Monday 25 August 2014
You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (Douay-Rheims Bible)
You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. (Douay-Rheims Bible)
Mass
Introduction.
Fr. Raymond
took the theme from the Night Office from St. John Chrysostom saying, “You did not choose me, it was I who chose you”.
God chose each of us in the three great moments.
1. When he called out of nothing by creating us.
2. When he called us to the Christian Faith at Baptism.
3. When he called us to dedicate our lives to Him more closely in the monastic life.
[The divine chosen by creation,
we are chosen by Christ,
religious profession we have not chosen,
it is Christ who chose us].
God chose each of us in the three great moments.
1. When he called out of nothing by creating us.
2. When he called us to the Christian Faith at Baptism.
3. When he called us to dedicate our lives to Him more closely in the monastic life.
[The divine chosen by creation,
we are chosen by Christ,
religious profession we have not chosen,
it is Christ who chose us].
A Word in Season Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours
Augustine Press 1999
TWENTY-FIRST WEEK
IN ORDINARY TIME
MONDAY
Year II
First Reading
Titus
2:1-3:2
Responsory Ps 16:7-8;
Mt 19:17
I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel, who even at night directs my heart. I keep the Lord
always before me:+ since he is at my right hand, I shall stand firm. .
V. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. + Since he is ...
Second Reading
From a homily of Saint John Chrysostom (Horn.
lnedite: Revue des Etudes Byznntines 29 [1971J 127-129)
You
did not choose me, it was I who chose you
"The grace of God has appeared, as our teacher."
Then, stand up! For we are again opening our treasure chest and again displaying
our pearls. Therefore let no one fail to observe the beauty of the words: Grace has appeared.
Why did the apostle
not say: "grace has been given"?
To make you understand that before grace
appeared human nature was living in darkness. For Christ appears to those
living in darkness, as indeed the prophet also foretold, when he said: The people
living in darkness have seen a great light. The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation. Do you see the
agreement of apostle and prophet? The people living in darkness. For such
is the nature of darkness that wherever it overtakes humanity it immediately holds
us down and stops us from going any further; our way becomes slippery and dangerous.
Therefore it was also to guide
ur idle nature
in the direction of virtue that the prophet said: The people living in darkness
have seen a great light.
But it is not only
this that the apostle's use of the word "appeared" shows us, there is
something else as well. It is precisely this: it is not we who looked for the light
and found it, but the light that has appeared to us; we did not go to him, he
came to us.
hrist's own words
also make this clear: You did not choose me, it was I who chose you. We
are constantly told that it is not our deeds that have won us salvation, but we
have all been saved by divine grace.
And that too is implied in the apostle's words: The grace of God has appeared.
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What kind of grace? For there is both the grace of former times and the grace that John referred to, saying: We
have received grace upon grace. For even the grace of old was real grace, which freed the Israelites from
slavery in Egypt and countless other evils. But this grace is greater. For in the past it freed the people from the Egyptians,
but now it has freed them from the tyranny of evil spirits; then it freed them from
Pharaoh's rage, but now it is from the devil's grasp; then through Moses, now through
the only Son; then by means of a staff, not by a cross; then through the Red Sea,
but now through the water of rebirth; then it led the people out of their clay
and brick-making, but now out of death and sin; then it led them to a land flowing
with milk and honey, now to the kingdom of heaven.
Responsory Lv 20:7.26
Consecrate yourselves
and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. Keep my laws and obey them, for + it is
I, the Lord, who make you holy.
V. You must be holy
to me, because I, the Lord, am holy.+ It is I ...
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
A Word in Season Readings for the Liturgy of the Hours
Augustine Press 1999
One this day,
two alternative Reading are give below.
Saint Clement of Alexandria, Julian of Norwich (Revelations of Divine Love, 63)
Alternative
Reading
From the writings
of Saint Clement
of Alexandria
(Cohortatio
ad Gentes l:PG
8,59-63)
We should
live reasonable,
honest,
and devout lives
in this present
age, as
we wait for
the manifestation
of the glory
of our great God
The Lord has mercy on us, trains, exhorts and warns, preserves and guards us. He rewards us for our
learning more than we could deserve with his promise of the kingdom of heaven, his
sole return from us being our salvation. For while evil lives on the destruction of mankind, truth, like the bee, harms nothing in nature, and glories only in the salvation of men.
So you have the Lord's promise and his love for man; it is yours to partake of that grace. And you need not imagine that my song of salvation is something new, like a new piece of furniture or a new house, for as scripture says: He was before
the morning star;
and: In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was
God.
Our own existence
dates before the foundation of the world; because of our future destiny our being began in God himself. It is
MONDAY
57
to the Word of God that we owe our creation as rational beings, and through him that we belong to eternity, because: In the beginning was the
Word. So in respect of his
eternal nature the Word was and is the divine beginning of all
things; but because he has now taken
the name of Christ, a name consecrated long ago and worthy of his kingly power, for that reason I call my song new.
