Daily Bible Readings Saturday January 31 2009 Memorial of St John Bosco Priest

January 31 2009 Saturday Memorial of Saint John Bosco, priest
Saint of the Day – St. John Bosco

About the sources used. The readings on this site are from the Haydock Bible according to the daily Lectionary readings for the American Roman Catholic Church. The Haydock Bible contains traditional Catholic commentary and is free from copyright. Due to verse numbering differences and pastoral deletions in the actual Lectionary, these readings may at times vary from the actual readings.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/013109.shtml

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Haydock New Testament

NOW faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. For by this the ancients obtained a testimony.

By faith he that is called Abraham, obeyed, to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance: and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in cottages, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city that hath foundations: whose builder and maker is God. By faith also Sara herself, being barren, received strength to conceive seed, even past the time of age: because she believed that he was faithful who had promised. For which cause there spring, even from one (and him as dead) as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore, innumerable. All these died according to faith, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar off, and saluting them, and confessing, that they are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. For they that say these things, do signify that they seek a country.

And truly if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they had doubtless time to return: But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered Isaace; and he who had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son: To whom it was said: That in Isaac shall seed be called to thee: Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead: from whence also he received him for a parable.

Responsorial Psalm Luke 1:69-75
Haydock New Testament

And hath raised up a horn of salvation to us,
in the house of David, his servant.
As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets,
who are from the beginning:
Salvation from our enemies,
and from the hand of all that hate us:
To shew mercy to our fathers:
and to remember his holy covenant.
The oath which he swore to Abraham, our father,
that he would grant to us:
That being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
we may serve him without fear,
In holiness and justice before him, all our days.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Mark 4:35-41
Haydock New Testament

And he saith to them that day, when evening was come:

Let us pass over to the other side.

And sending away the multitude, they take him even as he was in the ship: and there were other ships with him. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, sleeping upon a pillow; and they awake him, and say to him:

Master, doth it not concern thee that we perish?

And rising up, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea:

Peace; be still.

And the wind ceased; and there was made a great calm. And he said to them:

Why are you fearful? Have you not faith yet?

And they feared exceedingly, and they said one to another:

Who is this (thinkest thou) that both wind and sea obey him?

Haydock Commentary Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. All this chapter is a commendation and recommendation of faith, which is the substance[1] of things hoped for, giving as it were a substance in our minds to such things as we are in hopes and in expectation of hereafter, and making them present to us before they come to pass. — It is also a sure conviction[2] of things that appear not. For when God has revealed things, and we believe them upon the divine and infallible authority of the revealer, we have a greater certainty of them than any demonstration can afford us. By this virtue of faith, they of old, our forefathers, obtained[3] a testimony from God that their actions were pleasing to him. Wi. — Faith is the basis, the foundation supporting hope; for unless there be faith, there cannot possibly be any hope. Menochius.
• Ver. 8. By faith he that is called Abraham, &c. He commends his faith, who believing God, left his own country, lived in Chanaan as in a strange country, waiting for the promise and for a city, whose builder and maker is God; i.e. for an habitation in the kingdom of heaven. Wi.
• Ver. 10. The Patriarchs, who lived to a great age, dwelt not in fixed dwellings, but in moveable tents, as pilgrims; whereas their descendants, the period of whose existence is greatly curtailed, pass their time in building and planning as if they were never to die. This earth is a place of our exile, heaven is our true country: let us then live here as strangers and pilgrims, looking forward with anxious desires for our true country, the land of the living, in the bosom of our God.
• Ver. 11. By faith also Sara, &c. Though Sara seemed at first incredulous, yet she presently believed, and conceived Isaac when she was past the age of having children. Wi.
• Ver. 12. Hid as dead: dead in a manner in that respect, and incapable of having children by Sara. Wi.
• Ver. 13. All these died in the faith of God’s promises; that is, of their posterity, being to be introduced into the promised land of Chanaan, but chiefly into the happy country of heaven. For had they only aspired and wished for the country of Chaldea, out of which Abraham came, they had time enough to have returned thither. Wi. — A metaphor taken from sailors, who, after a long and dangerous voyage, no sooner descry their native country, but they hail it with transports of joy: this in Virgil:
• Italiam, Italiam, primus conclamat Achates.
• Thus the Patriarchs, when beholding at a distance, and through faith, their heavenly country, hailed it with joyous and repeated accents, eagerly desiring to reach the envied port.
• Ver. 17. By faith Abraham . . . . offered up Isaac; i.e. was ready and willing to do it, when Isaac was his only son, by whom God had promised to give him a numberless progeny, but by faith he considered that God, who had miraculously given him a son, could if he pleased raise him to life again. Wi.
• Ver. 19. Whence also he received him for a parable.[7] Some understand by this, that both Abraham and his son became hereby an example of a perfect obedience to God, which all nations should admire. S. Chrys. says, that Abraham received again his son safe in a figure, by being ordered to sacrifice for him a ram, which was a figure of Isaac. Others, that Abraham received again his son Isaac, who was a figure of Christ sacrificed on the cross, and risen again. Christ carried the cross on which he was to suffer, as Isaac carried the wood up to the mountain where he was to have been offered. Wi. — Parable; that is, as a figure of Christ slain and coming to life again. Ch.

