Saturday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio
    Matthew 13:24–30

Meditatio

“Let them grow together until harvest …”

    In this parable we see our world’s reality. All around us are signs of the good seed that has been sown. So many kind and generous people have responded well to God’s invitations and dedicated themselves to helping others. Perhaps we can recognize some of these people in our own families or faith communities and among our friends and coworkers.

    Similarly we may notice others who seem to lack these motivations or goodness, whose actions and choices cause grief and do harm. Some slip into bad habits and evil ways for a time but turn again to the path of virtue. Others go from bad to worse, spiraling downward into a life of sin and vice.

The more impulsive among us might wish to rebuke, punish, and rid the world of “those evil-doers,” but today’s parable clearly indicates another approach. Letting the wheat and the weeds grow together for a time is a much gentler and more patient approach. Perhaps the weeds allow the wheat to grow stronger. Likewise, those among the weeds might benefit from the example and prayers of the virtuous.

    A profound look into our own hearts might also reveal that while we desire to be the good wheat, we may need to do some pruning right here in our own field. While we live we can always hope that both we and others may correspond to the graces offered by our patient, loving God.

The day of reckoning, however, will come for both the “weeds” and the “wheat.” While time is given for repentance and conversion, we will have to answer to God for the way we have lived. We must take seriously the call to reform and return with our whole heart to the Lord while we still have time.

Oratio

    Help me, Jesus, to be the “good soil” where the seeds of your word will take root and produce abundant fruit. May I give you glory by accepting your call to grow in virtue and grace. Give me a humble, contrite heart so that I might recognize my sins and turn again to accept your merciful forgiveness.

    May I remain strong in my Christian faith even if others around me oppose it. Let my life bear witness to you and become a sign of your saving presence at work in our world. May all who do not know you or live according to your teachings have the grace of repentance and conversion. Lord, give me wisdom to know when charity requires me to speak up on behalf of justice and truth.

Contemplatio
    Behold, such is the tender compassion of our God.
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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

St. Bridget of Sweden, Religious

St. Bridget, patron saint of Sweden, was born into an aristocratic family at Finstad about 1302 or 1303. Her father was the governor of the Province of Uppland. When she was about fourteen years of age, she was married (1316) to Ulf Gudmarsson, and of that union four sons and four daughters were born. In 1335, she was invited to the court of King Magnus II to serve as principal lady-in-waiting to Queen Blanche, and she remained there for two years. After her husband’s death in 1344, she lived as a penitent near the Cistercian monastery at Alvastra, and during this period her visions and revelations, which had begun in her youth, became more frequent, and she began to record them in writing. In about 1346, she made the first plans for a new religious congregation, the Order of the Most Holy Savior, more commonly known as Brigittines, after its founder. The new congregation was established to initiate reform in the monastic life and to promote devotion to Christ’s Passion. In 1349, Bridget went to Rome to seek approval of her order, and there she worked for the pope’s return from Avignon and cared for the poor and the pilgrims in the city. After a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, she died in Rome on July 23, 1373, and in the following year her daughter, St. Catherine of Sweden, took her body to her homeland. Throughout her life, St. Bridget enjoyed mystical graces and revelations, many of which were connected with our Lord’s Passion. These were published in 1492 as Revelations and were held in great esteem during the Middle Ages. St. Bridget was canonized by Pope Boniface IX in 1391. The prayer of today’s Mass affirms that God revealed the secrets of Heaven to her while she meditated on the suffering and death of our Lord.

