Daily Bible Readings Saturday October 31 2009 30th Week in Ordinary Time

October 31 2009 Saturday 30^th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Wolfgang of Regensburg

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/103109.shtml

Romans 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29
Haydock New Testament

I say then: Hath God cast away his people?  God forbid.  For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew.

I say then, have they so stumbled, that they should fall?  God forbid.  But by their offence, salvation is come to the Gentiles, that they may be emulous of them. Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles: how much more the fulness of them?

For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, (lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion he that shall deliver, and shall turn away impiety from Jacob. And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their sins. According to the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but according to election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.

Responsorial Psalm 93:12-13a, 14-15, 17-18 (Ps 94 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord:
and shalt teach him out of thy law.
That thou mayst give him rest from the evil days
For the Lord will not cast off his people:
neither will he forsake his own inheritance.
Until justice be turned into judgment:
and they that are near it are all the upright in heart.
Unless the Lord had been my helper,
my soul had almost dwelt in hell.
If I said: My foot is moved: thy mercy, O Lord, assisted me.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 14:1, 7-11
Haydock New Testament

And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of a certain chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath-day, to eat bread, and they were watching him. And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:

When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the highest place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him: And he who invited thee, and him, come and say to thee: Give place to this man; and then thou begin, with blushing, to take the lowest place.

But when thou art invited, go sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher.  Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted.

Haydock Commentary Romans 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 1. &c. S. Paul in this chapter endeavours to comfort the Jews, though the greatest part of them were rejected for their blindness; and to admonish the Gentiles, not to boast for being called and converted, but to persevere with humility, and the fear of God. — God hath not cast away his people. That is, not all of them, nor hath he cast off those whom he foreknew, and decreed to save. — The Scripture saith of Elias. He brings the example of Elias living among the ten tribes of Israel, when all the people were forbidden to go and adore in the temple of Jerusalem, when the altars of the true God were destroyed, and almost all in these tribes were fallen into idolatry, and worshipped Baal: he complains as if he were left alone in the worship of the true God.  But the divine answer shewed him his mistake.  I have reserved to myself seven thousand man, &c.  Some take notice that seven is divers times put for a great number, as three and a half for a small number: however, besides these seven thousand, all in the kingdom of Juda remained firm in the worship of the true God.  In like manner, a remnant is now saved by the election of grace, by God’s free and liberal gift of divine grace.  Some pretended reformers of the faith of the Church bring this as an argument, that the Church of God may fail, and fall into errors.  It is sufficient to answer, that there is a wide difference betwixt the Jewish synagogue, which brought nothing to perfection, and the Church of Christ, which he built upon a rock, with which he has promised to be to the end of the world, and guide them by the Spirit of Truth. Wi.  — This is very ill alleged by some against the perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ: the more, because however the number of the faithful might be abridged by the persecution of Jezebel in the kingdom of the ten tribes; the Church was at the same time in a most flourishing condition (under Asa and Josaphat) in the kingdom of Juda.  Ch. — Our separated brethren add to this text, as in Acts xix. 35. the word image. They also cite it in proof of an invisible Church; but with no just grounds: for in Jerusalem the faith and worship were public to the whole world.  Besides, the Christian Church rests on better promises than the synagogue.  B. — The Jews obtain not the justice they sought after, because they did not seek it as they ought; they expected to obtain it by their works, whereas it can only be had from grace.  Estius.
• Ver. 11-15. Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. That is, their fall is not irreparable, or so as never to rise again: but by their offending, salvation (through the liberal mercy of God) is come to the Gentiles, that they, the Jews, may be emulous of the Gentiles, and of their happiness, and so may be converted.  Wi. — The nation of the Jews is not absolutely and without remedy cast off for ever; but in part only (many thousands of them having been at first converted) and for a time: which fall of theirs God has been pleased to turn to the good of the Gentiles.  Ch. — How much more the fulness of them? As if he should say, if the obstinacy of so many Jews seem to be an occasion upon which God, whose mercy calls whom he pleaseth, hath bestowed the riches of his grace on other nations; and while the glory of the Jews, the elect people of God, has been diminished, the Gentiles have been made happy: how much more glorious will be the fulness of them? that is, according to the common interpretation, will be the re-establishment and conversion of the Jews hereafter, before the end of the world?  See S. Chrys. om. iq. p. 164.  S. Hilar. in Ps. lviii.  S. Jer. in c. iii. Osee.  Habac. iii.  S. Aug. l. xx. de Civ. Dei. c. xxix. — Then (v. 15.) the receiving of them into the Church, and their conversion to Christ, shall be like life from the dead, when the Jewish nation in general, shall rise from the death of sin, and their hardened infidelity, to the life of faith and grace.  These things I speak to you, Gentiles, to honour and comply with my ministry of being your apostle: yet endeavouring at the same time, if by a pious emulation, or by any other way, I may be able to bring any of my flesh, or of my brethren, the Jews, to be saved by the faith of Christ.  Wi.
• Ver. 25-26. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, this, hidden truth of God’s justice and mercy, that blindness in part hath happened in Israel, or to part of them, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, by the conversion of all nations: and then all Israel should be saved, when they shall submit to the faith of Christ: as it is written by the prophet Isaias, (lix. 20.) there shall come out of Sion he that shall deliver; that is, their Redeemer, Christ Jesus, who is indeed come already, but who shall then come to them by his powerful grace.  This is my covenant with them.  Wi.
• Ver. 28. According to the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake. That is, enemies both to you, because they see the gospel preached and received by you, and enemies to God, because he has rejected them at present for their wilful blindness: yet according to election, God having once made them his elect, and because of their forefathers, the patriarchs, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers: for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance,

