
sustained.

Prayer...

Thank you, Father, for the promise that
you will never leave me or forsake me
even though friends and partners may
betray and forsake me. I confess that it
is sometimes hard to fully comprehend, much less believe, that you are always faithful. Confusing and hurtful times come and I waver in my confidence in your grace. Please forgive me and renew my hope. I do believe, dear Father, that you love me like no one else can.

I do believe, Almighty God, that you care about my wounds and worries.

I recommit my heart this day to trust in
your daily care, provision, and grace for me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Deus vobiscum

A Voice in the Desert

October 10, 2005 Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time

Reading (Romans 1:1-7) Gospel (St. Luke 11:29-32)

Our Lord in the Gospel reading today tells us that He Himself is the sign for our generation and that He is calling us to conversion. Just as the people of Nineveh listened when Jonah preached, and just as the queen of the south was willing to come all the way from Ethiopia to Israel to hear the words of Solomon, so too, He says, this is similar to what we are to do. But even with that we can say, “Well, what exactly does it mean?” It means exactly what we hear in the first reading today. Saint Paul, speaking to the Romans, says to them that they are called to the obedience of faith, to bring about the obedience of faith. In fact, if we want to know what it is to say that there is an obedience of faith, he starts out in the very first words of this particular letter: Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ… That is what it means to have an obedience of faith: to be a slave of Jesus Christ.

Now we tend to look at that in very negative terms. We think of slavery in the horrendous way that slavery was forced upon certain people in this country, but that is not what this is about. It is not a forced slavery, it is not a slavery of constraint, but rather it is a slavery of love. It is freely chosen and it is the fulfillment of love. If you think about what a married couple vows to one another when they make a vow to love, it is a vow to serve one another every day for the rest of their lives. They have chosen a voluntary slavery to put themselves completely at the service of the other person. If that is what happens in marriage, how much more should it be with God. And so what we do is to make ourselves voluntary slaves of Our Lord, to be willing to say that He Who is Love deserves to be loved. And what is love? It is serving the other. It is seeking the good of the other. He has made Himself a slave to us and He serves us. In return, we make ourselves a slave to Him by serving Him.

Still, if our interior is rebelling at this point thinking that being a slave sounds like it is somehow beneath our dignity and that it is not what we are supposed to be about, all we need to do is think about what it really means. You were created to love. It is just that simple. All that is being asked is that we would love. So if you want to take away the notion of being a slave, all you need to do is say that we are being asked to love. That does not mean we are being asked to have gushy feelings towards God; that is not what it is about. It means we are called to serve, to do His Will, to seek His good. Once again, in case we think that it is beneath our dignity, all we have to do is look at Saint Paul’s Letter to the Philippians where Saint Paul tells us that Jesus became a slave. That was not beneath His dignity–why do we think it is beneath ours? He took the form of a slave and He came to serve even to the point of going to the Cross. He was obedient. All that is being asked is that we would be obedient to our own selves, to our own creation; not to our fallen nature that says, “Be obedient to sin,” but to what God created us for, and that is to love. This is in no way against our dignity, but rather this exults our dignity more than anything because it is precisely the purpose for which we were created. It is to die to self in order to live for another. In this case, the other is God, Who loves us perfectly.

And so if we would not see it being beneath our dignity to offer ourselves in marriage to serve another person, why would we ever see it beneath our dignity to serve God, to love God? That is all that is being asked. Jesus is the sign to us. He is the One Who came into this world and took the form of a slave. He was obedient, as Saint Paul continues in that same canticle to the Philippians, obedient even unto death, death on a cross. He is the One Who teaches us what it is to love. He is the sign for us, the sign of what it is that each one of us is called to, the sign to be able to reject sin and embrace our own dignity, to love as God created us to love. And what is it to love? It is to be brought into the obedience of faith, to live what we profess, to be voluntary slaves of love of Jesus Christ.

* This text was transcribed from the audio recording with minimal editing.