Haydock Commentary Luke 1:69-75

• Ver. 69. As Christ was born of the race of David, he is here called the horn of salvation in the house of David. As Isaias says, a vineyard is planted in the horn, c. v. — A powerful salvation.[10] According to the letter both of the Latin and Greek text, a horn of salvation. But as it is generally agreed, that by horn, in the phraseology of the Scriptures, is understood strength and power, and that horn sounds awkwardly in English, and other languages, I hope it may be literally enough translated, a powerful salvation. Wi.
• Ver. 71. That he would save us, &c. Lit. salvation from our enemies. The construction and sense is, that God, as he had declared by his prophets, would grant us salvation, or would save us. Wi. — This is not to be understood of temporal, but of spiritual enemies. For the Lord Jesus, strong in battle, came to destroy all our enemies, and thus to deliver us from their snares and temptations. Origen, hom. xvi. — He is that King of Glory, the Lord strong and powerful, the Lord powerful in battle. Ps. xxiii.
• Ver. 72. To remember his holy covenant, i.e. of his promise, or of the covenant made with Abraham, that he would bless all nations in his seed. Wi. — At the coming of Christ, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were made partakers of his mercy. For, we cannot suppose that they who saw his day, and were glad, should not participate in the fruit of his coming; since S. Paul says: he maketh peace through the blood of the cross, both to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven. Col. i. 20. Origen, hom. x.
• Ver. 73-4. According to the oath which he swore.[11] The words according to, are no addition to the letter of the text: they only barely express what is here signified; to wit, that God swore to Abraham, that he would grant us, or make it come to pass, that being delivered from our enemies, sin and the devil, we should be in a condition to serve him without fear, in holiness, &c. Wi.
• Ver. 75. It is possible, we here see, to have true justice, not only in the sight of man, or by the imputation of God, but in his sight; and the coming of Christ was to give men such justice.