in as much as God is unchangeable, and his promises, made absolutely, cannot fail.  Wi.

 

Haydock Commentary Luke 14:1, 7-11

• Ver. 1. This was the Hebrew expression for taking a meal; their frugality probably suggested this method of expression, bread being the principal part of their repast.  Calmet. — What a contrast here between the actions of the Pharisees and those of our Saviour!  They watched all his actions, in order to have an opportunity of accusing him, and of putting him to death; whilst he, on the contrary, seeks after nothing but the salvation of his enemies’ souls.  Tirin.
• Ver. 7. A parable. What parable?  In the text there is no parable, but only instruction.  Maldonatus thinks that our Saviour spoke a parable on this occasion, which S. Luke has omitted, giving us only the moral and the substance of the instruction conveyed by it.  Calmet. — To take the lowest place at a feast, according to our Saviour’s injunctions, is certainly very becoming; but imperiously to insist upon it, is far from acting according to our Saviour’s wishes, particularly when it is destructive of regularity, and productive of discord and contention.  S. Basil.
• Ver. 9. The lowest place. A person of the first quality is not to do this literally, which would be preposterous; but it is to teach every on humility of heart and mind.  Wi.

 

 

Daily Bible Readings Friday October 30 2009 30th Week in Ordinary Time

October 30 2009 Friday 30^th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/103009.shtml

Romans 9:1-5
Haydock New Testament

I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost: That I have great sadness, and continual sorrow in my heart. For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, Who are Israelites, to whom belongeth the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the promises: Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever.  Amen.

Responsorial Psalm 147:12-15, 19-20
DR Challoner Text Only

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion.
Because he hath strengthened the bolts of thy gates,
he hath blessed thy children within thee.
Who hath placed peace in thy borders:
and filleth thee with the fat of corn.
Who sendeth forth his speech to the earth:
his word runneth swiftly.
Who declareth his word to Jacob:
his justices and his judgments to Israel.
He hath not done in like manner to every nation:
and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them.
Alleluia.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 14:1-6
Haydock New Testament

And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of a certain chief of the Pharisees, on the sabbath-day, to eat bread, and they were watching him. And behold there was a certain man before him, who had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying:

Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath-day?

But they held their peace.  But he, taking him, healed him, and sent him away. And answering them, he said:

Which of you, whose ass or his ox shall fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath-day?

And they could not answer him to these things.

