Prayers today: Let hearts rejoice who search for the lord. Seek the Lord and his strength. seek always the face of the Lord. (Ps 104:3-4)

Merciful Father, may the penance of our Lenten observance make us your obedient people. May the love within us be seen in what we do and lead us to the joy of Easter. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.




St. Cyril of Jerusalem (315?-386)

The crises that the Church faces today may seem minor when compared with the threat posed by the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ and almost overcame Christianity in the fourth century. Cyril was to be caught up in the controversy, accused (later) of Arianism by St. Jerome, and ultimately vindicated both by the men of his own time and by being declared a Doctor of the Church in 1822. Raised in Jerusalem, well-educated, especially in the Scriptures, he was ordained a priest by the bishop of Jerusalem and given the task of catechizing during Lent those preparing for Baptism and during the Easter season the newly baptized. His Catecheses remain valuable as examples of the ritual and theology of the Church in the mid-fourth century.

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his becoming bishop of Jerusalem. It is certain that he was validly consecrated by bishops of the province. Since one of them was an Arian, Acacius, it may have been expected that his “cooperation” would follow. Conflict soon rose between Cyril and Acacius, bishop of the rival nearby see of Caesarea. Cyril was summoned to a council, accused of insubordination and of selling Church property to relieve the poor. Probably, however, a theological difference was also involved. He was condemned, driven from Jerusalem, and later vindicated, not without some association and help of Semi-Arians. Half his episcopate was spent in exile (his first experience was repeated twice). He finally returned to find Jerusalem torn with heresy, schism and strife, and wracked with crime. Even St. Gregory of Nyssa, sent to help, left in despair. They both went to the (second ecumenical) Council of Constantinople, where the amended form of the Nicene Creed was promulgated. Cyril accepted the word consubstantial (that is, of Christ and the Father). Some said it was an act of repentance, but the bishops of the Council praised him as a champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. Though not friendly with the greatest defender of orthodoxy against the Arians, Cyril may be counted among those whom Athanasius called “brothers, who mean what we mean, and differ only about the word [consubstantial].”

“It is not only among us, who are marked with the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great; all the business of the world, even of those outside the Church, is accomplished by faith. By faith, marriage laws join in union persons who were strangers to one another. By faith, agriculture is sustained; for a man does not endure the toil involved unless he believes he will reap a harvest. By faith, seafaring men, entrusting themselves to a tiny wooden craft, exchange the solid element of the land for the unstable motion of the waves. Not only among us does this hold true but also, as I have said, among those outside the fold. For though they do not accept the Scriptures but advance certain doctrines of their own, yet even these they receive on faith” (Catechesis V).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (5.31~47)

Jesus said, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that his testimony about Me is valid. You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given Me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent Me. And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified concerning Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the One He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in My Father's Name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But since you do not believe what He wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?


He has seen the Father
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

When St Paul visited Athens he saw a shrine to the “unknown God.” He made use of this in his address to the Areopagus, but in the event his efforts to convince were of little avail. He made a point, though, that is full of interest even though I do not wish to explicate its implications here. Rather, I suggest that we dwell on the inability of man to see and know God directly. We take it for granted — as, in a sense, we must — that for all that we see and know directly, we cannot see and know directly the overwhelmingly important and prominent Being who sustains our vast universe. We see the myriads of insects and the range of bird and animal life. We observe the composition and the movements of earth and stars. The study of man and nature as represented in the libraries and literature of the world is so vast as to be far beyond synthesis. This we see. But the One who sustains everything we do not see. We know something of this great Being from the visible creation, but our knowledge is fitful and there is little firm agreement among the peoples and religions as to the lineaments of his nature. Yet the religions and literature of man testify to the fact that we long to see and communicate with the One on whom everything depends. More than this, we long for a revelation from the great Being whom we constantly need. Indeed, it is typical for the religions of man to claim that this revelation has occurred. Mahomet claimed it and others have too, and sadly human history has numerous instances of one religion attempting by force to put down another because of such competing claims. But they all bear testimony to the need for a direct contact with God. Typically man reveres the one who claims to have had this contact, at least if he makes such a claim persuasively. The seers and the prophets — whatever they be called — are honoured unless they conflict with others who claim this position. This religious Fact shows how great a boon man would consider having a person who has seen and known God directly. Such a man would give us what we truly need to know.

This is the reason why the Christian religion offers such good news to the world — this and much more. In our Gospel today (John 5: 31-47), our Lord speaks with sovereign assurance of how totally qualified he is to speak of God. He is more qualified than any other. Take any of the prophets — take John, John the Baptist, for instance. What is to be said of Jesus Christ when set next to John? “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. I have testimony weightier than that of John.” Whatever reason one might have for accepting the testimony of the greatest of the prophets, the testimony Jesus Christ has is much the greater. Look at his work! Not only do his miracles testify to his authority to speak of God — and who in the history of the world has worked the miracles that Jesus Christ worked, in terms of number and quality? But his work is above all the work of redemption from sin. Now, who in the history of the world has attempted to take away the sin of the world? This is a breathtaking proposition, and as a mission it has scarcely occurred to anyone anywhere. But this was the mission of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said of him that he is the one who takes away the sin of the world. Further, what is the means of doing this? If we were to have asked the greatest of the ancient philosophers — say, Socrates, or Plato, or Aristotle — how the sin of the world could be taken away, what would be the response? I suspect they would have been nonplussed, even if they had understood the terms of the question. But that was Christ’s grand mission, and the way to attain it was by his Passion and Death. He is unique in his claims and in the support for his claims. But most of all, he has seen the living God. “You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,” our Lord says to his enemies. He, Jesus of Nazareth, “heard his voice” continually, and continually saw “his form,” the “form” of the Father.

