Sunday
\nNavarre Commentary on the Nature of ‘our’ Cross…<\/p>\n
\u201cChrist is saying this again, to us, whispering it in our ears: the cross each day. As St Jerome puts it: \u2018Not only in time of persecution or when we have the chance of martyrdom, but in all circumstances, in everything we do and think, in everything we say, let us deny what we used to be and let us confess what we now are, reborn as we have been in Christ\u2019 (Epistola 121, 3) \u2026Do you see? The daily cross. No day without a cross; not a single day in which we are not to carry the cross of the Lord, in which we are not to accept his yoke\u201d (J. Escriv\u00e1, Christ is passing by, 58 and 176). \u201cThere is no doubt about it: a person who loves pleasure, who seeks comfort, who flies from anything that might spell suffering, who is over-anxious, who complains, who blames and who becomes impatient at the least little thing which does not go his way \u2014 a person like that is a Christian only in name; he is only a dishonour to his religion; for Jesus Christ has said so: Anyone who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross everyday of his life, and follow me\u201d (St John Mary Vianney, Selected sermons, Ash Wednesday).<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 O Gentle Light of the holy glory of the immortal, heavenly, holy, blessed Father, O Jesus Christ: Having come to the setting of the sun, having beheld the evening light, we praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: God. Meet it is for Thee at all times to be hymned with reverent voices, O Son of God, Giver of life. Wherefore, the world doth glorify Thee.
\n*Eastern Vesper Hymn<\/p>\n
Monday<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus wants to be raised on high, there in the noise of the factories and workshops, in the silence of libraries, in the loud clamour of the streets, in the stillness of the fields, in the intimacy of the family, in crowded gatherings, in stadiums\u2026 Wherever there is a Christian striving to lead an honourable life, he should, with his love, set up the Cross of Christ, who attracts all things to himself\u201d (J. Escriv\u00e1, The Way of the Cross, XI, 3).<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever stopped to think how absurd it is to leave one\u2019s Catholicism [or Orthodoxy]\u00a0 aside on entering a university, a professional association, a cultural society, or Parliament, like a man leaving his hat at the door?\u201d (J. Escriv\u00e1, The Way, 353). Cf. note on Mt 10:32-33.<\/p>\n
Prayer:\u00a0 Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.<\/p>\n
Tuesday 34\u00a0<\/sup>While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud. <\/span> 35\u00a0<\/sup>And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, \u201cThis is [e<\/a>]<\/sup>My beloved Son. Hear Him!\u201d <\/span> 36\u00a0<\/sup>When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world: have mercy upon us. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, grant us peace. Wednesday Prayer:\u00a0 O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victory over their enemies to Orthodox Christians, and protect Thy people with Thy Cross.<\/p>\n Thursday 41\u00a0<\/sup>Then Jesus answered and said, \u201cO<\/span> [f<\/a>]<\/sup>faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and<\/span> [g<\/a>]<\/sup>bear with you? Bring your son here.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> 42\u00a0<\/sup>And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him.<\/i> Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.<\/span>th<\/span><\/p>\n 43\u00a0<\/sup>And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.<\/span><\/p>\n But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to His disciples, <\/span> 44\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cLet these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> 45\u00a0<\/sup>But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.<\/span><\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 O my God relying on Thy infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of Thy grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. Friday The power of devils over men is limited to what God permits them to have. Within these limits diabolic possession can occur. Diabolic possession involves the devil exercising a certain control over the physical and mental behaviour of the possessed person, with a parallel loss of control on the person\u2019s part; a person\u2019s body becomes a kind of tool of the devil, thereby suffering the most cruel form of slavery.<\/p>\n When Jesus expels devils from the bodies of possessed people it shows that the Kingdom of God has come, that the devil is beginning to be dislodged from a domain which he obtained as a result of the original sin of Adam and Eve. Our Lord won complete victory over the devil through his Passion and Death, but the forces of hell will not be finally subdued until the second coming of Christ, or Parousia, at the end of the world.