PSALM 46

God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress.

Thus we do not fear, though earth be shaken and mountains quake to the depths of the sea,
 
Though its waters rage and foam and mountains totter at its surging.

The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 
 
Streams of the river gladden the city of God, the holy dwelling of the Most High.
 
God is in its midst; it shall not be shaken; God will help it at break of day.
 
Though nations rage and kingdoms totter, God's voice thunders and the earth trembles.
 
The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 
 
Come and see the works of the LORD, who has done fearsome deeds on earth;
 
Who stops wars to the ends of the earth, breaks the bow, splinters the spear, and burns the shields with fire;
 
Who says: "Be still and confess that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth."
 
The LORD of hosts is with us; our stronghold is the God of Jacob. 

June 13, 2010

Reading 1

2 Sm 12:7-10, 13

Nathan said to David:

"Thus says the LORD God of Israel:

'I anointed you king of Israel.

I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your lord's house and your lord's wives for your own.

I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more.

Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight?

You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword;

you took his wife as your own,

and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites.

Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,

because you have despised me

and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.'

Then David said to Nathan,

"I have sinned against the LORD."

Nathan answered David:

"The LORD on his part has forgiven your sin:

R.     (cf. 5c)Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,

in whose spirit there is no guile.

R.     Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

I acknowledged my sin to you,

my guilt I covered not.

I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"

and you took away the guilt of my sin.

R.     Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me;

with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round.

R.     Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;

exult, all you upright of heart.

R.     Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

Brothers and sisters:

We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law

but through faith in Jesus Christ,

even we have believed in Christ Jesus

that we may be justified by faith in Christ

and not by works of the law,

because by works of the law no one will be justified.

For through the law I died to the law,

that I might live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ;

yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me;

insofar as I now live in the flesh,

I live by faith in the Son of God

who has loved me and given himself up for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God;

for if justification comes through the law,

We have choices - good or bad:

Ezechial reminds us...................

The Reign of Christ

1-2 O God, give your judgment to the king; your justice to the son of kings; That he may govern your people with justice, your oppressed with right judgment,

3 That the mountains may yield their bounty for the people, and the hills great abundance,

4 That he may defend the oppressed among the people, save the poor and crush the oppressor.

5 May he live as long as the sun endures, like the moon, through all generations.

6 May he be like rain coming down upon the fields, like showers watering the earth,

7 That abundance may flourish in his days, great bounty, till the moon be no more.

8 May he rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

9 May his foes kneel before him, his enemies lick the dust.

10 May the kings of Tarshish and the islands bring tribute, the kings of Arabia and Seba offer gifts.

11 May all kings bow before him, all nations serve him.

12 For he rescues the poor when they cry out, the oppressed who have no one to help.

13 He shows pity to the needy and the poor and saves the lives of the poor.

14 From extortion and violence he frees them, for precious is their blood in his sight.

15 Long may he live, receiving gold from Arabia, prayed for without cease, blessed day by day.

16 May wheat abound in the land, flourish even on the mountain heights. May his fruit increase like Lebanon's, his wheat like the grasses of the land.

17 May his name be blessed forever; as long as the sun, may his name endure. May the tribes of the earth give blessings with his name; may all the nations regard him as favored.

18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wonderful deeds.

19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may all the earth be filled with the LORD'S glory. Amen and amen.

20 The end of the psalms of David, son of Jesse.

NAB – Psalm 72

Little Jesus by Francis Thompson

                2 Mac 12:46 – It is therefore a holy and wholesome                    thought to pray the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.

From the beginning, Christians have prayed for the dead and have undertaken works of penance on their behalf. There is scriptural basis for this intercessory prayer for the sins of others and for the dead in the Old Testament. Job's sacrifices purified his sons (Job 1:5); and Judas Maccabeus "made atonement for the dead that they be delivered from their sin" (II Macc 12:46).

The tradition in the Church of having Masses said for the dead began in the earliest times. The pre-Christian Roman religion, which held that some form of life continued after death, gave votive offerings to the gods for the dead at three specified times: the third, seventh and thirtieth day after death. This practice of praying for the departed on these same days was adopted ("inculturated") by the early Christians -- and continued in the Church for nearly 2000 years: the Church offered Masses for the deceased person on the third, seventh and thirtieth day after death.