Let us recognize the authority of Jesus Christ. It is supreme. He comes from God, with whom he dwelt from all eternity. He is the Father’s only-begotten Son, and mankind has the inestimable blessing of having as a brother man One who is God himself. There is in our midst the One who knows all things and has opened for us the way to God by his Passion and Death. Let us regard him as our Light, then! He the Light of the world, without which we are in the dark.

Prayers for Wednesday of the fourth week in Lent: I pray to you, O God, for the time of your favour. Lord, in your great love, answer me. (See Ps 68:14)

Lord, you reward virtue and forgive the repentant sinner. Grant us your forgiveness as we come before you confessing our guilt. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen.



St. Patrick (415?-493?)

Legends about Patrick abound; but truth is best served by our seeing two solid qualities in him: He was humble and he was courageous. The determination to accept suffering and success with equal indifference guided the life of God’s instrument for winning most of Ireland for Christ. Details of his life are uncertain. Current research places his dates of birth and death a little later than earlier accounts. Patrick may have been born in Dunbarton, Scotland, Cumberland, England, or in northern Wales. He called himself both a Roman and a Briton. At 16, he and a large number of his father’s slaves and vassals were captured by Irish raiders and sold as slaves in Ireland. Forced to work as a shepherd, he suffered greatly from hunger and cold. After six years, Patrick escaped, probably to France, and later returned to Britain at the age of 22. His captivity had meant spiritual conversion. He may have studied at Lerins, off the French coast; he spent years at Auxerre, France, and was consecrated bishop at the age of 43. His great desire was to proclaim the Good News to the Irish. In a dream vision it seemed “all the children of Ireland from their mothers’ wombs were stretching out their hands” to him. He understood the vision to be a call to do mission work in pagan Ireland. Despite opposition from those who felt his education had been defective, he was sent to carry out the task. He went to the west and north, where the faith had never been preached, obtained the protection of local kings and made numerous converts.

Because of the island’s pagan background, Patrick was emphatic in encouraging widows to remain chaste and young women to consecrate their virginity to Christ. He ordained many priests, divided the country into dioceses, held Church councils, founded several monasteries and continually urged his people to greater holiness in Christ. He suffered much opposition from pagan druids, and was criticized in both England and Ireland for the way he conducted his mission. In a relatively short time the island had experienced deeply the Christian spirit, and was prepared to send out missionaries whose efforts were greatly responsible for Christianizing Europe. Patrick was a man of action, with little inclination toward learning. He had a rocklike belief in his vocation, in the cause he had espoused. One of the few certainly authentic writings is his Confessio, above all an act of homage to God for having called Patrick, unworthy sinner, to the apostolate. There is hope rather than irony in the fact that his burial place is said to be in strife-torn Ulster, in County Down.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (10.1~12)

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.' I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.


Apostolic friendship
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

In Nazareth there are, of course, well-known Christian churches that honour the Incarnation. There is the large Catholic basilica of the Annunciation with its House of Mary underneath, commemorating the conception of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. There is impressive archaeological work associated with that church. There is the associated church of St Joseph, commemorating the dwelling of the Holy Family. There is also the Greek Orthodox church of what is called the Spring of Mary, commemorating the spring where Mary would have come to draw water. The Greek Orthodox take the Annunciation to have occurred while Mary was at that spring of water. In the same large city of Nazareth — now grown far beyond its size at the time of Christ — there are mosques, and in particular the White Mosque. I have visited that mosque and I could not but be impressed by the religious practice of the Moslems attending that famous mosque. The menfolk entered, prayed and left in a reverent manner. I was instinctively led to compare in my own mind the two religions that are represented so strikingly in the city of Christ’s childhood, youth and manhood. Islam honours the one and only God as it conceives and imagines him. Allah is high, transcendent, holy, merciful. Above all, Allah is very high and very great — indeed, even distant. He is a strong counterweight against the polytheism of the religions of man. There is no other God but he, and Islam characteristically interprets the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity as denying the oneness of Allah. How different is the Christian religion! Of course the Christian rejoices that Islam has profited so directly by the absolute monotheism of the Judaeo-Christian revelation. But the God of Abraham, Moses, the prophets, draws very near to his chosen people, speaking of himself as a Husband to the people of his choice. This nearness is surpassed and brought to its ultimate term in Jesus Christ. God has actually become man. God the Son, truly God and truly man, trod a chosen land and associated freely and easily with us his brothers. In speaking familiarly with him, people were speaking familiarly with the great God himself. The all-high God made himself wondrously near to us. In Jesus Christ, God became our brother and our friend.

Yes, for the one who by divine grace has discerned the divinity of Jesus Christ — for his humanity is evident — and who by baptism is in Christ, God the Son is his brother. Further, for that same person who by baptism is in Jesus Christ, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is his Father — and all this by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has crossed the distance and become our best of friends. For Islam, this is no way to speak of God, for the one God is our exalted Master and Lord. The pivotal element in the Christian religion is personal friendship with Jesus Christ, living, risen, unseen. By means of friendship with Jesus, established by the Sacraments and nourished by his word and personal prayer, we live in God who is our brother and our father. But there is a distinctive character to this friendship with Jesus Christ — and this brings us to our Gospel today (Luke 10: 1-12). Friendship with Jesus is not just a matter of being with Jesus in, we might even say, a sedentary sense. We are not, as Christians, simply sitting in a room with Jesus for the whole of our Christian life. By that I mean that our grasp of the outstretched hand of Jesus our Saviour does not end there. Yes, he extends his hand to us to take away our sins and to share his divine life with us. But very importantly, he also wishes to draw us into his mission. As our brother and our friend he wants us to join with him in his work. He wants his friends to help bring him and his grace to the world. He wants us to bear fruit, fruit that will last. Life for the Christian is life in union with our divine brother, saviour and friend, a life that is very much a “working” life. It is a life of immersion in the work of Jesus Christ our brother. We are all called to collaborate with Christ in bringing salvation in him to the world. And so it is that we read in our Gospel today that our Lord “appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go!” We must work and pray for it.

