Sunday
+Knox version New Testament with Navarre Catholic Commentary this week

Commentary on 1 Peter chapter 1 cont:

The Christian has attained the honour of being a son or daughter of God. The sacred writer summarizes God’s plan for man’s salvation, which comes about in Christ: from all eternity, it was God’s design to save men through Christ; this design was made manifest “at the end of the times”, when our Lord offered himself as an expiation for the sins of men, and then rose from the dead and was glorified. This is a further reason why Christians should grow in their desire for holiness.

“If you invoke as Father”: this may be a reference to the saying of the Our Father, which Christians may have recited at the Baptism ceremony from the very beginning. We do know (cf. the Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, an anonymous text of the apostolic era) that Christians used to pray the Our Father three times a day (cf. 8, 3). Frequent reflection on the fact that God is our Father fills us with peace and joy and stirs us to act as befits children of such a Father, knowing that God sees us and judges our actions. Therefore, divine filiation can never be taken as a kind of safe-conduct which allows us to be casual about our duties: “Worldly souls are very fond of thinking of God’s mercy. And so they are encouraged to persist in their follies.

“It is true that God our Lord is infinitely merciful, but he is also infinitely just: and there is a judgment, and he is the Judge” (J. Escrivá, The Way, 141).

Prayer:  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.
*Eastern Vesper Hymn

Monday
1 Peter 2: You MUST put aside, then, every trace of ill-will and deceitfulness,
your affectations, the grudges you bore, and all the slanderous
talk; you are children new-born, and all your craving must
be for the soul’s pure milk, that will nurture you into salvation,
once you have tasted, as you have surely tasted, the goodness of the
Lord. Draw near to him; he is the living antitype of that stone
which men rejected, which God has chosen and prized; you too
must be built up on him, stones that live and breathe, into a spiritual
fabric; you must be a holy priesthood, to offer up that spiritual
sacrifice which God accepts through Jesus Christ. So you will find
in scripture the words. Behold, I am setting down in Sion a cornerstone,
chosen out and precious; those who believe in him will not
be disappointed.

Prayer:  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.

Tuesday
Commentary on 1 Peter 2:

.”In our interior life”, Monsignor Escrivá recommends, “it does all of us good to be quasi infantes, like those tiny tots who seem to be made of rubber and who even enjoy falling over because they get up right away and are running around again, and also because they know their parents will always be there to console them whenever they are needed.

“If we try to act like them, our stumbling and failures in the interior life (which, moreover, are inevitable) will never result in bitterness. Our reaction will be one of sorrow but not discouragement, and we’ll smile with a smile that gushes up like fresh water out of the joyous awareness that we are children of that Love, that grandeur, that infinite wisdom, that mercy, that is our Father. During the years I have been serving our Lord, I have learned to become a little child of God. I would ask you to do likewise, to be quasi modo geniti infantes, children who long for God’s word, his bread, his food, his strength, to enable us to behave henceforth as Christian men and women” (Friends of God, 146)

“Spiritual milk”: this may be an allusion to the promises God made to the chosen people to bring them into “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8), and it could be that from those words the custom grew in the early baptismal liturgy of giving the recently baptized milk mixed with honey (a custom suppressed towards the end of the fourth century). The expression refers to all the graces our Lord gives in Baptism to enable a person attain salvation.

Prayer:  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.
*Agnus Dei

Wednesday
1 Peter 2:7 Prized, then, by you, the believers, he is something
other to those who refuse belief; the stone which the builders
rejected has become the chief stone at the corner, a stone to trip
men’s feet, a boulder they stumble against. They stumble over
God’s word, and refuse it belief; it is their destiny. Not so you;
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a
people God means to have for himself; it is yours to proclaim the
exploits of the God who has called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light. Time was when you were not a people at all,
now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, and now his
pity is yours.
Beloved, I call upon you to be like strangers and exiles, to resist
those natural appetites which besiege the soul.

Prayer:  O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victory over their enemies to Orthodox Christians, and protect Thy people with Thy Cross.

Thursday
Commentary:

Applying to Christ what the prophet Isaiah says of Yahweh (cf. Is 8:14; note on 1 Pet 2:13), St Peter shows how, for those who do not believe in Christ, the cornerstone becomes a “stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall”; Simeon prophesied as much to the Blessed Virgin in the temple (cf. Lk 2:34).

“As they were destined to do”: this does not mean that God predestined some to damnation. God wants all men to be saved (cf. 1 Tim 2:4), and that was why Jesus Christ became man; but for someone to be saved, his free response is necessary, and man can oppose God’s salvific plan and reject grace. It should be remembered that in the language of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, sometimes no distinction is made between what God orders or wills and what he simply allows to happen.  “Though they differ essentially and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are none the less ordered one to another; each in its own proper way shares in the one priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priest, by the sacred power that he has, forms and rules the priestly people; in the person of Christ he effects the Eucharistic sacrifice and offers it to God in the name of all the people. The faithful indeed, by virtue of their royal priesthood, participate in the offering of the Eucharist. They exercise that priesthood, too, by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, abnegation and active charity” 

Prayer:  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.
*Act of Hope

Friday
1 Peter 2:12 Your life amidst
the Gentiles must be beyond reproach; decried as malefactors, you
must let them see, from your honourable behaviour, what you are;
they will praise God for you, when his time comes to have mercy
13 on them. For love of the Lord, then, bow to every kind of human
14 authority; to the king, who enjoys the chief power, and to the
magistrates who hold his commission to punish criminals and en-
15 courage honest men. To silence, by honest living, the ignorant
16 chatter of fools; that is what God expects of you.

Prayer:  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.
*Act of Contrition

Saturday
Commentary:

The letter contains many appeals to Christians to stay true to the faith even when pagans criticize them (2:12), cause them to suffer (3:13-15), or insult them for following Christ (4:14). Some authors, reading these remarks as referring to state persecution unleashed by Roman emperors—especially Domitian (d. 96) and Trajan (d. 117)—give the letter a much later date, even a second-century date; but all the information available to us favours a much earlier date, around the year 64 (cf. Introduction). St Peter seems to be referring rather to the trials the faithful met at the hands of their fellow-citizens. At that time Christians often encountered misunderstanding, rejection and discrimination, and even the loss of property (cf., e.g., Acts 19:23-31; 2 Thess 2:14).

This context explains why the Apostle encourages these recent converts (he once again reminds them they are wayfarers: cf. 1:1, 17) to lead exemplary lives, so that those among whom they live, although they may initially misinterpret their conduct, will end up glorifying God: “Let your light so shine before men, that they see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16). Good example is enormously effective in drawing souls closer to God

Prayer:  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)