Beginning in the year 998, All souls -- the "faithful departed" -- were officially remembered in the Church's prayers on the evening of November 1, and with Requiem Masses, Masses for the dead, on November 2. All Souls Day is now a feast of the universal Church. (The word "requiem" is Latin for "rest".) Following the Second Vatican Council, all Masses celebrated on All Saints day observe that feast, not "All souls". Three Masses may still be said on All Souls Day. The first two are Masses for Burial, and the third is a Mass for the Dead. Black vestments may be worn on this day.

We pray for the faithful departed, those who have been baptized, but who need to be completely purified of all stain of sin before they come into full union with God in Heaven. In other words, for most of us. The Church's teaching about Purgatory, the place of purification, is explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (§1030-1032):

"All who die in god's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.

"The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

"As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.

"This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: 'Therefore [Judas Maccabeus' made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.' From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

"Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them." [Saint John Chrysostom - 4th century]

                                                           November 2009

ANDREW THE APOSTLE

                            (30 NOV NT)

  
Most references to Andrew in the New Testament simply include him on a list of the Twelve Apostles, or group him with his brother, Simon Peter. But he appears acting as an individual three times in the Gospel of John. When a number of Greeks (perhaps simply Greek-speaking Jews) wish to speak with Jesus, they approach Philip, who tells Andrew, and the two of them tell Jesus (Jn 12:20-22). (It may be relevant here that both "Philip" and "Andrew" are Greek names.) Before Jesus feeds the Five Thousand, it is Andrew who says, "Here is a lad with five barley loaves and two fish." (Jn 6:8f) And the first two disciples whom John reports as attaching themselves to Jesus (Jn 1:35-42) are Andrew and another disciple (whom John does not name, but who is commonly supposed to be John himself -- John never mentions himself by name, a widespread literary convention). Having met Jesus, Andrew then finds his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus. Thus, on each occasion when he is mentioned as an individual, it is because he is instrumental in bringing others to meet the Saviour. In the Episcopal Church, the Fellowship of Saint Andrew is devoted to encouraging personal evangelism, and the bringing of one's friends and colleagues to a knowledge of the Gospel of Christ.

Just as Andrew was the first of the Apostles, so his feast is taken in the West to be the beginning of the Church Year. (Eastern Christians begin their Church Year on 1 September.) The First Sunday of Advent is defined to be the Sunday on or nearest his feast (although it could equivalently be defined as the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day).

Several centuries after the death of Andrew, some of his relics were brought by a missionary named Rule to Scotland, to a place then known as Fife, but now known as St. Andrew's, and best known as the site of a world-famous golf course and club. For this reason, Andrew is the patron of Scotland.

St. Simon the Apostle

The name of Simon occurs in all the passages of the Gospel and Acts, in which a list of the Apostles is given. To distinguish him from St. Peter he is called (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:18) Kananaios, or Kananites, and Zelotes (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Both surnames have the same signification and are a translation of the Hebrew qana (the Zealous). The name does not signify that he belonged to the party of Zealots, but that he had zeal for the Jewish law, which he practised before his call. Jerome and others wrongly assumed that Kana was his native place; were this so, he should have been called Kanaios. The Greeks, Copts, and Ethiopians identify him with Nathanael of Cana; the first-mentioned also identify him with the bridegroom of the marriage of Cana, while in the "Chronicon paschale" and elsewhere he is identified with Simon Clopas.

The Abyssinians accordingly relate that he suffered crucifixion as the Bishop of Jerusalem, after he had preached the Gospel in Samaria. Where he actually preached the Gospel is uncertain. Almost all the lands of the then known world, even as far as Britain, have been mentioned; according to the Greeks, he preached on the Black Sea, in Egypt, Northern Africa, and Britain, while, according to the Latin "Passio Simonis et Judae" -- the author of which was (Lipsius maintains) sufficiently familiar with the history of the Parthian Empire in the first century -- Simon laboured in Persia, and was there martyred at Suanir. However, Suanir is probably to be sought in Colchis. According to Moses of Chorene, Simon met his death in Weriosphora in Iberia; according to the Georgians, he preached in Colchis. His place of burial is unknown.

Concerning his relics our information is as uncertain as concerning his preaching. From Babylon to Rome and Toulouse we find traces of them; at Rome they are venerated under the Altar of the Crucifixion in the Vatican. His usual attribute is the saw, since his body was said to have been sawed to pieces, and more rarely the lance. He is regarded as the patron of tanners. In the Western Church he is venerated together with Jude (Thaddaeus); in the East separately. The Western Church keeps his feast on 28 October; the Greeks and Copts on 10 May.