For this reason many decades ago the Venerable Pope Pius XII taught that an essential element of the Christian life is that it be apostolic. This teaching was repeated with insistence by the Second Vatican Council and developed by subsequent popes. No matter what our calling in life, if we aspire to friendship with the living Jesus — and sanctity consists of this — we must aspire to be one with Jesus in his mission. This is part and parcel of putting on the mind of Christ, as St Paul chooses to express it. Today is the feast of St Patrick, outstanding missionary. Christ calls us to an apostolic friendship with him, and the character and shape of this will vary from calling to calling and circumstance to circumstance. Let us then strive to grow in the desire to bring others to Jesus Christ, for He is the life of man.

Prayers today: Come to the waters, all who thirst; though you have no money, come and drink with joy. (See Is 55:1)

Father, may our Lenten observance prepare us to embrace the paschal mystery and to proclaim your salvation with joyful praise. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, . .


St. Clement Mary Hofbauer (1751-1820)

Clement might be called the second founder of the Redemptorists, as it was he who carried the congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori to the people north of the Alps. John, the name given him at Baptism, was born in Moravia into a poor family, the ninth of 12 children. Although he longed to be a priest there was no money for studies, and he was apprenticed to a baker. But God guided the young man's fortunes. He found work in the bakery of a monastery where he was allowed to attend classes in its Latin school. After the abbot there died, John tried the life of a hermit but when Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages, John again returned to Vienna and to baking. One day after serving Mass at the cathedral of St. Stephen, he called a carriage for two ladies waiting there in the rain. In their conversation they learned that he could not pursue his priestly studies because of a lack of funds. They generously offered to support both him and his friend, Thaddeus, in their seminary studies. The two went to Rome, where they were drawn to St. Alphonsus' vision of religious life and to the Redemptorists. The two young men were ordained together in 1785. Newly professed at age 34, Clement Mary, as he was now called, and Thaddeus were sent back to Vienna. But the religious difficulties there caused them to leave and continue north to Warsaw, Poland. There they encountered numerous German-speaking Catholics who had been left priestless by the suppression of the Jesuits. At first they had to live in great poverty and preached outdoor sermons. They were given the church of St. Benno, and for the next nine years they preached five sermons a day, two in German and three in Polish, converting many to the faith. They were active in social work among the poor, founding an orphanage and then a school for boys. Drawing candidates to the congregation, they were able to send missionaries to Poland, Germany and Switzerland. All of these foundations had eventually to be abandoned because of the political and religious tensions of the times. After 20 years of difficult work Clement himself was imprisoned and expelled from the country. Only after another arrest was he able to reach Vienna, where he was to live and work the final 12 years of his life. He quickly became "the apostle of Vienna," hearing the confessions of the rich and poor, visiting the sick, acting as a counsellor to the powerful, sharing his holiness with all in the city. His crowning work was the establishment of a Catholic college in his beloved city. Persecution followed him, and there were those in authority who were able for a while to stop him from preaching. An attempt was made at the highest levels to have him banished. But his holiness and fame protected him and the growth of the Redemptorists. Due to his efforts, the congregation, upon his death in 1820, was firmly established north of the Alps. He was canonized in 1909.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (5.1~16)

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie— the blind, the lame, the paralysed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, 'Pick up your mat and walk.' So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted Him.


Jesus Christ
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One gets the impression that on the occasion of this miracle our Lord was in Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews in a somewhat private capacity, without publicity. There is no mention of crowds thronging around him, no mention of his publicly teaching in the Temple, although he undoubtedly had some of his disciples with him — such as John who reports the incident. Our Lord may have been visiting for the Feast in this incognito manner to avoid the mounting hostility of the religious leaders, while being able to visit the House of his beloved Father in heaven. So let us observe him quietly mingling with the crowd, his dress similar to the rest, with a cloth headpiece protective against the weather hanging down and perhaps serving also to disguise his features. He is accompanied by John, perhaps Simon Peter, James and some others. Gaze on this Man of the ages! There he stands, there he moves forward, filled with love and peace, the Light of the world! He sees the truth, and he is the Truth. He is intent on entering the House of his dear Father, his Abba. My Father! he whispers to himself. My dear Father! How I long to see you glorified! Father, dear Father, is the refrain that sings in his heart. This Man has come from the Father himself. His Person was with the Father from age to age. From all eternity the two had been together, united in a third Person, the one who leads him now — the Spirit! The Spirit fills his heart and prompts his powerful and loving prayer that unceasingly rises to the highest heavens and captivates the Father of all, the Origin of origins. There he is, moving ahead. Oh, how marvellous is this Man we watch! We follow him with John and the others. We see his figure, calm, powerful, so utterly good, so very beautiful in his entire being. He is the heart and the head of the whole world, the entire universe. He is the King, the Lord, the One long promised. Is it not a staggering and wondrous thought that this Man who now stops and gazes on an invalid is the very Son of God? We behold in him no mere magnificent prophet, no singular and even unique religious teacher and leader. We are gazing on the living God.

He stops. Perhaps it is a disciple who mentions to him this particular invalid. This incapacitated man has lain there a long time — his presence at the Bethesda pool began before Jesus was born. He had been there at the pool during those years when the adolescent Jesus accompanied his parents to Jerusalem for the annual Feast. Ah! Think of the adolescent Jesus! What a boy he was! The boy who was God made man! So great in nature and grace, growing in his marvellous humanity, preparing for the titanic work ahead in which he would take away the sin of the world, bring the Spirit to all who asked for it, and found his Church whereby he, the Saviour, would reach the ends of the earth and every person. A titanic work indeed, and here he is now, the Man. Pilate would say to the enemies of Christ, Behold the Man! Let us continue to behold him as he stops now and speaks to the invalid. “He asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no-one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (John 5: 1-16). It seems that that was all that happened, and Jesus moved on, mingling unknown amid the crowd, on his way to the Temple. The man who had been healed had no idea who it was who had healed him, so effective was our Lord’s obscurity during these moments. Our Lord stopped, healed, moved on. Now, let us remember that though our Lord is not visible, he is very much with us. Moreover, he sees all our difficulties. Why did he not heal this paralytic long before? We do not know. Thirty-eight years! But the moment finally came — and someone mentioned the invalid. Let us never give up on Jesus Christ for all our needs, and for the needs of others! The same Man said, ask and you will receive, seek and your will find. The one who asks always receives. Let us keep in his presence then, and never forget who it is to whom we are praying!

