O.Carm
Celebrating At Home - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Living Bread that Nourishes Life
(Jn 6:41-51)
At the end of last week’s Gospel, Jesus said: I am the bread of life, those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never thirst. In other words, Jesus feeds us with the living bread of God’s word, which is himself. But this word can only be received by those who believe, that is, who are in relationship with Jesus. The first step is to recognise where Jesus comes from (God).
In a great example of unbelief the Jewish authorities reject Jesus at the beginning of this week’s Gospel because they know where he comes from and therefore he cannot be ‘from heaven’. Once again they are unable to read the face of God in Jesus. They think they know exactly who Jesus is - we know his father and mother. And their focus remains firmly fixed on the bread they ate, not the person who provided it.
Jesus tells them to stop complaining and insists that only those drawn by God can believe in him. Jesus insists again that God draws people to belief in him. One cannot be taught by God apart from hearing and believing the word of Jesus. And those who believe have eternal life.
Jesus again insists that he is the Bread of Life. Referring to his earlier conversation with the crowd in last week’s Gospel, Jesus says that those who ate the manna in the desert are dead; and those who eat the bread of life he is offering will live. Life comes from being in relationship (in communion) with Jesus.
The Gospel concludes with Jesus once again stating that he is indeed the living bread which has come down from heaven. Those who eat this bread will live for ever. The bread that Jesus will give is his own flesh offered on the altar of the cross for the life of the world and given in prophetic sign at the Last Supper.
If we enter into communion with Jesus we can become the living bread through whom God continues to feed his people with wisdom, compassion, hope, forgiveness and love.
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XIX Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(503 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XIX Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(501 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Décimo Nono Domingo do Tempo Comum(500 KB)
St. Teresa Margaret Redi (OCD), Virgin
1 September Optional Memorial
Saint Teresa Margaret Redi was born in Arezzo on 1st September 1747 into the noble family of Redi. In 1764, she entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites in Florence, changing her baptismal name of Anna Maria to that of Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
She grounded her spiritual and religious life in devotion to the Eucharist and to Our Lady, and in her dedication to the Sacred Heart which she described as a "giving of love for love". She led a humble and hidden life in the love of God and the total offering of herself and she gave caring and continuous service to her sisters. She died of peritonitis on 7th March 1770. She was beatified in 1929 and canonised by Pope Pius XI on 13th March 1934.
Bl. Jacques Retouret, Priest and Martyr
26 August Optional Memorial
Bl. Jacques Retouret was born at Limoges in France on 15th September 1746 to a merchant family. He was a serious young man, a lover of books and greatly gifted. At fifteen years of age, he entered the Carmelite house in his native city. After ordination, his zeal and learning were widely admired and large crowds of people were attracted by his way of preaching. Unfortunately, he was often unable to fulfil all his engagements, due to his persistent bad health which plagued him throughout his life.
The French Revolution did not spare him. Like the majority of his fellow clergy, Jacques refused to accept the civil law, unilaterally introduced by the state, which decreed, among other things, the election of bishops and parish priests by the people, only afterwards to be approved by the hierarchy and the pope. In addition to this refusal, Jacques was accused of siding with a group of political emigres who had invaded the country against the revolutionaries. He was arrested and condemned, together with many other priests and religious, and sentenced to exile in French Guinea in South America. Taken to Rochefort, he was held there in a prison ship. The British navy, at this time, was blockading the French coast and so preventing the departure of the prison ships. The conditions for the prisoners were beyond description: they were crowded together, hungry, plagued by sickness, and suffered from either the heat or the cold in overpowering smells, and persecuted by their gaolers.
Jacques died at Madame Isle, some miles distant from Rochefort, on 26th August 1794 at the age of 48 years. He was beatified, together with 63 other priests and religious, as martyrs for the faith, on 1st October 1995 by Pope John Paul II.
St. Mary of Jesus Crucified (OCD), Virgin
25 August Optional Memorial
Mariam Baouardy was born at Abellin in Galilee on 5th January 1846 to very poor parents who were good living and devoted Greek-rite Catholics. She was left an orphan after the death of her parents at only three years of age when, together with her brother Paul, she was entrusted to the care of an uncle,who had moved to Alexandria in Egypt a few years earlier. She never received any formal education and remained unable to read. At thirteen years of age, wanting to give herself only to God, she firmly refused the marriage which her uncle, according to the Eastern custom, had arranged for her.
Blessed Angelus Augustine Mazzinghi, Priest
17 August Optional Memorial
The year of birth of Bl. Angelus Mazzinghi in Florence, Italy, or nearby, is unknown but it was certainly before 1386.
He was received into the Order in 1413 and was the first member of the reform at Santa Maria delle Selve.
He was prior there from 1419-30 and again in 1437, and in Florence from 1435-37. A lector in theology, he was particularly noted for his preaching of the word of God.
He died in Florence in 1438.
Blessed Isidore Bakanja, Martyr
12 August Optional Memorial
Bl. Isidore Bakanja, a member of the Boangi tribe, was born in Bokendela (Congo) between 1880 and 1890.
