Second reading from the Office of Reading for today:
From a homily on the Gospels bySaint Gregory the Great, pope The performance of our ministry
Let us listen to what the Lord says as he sends the preachers forth: The harvest is great but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. We can speak only with a heavy heart of so few laborers for such a great harvest, for although there are many to hear the good news there are only a few to preach it. Look about you and see how full the world is of priests, yet in God’s harvest a laborer is rarely to be found; for although we have accepted the priestly office, we do not fulfill its demands.
Beloved brothers, consider what has been said: Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. Pray for us so that we may have the strength to work on your behalf, that our tongue may not grow weary of exhortation, and that after we have accepted the office of preaching, our silence may not condemn us before the just judge. For frequently the preacher’s tongue is bound fast on account of his own wickedness; while on the other hand it sometimes happens that because of the people’s sins, the word of preaching is withdrawn from those who preside over the assembly. With reference to the former situation, the psalmist says: But God asks the sinner: Why do you recite my commandments? And with reference to the latter, the Lord tells Ezekiel: I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be dumb and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. He clearly means this: the word of preaching will be taken away from you because as long as this people irritates me by their deeds, they are unworthy to hear the exhortation of truth. It is not easy to know for whose sinfulness the preacher’s word is withheld, but it is indisputable that the shepherd’s silence while often injurious to himself will always harm his flock.
There is something else about the life of the shepherds, dearest brothers, which discourages me greatly. But lest what I claim should seem unjust to anyone, I will accuse myself of the very same thing, although I fall into it unwillingly—compelled by the urgency of these barbarous times. I speak of our absorption in external affairs; we accept the duties of office, but by our actions we show that we are attentive to other things. We abandon the ministry of preaching and, in my opinion, are called bishops to our detriment, for we retain the honorable office but fail to practice the virtues proper to it. Those who have been entrusted to us abandon God, and we are silent. They fall into sin, and we do not extend a hand of rebuke.
But how can we who neglect ourselves be able to correct someone else? We are wrapped up in worldly concerns, and the more we devote ourselves to external things, the more insensitive we become in spirit.
For this reason the Church rightfully says about her own feeble members: They made me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept. We are set to guard the vineyards but do not guard our own, for we get involved in irrelevant pursuits and neglect the performance of our ministry.
Gary Krupp- Pope Pius XII – Documentation – interview
Here is an amazing interview setting the record straight about Pope Pius XII and WW II. Gary Krupp, a Jew who grew up hating Pius XII providentially discovers documents that turned him about and set him on a crusade to proclaim the Pope’s heroism and love for the Jewish people:
podcast part 1
podcast part 2 via Landmines at Foundationstone.org
Pope Pius XII and World War II- The Documented Truth
via Love for the Loud at Mass | Catholic Lane.
……….In Mass, we’re at the foot of the cross. Lumen Gentium says: “As often as the sacrifice of the cross in which Christ our Passover was sacrificed, is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on, and, in the sacrament of the eucharistic bread, the unity of all believers who form one body in Christ is both expressed and brought about”.
So, all of us who participate in Mass are part of one Body of Christ, the Church, which includes loud children. We come together to partake of the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross, which is offered to us in an unbloody manner in the Eucharist. Therefore, crying babies can be heard as echoes of the crying women of Jerusalem who wept on the way to Calvary.
Furthermore, children have just as much right to be at Mass as we do. In fact, small children are the only sinless saints in that church!
………………….
Finally, remember this – a church without crying babies is a church with no future
All Holy, Almighty, Jesus, Purest Heart,
Look upon the sweet beings, God’s good creations,
Nestled in the sanctity of human wombs.
Encircle the world through these little ones,
With Triune Love.
Bless Mother Eve with the “Fiat” grace of Mother Mary,
To bring forth a generation wed to Your Holy Will,
Peacemakers, pious through obedience,
Loving by Your Spirit,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
May these, as Children of the Light, recognize You,
From their coming forth into a new day,
Giving witness, and preparing Your Way,
As John (blessed in his mother’s womb).
Give dominion to these,
As You did the First Adam,
To reclaim and grace Your Good Earth.
Come, my Lord, to this poor dwelling,
You are Lord of all, and heaven is at hand as You approach.
Come in Spirit to my humble abode,
At your coming, the angels make ready.
They spread their wings over Your Mercy Seat,
Come be enthroned here in my heart.
Allow the splendor of heaven to scatter flowers along Your Way,
As You incline, Your Heart
To one in misery for want of You.
I rejoice for You are here
And in my embrace.
Your are Now.
You are mine,
O my Beloved.
Heaven finds a home in my soul,
As You reign in my heart.
A river of Life pours forth,
As You water this garden,
And provide rich food and fruit,
For all who will partake.
© 2014 Joann Nelander
Come, my Lord, to this poor dwelling,
You are Lord of all, and heaven is at hand as You approach.