<\/p>\n Everyone present, in one way or other, deserved this severe reproach [lack of faith]\u00a0 \u2014the disciples, for their imperfect faith in the powers he had given them (cf. Lk 9:1); the boy\u2019s father, for his lack of confidence in the disciples; the curious spectators, who were also skeptical and who included some scribes who harassed the Apostles (cf. Mk 9:14) and tried to discredit the powers Jesus gave them.<\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 O my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and worthy of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Saturday But while everyone marveled at all the things which Jesus did, He said to His disciples, <\/span> 44\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cLet these words sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.\u201d<\/span> <\/span> 45\u00a0<\/sup>But they did not understand this saying, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this saying.<\/span><\/p>\n Commentary:\u00a0 \u00a0Christ predicts his Passion and Death a number of times. Initially he does so in veiled terms (Jn 2:19; Lk 5:35) to the crowd; and later, much more explicitly, to his disciples (Lk 9:22), though they fail to understand his words, not because what he says is not clear, but because they do not have the right dispositions. St<\/p>\n John Chrysostom comments: \u201cLet no one be scandalized by this imperfection in the Apostles; for the Cross had not yet been reached nor the grace of the Spirit given\u201d (Hom. on St Matthew, 65).<\/p>\n Prayer:\u00a0 O my God I love Thee above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because Thou art all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of Thee. I forgive all who have injured me, and ask pardon of all whom I have injured. (Act of Charity)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sunday Navarre Commentary on the Nature of ‘our’ Cross… \u201cChrist is saying this again, to us, whispering it in our ears: the cross each day. As St Jerome puts it: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox-daily-devotional","has_no_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12696,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695\/revisions\/12696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLuke 9\u00a028\u00a0<\/sup>Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. <\/span> 29\u00a0<\/sup>As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became<\/i> white and<\/i> glistening. <\/span> 30\u00a0<\/sup>And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, <\/span> 31\u00a0<\/sup>who appeared in glory and spoke of His [c<\/a>]<\/sup>decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. <\/span> 32\u00a0<\/sup>But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. <\/span> 33\u00a0<\/sup>Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that<\/i> Peter said to Jesus, \u201cMaster, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three [d<\/a>]<\/sup>tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah\u201d\u2014not knowing what he said.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n*Agnus Dei<\/p>\n
\nNavarre Commentary:\u00a0Through the miracle of the Transfiguration Jesus shows one of the qualities of glorified bodies \u2014 brightness, \u201cby which the bodies of the saints shall shine like the sun, according to the words of our Lord recorded in the Gospel of St Matthew: \u2018The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father\u2019 (Mt 13:43). To remove the possibility of doubt on the subject, he exemplifies this in his Transfiguration. This quality the Apostle sometimes calls glory, sometimes brightness: \u2018He will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body\u2019 (Phil 3:21); and again, \u2018It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory\u2019 (1 Cor 15:43). Of this glory the Israelites beheld some image in the desert, when the face of Moses, after he had enjoyed the presence and conversation of God, shone with such lustre that they could not look on it (Ex 34:29; 2 Cor 3:7). This brightness is a sort of radiance reflected on the body from the supreme happiness of the soul. It is a participation in that bliss which the soul enjoys. . . . This quality is not common to all in the same degree. All the bodies of the saints will be equally impassible; but the brightness of all will not be the same, for, according to the Apostle, \u2018There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead\u2019 (1 Cor 15:41)\u201d\\ (Catechism of the Council of Trent<\/p>\n
\nLuke 9:37\u00a0<\/sup>Now it happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met Him. <\/span> 38\u00a0<\/sup>Suddenly a man from the multitude cried out, saying, \u201cTeacher, I implore You, look on my son, for he is my only child. <\/span> 39\u00a0<\/sup>And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out; it convulses him so that he foams at the mouth;<\/i> and it departs from him with great difficulty, bruising him. <\/span> 40\u00a0<\/sup>So I implored Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\n*Act of Hope<\/p>\n
\nNavarre Commentary on the healing of the boy:<\/p>\n
\n*Act of Contrition<\/p>\n
\nLuke 9:43\u00a0<\/sup>And they were all amazed at the majesty of God.<\/span><\/p>\n