In order to survive, even as a boy, he had to work as bricklayer or in farms. He was converted to Christianity in 1906. He was working in a plantation run by a colonialist in Ikili and was forbidden by the owner to spread Christianity among his fellow-workers.
On 22 April 1909, the superintendent of the business tore off the Carmelite Scapular, which Isidore was wearing as an expression of his Christian faith, and had him severely beaten even to drawing blood.
He died on 15 August of the same year as a result of the wounds inflicted in "punishment" for his faith and which he bore patiently while forgiving his aggressor.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 24 April 1994.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (OCD)
9 August Memorial (Feast in the provinces of Europe: Patron of Europe)
Edith Stein was born at Breslau on 12th October 1891 to German Jewish parents, and after her secondary education, she enroled in the department of philosophy in the city university.
She read the autobiography of Teresa of Avila and became aware of being called to become a Catholic; she was baptized on 1st January 1922. She made her First Communion the same day and was confirmed on the following 2nd February. After her conversion, she felt herself attracted to the religious life but circumstances forced her to delay this decision until 1933. When in 1933 she lost her teaching post as a result of the anti-Jewish laws, she entered into the Carmel at Cologne on 14th October 1933, taking the name of Teresa Benedict of the Cross.
On 31st December 1938 she was moved to the Carmel at Echt in Holland so as to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
Sister Teresa, accompanied by her sister Rosa who had also become a Catholic, was taken to Amersfort on 2nd August 1942. On 3rd August, she was transferred to Westerbork. On 7th August, she and her sister together with other deportees were locked in railway wagons and taken by train to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, a voyage which took two days.
Sister Teresa Benedict of the Cross died in the gas chamber the same day that she arrived at the camp at Auschwitz, Sunday 9th August 1942, and her body was burned in one of the crematoria there. She was beatified on 1 May 1987 and canonized on 11 October 1998 by Pope John Paul II. On 2 October 1999 the same Pope proclaimed her co-patron of Europe.
St. Albert of Trapani, Priest
7 August Feast
Born in Trapani (Scilia) in the 13th century. He distinguished himself for his dediction to mendicant preaching and the notoriety of his miracles. In the years 1280 and 1289 he was in Trapani and shortly afterwards in Messina. In the year 1296 he was prior provincial of the Carmelite Province of Sicily. He was celebrated for his passionate love for purity and prayer. He died in Messina most likely in 1307.
Lectio Divina September, 2024
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, send your Spirit to help us to read the Scriptures with the same mind that you read them to the disciples on the way to Emmaus. In the light of the Word, written in the Bible, you helped them to discover the presence of God in the disturbing events of your sentence and death. Thus, the cross that seemed to be the end of all hope became for them the source of life and of resurrection.
Create in us silence so that we may listen to your voice in Creation and in the Scriptures, in events and in people, above all in the poor and suffering. May your word guide us so that we too, like the two disciples from Emmaus, may experience the force of your resurrection and witness to others that you are alive in our midst as source of fraternity, justice, and peace. We ask this of you, Jesus, Son of Mary, who revealed to us the Father and sent us your Spirit. Amen.
Celebrating At Home - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
I am the Bread of Life
(Jn 6:24-35)
Our journey through Chapter 6 of St John’s Gospel continues. Two weeks ago, Jesus showed himself the true shepherd-king, feeding the inner hunger of the people for the Word of God. Last week, Jesus fed the physical hunger of a great multitude with a simple meal of bread and fish. The people, impressed by what they saw, wanted to make him their warrior-king, one who would lead them in a revolt against the occupying Romans and satisfy their every desire. Jesus escaped into the hills.
This Sunday, the crowd has caught up with Jesus. He accuses them of looking for him only because he gave them all the bread they wanted to eat, not because they had understood that the bread was a sign of the real food Jesus was offering: himself. Jesus urges them to work for ‘food that endures to eternal life’. Working for this food means to believe in the one God has sent: Jesus himself.
The crowd asks for a sign to prove that they should believe in Jesus. After all, they say, Moses gave our ancestors bread to eat in the desert; what will you do? Their request underlines their failure to really see the sign that they had already been given. Jesus reformulates their quote from scripture: It is God who gives the true bread from heaven, the bread of God which gives life to the world. In that case, they say, give us that bread always.
Jesus replies: I am the bread of life, those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never thirst. Jesus is real food for the hungers and thirsts of the human heart.
To be nourished by Jesus one must believe (have faith) in him. This implies a personal relationship with Jesus. Once this personal relationship has been established everything else finds its proper place and true purpose. Our relationships feed and sustain us as human beings. They are born of the food of love, compassion and forgiveness. Being in a relationship is to be drawn into communion with another person. We always draw life from those we love and those who love us. It is the same with Jesus. In order to draw life from him, to be fed by him, we have to be in loving relationship with him.
- pdf Celebrating At Home - 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time [PDF](3.22 MB)
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- pdf Celebrando en Familia - XVIII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario(512 KB)
- pdf Celebrando in Casa - XVIII Domenica del Tempo Ordinario(509 KB)
- pdf Celebrando em família - Décimo Oitavo Domingo do Tempo Comum(509 KB)
