Tuesday, September 30 : Saint Gertrude of Helfta
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men.
You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house.
So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.
He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
When faced with temptations, be a strong woman and fight with the Lord’s help. If you fall into sin, don’t remain there, discouraged and worn out. Humble yourself, but without losing courage; lower yourself, but without degrading yourself; shed tears of sincere contrition to wash away your imperfections and your faults, but without losing confidence in God’s mercy, which will always be greater than your ingratitude. Make a resolution to correct yourself, but without being self-confident, for you must find your strength in God alone. Finally, sincerely acknowledge that if God were not your armor and your shield, your imprudence would have led you to commit all kinds of sins. Don’t be surprised at your weakness. Rather, accept yourself as you are. Blush because of your infidelity towards God, but trust him and abandon yourself quietly to him, like a small child in its mother’s arms.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who, thinkest thou, is the greater in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus, calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them.
And said: amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven.
And he that shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me.
But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh.
And if thy hand, or thy foot, scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to go into life maimed or lame, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee having one eye to enter into life, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
No one who cares about himself can love God, but whoever takes no care for himself on account of the far greater riches of divine charity is one who loves God. Such a one never looks to his own glory but that of God, for the man who cares about himself is looking for glory for himself. Whoever cares for God loves the glory of his Creator. Indeed, it is characteristic of an interior soul, a friend of God, always to seek God’s glory in all the commands it carries out and to rejoice in its own nothingness. For glory is fitting to God because of his greatness but to man, nothingness. This is the way he becomes God’s friend. If we act like this, rejoicing like Saint John the Baptist in the glory of the Lord, then we will begin to say unceasingly: “He must increase, I must decrease,” (Jn 3,30). I know of someone who loves God so much that, even though he groans because he does not love Him as much as he would like, his soul is always burning with the desire to see God glorified in him and to see himself as though he were not. That man has no words for telling what he is, even when he is praised, for he has no thought for his own dignity in his great desire to be abased. He carries out the divine services as is fitting for a priest, but in the extremity of his attraction towards love for God he hides the memory of his own dignity in the abyss of his charity for his God, burying the glory that he might have drawn from it in the humility of his thoughts. At all times he thus seems to be, in his own eyes, nothing but an unprofitable servant: his desire for abasement excludes him, after a fashion, from his proper dignity. Here is what we also must do, in such a way as to flee all honour, all glory, on account of the overflowing riches of the love of Him who has so loved us.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
And it came to pass, when Jesus went into the house of one of the Pharisees, on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
And behold, there was a certain man before him that had the dropsy.
And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
But they held their peace. But he taking him, healed him and sent him away.
And answering them, he said: Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fall into a pit and will not immediately draw him out, on the sabbath day?
And they could not answer him to these things.
And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:
When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him:
And he that invited thee and him, come and say to thee: Give this man place. And then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place.
But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place; that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have glory before them that sit at table with thee.
Because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
That world is best which has been done and which we see taking place, since that is what he wills; and this one can hardly refuse to believe. For if the movement of creation were irrational, and the universe were borne along without plan, a man might fairly disbelieve what we say. But if it subsists in reason and wisdom and skill and is perfectly ordered throughout, it follows that He that is over it and has ordered it is none other than the Logos or Word of God. (…) Being the good Word of the Good Father He produced the order of all things, combining one thing with its contrary, and reducing them to one harmonious order. He, being “the Power of God and Wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24), causes the heaven to revolve and has suspended the earth, and made it fast, though resting upon nothing, by His own will (cf. Heb 1:3). Illumined by Him, the sun gives light to the world and the moon has her measured period of shining. By reason of Him the water is suspended in the clouds; the rains shower upon the earth, and the sea is kept within bounds, while the earth bears grasses and is clothed with all manner of plants (cf. Ps 103). (…) But the reason why the Word, the Word of God, has united himself with created things is truly wonderful. (…) For the nature of created things, inasmuch as they are brought into being out of nothing, is of a fleeting sort and weak and mortal, if composed of itself only. But the God of all is good and exceedingly noble by nature and therefore is kind. (…) Seeing, then, that all created nature, as far as its own laws are concerned, is fleeting and subject to dissolution, lest it should come to this and lest the Universe should be broken up again into nothingness (…) God gave substantive existence to creation (…) so that by the governance and providence and ordering action of the Word, Creation may have light and be enabled always to abide securely. (…) lest that should come to it which would have come but for the maintenance of it by the Word, namely dissolution. “For he is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation, for through him and in him all things exist, things visible and things invisible, and he is the head of the Church” (Col 1:15-18).
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard: and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down therefore. Why cumbereth it the ground?
But he answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it and dung it.
And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
And he was teaching in their synagogue on their sabbath.
And behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years. And she was bowed together: neither could she look upwards at all.
Whom when Jesus saw, he called her unto him and said to her: Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity.
And he laid his hands upon her: and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.
And the ruler of the synagogue being angry that Jesus had healed on the sabbath answering, said to the multitude: Six days there are wherein you ought to work. In them therefore come and be healed: and not on the sabbath day.
And the Lord answering him, said: Ye hypocrites, doth not every one of you, on the sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass from the manger and lead them to water?
And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
And when he said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by him.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
You know what our divine Savior, who is very truth and goodness, said to his disciples: “Unless your justice abound more than that (…) of the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20). These words are truly those of Christ. He who would not condemn the woman taken in adultery; who vouchsafed to speak to the Samaritan woman and reveal heavenly mysteries to her in spite of her guilty life; he who consented to eat with the publicans, socially disqualified as sinners; who allowed Magdalen to wash his feet and wipe them with the hairs if her head; he who was so “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29), publicly hurled anathemas at the Pharisees: “Woe to you (…) hypocrites, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 23:13). (…) Call to mind the Pharisee whom Christ depicts going up to the Temple to pray. What is his prayer? “My God, I am a man altogether irreproachable; I fast, I give tithes (Lk 18:11-12); You cannot find me in fault on any point; You ought to be proud of me.” And in the literal sense, what he said was true: he did observe all these things. However, what judgment does Jesus pass upon him? This man went out of the Temple without being justified, his heart empty of God’s grace. Why this condemnation? Because the unhappy man glorified himself for his good actions and placed all his perfection in merely outward observance, without troubling himself about the inward dispositions of his heart. Therefore our Lord tells us: “Unless your justice is greater than that of the Pharisees, you will have no part in the Kingdom of heaven.” (…) It is in the heart that perfection lies; for love is the supreme law.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team
And one of the Pharisees desired Jesus to eat with him. And Jesus went into the house of the Pharisee and sat down to meat.
And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment.
And standing behind at his feet. she began to wash his feet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
And the Pharisee, who had invited him, seeing it, spoke within himself, saying: This man, if he were if a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, that she is a sinner.
And Jesus answering, said to him: Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. But he said: Master, say it.
A certain creditor had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty.
And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of the two loveth him most?
Simon answering, said: I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And he said to him: Thou hast judged rightly.
And turning to the woman, he said unto Simon: Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house: thou gavest me no water for my feet. But she with tears hath washed my feet; and with her hairs hath wiped them.
Thou gavest me no kiss. But she, since she cane in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint. But she with ointment hath anointed my feet.
Wherefore, I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less.
And he said to her: Thy sins are forgiven thee.
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves: Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
And he said to the woman: Thy faith hath made thee safe. Go in peace.
Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team