Haydock Commentary Romans 9:1-5
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 3. I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ.[1]  The word anathema, according to its derivation, signifies a thing separated or laid apart for some particular use.  Hence it was put to signify things given and consecrated to God, which therefore used to be presented and hung up in temples.  2. The word also was applied to signify things whose destruction was resolved upon, that is, men or things separated for destruction, as sometimes, men deputed to be sacrificed to the gods to appease their anger.  This signification was according to the Hebrew word cherem, and the Syriac word horma, as Numb. xxi. 3.  He called the name of that place Horma, that is, anathema; because it was to be entirely destroyed.  See 1 Mac. v.  Hence anathema was also used for a curse, and to anathematize, to curse.  See Acts xxiii. 14.  The sense of this place is differently expounded.  Tolet, by the word I wished, or I did wish, thinks that S. Paul might speak of the time before his conversion, when out of a false zeal, he wished to be separated from Christ, and from all Christians: and that he brings this to shew his brethren how zealous he had been for their religion.  But this wish of S. Paul is generally expounded as proceeding from the great love and charity he had, when he was an apostle, for the conversion and salvation of his brethren, the Jews, who mostly remained obstinate and incredulous: and some will have it to be no more than a hyperbolical expression of his great love and affection for them.  Others, with S. Jerom, ep. ad Algasiam, tom. iv. p. 203. Ed. Ben. think that by this way of speaking, S. Paul signifies himself willing to be sacrificed, by undergoing any death for their conversion: but S. Chrys. (hom. xvi.) thinks this far short of the sublime charity of S. Paul; for by such a death, says he, he would not be separated from Christ, but would be a great gainer by it; since by that means he would soon be free from all the troubles and sufferings of a miserable life, and blessed with the company and enjoyment of Christ in the kingdom of his glory.  He, and many others, think that S. Paul was so troubled and grieved to the heart at the obstinacy of the unbelieving Jews, at their blasphemies against Christ, and their eternal perdition, that an extraordinary charity and zeal for God’s honour, and their salvation, made him wish even to endure a separation from Christ, and from the glory prepared for him in heaven, though not from the love, or from the grace of Christ.  If this, says S. Chrys. seems incredible to us, it is because we are far from such heroic dispositions of the love of God, and of our neighbours.  Wi. — The apostle’s concern and love for his countrymen, the Jews, was so great, that he was willing even to suffer an anathema, or curse, for their sake; or any evil that could come upon him, without his offending God.  Ch.
• Ver. 4-5. To whom belongeth the adoption of children. Lit. whose is the adoption. He mentions the favours which God had done to his people, the Jews.  As, 1. That God had adopted them for his elect people.  2. That he had glorified them with so many miracles.  3. That he had made a particular covenant and alliance with them.  4. Given them a written law.  5. Prescribed the manner they should worship him.  6. Promises of divers blessings.  7. Who are from the Fathers. Lit. whose are the Fathers; i.e. who descended from the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, &c.  8. Of whose race, i.e. of the family of David, Jesus Christ, as man, was born. — Who is over all things God,[2] blessed for ever. Amen. Though the apostles did not often, in express words, call Jesus Christ the God, lest the heathens, when they were not sufficiently instructed, should imagine that there were many gods, (as divers of the fathers take notice) yet here, and in several places, they clearly delivered the divinity of our Saviour, Christ.  The Socinians might here observe, that the apostle calls him the God blessed for ever, and with the Greek article.  Wi.

 