Let us never take Jesus Christ for granted, in effect forgetting who he is. He is the Man of men, the unique person of human history. He is truly man, man in every way except that he had no sin, no tendency to sin, no moral fault of any kind because he was literally and truly God. Man though he is, in the first instance he is God, for he is one of the three divine Persons. He took to himself a human nature, and in his humanity suffered and died for us, taking away the sin of the world. Let us love and follow him then! There is no one like him.

Prayers today: Lord, I put my trust in you; I shall be glad and rejoice in your mercy, because you have seen my affliction. (Ps 30:7-8)

Father, creator, you give the world new life by your sacraments. May we, your Church, grow in your life and continue to receive your help on earth. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns world without end through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Amen.


St. Louise de Marillac (d. 1660)

Louise, born near Meux, France, lost her mother when she was still a child, her beloved father when she was but 15. Her desire to become a nun was discouraged by her confessor, and a marriage was arranged. One son was born of this union. But she soon found herself nursing her beloved husband through a long illness that finally led to his death. Louise was fortunate to have a wise and sympathetic counsellor, St. Francis de Sales, and then his friend, the Bishop of Belley, France. Both of these men were available to her only periodically. But from an interior illumination she understood that she was to undertake a great work under the guidance of another person she had not yet met. This was the holy priest M. Vincent, later to be known as St. Vincent de Paul. At first he was reluctant to be her confessor, busy as he was with his "Confraternities of Charity." Members were aristocratic ladies of charity who were helping him nurse the poor and look after neglected children, a real need of the day. But the ladies were busy with many of their own concerns and duties. His work needed many more helpers, especially ones who were peasants themselves and therefore close to the poor and could win their hearts. He also needed someone who could teach them and organize them. Only over a long period of time, as Vincent de Paul became more acquainted with Louise, did he come to realize that she was the answer to his prayers. She was intelligent, self-effacing and had physical strength and endurance that belied her continuing feeble health. The missions he sent her on eventually led to four simple young women joining her. Her rented home in Paris became the training centre for those accepted for the service of the sick and poor. Growth was rapid and soon there was need of a so-called rule of life, which Louise herself, under the guidance of Vincent, drew up for the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (though he preferred "Daughters" of Charity). He had always been slow and prudent in his dealings with Louise and the new group. He said that he had never had any idea of starting a new community, that it was God who did everything. "Your convent," he said, "will be the house of the sick; your cell, a hired room; your chapel, the parish church; your cloister, the streets of the city or the wards of the hospital." Their dress was to be that of the peasant women. It was not until years later that Vincent de Paul would finally permit four of the women to take annual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. It was still more years before the company would be formally approved by Rome and placed under the direction of Vincent's own congregation of priests. Many of the young women were illiterate and it was with reluctance that the new community undertook the care of neglected children. Louise was busy helping wherever needed despite her poor health. She travelled throughout France, establishing her community members in hospitals, orphanages and other institutions. At her death on March 15, 1660, the congregation had more than 40 houses in France. Six months later St. Vincent de Paul followed her in death. Louise de Marillac was canonized in 1934 and declared patroness of social workers in 1960.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John (4.43~54)

After the two days Jesus left for Galilee. (Now Jesus Himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.) When He arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him. They had seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there. Once more He visited Cana in Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Him and begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at His word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he enquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour. Then the father realised that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed. This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.


God, Saviour of all
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There is a detail in our Gospel passage today which could prompt thoughts about the saving plan of God for the whole world. I refer to the departure of our Lord from Samaria and his return to Galilee. John, the author of the account, mentions that the event he is about to describe, occurred in “Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.” This mention by John of specific locations and what happened twice at this particular location reminds us of the historical and geographical character of revealed religion. Revealed religion is an historical religion rooted in facts that, of course, occurred in precise places. God had drawn very near to man in precise locations which are with us today. In Jesus Christ he had personally come to dwell among a particular people as one of them, in a particular part of the world at a particular time. Places are specifically mentioned and the number of occurrences are specified. Cana is with us today, and it has a beautiful church to commemorate our Lord’s visit and two miracles there. Some archaeological work done there can be viewed. But let us expand our vision a little, beyond the scene of our Gospel. The passage mentions that “a royal official” — a “nobleman” as Knox chooses to translate the Greek — approached our Lord with his request for a healing of his son at Capernaum. Was the royal official a Hebrew, an adherent of the Jewish religion? We may presume so, but it may not have been the case. In any event, those to whom he was attached in his work may not have been. We are reminded by this event of the centurion who asked our Lord to come and heal his servant. The centurion had faith that evoked the high praise of Christ. Presumably the centurion was not an adherent of the religion of the Hebrews, even though he was friendly to it. He had built the synagogue, we read. Our Lord’s personal mission was to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, but he constantly bore in mind the pagan world, for it was all around him. He had grown up in a village that was very near the cosmopolitan city of Zephoris, and had perhaps regularly worked there with Joseph on all the construction continually going on.