This Word then, the Christ, is he to whom we owe our life from of old, and the goodness of that life, by the fact that he appeared himself to men. This Word, who alone is both
God and man, in teaching us to live rightly on earth conveys us to eternal life. For in the words of that holy apostle of the Lord: The saving grace of God has
appeared to all, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly desires, and
to live reasonable,
honest, and devout lives in
this present
age, as we wait
for our blessed hope, the manifestation of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is the new song of the Word, who was in the
beginning, and who has now appeared on earth, our preexistent Savior. The
Word who was with God, and by whom all
things were made, has appeared as our Teacher. The Word, who, as creator, made us in the beginning and gave us life, taught us how to live rightly when he came as
our teacher, so that later as God he might grant us immortal life.
Responsory In 8:12; Rom 13:12
I am the light of the world. t Anyone who follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.
V. Let us cast off the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. t Anyone who ...
Alternative
Reading
From the writings
of Julian
of Norwich (Revelations
of Divine
Love,
63)
Jesus
our true mother
In itself nature is good and fair, and to save it, and to destroy sin, grace was sent: to bring fair nature back to the blessedness from which it began, to
God; only now with the added dignity and worth that came from the powerful operation of grace. For in the presence of God and all his holy ones it will be seen as a matter of eternal joy that nature has been tried in the fires of affliction, and
58
TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN
ORDINARY TIME
that no fault
or imperfection has been found in it. Nature and grace are agreed, for both are of God. He works
in these two ways, and loves in one. Neither grace nor nature works
independently of each other,
nor can they ever be separated.
When we by God's mercy and help agree with nature and grace we shall see in very truth that sin is more vile and painful
than hell itself. Indeed there is no comparison: sin contradicts our
nature. For just as sin is really unclean, so
is it really unnatural, and therefore is a horrible thing for the beloved soul to see when, taught by nature and grace, it would be beautiful and shining in
the sight of God.
We need have no fear of this, unless it is the kind of fear that urges us on. But we make our humble complaint to our beloved Mother, and he sprinkles us with his precious blood, and makes our soul pliable and tender, and restores us to our full beauty in
the course of time. This is his glory and our eternal joy. And this sweet and lovely work he will never cease from doing until all his
beloved children are born and
delivered. This was shown
in the explanation of his spiritual thirst, that longing that loves and lasts until the day of judgment.
Thus in Jesus, our true mother, has our life been grounded, through his own uncreated foresight, and the Father's almighty power, and the exalted and sovereign
goodness of the Holy Spirit. In taking our nature he restored us to life; in his blessed death upon the cross he bore us to eternal life; and now, since then, and until the day of judgment, he feeds and helps us on - just as one would
expect the supreme and royal nature of motherhood to act, and the
natural needs of childhood to
require.
And I understood that
there is no higher state in this life than that of childhood, because of our inadequate and feeble capacity and intellect, until such time as
our gracious Mother shall bring us up to our Father's bliss. And then the true meaning of those lovely words
will be made known to us, "It is all going to be all right. You will see for yourself that everything is going to be all right."
Responsory 1 In 4:9.16b; In 3:16
God's love for us was revealed
when he sent his only Son into the world so
that we might have life through him. t God is love, and
whoever lives in love lives in God and God lives in him.
The Conversion of Saint Paul, apostle - Feast
Saint John Chrysostom (c.345-407), priest at Antioch then Bishop of Constantinople, Doctor of the Church
4th homily on Saint Paul, 1-2
"What would you have me do, Lord?"
Hot tempered, impetuous, Paul needed a strong brake if he was not to be carried away by his enthusiasm and ignore God's voice. So God first of all reproved this anger; he calmed his wrath by afflicting him with blindness and then spoke to him. He made his unfathomable wisdom known to him that he might recognise the one he was fighting against and understand that he could no longer hold out against his grace. It was not privation of light that was blinding him but the intensity of light...
God chose his moment well. Paul was the first to acknowledge it: “when it pleased God, who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, he revealed his Son to me” (cf Gal 1,15f.)... So let us learn from the mouth of Paul himself that no one has ever discovered Christ on their own. It is Christ who revealed himself and made himself known. As the Savior says: “You did not choose me; it is I who chose you” (Jn 15,16).
God chose his moment well. Paul was the first to acknowledge it: “when it pleased God, who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, he revealed his Son to me” (cf Gal 1,15f.)... So let us learn from the mouth of Paul himself that no one has ever discovered Christ on their own. It is Christ who revealed himself and made himself known. As the Savior says: “You did not choose me; it is I who chose you” (Jn 15,16).
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