Lk 11:29-32
#	Douay-Rheims	Vulgate
29	And the multitudes running together, he began to say: This generation is a wicked generation. It asketh a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.	turbis autem concurrentibus coepit dicere generatio haec generatio nequam est signum quaerit et signum non dabitur illi nisi signum Ionae
30	For as Jonas was a sign to the Ninivites; so shall the Son of man also be to this generation.	nam sicut Ionas fuit signum Ninevitis ita erit et Filius hominis generationi isti
31	The queen of the south shall rise in the judgment with the men of this generation and shall condemn them: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold more than Solomon here.	regina austri surget in iudicio cum viris generationis huius et condemnabit illos quia venit a finibus terrae audire sapientiam Salomonis et ecce plus Salomone hic
32	The men of Ninive shall rise in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; Because they did penance at the preaching of Jonas. And behold more than Jonas here.	viri ninevitae surgent in iudicio cum generatione hac et condemnabunt illam quia paenitentiam egerunt ad praedicationem Ionae et ecce plus Iona hic

The Word Among Us

Monday, October 10, 2005

Meditation
Luke 11:29-32

“If only I had been alive when Jesus walked the earth! I would have hung on his every word, noted his every action, and learned all about his hidden life. I wish I had been there to see even one of his miracles. I would never have questioned him! How sad that the time of miracles is past.”

Guess what? You are alive as Jesus walks the earth! His body descends on the altar at every Mass and is placed right into your hands. His body thrives as its members in the church open their hearts and hands to one another, ministering his presence more powerfully than the voice of any single individual. His body clutches at your heartstrings in the plight of every needy human being.

Is the time of miracles over? Jesus promised, “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these” (John 14:12). Jesus is still in the business of doing miracles, sometimes sovereignly in response to prayer, sometimes through us, using the power we possess in the Spirit. No matter how he does it, Jesus is still healing incurable diseases, reconciling people after years of estrangement, and awakening repentance in the most hardened criminals.

Often we can discern the hand of God more clearly when we look back over a period of time. Not all miracles are instantaneous; many slip under the radar until we compare the overwhelming results to our meager human resources.

We will recognize more signs and miracles if we are expectant. Begin each day by praying, “Jesus, I expect to encounter you today. When I do, help me recognize you right away and respond in faith.”

Jesus comes to us in planned moments, during daily Mass or personal prayer time. But he also comes to us in spontaneous moments, when we least expect him. Responding to his presence may require setting aside our plans and goals, but it is always worth it. Then, end each day with a look back. Where did you see the hand of God? How did you respond? How can you carry forward this work tomorrow?

“Jesus, you continue your incarnation among us. Open our eyes to see you and our hearts to respond to your call to witness and even to perform miracles.”

Romans 1:1-7; Psalm 98:1-4

One Bread, One Body

All Issues > Volume 21, Number 6

<< Monday, October 10, 2005 >>

Romans 1:1-7

Psalm 98

Luke 11:29-32

View Readings

LIVING TO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL

"Through Him we have been favored with apostleship, that we may spread His name." —Romans 1:5

Paul, "set apart to proclaim the gospel of God" (Rm 1:1), wrote to the Romans to prepare them to be a home-base for future evangelism in Spain (Rm 15:24, 28). Paul was always thinking of reaching more people for Christ. He would use a courtroom as a forum for preaching the gospel (Acts 26:1ff). He even stopped to convert the jailer during a jailbreak (Acts 16:28ff). Paul repeatedly risked his life to preach the gospel (2 Cor 11:23). He was single-hearted; evangelism was the only thing on his mind. He would pay any price to win to Christ as many as possible (1 Cor 9:19).

We have six more weeks left in the Church year. In the last forty-six weeks, how many people have we tried to lead to the Lord? The fields are ripe for a great harvest (Jn 4:35), but the workers are still few (Mt 9:37). If we're not evangelizing, are we evangelized? Let's repent of not sharing the gospel and make the rest of this year the greatest evangelistic drive of our lives.

Prayer: Father, give me a new Pentecost that leads to a new evangelization.

Promise: "She came from the farthest corner of the world to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, but you have a greater than Solomon here." —Lk 11:31

Praise: George, a professional athlete, does not hide his faith in Jesus Christ and has been a great public witness for his faith.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.