And it came to pass, as Jesus spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee and the paps that gave thee suck.
But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
The Lord says: “Love your enemies.” That person truly loves his enemy who is not upset at any injury which is done to himself, but out of love of God is disturbed at the sin of the other’s soul. And let him show his love for the other by his deeds. Many people, when they sin or receive an injury, often blame the Enemy or some neighbor. But this is not right, for each one has the real enemy in his own power; that is, the body through which he sins. Therefore blessed is that servant who, having such an enemy in his power, will always hold him captive and wisely guard himself against him, because as long as he does this, no other enemy, seen or unseen, will be able ot harm him.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
At that time Jesus saith to His disciples: You have heard that it hath been said: Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy.
But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you:
That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.
For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this?
And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this?
Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
In a vineyard we turn over the earth and weed around the foot of the vines. A man also needs to be weeded, paying great attention to what might still remain to be pulled up in the depths of his being so that the divine Sun can come closer to it and shine there. If you allow the power from on high to do its work…, the sun grows bright, shoots its burning rays onto the fruit and makes it more and more transparent. Sweetness condenses more and more into it, the rind around it becomes very thin. So it is in the spiritual sphere. Obstacles standing in the way eventually become so tenuous that we can receive the divine touch uninterruptedly, from close to. As often and as soon as we turn to it we find the divine Sun shining within us with greater brilliance than all the suns that have ever shone in the sky. In this way everything in a man is deified to the point that he neither feels, nor tastes, nor knows anything so truly as God, with a knowledge that is well founded, and this knowledge greatly surpasses the mode of understanding proper to our reason. Eventually, the leaves on the shoots are stripped off so that the sun can shine onto the fruit without meeting any obstacle. So it is with these persons: all intermediaries fall away and they receive everything in an unmediated way. Here prayers, images of the saints, practices of devotion, spiritual exercises all fall away. However, one should take care, nevertheless, not to spurn these practices before they fall away of themselves. But then, at this step, the fruit becomes so unutterably sweet that no mere reasoning can understand it… We are nothing but one with the divine sweetness to such a degree that our being is wholly penetrated by the divine Being and loses itself in it like a drop of water in a great vat of wine… Here, our good intentions, our humble efforts, are all simplicity itself, a mystery so essentially tranquil that we are scarcely aware of it.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
You know that when we are in a state of grace Jesus always abides in our hearts. His great desire is to be all for us. It seems like a dream too beautiful to be true that Jesus, so good, so powerful, so gentle, should wish to be our brother, and yet it is He himself who says to us: “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, my sister, my mother.” These are Jesus’ own words. Therefore, to come to the happiness of having Jesus as our brother and closest friend, we have to do his Father’s will. Well then! What is this will? First of all to shun sin and, if we fall into it through weakness, immediately to ask forgiveness. Then, to do all our actions for Him. He is so good that he accepts our least action done for Him. You know what you have to do; it only remains to sanctify it by dedicating it to God.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
As he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold his mother and his brethren stood without, seeking to speak to him.
And one said unto him: Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, seeking thee.
But he answering him that told him, said: Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?
And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brethren.
For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
Let us love God, my brothers, let us love God, but let it be at the expense of our arms and the sweat of our brow. For only too often so many of our acts of love for God, kindness, favor and other, similar feelings and interior practices of the gentle heart, however good and desirable they are, are nevertheless to be held in suspicion when they don’t at all bring us to practice actual love. Our Lord said: “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit” (Jn 15:8). Now this is something about which we need to be very careful because there are many who, so as to be exteriorly well-ordered and interiorly full of great feelings for God, stop at that. And when it comes to the point and they find themselves in a situation for action, they stop short. They pride themselves on their inflated imaginations; they are satisfied with the sweet exchanges they have with God in prayer; they even talk about it like angels. But when they come away is there any question of working for God, of suffering, practising mortification, teaching the poor, searching for the lost sheep (Lk 15:4 f.), being pleased when they lack something, accepting sickness or some other misfortune? Alas, then there is no one to be seen, courage fails them! No, let us not deceive ourselves: our whole task consists in progressing towards acts.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
In my opinion it would be unworthy of us to withdraw even for a moment from the contemplation of Christ. When we have lost sight of him even briefly, let us turn our mind’s regard back to him, directing the eyes of our heart as by a very straight line. For everything lies in the soul’s inner sanctuary. There, after the devil has been expelled and the vices no longer reign at all, the kingdom of God can be established in us, as the evangelist says: “The kingdom of God will not come with observation…. For amen I say to you that the kingdom of God is within you.” But within us there can be nothing else than knowledge or ignorance of the truth, and the love of either the vices or the virtues, by which we make ready a kingdom in our hearts either for the devil or for Christ. The apostle Paul also describes the characteristics of this kingdom when he says: “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Thus, if the kingdom of God is within us, and the kingdom of God is itself righteousness and peace and joy, then whoever abides in these things is undoubtedly in the kingdom of God… Let us lift up the eyes of our soul to that kingdom, which is endless joy.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
