CALENDARIUM ROMANUM FORMA ORDINARIA

Whence begins charity, brethren? Attend a little: to what it is perfected, you have heard; the very end of it, and the very measure of it is what the Lord has put before us in the Gospel: Greater love has no man, says He, than that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13 Its perfection, therefore, He has put before us in the Gospel, and here also it is its perfection that is put before us: but you ask yourselves, and say to yourselves, When shall it be possible for us to have this charity? Do not too soon despair of yourself. Haply, it is born and is not yet perfect; nourish it, that it be not choked. But you will say to me, And by what am I to know it? For to what it is perfected, we have heard; whence it begins, let us hear. He goes on to say: But whoever has this world’s good, and sees his brother have hunger, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how can the love of God dwell in him? 1 John 3:17 Lo, whence charity begins withal! If you are not yet equal to the dying for your brother, be even now equal to the giving of your means to your brother. Even now let charity smite your bowels, that not of vainglory you should do it, but of the innermost marrow of mercy; that you consider him, now in want. For if your superfluities you can not give to your brother, can you lay down your life for your brother? If the love of the Father abide not in you, you are not born of God. How do you boast to be a Christian? You have the name, and hast not the deeds. But if the work shall follow the name, let any call you pagan, show by deeds that you are a Christian. For if by deeds you do not show yourself a Christian, all men may call you a Christian yet; what does the name profit you where the thing is not forthcoming? But whoever has this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how can the love of God dwell in him? And then he goes on: My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:18

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

If you know what the offering of sacrifice consists of, you will understand why the coming of the Holy Spirit is implored. According to the testimony of the Apostle Paul, the sacrifice is offered so that the death of the Lord may be announced and the memory of the one who gave his life for us may be revived. The Lord himself said: “There is no greater love than to lay down your life for those you love” (Jn 15:13). Therefore, since Christ died for us out of love, we ask, when we remember his death at the moment of sacrifice, that love be given to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We ask in supplication that, through the same love that moved Christ to allow himself to be crucified for us, we too, having received the grace of the Holy Spirit, may be crucified to the world and imitate the death of our Lord to walk in a new life. Thus all the faithful who love God and their neighbor, even if they do not drink the chalice of a bodily passion, nevertheless drink the chalice of the Lord’s charity. For we drink the chalice of the Lord as long as we keep our holy charity, without which it is of no use to deliver our body to the flames. The gift of charity allows us to be in truth what we mystically celebrate in sacrifice. (…) This is why we ask that the Holy Spirit come and give us charity.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team