Haydock Commentary Luke 14:1-6

• Ver. 1. This was the Hebrew expression for taking a meal; their frugality probably suggested this method of expression, bread being the principal part of their repast.  Calmet. — What a contrast here between the actions of the Pharisees and those of our Saviour!  They watched all his actions, in order to have an opportunity of accusing him, and of putting him to death; whilst he, on the contrary, seeks after nothing but the salvation of his enemies’ souls.  Tirin.
• Ver. 2. Our divine Saviour, regardless of the wicked designs which these Pharisees meditated to destroy him, cures the sick man, who did not dare to ask the favour of him, for fear of the Pharisees.  He could only persuade himself to stand in his presence, hoping that Christ would at length cast a compassionate look upon him: who being well pleased with him, did not demand of him if he wished to be cured, but without demur proceeded to work this stupendous miracle in his behalf.  S. Cyril. — In which Christ did not so much consider whether the action would give scandal to the Pharisees, as whether it would afford the sick man comfort; intimating, that we ought ever to disregard the raillery of the fools, and the scandal which men of this world may take at our actions, as often as they are for the honour of God, and the good of our neighbour.  Theophy.
• Ver. 3. Is it lawful? Jesus knew their thoughts, and that they would blame him as a sabbath-breaker: yet he healed the man, and confounded them by the example and common practice of pulling an ass out of a pit on the sabbath-day.  Wi.
• Ver. 5. By this example Christ convicts his adversaries, as guilty of sordid avarice, since, in delivering beasts from the danger of perishing on the sabbath-day, they consult only their own advantage, whilst he was only employed in an act of charity towards his neighbour; an action they seemed so warmly to condemn.  Ven. Bede.

 

Daily Bible Readings Thursday October 29 2009 30th Week in Ordinary Time

October 29 2009 Thursday 30^th Week in Ordinary Time
Saint of the Day – St. Narcissus of Jerusalem

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/102909.shtml

Romans 8:31b-39
Haydock New Testament

If God be for us, who is against us? He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: how hath he not also, with him, given us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of the elect of God? God that justifieth, Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus who died, yea, who rose also again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? (As it is written: For thy sake we are put to death, all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)

But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Responsorial Psalm 108:21-22, 26-27, 30-31 (Ps 109 NAB)
DR Challoner Text Only

But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake:
because thy mercy is sweet.
Do thou deliver me, For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is troubled within me.
Help me, O Lord my God;
save me; according to thy mercy.
And let them know that this is thy hand:
and that thou, O Lord, hast done it.
I will give great thanks to the Lord with my mouth:
and in the midst of many I will praise him.
Because he hath stood at the right hand of the poor,
to save my soul from persecutors.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 13:31-35
Haydock New Testament

The same day there came some of the Pharisees, saying to him:

Depart, and get thee hence: for Herod hath a mind to kill thee.

And he said to them:

Go and tell that fox: Behold I cast out devils, and do cures, to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am consummated. Nevertheless I must walk to-day, and to-morrow, and the day following: because it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children, as the bird doth her brood under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate. And I say to you, that you shall not see me till the time come, when you shall say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Haydock Commentary Romans 8:31b-39
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 31.
  If God be for us, who is against us, or who shall hinder us from being saved. Wi.
  
• Ver. 32.
  He that spared not, &c. This is another argument for us to hope in the goodness of God, who hath so loved the world, that he hath delivered, and given his true and only Son for us all, to redeem all and every one, and has by his death obtained helps and graces by which we may all be saved. — How hath he not also, with him, given us all things? That is, since he has given for us his only Son, how can we doubt, but that, with him, he will give us all gifts and graces? He hath given us, says S. Chrys. his Son himself, and how can we doubt of other blessings? Wi.
  
• Ver. 33-34.
  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of the elect of God? God who justifieth. Others read without an interrogation, it is God who justified us: the sense will scarce be different; for it is the same as to say, we need not fear that God will accuse us, since by his mercy he hath been pleased to die, and to rise again from death for us. Wi.
  
• Ver. 35. &c.
  Who then, or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Neither devils, nor men, nor any thing in nature, unless it be by our own fault, and unless we wilfully and sinfully leave God. — I am sure. In the Greek, I am [7] fully persuaded, that nothing can separate us, &c. In fine, another argument to prove we ought to have a firm hope in God, is that Christ Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God, also intercedeth for us. Christ, as man, intercedeth, prayeth for us, is our advocate and chief mediator See Heb. vii. Christ is truly said to pray for us in heaven, though it is not the custom of the Church to call upon him in this manner, “Christ pray for us;” because being God, as well as man, he has all things under his command. Wi.
  