Jesus our Lord visited Cana and worked two spectacular miracles there. God was present in person there. But let us try to imagine the saving work of God among the nations. God was not neglecting his children, the vast majority of whom were beyond the confines of his chosen people. In this respect, let us remember a detail from the infancy narratives of the Gospel of St Matthew. The Magi from the east — presumably Zoroastrians — received the guidance of a star. God was intervening in a circle of professional adherents of that venerable natural religion to set them on the path to Christ. The path he drew them along led directly to Christ, but the notable thing here is that he was granting them a form of revelation prior to their journey to Christ. We may surely presume that God was, in diverse ways, attempting to draw the peoples along paths that were not unrelated to that which leads to Jesus Christ, the one and only Redeemer of the world. Some of the early Fathers of the Church spoke of the “seeds of the Word” in the philosophies and religions of the world. Cardinal Newman spoke often of a universal revelation. This universal revelation, while in no way serving as a substitute for the Revelation that is Christ who is the only way to the Father, drew the peoples closer to the Father of all and prepared them for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this extended sense we may accept the terminology of various religions which speak of their founders as “prophets.” To an extent, they may have been directly assisted by God in their perception of certain great truths that subsequently guided countless souls after them in the pursuit of the good life. The fact that these great truths — say, of one only God, and of his holy character — were mixed up with many untruths that led subsequently to certain evils, need not gainsay the fact of a certain revelation by God. Newman allowed the same point to be made of the work of certain great philosophers. Indeed, the point may be even more applicable to those great philosophers, for Augustine understood Christianity to be the successor of the best of philosophy rather than of religion.

As we think of Christ visiting Cana of Galilee for the second time and working yet another miracle there, let us also think of God’s action across the mighty span of mankind. His Gift of gifts that absolutely opened the gates of heaven was Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son. By entering into communion with Jesus Christ and living according to the demands of that communion, we shall be saved. But God is and has always been reaching out to all of his scattered children of every age and place. He is constantly endeavouring to lead them to him and along the path of good and towards the person of the Saviour. How good the great God is!

Prayers today: Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts. (Isaiah 66: 10-11)

Father of peace, we are joyful in your Word, your Son Jesus Christ, who reconciles us to you. Let us hasten toward Easter with the eagerness of faith and love. We ask this through Christ our Lord



St. Maximilian (d. 295)

We have an early, precious, almost unembellished account of the martyrdom of St. Maximilian in modern-day Algeria. Brought before the proconsul Dion, Maximilian refused enlistment in the Roman army saying, "I cannot serve, I cannot do evil. I am a Christian."

Dion replied: "You must serve or die."

Maximilian: "I will never serve. You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ. My army is the army of God, and I cannot fight for this world. I tell you I am a Christian."

Dion: "There are Christian soldiers serving our rulers Diocletian and Maximian, Constantius and Galerius."

Maximilian: "That is their business. I also am a Christian, and I cannot serve."

Dion: "But what harm do soldiers do?"

Maximilian: "You know well enough."

Dion: "If you will not do your service I shall condemn you to death for contempt of the army."

Maximilian: "I shall not die. If I go from this earth my soul will live with Christ my Lord."

Maximilian was 21 years old when he gladly offered his life to God. His father went home from the execution site joyful, thanking God that he had been able to offer heaven such a gift.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (15.1~3.11~32)

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering round to hear Him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law murmured, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no-one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I have been serving you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"


Conversion and repentance
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

It is clear from the context of this long passage that our Lord’s principal point is that God is very different from what the Pharisees and teachers of the Law imagined him to be. They murmured at our Lord welcoming sinners and eating with them. Jesus, they insinuated, was unlike the all-Holy God who hates sin. God, they thought, does not allow sinners to draw near to Him, and He condemns and punishes sinners. So our Lord proceeds to explain himself by means of a parable. The principal figure of the parable is the indulgent and loving father who warmly welcomes his wayward son back to the family home. God does not shun the sinner — provided the sinner acknowledges his sin and returns to him repentant. Now, while our Lord provides us with a remarkable surprise as to the nature of the all-holy God — that he is love and compassion — his parable also tells us about man. While it tells us about God our Father, it also divides his children into two types. There is the son who is full of the awareness that he has sinned against heaven and against his loving father. There is also the older son who can only think of the fact that “All these years I have been serving you and never disobeyed your orders.” The younger son has a profound sense of his sin. Because of the pain his sins have brought upon himself he is repentant, even if his repentance is not especially noble-minded. He has not been led back by the thought of the offence to his father that his life has been, but by the experience of suffering it brought upon himself. So his life has been wayward and his repentance less than perfect. How like the sinners and tax collectors they were, who gathered about our Lord! Despite their sins they experienced what the younger son in the parable experienced, a loving welcome from Jesus Christ who, as St Paul writes, is the image of the unseen God. By contrast, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were like the older son who could only think of his faithful service. He begrudged the special welcome the younger son was receiving, and was angry with his forgiving father.

So we are reminded by our Lord’s parable not only of the boundless love of God for man despite his sin, but of the critical importance of a sense of sin in every man and woman. According to the teaching of the Church, only two human beings have been absolutely free of sin in every sense. Firstly of course, Jesus Christ was entirely free of sin because, though having assumed a human nature, he is divine in his person. He could never sin, even though as man he was open to temptations coming from without, and the Gospels record some of the temptations Satan presented to him. The other human being who, the Church teaches, was sinless, was the Virgin Mary his mother. Creature of God that she was, by the power of the Holy Spirit she was conceived free of sin, and remained sinless throughout her life. This she did by the power of God’s grace and her cooperation with that grace. All men, St Paul writes, are under the power of sin due to the original Fall, and were it not for the special grace of God, the all-holy Virgin Mary would have been too. But due to the merits of her divine Son, she was preserved from the inherited condition of sin. All this is to say that the response of the older son in the parable was utterly inappropriate, considered as a type of man’s response to God. We cannot say to God that we have been “all these years serving you” and having “never disobeyed your orders.” We are sinners all, even if to a greater or lesser extent. We should place ourselves in the camp of the younger son who returned repentant to the embrace of his loving father. What must distinguish our lives is repentance from sin and confidence in the love of God our Father. Our Lord holds up for our contemplation the loving mercy of God and the repentance of the younger son who trusted in his father. The older son, by his self-righteous attitude and hostility to both his younger brother and to his loving father, refused to come inside to join in the celebrations. How like the Pharisee! Christ’s call to conversion must continue to resound in our lives. Conversion is a continuing and life-long obligation for each of us and for the whole Church.

