Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar

[John] says: “We announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested in us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you (1 Jn 1:2-3). Let Your Charity pay heed: “What we have seen and heard we announce to you.” They saw the Lord himself present in the flesh, and they heard words from the Lord’s mouth, and they announced them to us. We also have heard, then, but we haven’t seen. Are we therefore less fortunate than those who saw and heard? And why does [John] add: “So that you also may have fellowship with us”? They saw; we didn’t see, and yet we are in fellowship because we maintain a common faith. To the disciple who wished to touch and thus to believe, the Lord – consoling us who are unable to touch him with our hand as he is now seated in heaven, although we can touch him by faith – said, “Blessed are those who do not see and who believe” (Jn 20:29). It is we who were described, we who were designated. May there be in us, then, the blessedness that the Lord foretold would come to be! Let us hold firmly onto what we don’t see, because those who have seen it are announcing it so that we also may have fellowship with them and so that “our joy may be full” (v. 4).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

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“The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Yes, the cross is a foolishness and weakness in appearance only (…). It was through unlearned men that the Cross brought conviction, and drew the world to itself. It spoke to men, not of chance things, but of God, and of piety in the truth, of the Gospel polity, of future judgment, and it made uncouth and illiterate men philosophers. This is how “the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and His weakness stronger,” (1 Cor. 1:25). How is it stronger? It is stronger in that it spread over the whole earth and seized all men by force, and whereas thousands and thousands did their utmost to stamp out the name of the Crucified One, just the contrary came to pass. For this name took root and was propagated all the more, whereas its enemies were destroyed and consumed, and living men fighting a dead One, gained not a stroke. (…) For publicans and fishermen set up those very things by the goodness of God which philosophers, and orators, and despots, and the whole world vainly striving with all its might could not even devise. (…) This was in Paul’s mind when he said: “the weakness of God is stronger than all men put together.” How, otherwise, was it that twelve unlettered men attempted things of this importance?

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

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    It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. There are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, and the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and her “pillar and ground” (1 Tm 3:15) is the Gospel and the Spirit of life; therefore it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying us afresh. The Word, the Shaper of all things, who sits upon the cherubim and upholds all things (Ps 79:2; Heb 1:3), who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects but bound together by one Spirit. David says, when entreating this manifestation, “You that sit between the cherubim, shine forth.”(Ps 79:2) For the cherubim, too, were four-faced (Ez 1:6), and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God.      For, as Scripture says, “The first living creature was like a lion,” (Rev 4:7) symbolizing his effectual working, his leadership, and royal power; “the second was like a calf”, signifying his sacrificial and priestly order; but “the third had, as it were, the face as of a man,”-an evident description of his coming as a human being; “the fourth was like a flying eagle,” pointing out the gift of the Spirit hovering with its wings over the Church. And therefore the Gospels of John, Luke, Matthew, and Mark are in accord with these living things, among which Christ Jesus is seated. (…)     Such was the form of the living creatures, so was also the character of the Word of God himself: the Word of God himself conversed with the patriarchs before Moses in accordance with his divinity and glory; but for those under the law he instituted a priestly and liturgical service. Afterwards, being made man for us, he sent the gift of the Spirit over all the earth, protecting us with his wings (Ps 16:8). (…) These things being so, all who reject the form the Gospel has taken – that is, those who say the Gospels should be more or fewer in number – are futile, ignorant, and presumptuous.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

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