• Ver. 39. So powerful and efficacious, so certain and unchangeable is the love of God, which conducts us to the kingdom of bliss, that no creature can separate us from it, either by making us cease to love him, or by frustrating our love of its effect, viz. life everlasting. Estius.
  

Haydock Commentary Luke 13:31-35

• Ver. 32. It is rather surprising that Christ should make use of these opprobrious words, which could be of no service to himself, but which would only serve to irritate king Herod, should they come to his ears. But Christ, by these words, probably wished to shew that he was not the least afraid of him whom the Pharisees feigned to have a design on his life: for it is supposed that the Pharisees had invented this fiction, in order to compel him to leave them quiet. Maldonatus.
  
• Ver. 33.
  Nevertheless I must walk, (i.e. labour in the mission, teaching, &c.) to-day, and to-morrow, &c. i.e. for a while. — It cannot be that a prophet,[1] &c. Not that all the prophets suffered in Jerusalem, though many did; and it is rather to prophesy, that he himself, the great Prophet, and their Messias, should be put to death at Jerusalem. Wi.
  

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Daily Bible Readings Wednesday October 28 2009 Feast of Sts Simon and Jude Apostles

October 28 2009 Wednesday Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Saint of the Day – Sts. Simon and Jude

About the sources used. The readings on this site are not official for the Mass of Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in the USA, but are from sources free from copyright. They are here to present the comparable readings alongside traditional Catholic commentary as published in the Haydock Bible for your own personal study. Readings vary depending on your local calendar.

Official Readings of the Liturgy at – http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/102809.shtml

Ephesians 2:19-22
Haydock New Testament

Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners: but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and the domestics of God: Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone: In whom all the building framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in the Lord; In whom you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Responsorial Psalm 18:2-5 (Ps 19 NAB)
DR Challoner (Text Only)

The heavens shew forth the glory of God,
and the firmament declareth the work of his hands.
Day to day uttereth speech,
and night to night sheweth knowledge.
There are no speeches nor languages,
where their voices are not heard.
Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth:
and their words unto the ends of the world.

The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to Saint Luke 6:12-16
Haydock New Testament

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God. And when it was day, he called his disciples: and he chose twelve of them, (whom also he named apostles: ) Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew, his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, and Simon, who is called Zelotes: And Jude, the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor.

Haydock Commentary Ephesians 2:19-22
Notes Copied From Haydock Commentary Site

• Ver. 19. You are no longer strangers with regard to God and his holy alliance.  You are no longer travellers and vagabonds, without a God, as you were before your conversion; not knowing to whom you belonged, nor finding in paganism either solid foundation or truth, neither hopes for this nor consolation for future life.  But now you are become citizens of the same city as the saints, and domestics of the house of God.  Calmet.
• Ver. 20. The Church is in this place said to be built upon the apostles and prophets; why not then upon S. Peter?

 

Haydock Commentary Luke 6:12-16

• Ver. 13. These twelve Christ chose as individual companions and domestics.  To these he committed the charge of founding and governing his Church.  He sent them as legates, or ambassadors, (for this is the import of the word apostle) to all the world.  Hence their power was more universal than that of bishops, which is confined to their own dioceses or districts.  The jurisdiction of the apostles was not limited to place.  Tirinus. — This power which Jesus Christ delegated to his apostles, and which was for the benefit and regulation  of the universal Church in all future ages, the apostles, in their turn, delegated to their successors in the ministry, with such regulations and limitations as have been judged in the Holy Ghost necessary for the proper government of the spiritual kingdom of God upon earth.  And it is the height of presumption to question any ordinations that come to us with the authority of the Catholic Church: for, “whatever the Church says, is true; whatever she permits is lawful; whatever she forbids, is evil; whatever she ordains, is holy; whatever she institutes, is good.”  S. Augustine. — How futile then is the objection of Calvin, who pretends that an apostle, being nothing but a legate, can make no laws, nor prescribe or teach any thing not expressed in his mandatum! Calvin, Inst. l. iv. c. 8.
• Ver. 16. Judas, surnamed Thaddeus in S. Matt. x. 3. and in S. Mark iii. 18.  At the head of his epistle he styles himself Judas, brother of James.  V.