Come in Spirit to my humble abode,
At your coming, the angels make ready.
They spread their wings over Your Mercy Seat,
Come be enthroned here in my heart.
Allow the splendor of heaven to scatter flowers along Your Way,
As You incline, Your Heart
To one in misery for want of You.
I rejoice for You are here
And in my embrace.
Your are Now.
You are mine,
O my Beloved.
Heaven finds a home in my soul,
As You reign in my heart.
A river of Life pours forth,
As You water this garden,
And provide rich food and fruit,
For all who will partake.
© 2014 Joann Nelander
“O my God, holiness befits Your house, and yet You make Your home in my heart. My Lord, My Savior, to me You come hidden under the semblance of earthly things, yet in that very flesh and blood which You took from Mary, You, who first inhabited Mary’s breast, do now come to me. My God, You see me; I cannot see myself. Were I ever so good a judge about myself, ever so unbiased and with ever so correct a rule of judging, still, from my very nature, I cannot look at myself and view myself truly and wholly.
But You , as You come to me, contemplate me. When I say, “Lord, I am not worthy,” You, whom I am addressing, alone understand in their fullness the words which I use. You see how unworthy so great a sinner is, to receive the One Holy God, whom the seraphim adore with trembling. You see not only the stains and scars of past sins, but also the mutilations, the deep cavities, and the chronic disorders they have left in my soul. You see the innumerable living sins, though they be not mortal, lining in their power and presence, their guilt and their penalties which clothe me; You see all my bad habits, my insensitive attitudes, my wayward, lawless thoughts, my multitude of infirmities and miseries; yet You come. You see most perfectly how little I really feel what I am now saying, yet You come. O my God, left to myself should I not perish under the awful splendor and the consuming fire of Your Majesty? Enable me to bear You, lest I have to say with Peter: ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ ”
You looked down
From Your Cross
To behold faithfulness.
There stood Your Mother.
You beheld her look of grief,
Her suffering Your pain.
You wed it
To Your Own,
Presenting all
Before Our Father’s holy throne.
© 2013 Joann Nelander
via Family synod: full text of Pope Francis’s homily at opening Mass | CatholicHerald.co.uk.
Today the Prophet Isaiah and the Gospel employ the image of the Lord’s vineyard. The Lord’s vineyard is his “dream”, the plan which he nurtures with all his love, like a farmer who cares for his vineyard. Vines are plants which need much care!
God’s “dream” is his people. He planted it and nurtured it with patient and faithful love, so that it can become a holy people, a people which brings forth abundant fruits of justice.
But in both the ancient prophecy and in Jesus’s parable, God’s dream is thwarted. Isaiah says that the vine which he so loved and nurtured has yielded “wild grapes” (5:2,4); God “expected justice but saw bloodshed, righteousness, but only a cry of distress” (v7). In the Gospel, it is the farmers themselves who ruin the Lord’s plan: they fail to do their job but think only of their own interests.
In Jesus’s parable, he is addressing the chief priests and the elders of the people, in other words the “experts”, the managers. To them in a particular way God entrusted his “dream”, his people, for them to nurture, tend and protect from the animals of the field. This is the job of leaders: to nuture the vineyard with freedom, creativity and hard work.
But Jesus tells us that those farmers took over the vineyard. Out of greed and pride they want to do with it as they will, and so they prevent God from realizing his dream for the people he has chosen.
The temptation to greed is ever present. We encounter it also in the great prophecy of Ezekiel on the shepherds, which St Augustine commented upon in one his celebrated sermons which we have just reread in the Liturgy of the Hours. Greed for money and power. And to satisfy this greed, evil pastors lay intolerable burdens on the shoulders of others, which they themselves do not lift a finger to move.
We too, in the synod of bishops, are called to work for the Lord’s vineyard. Synod assemblies are not meant to discuss beautiful and clever ideas, or to see who is more intelligent… They are meant to better nuture and tend the Lord’s vineyard, to help realise his dream, his loving plan for his people. In this case the Lord is asking us to care for the family, which has been from the beginning an integral part of his loving plan for humanity.
We are all sinners and can also be tempted to “take over” the vineyard, because of that greed which is always present in us human beings. God’s dream always clashes with the hypocrisy of some of his servants. We can “thwart” God’s dream if we fail to let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us that wisdom which surpasses knowledge, and enables us to work generously with authentic freedom and humble creativity.
My Synod brothers, to do a good job of nurturing and tending the vineyard, our hearts and our minds must be kept in Jesus Christ by “the peace of God which passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7). In this way our thoughts and plans will correspond to God’s dream: to form a holy people who are his own and produce the fruits of the kingdom of God.
via Family synod: full text of Pope Francis’s homily at opening Mass | CatholicHerald.co.uk.
Joann Nelander Studio 