Our Lord’s essential point in the parable of this Sunday is that God is boundlessly merciful to the sinner who returns to him in repentance. The one who does not thus return, excludes himself from the friendship of God. The grace of God is our hope, and it enables us to respond to the merciful love of God by sorrow for sin and a firm purpose of amendment. We express this in acts of contrition and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The same grace of God enables us to continue to trust in God, and to live a life of penance in prayer, fasting and almsgiving. There are two recurring times when the Church invites us to practise this penance in a special way: Lent and each Friday. Let us then aim at true conversion, and be duly warned against the spirit of the older son in today’s parable.



A second reflection on today’s Gospel

Sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

Today’s Gospel passage is famous in world literature. In it our Lord tells the story of the prodigal son, a sinner who contritely admits what he has done: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’ But let us remember why our Lord told the parable: it was to explain his own actions. We read that the tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So in response to this objection that what he was doing was ungodly, our Lord told the parable explaining why he, sinless as he was, welcomed sinners and ate with them. The prodigal son welcomed by the father is the tax collector and the sinner. The older brother who complains at his father’s behaviour is the scribe and the Pharisee complaining at our Lord’s behaviour. But more than anything, the father in the parable is Christ’s image of God. It describes what God is like if we come to him, acknowledging that we are sinners. Like the father of the prodigal son, God our Father is extravagantly forgiving, provided we return to him with contrition. A principal purpose of Lent is to realize the love of God and to turn back to him seeking his forgiveness, especially in the Sacrament of Penance. In the second reading St Paul says, in Christ’s name we appeal to you, be reconciled to God. God is all-forgiving. During Lent let us strive to understand what God is like, and that we are sinners in profound need of his love. One of the most serious and yet common mistakes we can make in life is to think that little sins, as they are called, do not matter much. The moment we fall into any sin through weakness — and here I am referring especially to venial sin — we should make an act of contrition, of sorrow for sin, and ask God’s forgiveness.

Our ambition ought be to avoid deliberate venial sin, precisely and above all because it is an offence against God. If we take venial sin lightly we shall not only never reach holiness. Deliberate and unrepented venial sin is the path that leads to mortal sin. Of course, if the sin is mortal, whether it be a sin of thought or word or deed, we must endeavour to make an act of perfect contrition, that is to say, an act of sorrow inspired primarily by the thought that I have seriously offended the good God. Then we ought approach the Sacrament of Penance as soon as possible. Indeed, the most concentrated and effective way of receiving God’s pardon, whether it be for mortal or venial sin, is through the Sacrament of Penance. The Church recommends regular and frequent confession of venial sins. When it comes to any mortal sin, we are absolutely bound to seek God’s forgiveness for that sin in the Sacrament of Penance, and we should do so as quickly as possible. We certainly must do so before receiving Holy Communion. A great benefit of being a Catholic is that by means of Confession we can always regain the state of grace through this sacrament, and grow in it. We are bound by Church law to confess any grave sins, at least once a year in order to receive Holy Communion during the Easter season. Our Lord gave us the Sacrament of Penance after his resurrection, when he said to his apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them.” St John Chrysostom reminds us that this authority to forgive is not even given to archangels, nor is it given to our Lady herself. Yet it is given to every priest, and this is done for our benefit, to keep us in the state of grace. So let’s use it.


A third reflection on the Gospel of the fourth Sunday of Lent


Love and sin
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

By the fourth Sunday we are well and truly into Lent, the season of repentance from sin. We are invited by Christ and the Church to be conscious of sin and to turn from it back to our loving Father. In our Lord’s parable, the Prodigal Son came to realise that he was a sinner. “I have sinned,” he said to his loving father, “against God and against you.” He offers no excuses. He knew he had sinned and he understood what sin had led to. He confessed his sin and he was received back into his father’s friendship. Now, it is important to understand the purpose of this story. The parable is above all about God our Father, and about Jesus who is the image of the Father. He who sees me sees the Father, he said at the Last Supper. The Pharisees despised sinners, but Jesus sought them out and showed them love and offered them his company. In response, sinners sought him out. The parable is about God awaiting the return of the sinner whom he greatly loves, and whom he is always ready to forgive, if the sinner is willing to renounce his sins and return to him. So, as we read the parable we ought think first of God our loving Father, and of Jesus who reveals him. He loves sinners. All through the parable the Father is portrayed as lovingly indulgent. The younger of the two sons said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of property that falls to me”. The father did not object, rather he simply divided his living between them. If anything, the father was excessively indulgent. God will be our Judge, but that does not take away from the fact that he is indulgent with us, especially while we have the chance in this life of repenting. So the younger son went off and squandered his property in loose living. Then in the depths of distress and depression he returned home seeking work in his father’s house. He realised that his father loved him, and so he felt sufficiently confident to return to ask for employment. But what happened? The story tells us that ‘while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him.’ And so they began to celebrate.

