In today's Office of Readings we encounter a reading from a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope (-461 A.D.). For a reflection, "Christian, remember your dignity," please click on the image. Peace be with you!
In today's Office of Readings we encounter a reading from a sermon of St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.).
He wrote an enormous amount and left a permanent mark on both philosophy and theology. His Confessions, as dazzling in style as they are deep in content, are a landmark of world literature. The Second Readings in the Office of Readings contain extracts from many of his sermons and commentaries and also from the Confessions.
For a reflection, "Truth has arisen from the earth and justice has looked down from heaven," please click on the image.
Peace be with you!
In today's Office of Readings we encounter a treatise by St Hippolytus against the Noetic heresy ( - 235 A.D.).
Hippolytus was a priest and a learned man, the most important writer of the Church at Rome in the early third century. He strongly attacked the popes of the time, and was set up as a rival Pope to St Callistus. Some time later, in Maximin’s persecution, he was sent to labour in the quarries of Sardinia. There he met the then Pope, Pontian, and was reconciled with him. (Pontian was made Pope in 231, and was sent to the quarries in 235, where he resigned the papacy and died; Hippolytus must have died at about the same time).
For a reflection, "The hidden sacrament is revealed," please click on the image.
Peace be with you!
In today's Office of Readings we encounter a commentary by the Venerable Bede on St Luke's Gospel (673-735 A.D.).
For a reflection, "The Magnificat," please click on the image.
Peace be with you!
In today's Office of Readings we encounter a reading from a commentary by St Ambrose (d. 397 A.D.) on St Luke's Gospel. St. Ambrose was assiduous in carrying out his office, acting with charity to all: a true shepherd and teacher of the faithful. He was unimpressed by status and when the Emperor Theodosius ordered the massacre of 7,000 people in Thessalonica, Ambrose forced him to do public penance. He defended the rights of the Church and attacked the Arian heresy* with learning, firmness and gentleness. He also wrote a number of hymns which are still in use today. Ambrose was a key figure in the conversion of Saint Augustine of Hippo to Catholicism, impressing Augustine (hitherto unimpressed by the Catholics he had met) by his intelligence and scholarship. *The Arian theology held that the Son of God is not co-eternal with God the Father, and was distinct. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father, therefore Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father. As such, all mainstream branches of Christianity now consider Arianism to be heterodox and heretical. For a reflection, "The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary," please click on the image. Peace be with you!
