Posts

Posted on

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGEN:

I think that one of Jesus’ disciples was conscious in himself of human weakness, which falls short of knowing how we ought to pray.… Are we then to conclude that a man who was brought up in the instruction of the law, who heard the words of the prophets and did not fail to attend the synagogue, did not know how to pray until he saw the Lord praying “in a certain place”? It would certainly be foolish to say this. The disciple prayed according to the customs of the Jews, but he saw that he needed better knowledge about the subject of prayer. read more

Posted on

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

As we grow and develop in the Christian life, it is important to recognize that the struggle for holiness takes place at deeper and more hidden places in our soul.  Perhaps we’ve grown in virtue enough that what people can judge of our actions is beyond reproach – perhaps we’ve become like the “just man,” mentioned in the psalms.  At that point, temptations to sins of the flesh – gluttony, lust, greed, etc. – may seem to have vanished.  Temptation does not only come from undisciplined flesh however.  Temptation is also planted, sown in us by an enemy.  So when certain struggles of the flesh seem to have vanished or dried up, new and more subtle seeds of evil are being planted in us.  Undisciplined and impenitent flesh is fertile soil for obvious sins of the flesh, but self-discipline and self-control are fertile soil for the hidden sins of the spirit.  The goal of the spiritual life is not to eliminate temptation – if we begin to believe that we do not experience temptation anymore, and that because we do not we are more perfect, we are preparing the ground for sins of pride, arrogance, self-importance, vanity, etc.  It would be better for us to continue in the sins of the flesh with humble recognition and tears of repentance, than in claiming victory over these sins to have our spirit puffed up with pride. read more

Posted on

Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

ORIGEN:

How hard a temptation it is to pass through the midst of the sea, to see the waves rise piled up, to hear the noise and rumbling of the raging waters! But if you follow Moses, that is, the law of God, the waters will become for you walls on the right and left, and you will find a path on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Moreover, it can happen that the heavenly journey that we say the soul takes may hold peril of waters. Great waves may be found there.

GREGORY OF NYSSA:

Again, according to the view of the inspired Paul, the people itself, by passing through the Red Sea, proclaimed the good tidings of salvation by water. The people passed over, and the Egyptian king with his host was engulfed, and by these actions this sacrament was foretold. For even now, whensoever the people is in the water of regeneration, fleeing from Egypt, from the burden of sin, it is set free and saved. But the devil with his own servants (I mean, of course, the spirits of evil) is choked with grief and perishes, deeming the salvation of men to be his own misfortune. read more