This is the image we should have of God receiving any soul who turns away from sin and comes back to friendship with him. Just before our Lord tells this particular parable, he says that there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. St John in one of his letters tells us that God is love. One of the things we ought be working on during Lent is a correct image of God, and the picture of the indulgent father in today’s parable can help us. But the parable also tells us about sin. It ruined the younger son. Sin is not only a profound offence against God and his most holy nature. It is also the great destroyer of creation and of man. God, while loving us with a boundless love, hates sin. For this reason he sent his son, to take away the sin of the world. So while we think of God’s love for us, we should also think of what sin does to us and of how hateful it is to God. Again, the parable of our Gospel text helps us appreciate sin and its destructive power. The younger son squandered all his property in loose living, and when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country and he began to be in want. So he ended up serving the swine, and the swine were better off than he, in terms of food. No one gave him anything to eat. That is what he had come to. Let that be an image of the wages of sin, which St Paul tells us is death. Let us think of sin with the help of this famous parable, and let us endeavour to recover a sense of sin, and of how it is the greatest evil in the world. God hates sin and wants to see it entirely overcome and eliminated, precisely because he loves us. The younger son experienced the dregs of suffering because of his sins, and Christ stepped into the place of the younger son and bore on his shoulders the consequences of the sin of all mankind. He expiated for the sin of the world. If we wish to gain a true idea of the hatefulness of sin and of its consequences for mankind, look on our Lord hanging on the cross. It was sin, our sins, the sins of each person, that put him there.

It is imperative that we recognise the presence and nature of sin in our lives. God hates sin which is the gravest affront to him. But he loves us, who commit the sin that he hates. Every time we commit a sin — even a venial sin but most of all if it is a mortal sin — we must make a sincere act of contrition, one that is as perfect an expression of love for God as we can. We should go to Confession regularly and frequently, and each time we go we should make it as good a Confession as possible. We should examine our consciences daily. At the beginning of every Mass we confess our sinfulness, thinking of the times we have sinned. In each of these ways, let us make Lent a time when we recover a sense of sin and renounce it profoundly.

St. Leander of Seville (c. 550-600)

The next time you recite the Nicene Creed at Mass, think of today’s saint. For it was Leander of Seville who, as bishop, introduced the practice in the sixth century. He saw it as a way to help reinforce the faith of his people and as an antidote against the heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ. By the end of his life, Leander had helped Christianity flourish in Spain at a time of political and religious upheaval. Leander’s own family was heavily influenced by Arianism, but he himself grew up to be a fervent Christian. He entered a monastery as a young man and spent three years in prayer and study. At the end of that tranquil period he was made a bishop. For the rest of his life he worked strenuously to fight against heresy. The death of the anti-Christian king in 586 helped Leander’s cause. He and the new king worked hand in hand to restore orthodoxy and a renewed sense of morality. Leander succeeded in persuading many Arian bishops to change their loyalties.

Leander died around 600. In Spain he is honoured as a Doctor of the Church.


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke (18.9~14)

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men— robbers, evildoers, adulterers— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke: 18: 9-14)


Authentic religion
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

There are some fundamental human activities which all men and women find themselves engaged in. Man must work in order to eat and to pursue his interests. Of course, he finds himself reflecting on things, and making choices — some of which are momentous and have far-reaching consequences. So the list could go on. Man also finds himself being religious, or tending to be religious, or taking to religion when it is presented to him as he grows. He is drawn into the religious life of his family and his community. As a result of his power of reflection and choice he may abandon the religion of his upbringing and forego religion or adopt another. I think we could say that, looking at the matter anthropologically and sociologically, religion is one of the most common of human activities. So pervasive is it in traditional societies that, as has often been observed when setting man in the context of other living and conscious beings, man could be described as a religious being. Yes, of course he works in order to eat and do other things. Of course he reflects and chooses. But equally notable is the abundant manifestations of his religious life. But what is the essential activity of religion? What is it to be religious, authentically religious, and indeed profoundly religious? Of course, all understand that the religious person is the one who acknowledges God as the living Master of his life, however God may be conceived and imagined. A person who through ignorance, neglect or deliberate choice did not recognize God (or the gods) in this way, would never be described as religious, except in some analogous sense. That having been granted, could we make this more explicit and identify an inner attitude, informing one’s recognition of God, which marks the authentically religious person? Putting it slightly differently, is there something the religious person, the one who recognizes God as Master, should especially attempt to develop in his attitude before God? In our Lord’s day (as in every day) there were persons who were professionally religious and who led the people in their religion. But many of them were not especially religious at all.

It is very fortunate that our Lord’s teaching was commonly given in images rather than in, as with Aristotle, abstract discourse. Our Lord’s teaching was meant for the world — including all the Aristotles — and so he spoke in the pictorial language of mankind. In our Gospel today (Luke: 18: 9-14) our Lord tells his well-known parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and he turns firstly to the Pharisee. The Pharisee was the religious person — in the view of society. Our Lord did not discount the role of the scribes and the Pharisees, and on one occasion he directed that his hearers do what they say while avoiding their example. They occupied the chair of Moses. They were legitimate religious teachers and they sustained to a greater or lesser extent the religious life of the nation. So, in his parable our Lord describes the Pharisee — and he is devastating in his description of the inner character of their religion. The prayer of the Pharisee was thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men— robbers, evildoers, adulterers— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” Essentially, he exalted himself. The properly religious person exalts God, but the Pharisee in the parable exalted himself, before God and before others. So there we have from the lips of our Lord himself one thing which the religious person absolutely must not do. He must avoid self-exaltation like the plague. This self-exaltation can even be very secret, seen by God himself. By contrast, the Tax Collector stood far back, perhaps in the shadows of the Temple where he would be scarcely be seen. He had nothing to show before the gaze of men. But, most especially, he had nothing to show before the gaze of God, and he knew it. “He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'” Now, Cardinal John Henry Newman, a leading religious mind of the nineteenth century, claimed that this expressed the essence of authentic religion. The plain and manifest fact is that we are sinners, and he, Newman, maintained that even natural, fallen man knows or should know this. We are sinners and our most authentic act in religion is to acknowledge our sinfulness before God and to ask his forgiveness.

