12. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.
13. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14. You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.
15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his Lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.
16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.
THEOPHYL. Having said, If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, He shows what commandments they are to keep: This is My commandment, That you love one another.
GREG. But when all our Lord's sacred discourses are full of His commandments, why does He give this special commandment respecting love, if it is not that every commandment teaches love, and all precepts are one? Love and love only is the fulfillment of every thing that is enjoined. As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced form one love: nor has the branch, i.e. the good work, any life, except it abide in the root of love.
AUG. Where then love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can profit? But this love is distinguished from men's love to each other as men, by adding, As I have loved you. To what end did Christ love us, but that we should reign with Him? Let us therefore so love one another, as that our love be different from that of other men; who do not love one another, to the end that God may be loved, because they do not really love at all. They who love one another for the sake of having God within them, they truly love one another.
GREG. The highest, the only proof of love, is to love our adversary; as did the Truth Himself, who while He suffered on the cross, showed His love for His persecutors: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Of which love the consummation is given in the next words:
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Our Lord came to die for His enemies, but He says that He is going to lay down His life for His friends, to show us that by loving, we are able to gain over our enemies, so that they who persecute us are by anticipation our friends.
AUG. Having said, This is My commandment: that you love one another, even as I have loved you (1 Jn 3); it follows, as John said in his Epistle, that as Christ laid down His life for us, so we should lay down our lives for the brethren. This the martyrs have done with ardent love And therefore in commemorating them at Christ's table, we do not pray for them, as we do for others, but we rather pray that we may follow their steps. For they have shown the same love for their brother, that has been shown them at the Lord's table.
GREG. But whoever in time of tranquillity will not give up his time to God, how in persecution will he give up his soul? Let the virtue of love then, that it may be victorious in tribulation, be nourished in tranquillity by deeds of mercy.
AUG From one and the same love, we love God and our neighbor, but God for His own sake, our neighbor for God's. So that, there being two precepts of love, on which hang all the Law and the Prophets, to love God, and to love our neighbor, Scripture often unites them into one precept. For if a man love God, it follows s that he does what God commands, and if so, that he loves his neighbor, God having commanded this. Wherefore He proceeds: You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.
GREG. A friend is as it were a keeper of the soul. He who keeps God's commandments, is rightly called His friend.
AUG. Great condescension! Though to keep his Lord's commandments is only what a good servant is obliged to do, yet, if they do so, He calls them His friends. The good servant is both the servant and the friend. But how is this? He tells us: Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord does. Shall we therefore cease to be servants, as soon as ever we are good servants? And is not a good and tried servant sometimes entrusted with his master's secrets, still remaining a servant? We must understand then that there are two kinds of servitude, as there are two kinds of fear. There is a fear which perfect love casts out; which also has in it a servitude, which will be cast out together with the fear. And there is another, a pure fear, which remains forever.
It is the former state of servitude, which our Lord refers to, when He says, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord does; not the state of that servant to whom it is said, Well done, you good servant, enter you into the joy of your Lord (Matt 25:21), but of him of whom it was said below, The servant abides not in the house for ever, but the Son abides ever. Forasmuch then as God has given us power to become the sons of God, so that in a wonderful way, we are servants, and yet not servants, we know that it is the Lord who does this. This that servant is ignorant of, who knows not what his Lord does, and when he does any good thing, is exalted in his own conceit, as if he himself did it, and not his Lord; and boasts of himself, not of his Lord.
But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you.
THEOPHYL. As if He said, The servant knows not the counsels of his lord; but since I esteem you friends, I have communicated my secrets to you.
AUG. But how did He make known to His disciples all things that He had heard from the Father, when He forebore saying many things, because He knew they as yet could not bear them? He made all things known to His disciples, i.e., He knew that He should make them known to them in that fullness of which the Apostle said, Then we shall know, even as we are known (1 Cor 13:12). For as we look for the death of the flesh, and the salvation of the soul, so should we look for that knowledge of all things, which the Only-Begotten heard from the Father.
GREG. Or all things which He heard from the Father, which He wished to be made known to His servants: the joys of spiritual love, the pleasures of our heavenly country, which He impresses daily on our minds by the inspiration of His love. For while we love the heavenly things we hear, we know them by loving, because love is itself knowledge. He had made all things known to them then, because being withdrawn from earthly desires, they burned with the fire of divine love.
CHRYS. All things, i.e., all things that they ought to hear. I have heard, shows that what He had taught was no strange doctrine, but received from the Father.
GREG. But let no one who has attained to this dignity of being called the friend of God, attribute this superhuman gift to his own merits:
You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.
AUG. Ineffable grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us, but wicked, and lost? We did not believe in Him, so as to be chosen by Him: for had He chosen us believing, He would have chosen us choosing. This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, not that He Himself would make us good.