Haydock Commentary Mark 4:35-41

Nothing

Catena Aurea Mark 4:35-41
From Catechetics Online

• PSEUDO-JEROME; After His teaching, they come from that place to the sea, and are tossed by the waves. Wherefore it is said, And the same day, when the even was come, &c.
• REMIG. For the Lord is said to have had three places of refuge, namely, the ship, the mountain, and the desert. As often as He was pressed upon by the multitude, he used to fly to one of these. When therefore the Lord saw many crowds about Him, as man, He wished to avoid their importunity, and ordered His disciples to go over to the other side. There follows: And sending away the multitudes, they took him, &c.
• CHRYS. The Lord took the disciples indeed, that they might be spectators of the miracle which was coining, but He took them alone, that no others might see that they were of such little faith. Wherefore, to show that others went across separately, it is said, And there were also with him other ships. best again the disciples might be proud of being alone taken, He permits them to be in danger; and besides this, in order that they might learn to bear temptations manfully. Wherefore it goes on, And there arose a great storm of wind; and that He might impress upon them a greater sense of the miracle which was to be done, He gives time for their fear, by sleeping. Wherefore there follows, And he was himself in the hinder part of the ship, &c. For if He had been awake, they would either not have feared, nor have asked Him to save them when the storm arose, or they would not have thought that He could do any such things.
• THEOPHYL. Therefore He allowed them to fall into the fear of danger, that they might experience His power in themselves, who saw others benefited by Him. But He was sleeping upon the pillow of the ship, that is, on a wooden one.
• CHRYS. Showing His humility, and thus teaching us many lessons of wisdom. But not yet did the disciples who remained about Him know His glory; they thought indeed that if He arose He could command the winds, but could by no means do so reposing or asleep. And therefore there follows, And they awake him, and say to him, Master, care you not that we perish?
• THEOPHYL. But He arising, rebukes first the wind, which was raising the tempest of the sea, and causing the waves to swell, and this is expressed in what follows, And he arose, and rebuked the wind; then He commands the sea; wherefore it goes on, And he said to the sea, Peace, be still.
• GLOSS. For from the troubling of the sea there arises a certain sound, which appears to be its voice threatening danger, and therefore, by a sort of metaphor, He fitly commands tranquillity by a word signifying silence: just as in the restraining of the winds, which trouble the sea with their violence, He uses a rebuke. For men who are in power are accustomed to curb those, who rudely disturb the peace of mankind, by threatening to punish them; by this, therefore, we are given to understand, that, as a king can repress violent men by threats, and by his edicts soothe the murmurs of his people, so Christ, the king of all creatures, by His threats restrained the violence of the winds, and compelled the sea to be silent. And immediately the effect followed, for it continues, And the wind ceased, which He had threatened, and there arose a great calm, that is, in the sea, to which He had commanded silence.
• THEOPHYL. He rebuked His disciples, for not having faith; for it goes on, And he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have not faith? For if they had had faith, they would have believed that even when sleeping, The could preserve them safe. There follows, And they feared with a great fear, and said one to another, &c. For they were in doubt about Him, for since He stilled the sea, not with a rod like Moses, nor with prayers as Elisha at the Jordan, nor with the ark as Joshua, the son of Nun, on this account they thought Him truly God, but since He was asleep they thought Him a man.
• PSEUDO-JEROME; Mystically, however, the hinder part of the ship is the beginning of the Church, in which the Lord sleeps in the body only for He never sleeps who keeps Israel for the ship with its skins of dead animals keeps in the living, and keeps out the waves, and is bound together by wood, that is, by the cross and the death of the Lord the Church is saved. The pillow is the body of the Lord, on which His Divinity, which is as His head, has come down. But the wind and the sea are devils and persecutors, to whom He says Peace, when he restrains the edicts of impious kings, as He will. The great calm is the peace of the Church after oppression, or a contemplative after an active life.
• BEDE; Or else the ship into which He embarked, is taken to mean the tree of His passion, by which the faithful attain to the security of the safe shore. The other ships which are said to have been with the Lord, signify those who are imbued with faith in the cross of Christ, and are not beaten about by the whirlwind of tribulation, or who after the storms of temptation, are enjoying the security of peace. And whilst His disciples are sailing on, Christ is asleep because the time of our Lord’s Passion came on His faithful ones, when they were mediating on the rest of His future reign. Wherefore it is related, that it took place late, that not only the sleep of our Lord, but the hour itself of departing light, might signify the setting of the true Sun. Again, when He ascended the cross, of which the stern of the ship was a type, His blaspheming persecutors rose like the waves against Him, driven on by the storms of the devils, by which, however, His own patience is not disturbed, but His foolish disciples are struck with amazement. The disciples awake the Lord, because they sought, with most earnest wishes, the resurrection of Him whom they had seen die. Rising up, He threatened the wind, because when He had triumphed in His resurrection, He prostrated the pride of the devil. He ordered the sea to be still, that is, in rising again, He cast down the rage of the Jews. The disciples are blamed, because after His resurrection, He chid them for their unbelief. And we also when being marked with the sign of the Lord’s cross, we determine to quit the world, embark in the ship with Christ; we attempt to cross the sea; but, He goes to sleep, as we are sailing amidst the roaring of the waters, when amidst the strivings of our virtues, or amidst the attacks of evil spirits, of wicked men, or of our own thoughts, the flame of our love grows cold. Amongst storms of this sort, let us diligently strive to awake Him; He will soon restrain the tempest, pour down peace upon us, give us the harbor of salvation.