Our Lord’s sums up the effect of each prayer, and states that the Pharisee was left separated from God and still in sin, whereas the sinful Tax Collector was left reconciled with God. “ I tell you that this man,” our Lord concludes, “rather than the other, went home justified before God.” What we must do, whether we are called to occupy a lowly and hidden place in the world or a prominent place that draws the esteem of others, is to be like the Tax Collector in our inner religion. Our heart must be steeped in humility and contrition before God. This is what it means to be authentically religious. “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Morning Offering: O Jesus, through the most pure heart of Mary, I offer you all the prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day for all the intentions of your divine heart, in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass. I offer them especially for the Holy Father's intentions:

Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for February is: "That by means of sincere search for the truth scholars and intellectuals may arrive at an understanding of the one true God".

His mission intention is: "That the Church, aware of her own missionary identity, may strive to follow Christ faithfully and to proclaim His Gospel to all peoples".


Prayers today: Lord, there is no god to compare with you; you are great and do wonderful things, you are the only God. (Ps 85:8, 10)

Merciful Father, fill our hearts with your love and keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ. Give us the grace to rise above our human weakness. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,.


Blessed Angela Salawa (1881-1922)
Angela served Christ and Christ’s little ones with all her strength. Born in Siepraw, near Kraków, Poland, she was the 11th child of Bartlomiej and Ewa Salawa. In 1897, she moved to Kraków where her older sister Therese lived. Angela immediately began to gather together and instruct young women domestic workers. During World War I, she helped prisoners of war without regard for their nationality or religion. The writings of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross were a great comfort to her. Angela gave great service in caring for soldiers wounded in World War I. After 1918 her health did not permit her to exercise her customary apostolate. Addressing herself to Christ, she wrote in her diary, "I want you to be adored as much as you were destroyed." In another place, she wrote, "Lord, I live by your will. I shall die when you desire; save me because you can." At her 1991 beatification in Kraków, Pope John Paul II said: "It is in this city that she worked, that she suffered and that her holiness came to maturity. While connected to the spirituality of St. Francis, she showed an extraordinary responsiveness to the action of the Holy Spirit" (L'Osservatore Romano, volume 34, number 4, 1991).

Henri de Lubac, S.J., wrote: "The best Christians and the most vital are by no means to be found either inevitably or even generally among the wise or the clever, the intelligentsia or the politically-minded, or those of social consequence. And consequently what they say does not make the headlines; what they do does not come to the public eye. Their lives are hidden from the eyes of the world, and if they do come to some degree of notoriety, that is usually late in the day, and exceptional, and always attended by the risk of distortion" (The Splendor of the Church, p. 187).


The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark (12.28~34)

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." "Well said, teacher," the man replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but Him. To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from then on no-one dared ask him any more questions.


We have a dream!
(Homily by Fr. E. J. Tyler)

One of the distinguishing first principles of modern Western culture — in theory if not in practice — is the place of individual human rights. The recognition of human rights is deemed to be fundamental in a civilized society, according to the Western vision of things. Of course, there are certain rampant violations of human rights in Western countries (such as the rights of the unborn), which show that the deeper matter of a true understanding of man and his destiny is more properly at stake. However, there is no doubt that the rights of each person is a defining element in the Western account of man and society. Now, one of the most famous speeches of the twentieth century was precisely a call based on what all in theory accept: human rights. I am thinking of the speech given by Dr Martin Luther King, the great “human rights” activist on behalf of the American Negro. His assassination is universally attributed to the resistance by some to his powerful demand for the full recognition of the human rights of the individual Negro. He had a dream: “I have a dream!” he rhetorically began in sentence after sentence. “I have a dream!” was the refrain of his speech, and now, every time a politician or leader uses these words, it is clear that he wishes all his hearers to associate him with the spirit of Martin Luther King. I have a dream! But ah! Another said this from the mists of eternity, and it was the archetype of all noble dreams. Any dream that Martin Luther King had, was a pale reflection of the dream that filled the heart of God from before the foundation of the world. I have a dream — a wonderful cry, indeed! But if there is a God — and of course there is a God — then does he have a dream, or does he exist as might a human being with no dreams at all? Ah yes! God has a dream. From the heart of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, there has come a glorious song, a heavenly symphony, a hymn that has burst on the scene of history. That hymn is, “We have a dream!” What is the dream that has filled the Holy Trinity from eternity? It is man’s salvation.

In our Gospel today (Mark 12: 28-34) we are told that one of the lawyers came and heard the debate between our Lord and his critics. He was full of admiration for our Lord in his answers, and was led to pose the question of questions about the Law, with its numerous commands and prescriptions. He asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Without any hesitation Christ gave the answer: “The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.” The lawyer could not help but praise our Lord, and proceeded to show he understood. “Well said, teacher, the man replied. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” That is the divine command, and it is the divine dream. It ought be our fundamental dream that is the absolute first principle of everything else, including the modern and most commendable dream of the recognition of the human rights of every person. The fundamental dream should be holiness of life and the overcoming of sin. If this is not the basic dream, the hope that is constantly ahead of us, then all other dreams will fall short of their goals. Sin is the source of the corruption and failure of man and society, as well as his eternal damnation. Sin must be conquered! Personal goodness and holiness of life must be gained! That is the best and truest of all human dreams, and it has been the dream of God for man from all eternity. It was his original gift to man whom he made in his image and likeness, but it was a gift that man squandered and threw away like the prodigal son of our Lord’s parable about the loving and indulgent father. So God’s dream has continued, it led to the Incarnation, the Atonement, the sending of the Spirit, and the Church.

“We have a dream!” This is the cry of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. With the Incarnation, with God the Son becoming man, the grand dream was implemented. The dream is that each of us will resist and overcome sin by the grace won for us at Calvary. We will thus gain such holiness of life that we will be able to firstly, love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and then to love our neighbour as ourself. Let us all, day after day, sing this divine melody, “I have a dream,” the dream being our redemption and sanctification — and that of all our brothers and sisters.