Archive for April, 2009
Audio of Evening Prayers April 30, 2009.
Psalm 15; Psalm 112; Revelation 15:3-4; 1 Peter 5:1-4
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 30 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Morning Prayers April 30, 2009. In honor of Saint Pius V, Pope, who implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent in response to many of the same issues that drove the Protestant Reformation.
Psalm 63:2-9; Daniel 3:57-88, 56; Psalm 149; Hebrews 13:7-9a
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 30 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Evening Prayers April 29, 2009. Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena: Virgin and Doctor of the Church.
Psalm 122; Psalm 127; Ephesians 1:3-10; 1 Corinthians 7:32b, 34
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 29 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Morning Prayers April 29, 2009. St. Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor.
Psalm 63:2-9; Daniel 3:57-88, 56; Psalm 149; Song of Songs 8:7
Karen recommends Louis de Wohl’s excellent Lay Siege to Heaven, a dramatic interpretation of Saint Catherine’s life. Presented as a historical novel, de Wohl dramatizes her story while remaining faithful to historical scholarship.
April 29 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | 1 Comment »
Audio of Evening Prayers April 28, 2009 – St. Peter Chanel
Psalm 116:1-9; Psalm 116:10-19; Revelation 4:11, 5:9-11; Revelation 7:14b-17
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 28 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Morning Prayers April 28, 2009.
Psalm 63:2-9; Daniel 3:57-88, 56; Psalm 149; 1 John 5:3-5
Today we remember Saint Peter Chanel, who patiently preached Christ and the Gospel to the natives of Futuna. By his preaching of Christianity, he destroyed the cult of the evil spirits, which the chieftains of the Futunians encouraged in order to keep the tribe under their rule. This was the reason they subjected Peter to a most cruel death, hoping that by killing him the seeds of the Christian religion which he had sowed would be annihilated… within a few years of his martyrdom, the entire people of Futuna were converted to the faith of Christ, and many of the other islands of Oceania also now claim Saint Peter Chanel as their first martyr.
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 28 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Evening Prayers April 27, 2009.
Psalm 123; Psalm 124; Ephesians 1:3-10; Hebrews 8:1b-3a
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 27 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
I noticed this Easter how Jesus refers to us first as disciples/servants/slaves, then friends, and ultimately his brothers. I have noticed this progression in my own experience, but hadn’t previously recognized it so explicitly in the gospel. The theme seems to be consistent across all the gospels. I trace it here through John since that’s where I noticed it during our Lenten gospel readings, and since looking at a single gospel should avoid clouding the issue with stylistic or linguistic discrepancies between the various evangelists.
When Jesus first called his disciples, he called them as disciples, subject to his rule as their teacher. Jesus states the condition for entering this state of discipleship is to follow him, saying “Follow me” (John 1:43), and “If anyone serves me, he must follow me.” (John 12:26). In John 13:13-16, Jesus makes it clear, after having washed the disciple’s feet, that it is right to recognize him as Lord, and Master, saying
“You call me Master and Lord. And you say well: for so I am. If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. Amen, amen, I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord: neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him.”
We are not left in this state of servanthood, however, but progress ‘farther up and deeper in’ to become his friends. Jesus gives his great commandment, to love one another as he has loved us, then says that in obeying this commandment, we are not merely good servants, but that “You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:13) What a strange master this is, that in obeying his commandment, we become his friends. Jesus underscores that this is not merely a hypothetical promise when he proceeds to say
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
Or, in another translation,
“I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends. because all things, whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.”
This word friend is used the same way as in our culture, but I noticed it has another significance that is particularly important given that he is speaking to his apostles.
Friend (Philos – Strong 5384): a friend, an associate, a companion, or one of the bridegroom’s friends who on his behalf asked the hand of the bride and rendered him various services in closing the marriage and celebrating the nuptials
Is that not exactly the apostles’ calling? To ask for the hand of the bride of Christ, and to render him various services in sealing the marriage covenant?
It is hard to imagine that we could proceed from slave to a trusted friend and companion, but Jesus is not content to leave us even in this exalted state. He makes us his sisters and brothers.
“When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.” (John 19:26-27)
In giving us his mother through John*, “The disciple whom he loved,” Jesus makes himself our brother. He has already dignified humanity by humbling himself to become man; now he again confirms his choice despite our rejection and betrayal of his love.
* Even for those hesitant about “the whole Mary thing,” the relation is clear. At the very least, setting aside the symbolism of Jesus giving Mary to the entire church through John, even the most Protestant can agree that the Apostle John is our brother in Christ, and therefore John’s mother is our mother. How it must grieve the heart of Jesus that so many of his brothers reject his and their own mother’s loving kindness, and refuse to allow her to interceed with him on their behalf.
April 27 2009 | Jesus Stuff | No Comments »
Audio of Morning Prayers April 27, 2009.
Psalm 84; Isaiah 2:2-5; Psalm 96; Romans 10:8b-10
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 27 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Audio of Evening Prayers April 26, 2009.
Psalm 110:1-5, 7; Psalm 111; 1 Peter 2:21-24; Hebrews 10:12-14
From ancient times the Church has had the custom of celebrating each day the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. In this way the Church fulfills the Lord’s precept to pray without ceasing, at once offering its praise to God the Father and interceding for the salvation of the world. Join me in praying the Liturgy of the Hours today and throughout the Easter season.
Listen here...
If you have problems with the flash player, the file is available here.
April 26 2009 | Divine Office 2010 | No Comments »
Next »