For had He chosen us, because He foreknew that we should be good, He would have foreknown also that we should first choose Him, for without choosing Him we cannot be good; unless indeed he can be called good, who has not chosen good. What then has He chosen in them who are not good? you can not say, I am chosen because I believed; for had you believed in Him, you had chosen Him. Nor can you say, Before I believed I did good works, and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith? What is there for us to say then, but that we were wicked, and were chosen, that by the grace of the chosen we might become good?
AUG. They are chosen then before the foundation of the world, according to that predestination by which God foreknew His future acts. They are chosen out of the world by that call whereby God fulfills what He has predestined: whom He did predestine, them He also called (Rom 8:30).
AUG. Observe, He does not choose the good; but those, whom He has chosen, He makes good: And I have ordained you that you should go, and bring forth fruit. This is the fruit which He meant, when He said, Without Me you can do nothing. He Himself is the way in which He has set us to go.
GREG. I have set you, i.e., have planted you by grace, that you should go by will: to will being to go in mind, and bring forth fruit, by works. What kind of fruit they should bring forth He then shows: And that your fruit may remain; for worldly labor hardly produces fruit to last our life; and if it does, death comes at last, and deprives us of it all. But the fruit of our spiritual labors endures even after death; and begins to be seen at the very time that the results of our carnal labor begin to disappear. Let us then produce such fruits as may remain, and of which death, which destroys every thing, will be the commencement.
AUG. Love then is one fruit, now existing in desire only, not yet in fullness. Yet even with this desire whatever we ask in the name of the Only-Begotten Son, the Father gives us: That whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He may give it you. We ask in the Savior's name, whatever we ask, that will be profitable to our salvation.
17. These things I command you, that you love one another.
AUG. Our Lord had said, I have ordained that you should walk and bring forth fruit. Love is this fruit. Wherefore, He proceeds: These things I command you, that you love one another. Hence the Apostle said, The fruit of the Spirit is love(Gal 5:22), and enumerates all other graces as springing from this source. Well then does our Lord commend love, as if it were the only thing commanded: seeing that without it nothing can profit, with it nothing be wanting, whereby a man is made good.
CHRYS. Or thus: I have said that I lay down My life for you, and that I first chose you. I have said this not by way of reproach, but to induce you to love one another.
Then as they were about to suffer persecution and reproach, He bids them not to grieve, but rejoice on that account: If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you: as if to say, I know it is a hard trial, but you will endure it for My sake.
Catena Aurea John 15
Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin & Doctor of the Church
Saint Catherine of Siena,
Virgin & Doctor of the Church
Memorial
April 29th
Saint Catherine of Siena (20th c.) - Vatican [Photo: Father Jerry Pokorsky]
Catherine Benincasa was born in Siena on Palm Sunday, March 5, 1347, the daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a pious and prosperous dyer and his wife Lapa. It is said that when she was five years old, she was in the habit of saying the Hail Mary on each step of the staircase of the house. When Catherine was about six year old, she saw a vision of Christ and His Apostles while walking in the countryside with her brother. She was transfixed by the vision, in which the Lord, in the garb of a pope, blessed her. As one writer put it, "Such was the 'call' of Saint Catherine of Siena ... and the appearance of Christ, in the semblance of His Vicar [the pope], may fitly appear to symbolize the great mission of her later life to the Holy See". For the pope was not in Rome but in Avignon, France, the so-called "Babylonian Captivity" of the papacy, where for political reasons the papal court had moved -- and Catherine, years later, would attempt to persuade the pope to return to Rome, the See of Peter.
At the age of sixteen Catherine took the habit of the Dominican Tertiaries (or "third order", a lay affiliation with the Dominican Order). After three years of celestial visitations and familiar conversation with Christ, she underwent the mystical experience known as "spiritual espousal" (or "mystical marriage" to Christ).
Catherine then dedicated herself to the poor, the sick and the conversation of sinners. In the summer of 1370 she received visions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven and a Divine command to enter the public life of the world.
She began to dictate and dispatch letters to men and women in every condition of life, entered into correspondence with the princes and republics of Italy, was consulted by the papal legates about the affairs of the Church, and set herself to heal the wounds of her native land. She implored Pope Gregory XI to reform the notoriously corrupt clergy and the administration of the Papal States. Through her influence, the pope left Avignon and returned to Rome.
On the fourth Sunday of Lent in 1375 she received the stigmata, that is, the wounds of Christ.
In about 1378 Catherine composed her "Dialogue", said to have been dictated while she was in ecstasy, a book of meditations and reflections on the Creed and teachings of the Church, and on the sinfulness of man and the mercy of God.
Her last public work was to aid in the reconciliation of Pope Urban VI and the Roman Republic.
Catherine died April 29, 1380.