St. Mary Magdalene

St. Mary Magdalene was a native of Magdala, formerly a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Luke introduces her in his Gospel as the one “from whom seven devils had gone out” and as one of those who “were assisting [Jesus and the apostles] out of their means” (Luke 8:2). She witnessed our Lord’s crucifixion and valiantly stood beneath his cross (John 19:25), and as today’s Gospel reading (John 20:1–2, 11–18) narrates, she was the first to see the empty tomb and the resurrected Lord. Tradition sometimes identifies Mary Magdalene, though it is not absolutely clear in the Gospels nor universally held, with Mary, the sister of Martha (Luke 10:39), or the unnamed sinner who entered the house of Simon the Pharisee and wiped our Lord’s feet with her hair (Luke 7:37). Today’s Mass formula says nothing about Mary Magdalene having been a sinner (as the Mass formula before the 1969 liturgical changes had done), but it stresses that it was she who first saw the Risen Jesus and was given the commission to be the messenger of Paschal joy to the apostles. The tradition in the East is that she went to Ephesus (in modern Turkey) with St. John and there she died. By the tenth century, her feast was celebrated in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) on July 22. Two texts are proposed for the first reading: the one from the (Song of Songs 3:1–4) recalls Mary Magdalene’s search for Jesus at the sepulcher, and that from (2 Corinthians 5:14–17) recalls the love that burned within her.

Friday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio
    Matthew 13:18–23

Meditatio

“… the seed sown …”

    In today’s reading Jesus explains the parable of the sower, found in all three Synoptic Gospels. Speaking to people who till the soil, Jesus uses images familiar to his hearers. A sower goes out to plant seeds and some of them yield a good crop, but others do not. It all depends on the type of soil where the seeds fall.

    Biblical scholars explain that in this parable the sower represents Christ, and the seed is the word of God, or the preaching of the kingdom. The evil one is Satan. The soil symbolizes the heart of each person with its receptivity to the word. Some hearts will accept it, while others will suffocate or even reject the word.

    Which kind of soil am I?

    Some people do not respond to the preaching of the word. They make no effort to understand and practice what they hear. The seed is plucked away and does not yield any fruit. Am I this shallow soil?

    Other individuals are easily won over when they hear the word. But when problems come, or when they are persecuted because of their beliefs, they close their hearts and the seed dies. Am I this hardened, rocky soil?

    Still others let themselves become so entwined with wealth, worldly distractions, and the desire to make a name for themselves, that the seed is suffocated. Am I this matted, entangled field?

    But others hear the word and respond to it with all their hearts. They joyfully accept the word and the challenges of God’s kingdom. The seed produces an abundant harvest in their lives. Am I this moist, rich, productive soil?

Oratio

    Lord Jesus, may the ground of my life be well tilled and prepared to receive your word. I want to welcome you into a heart that is open, receptive, loving. In this way, my life will bear a plentiful, bounteous harvest, with your help, and for your glory.

Contemplatio

    I welcome your word in my heart.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 1–17: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)

St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor of the Church

St. Lawrence’s true name was Julius Caesar Russo. He was born in Brindisi, southern Italy, on July 22, 1559. After his parents’ death, he went to Venice and later entered (1575) the Capuchin Order, in which he received the name Lawrence. He studied at Padua and Venice, and during those years his remarkable ability for languages became evident. He was able to speak and preach in at least a half dozen languages. After ordination (1582), he was assigned to preaching, his most characteristic apostolate, and he traveled throughout northern Italy and beyond the Alps evangelizing the people. He likewise spent time (1599–1602, 1606–13) in Bohemia, Germany, Austria, and Hungary working to win back those who had gone over to the Reformation. Within the Capuchin Order, he held many positions of authority, and in 1602 he was chosen superior general. He also engaged in diplomacy; he served as special papal emissary and effected (1614) a peace between Spain and Savoy. Late in his life, the city of Naples, suffering under the oppressive measures of its viceroy, asked him to represent its case before King Philip III of Spain. He met the king in Lisbon and won not only a hearing but also a favorable reply. While in Lisbon, Lawrence fell ill, and he died there on July 22, 1619. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1881, and Pope John XXIII named him a doctor of the Church in 1959. When today’s prayer says that God gave St. Lawrence courage and right judgment, the courage refers to his fearlessness during many years of preaching in non-Catholic lands, and the judgment to his years as a religious superior and his diplomatic missions.