Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine)

“What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerning the Word of life, we proclaim now to you” (1Jn 1,1-3)… The incarnate Word was made known to the apostles in two ways: first of all they recognised him by sight, as receiving knowledge of the Word from the Word himself; secondly by hearing, this time by receiving knowledge of the Word from the witness of John the Baptist. Concerning the Word, John the Baptist first of all affirms that: “We have seen his glory”… For Saint John Chrysostom these words are connected with what precedes in John’s Gospel: “The Word became flesh”. What the evangelist means is: the Incarnation has bestowed on us the blessing, not merely of becoming children of God, but of seeing his glory. For indeed, weak and feeble eyes cannot of themselves look at the light of the sun, but when it shines through a cloud or some other opaque body, then they can do so. Before the incarnation of the Word human minds were incapable of themselves of beholding the light “that enlightens everyone”. But so that they might not be deprived of the joy of seeing him, the Light himself, the Word of God, desired to be clothed with flesh so that we might be able to see him. Thus people “turned toward the desert, and lo!, the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud” (Ex 16,10), namely the Word of God in flesh… And Saint Augustine comments that, so that we might be able to see God, the Word healed men’s eyes by making a healing eye-ointment of his flesh… That is why, immediately after saying: “The Word became flesh”, the evangelist adds: “And we saw his glory” as if to say that, no sooner had the ointment been applied, than our eyes were healed… This is the glory that Moses desired to see but of which he saw only a shadow and a symbol. The apostles, on the other hand, saw his majesty itself.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

“A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” (Isa 40:3) This word shows clearly that the events prophesied will not be accomplished in Jerusalem, but in the desert. The glory of the Lord will be revealed in the desert; and that is where “all flesh shall know God’s salvation.” (Isa 40:5) And that is what really literally happened when John the Baptist proclaimed in the desert of the Jordan that God’s salvation was going to be made manifest. For that is where God’s salvation appeared. Because Christ in his glory made himself known to everyone when he was baptized in the Jordan… The prophet spoke that way because God had to reside in the desert – the desert that is inaccessible to the world. All the pagan nations were deserts as regards the knowledge of God, inaccessible to the righteous and to the prophets of God. That is why this voice gives the order to prepare the way for the Word of God, to unify the inaccessible and rough road so that our God, who is coming to dwell with us, might be able to walk on it… “Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!” (Isa 40:9) … Who is this Zion… whom the people of old called Jerusalem?… Is this not a way of calling the group of apostles who were chosen among the people of old? Is she not the one who received God’s salvation as an inheritance…, she who is placed on the heights, which is to say, founded on the Word, the only Son of God? It is to her that he gives the order … to announce the Good News of salvation to all people.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Thomas said to the Twelve: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!” (Jn 20:25). The name ‘Thomas’ means ‘abyss’, for by his doubt he gained an even deeper understanding and became firmer in his faith. (…) It was not by chance but by divine decree that Thomas was absent and unable to believe what he heard. A splendid decree! Saintly doubt of the disciple! “Unless I see in his hands,” he said (Jn 20:25). He wished to see raised up the fallen tent of David, of which Amos had said: “On that day I will raise up the fallen tent of David; I will repair the breaches of its walls” (cf. Am 9:11). ‘David’ stands for the divinity; the ‘tent’, Christ’s own body in which the divinity was contained as in a tent, fallen, crushed in death and the Passion. The breaches in the walls stand for the wounds of his hands, feet and side. These are the wounds that the Lord would rebuild in his Resurrection. It was of them that Thomas said: “Unless I put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!” The Lord, understanding, did not want to leave his honest disciple, who was to become a vessel of election, in doubt. And so he removed the smoke of doubt from his mind, in an act of kindness, just as he removed the blindness of infidelity from Paul. “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe” Then Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28)

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

In her life Mary was very hidden. This is why she is called “Alma Mater” by the Holy Spirit and the Church: she is a Mother, hidden and secret. Her humility was so profound that she had no other more powerful and continual characteristic while on earth than that of hiding herself from herself and from every other creature that she might be known by God alone. To satisfy the pleas she made to him to hide, impoverish and humble her, God was pleased to conceal her in her conception, birth, life, mysteries, resurrection and assumption with regard to practically every human creature. Even her parents did not know her and the angels frequently asked each other: “Quae est ista? Who is this?” (Sg 6,10) since the Most High hid it from them or, if he made something of it known to them, he hid from them even more… What great and hidden things this mighty God did within this marvellous creature, as she herself was obliged to say in spite of her profound humility : « The Almighty has done great things for me ». The world does not know them since it is incapable and unworthy of them.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

Brethren, before anything else we ought to reflect on the grace of solitude, the blessedness of the desert, which from the beginning of this time of salvation, has deserved to be consecrated to the peacefulness of the saints. Indeed, the desert was made holy for us by the voice of John, he who cried out in the desert, who preached there and administered the baptism of repentance. Even before him, the greatest of the prophets had always made a friend of solitude as being something that assisted the Spirit. However, an incomparably greater grace of holiness became attached to this place when Jesus followed John there. Before preaching to the repentant in his turn, Jesus considered he ought to prepare a place in which to receive them; he went into the desert for forty days so as to consecrate a new life in this renewed location… and this, not so much for his own sake as for those who would dwell in the desert afterwards. So then, if you have decided on the desert, remain there and wait for him who will save you from your feebleness of spirit and the tempest… The Lord will satisfy there you who have followed him even more wonderfully than he satisfied the crowd who followed him into it (Lk 4:42) … At that very moment you imagine him to have long forsaken you, even then, mindful of his goodness, he will come to console you and will say: “I remember you, moved with pity for your youth and your first love, when you followed me in the desert,” (Jer 2:2). The Lord will turn your desert into a paradise of delights, while you will proclaim (like the prophet) that the glory of Lebanon has been given to him, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon (Is Is 35:2)… Then, from the fullness of your heart your hymn of praise will rise: “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his wondrous deeds to the children of men! He has satisfied the longing soul and filled the hungry soul with good things,” (Ps 107 [106]:8).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team