In 1970 Pope Paul VI proclaimed Saint Catherine of Siena a Doctor of the Church, a title given to certain ecclesiastical writers because of the benefit the whole Church has derived from their teaching and witness.
Collect:
O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love
in her contemplation of the Lord's Passion
and her service of your Church,
grant, through her intercession,
that your people,
participating in the mystery of Christ,
may ever exult in the revelation of his glory.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. +Amen.
Readings of the Day:
First Reading - 1 John 1:5-2:2
This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one 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.
Gospel Reading - Matthew 11:25-30
At that time Jesus declared, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was Thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
[Scripture translations: Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition]
Litany of St. Catherine of Siena
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, our mother, pray for us.
St. Dominic, glorious Patriarch, pray for us.
St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
St. Catherine benevolent mother of the poor, pray for us.
St. Catherine, kind mother of the suffering, pray for us.
St. Catherine, merciful mother of the sick, pray for us.
St. Catherine, refuge of the sorrowful, pray for us.
St. Catherine, intercessor for sinners, pray for us.
St. Catherine, rose pf patience, pray for us.
St. Catherine, model of humility, pray for us.
St. Catherine, lily of chastity, pray for us.
St. Catherine, vessel of graces, pray for us.
St. Catherine, zealous promoter of the honor of God, pray for us.
St. Catherine, luster of holiness, pray for us.
St. Catherine, example of mildness, pray for us.
St. Catherine, glory of the Order of Preachers, pray for us.
St. Catherine, fruitful mother of spiritual children, pray for us.
St. Catherine, promoter of peace, pray for us.
St. Catherine, terror of the evil spirits, pray for us.
St. Catherine, follower of Jesus, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who didst give the blossoms of thy innocent youth to the service of thy Heavenly Spouse, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who didst lead an angelic life in human flesh, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who didst tear thy virginal flesh with scourges, pray for us.
St. Catherine, whom Jesus, Himself, did feed with His Body and Blood, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who didst exchange thy heart with the Heart of Jesus, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who was blest with His Holy Wounds, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who was taken to Heaven to the celestial nuptials, pray for us.
St. Catherine, who didst receive a hundredfold, reward for all thy labors and merits, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Pray for us, O glorious Virgin, St. Catherine
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray: O God, who didst enable Blessed Catherine, graced with the special privilege of virginity, and patience, to overcome the assault of evil spirits, and to stand unshaken in the love of Thy Name, grant we beseech Thee, that after her example treading under foot the wickedness of the world, and overcoming the wiles of all enemies, we may safely pass onward to Thy glory.Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
BENEDICT XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, November 24, 2010
Saint Catherine of Siena
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Our catechesis today deals with Saint Catherine of Siena, a Dominican tertiary, a woman of great holiness and a Doctor of the Church. Catherine’s spiritual teachings are centred on our union with Christ, the bridge between earth and heaven. Her own virginal entrustment to Christ the Bridegroom was reflected in her celebrated visions. Catherine’s life also shows us the importance of the spiritual maternity exercised by so many women in every age. From this great saint let us learn to grow in holiness, love for the Lord and fidelity to his body, the Church.
Catholic Culture
Easter: April 29th
Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena, virgin and doctor
MASS READINGS
April 29, 2016 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
O God, who set Saint Catherine of Siena on fire with divine love in her contemplation of the Lord's Passion and her service or your Church, grant, through her intercession, that your people, participating in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of his glory. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever.
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Prayers (5)
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Library (3)
Old Calendar: St. Peter of Verona, martyr; St. Hugh of Cluny (Hist) ; Other Titles: St. Catharine of Siena
Catherine Benincasa, born in Siena at a date that remains uncertain, was favored with visions from the age of seven. Becoming a tertiary of the Dominican Order, she acquired great influence by her life of prayer and extraordinary mortifications as well as by the spread of her spiritual writings. Her continual appeals for civil peace and reform of the Church make her one of the leading figures of the fourteenth century. Worn out by her mortifications and negotiations she died in Rome on April 29, 1380.
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, St. Catherine's feast is celebrated on April 30 and today is the feast of St. Peter of Verona. He was born about 1205 at Verona. His parents were Manichaeans, but he was converted and entered the Order of Preachers with the ambition not only of preaching the faith but of giving his life for it. He had his wish, for in the course of his apostolic work he was assassinated by the Manichaeans on the road from Como to Milan in 1252.
Historically today is the feast of St. Hugh of Cluny, a prince related to the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy. He was an adviser to nine popes.
St. Catherine of Siena
Catherine, the youngest of twenty-five children, was born in Siena on March 25, 1347. During her youth she had to contend with great difficulties on the part of her parents. They were planning marriage for their favorite daughter; but Catherine, who at the age of seven had already taken a vow of virginity, refused. To break her resistance, her beautiful golden brown tresses were shorn to the very skin and she was forced to do the most menial tasks. Undone by her patience, mother and father finally relented and their child entered the Third Order of St. Dominic.
Unbelievable were her austerities, her miracles, her ecstasies. The reputation of her sanctity soon spread abroad; thousands came to see her, to be converted by her. The priests associated with her, having received extraordinary faculties of absolution, were unable to accommodate the crowds of penitents. She was a helper and a consoler in every need. As time went on, her influence reached out to secular and ecclesiastical matters. She made peace between worldly princes. The heads of Church and State bowed to her words. She weaned Italy away from an anti-pope, and made cardinals and princes promise allegiance to the rightful pontiff. She journeyed to Avignon and persuaded Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome. Even though she barely reached the age of thirty-three her accomplishments place her among the great women of the Middle Ages. The virgin Catherine was espoused to Christ by a precious nuptial ring which, although visible only to her, always remained on her finger.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Against fire; bodily ills; Europe; fire prevention; firefighters; illness; Italy; miscarriages; nurses; nursing services; people ridiculed for their piety; sexual temptation; sick people; sickness; Siena, Italy; temptations.
Symbols: Cross; heart; lily; ring; stigmata.
Things to Do:
St. Peter of Verona
Peter entered the Dominican Order in 1221, the year when St. Dominic died. He was a zealous preacher, and as Inquisitor converted many heretics. While attending school at the age of seventeen, he was asked by his uncle, a heretic, what he was learning. Candidly the boy replied, "The Apostles' Creed." Neither threats nor honeyed words from father and uncle were able to shake the boy's steadfast faith. Years later, when death was near, he once more recited the Apostles' Creed that he prayed so courageously in his youth. The mortal stab soon fell, and he received the martyr's crown.
Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Inquisitors.
Symbol: Dominican with a large knife in or splitting his head; holding a knife; man with a knife in his head and a sword in his breast.
Things to Do:
- As he lay dying, it is said, Peter wrote the word Credo on the ground with his own blood. To us also may the Creed be a source of blessing in life and in death! To that end we might occasionally meditate on one or another of its articles. Devoutly, reverently the words should pass our lips, especially at Mass. Remember that martyrs' blood has flowed for all its phrases.
- Read more about St. Peter of Verona.
St. Hugh of Cluny
St. Hugh was a prince related to the sovereign house of the dukes of Burgundy, and had his education under the tuition of his pious Mother, and under the care of Hugh, Bishop of Auxerre, his great-uncle. From his infancy he was exceedingly given to prayer and meditation, and his life was remarkably innocent and holy.
One day, hearing an account of the wonderful sanctity of the monks of Cluny, under St. Odilo, he was so moved that he set out that moment, and going thither, humbly begged the monastic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profession in 1039, being sixteen years old.
His extraordinary virtue, especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweetness, prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the whole community; and upon the death of St. Odilo, in 1049, though only twenty-five years old, he succeeded to the government of that great abbey, which he held sixty-two years.
He received to the religious profession Hugh, Duke of Burgundy, and died on the twenty-ninth of April, in 1109, aged eighty-five.
He was canonized twelve years after his death by Pope Calixtus II.
Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. 1894
The Word Among Us
Meditation: John 15:12-17
Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church (Memorial)
I . . . chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain. (John 15:16)
Big or small? Eat-in or carryout? Cream and sugar? These are just a few of the many choices we make on a regular basis. They’re largely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but they do have an effect on us.
Today, let’s focus on one very important choice that Jesus has made and the effect this choice has had on us: his choice for you.
Yes, Jesus chose you, specifically and especially you. You are “precious” and “honored” in his sight (Isaiah 43:4). You belong to him, just as a bride belongs to her husband or brothers and sisters belong to each other in a close family.
Jesus’ love for you isn’t static; it’s dynamic! It inspired him to create the world and give it to you as a gift. It brought you into existence and moved him to become a man for your sake. It compelled him to live like you in all things but sin and to die and to rise. He did it all for you.
What does this say about you? Much indeed! First and foremost, it says that you have been marked by divine love. You have been filled with the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. And yes, it shows that you have been chosen—handpicked—by almighty God to “go and bear fruit that will remain” (John 15:16).
Look around: Jesus has placed you in a mission field. Think about your family. He wants you to express your love to them every day—in your speech, in your thoughts, and in your actions. Think about your work. Jesus has placed you there, whatever your daily labor entails, so that you can bring him glory. What about your neighbors, friends, and even strangers? Pray for them, and serve them—and watch with delight as good fruit comes to them as a result.
All around us, there are countless opportunities to bear good and lasting fruit. Why? Because we have been chosen—we have been hand picked and commissioned and empowered—by Jesus himself.
“Lord, thank you for your love for me. Help me, like you, to and go and bear fruit that will last.”
Acts 15:22-31
Psalm 57:8-10, 12
