5-30-10:
Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Proverbs 8:22-31:
Christ, desiring not only to give possession of the kingdom to those who had completed the journey, but also to be Himself the way to those who were just setting out determined to take a fleshly body. This is why it was said, "The Lord created Me in the beginning of His way," that is, that those who wished to come might begin their journey in Him. (St. Augustine)
The Son is in no way to be separated from the Father. The Father certainly did not stretch the heavens forth without the Son; for the Son Himself, Who is the Wisdom of God, says: "When He prepared the heavens I was present with Him. (St. Ambrose)
Romans 5:1-5:
Where the grace of the Spirit is asserted, is that of God the Father or of the Only-begotten Son denied? By no means; for as the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, so, too, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us." As he who is blessed in Christ is blessed in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, because the Name is one and the power one; so, too, when any divine action, whether of the Father, or of the Son or of the Holy Spirit is treated of, it is not referred only to the Holy Spirit, but also to the Father and the Son, and not only to the Father, but also to the Son and the Holy Spirit. (St. Ambrose)
Those who have come to maturity must endure tribulation upon tribulation that they may be accounted worthy to receive hope upon hope. (St. Jerome)
John 16:12-15:
The Lord said of the Spirit: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He will lead you into all truth." The Son of God came, and because He had not yet shed forth the Spirit, He declared that we were living like little children without the Spirit. He said that the Spirit was to come Who should make of these little children stronger men, by an increase of spiritual age. This He laid down not that He might set the power of the Spirit in the first place, but that He might show that the fullness of strength consists in the knowledge of the Trinity. (St. Ambrose)
The Holy Spirit preached concerning Christ in the Prophets. He worked in the Apostles. He, to this day, seals the souls in Baptism. The Father shares with the Son and the Son shares with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "When He, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive what is Mine and shall show it to you." The Father through the Son with the Holy Spirit is the giver of all grace. The gifts of the Father are none other than the gifts of the Son and those of the Holy Spirit; for there is one salvation, one Power, one faith. There is One God, the Father; One Lord, His Only-begotten Son; One Holy Spirit, the Comforter. It is enough for us to know these things; but inquire not curiously into His nature or substance: for had it been written, we would have spoken of it. What is not written, let us not venture on. It is sufficient for our salvation to know that there is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (St. Cyril of Jerusalem)
All that the Father has the Son also has, except the being Unbegotten. All that the Son has the Spirit has also, except the Generation. (St. Gregory the Theologian)
5-31-10:
St. Hermias of Cappadocia, Martyr
II Peter 1:3-11:
We come to bear Christ in us because His Body and Blood are distributed through our members. Thus, according to the blessed Peter, "we become partakers of the divine nature." (St. Cyril of Jerusalem)
What greater destiny can befall man's humility than that he should be united with God and by this union should be deified. (St. Gregory the Theologian)
Mark 12:1-12:
The Lord proves most clearly that the chiefs of the Jews did not crucify the Son of God through ignorance, but through envy; for they understood that this was He to whom it was said, "I will give You the heathen for Your inheritance" (Ps 2:8). (Bede the Venerable)
The cornerstone, the Church, is the Lord's doing and, for we who believe, it is marvelous in our eyes. Yet among those who do not believe, the Church and even its miracles are slandered. The Church itself is a miracle. The Lord built it together with the Apostles. (Blessed Theophylact)
6-1-10:
II Peter 3:12-18:
Let us not look upon God's patience as ignorance. He holds back and delays so that, when we have converted to a better state, we may not be handed over to torments. (Abba Horsiesios)
Those who sit in the darkness of unruly passions and whose minds are blinded by ignorance think that he who has the mind of Christ is foolish, and that he who has it not is sensible. Such men twist the whole of Scripture according to their own desires and corrupt themselves in their own passions. It is not the divine Scripture that suffers from this, but those who disfigure it! (St. Symeon the New Theologian)
Mark 12:13-17:
Render to Caesar the money bearing his image, which is collected for him, and render yourselves willingly up to God, for the light of the Lord's countenance and not of Caesar's, is stamped upon us. (St. Jerome)
Paying tax to Caesar does not hinder you from giving reverence to God; for you are able both to pay tribute to Caesar and to render to God the things that belong to Him. "Caesar" also means for us the things needed for the body. The Lord is thus commanding us to give to the body that which belongs to it, such as food and necessary clothing, and to God the things that are His, such as vigils and prayer according to our strength. But also throw to the devil, who is "Caesar", the things that were given to you by him, such as anger and wicked desires, but offer to God the things that are His. (Blessed Theophylact)
6-2-10:
St. Nicephoros the Confessor St. Pothinus, Martyr
II Timothy 1:1-12:
St. Paul speaks of the grace that is given to the saints. He speaks of the grace as given at a time when those to whom it was to be given were not yet in existence; because he looks upon that as having been already done in the arrangement and purpose of God, which was to take place in its own time, and he speaks of it as now made manifest. (St. Augustine)
That men might not fancy that they had no need of Divine aid for the work of salvation and yet remember that it can be advanced or neglected by us, St. Paul says, "Neglect not the grace of God that is in you; for which reason I exhort you to stir up the grace of God which is in you" (I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6). (Abba Chaeremon)
Mark 12:18-27:
Since the Sadducees argue from the Law of Moses, the Lord shows them that they are ignorant of the Scriptures. You do not understand, He says, of what kind of resurrection Scripture speaks. You think that there will be then the same kind of life in the body as there is now; but it will not be so. Thus you are ignorant of the meaning of the Scriptures, but you are also ignorant of the power of God. Perhaps you are so busy staring at the complexity of things that you cannot see how a body once separated from its soul can be reunited to it. But by the power of God this is easily accomplished. For there will be a resurrection from the dead, but not to carnality, but to a divine and angelic kind of life. Since we will be incorruptible, and will remain forever the same. (Blessed Theophylact)
The flesh belongs to the soul, but the soul does not belong to the flesh; for the lesser belongs to the greater, not the greater to the lesser. The purpose of death is to destroy the law of the flesh. (St. Maximos the Confessor)
6-3-10:
II Timothy 2:8-15:
"Strive not about words to no profit." This does not mean that, when adversaries oppose the truth, we are to say nothing in defense of the truth. It does mean not to be anxious that our way of expressing the truth be preferred to that of another. (St. Augustine)
Let us be partakers in Christ's sufferings that we may also rise up in His resurrection. Let us bear His sign upon our bodies that we may be delivered from the wrath to come. (Aphrahat)
Mark 12:28-34:
When the Father is called the only God, and we read that there is one God, this is not said to the denial of the Son; for He is in that One and Only and First the Only Word and Wisdom and Radiance. He too is the First and Only, being wholly and fully God. (St. Athanasius)
We have need of the right conduct to earn the favor of God when He judges us. We must obey His commands and instructions to obtain the reward of our merits. In the Gospel, when He was giving us summary directions for the way of hope and faith, the Lord said: "The Lord your God is one Lord and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." His teaching required both unity and love, including all the prophets and the law in two commandments. But what sort of unity, what sort of love, is preserved or contemplated by the mad fury of discord that rends the Church, destroys faith, disturbs peace, scatters charity and profanes religion? (St. Cyprian)
6-4-10:
St. Martha and St. Mary of Bethany, Sisters of Lazarus St. Metrophanes, First Patriarch of Constantinople
II Timothy 3:10-17:
"All who would live a godly life in Christ shall suffer persecution." It is not only to be counted persecution when sword or fire or other active means are used against Christians; for the direst persecution is often inflicted by non-conformity of practice and persistent disobedience and the barbs of ill-natured tongues. Since all the members of the Church are always liable to these attacks, and no portion of the faithful are free from temptation, so the Christian life is neither one of ease nor devoid of danger. (St. Leo the Great)
Recall to your mind what you must never forget, "That all who will live godly lives in Christ suffer persecution." With regard to this I confidently say that you would live less godly if you suffered persecution less. (St. Gregory the Great)
Mark 12:35-37:
The putting down of His enemies by the Father, does not show the weakness of the Son, but the unity of nature, by which One works in the Other; for the Son also subjects the Father's enemies, because He glorifies His Father upon earth. (Bede the Venerable)
The confession of one God according to the Law seemed to leave no room for the Son of God in the mystery of the one Lord; so He asks the Scribes how he can call Christ the son of David, when David calls Him his Lord, since it is against the order of nature that the son of so great a Patriarch should be also his Lord. He calls the Scribes who regard Him only in respect to His flesh, and His birth from Mary, the daughter of David, to remember that, in respect of His Spirit, He is David's Lord rather than his son. Thus the words, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," do not sever Christ from the mystery of the one Lord, since so great a Patriarch and Prophet calls Him his Lord, as the Son begotten of the Lord before the morning star. (St. Hilary of Poitiers)
6-5-10:
St. Dorotheos, Martyr St. Boniface, Martyr
II Timothy 4:1-8:
"Reprove, exhort, rebuke." When the mind is wounded, it sickens under the attentions of an unctuous flattery and is again tempered by the bitterness of correction. (St. Ambrose)
Men have fallen away from the truth and "have itching ears." Is it a plausible discourse? All listen to it gladly. Is it a word of correction? All turn away from it. Most have departed from right words, and rather chosen the evil, than desire the good. (St. Cyril of Jerusalem)
Mark 12:38-44:
A miser lacks as much what he has as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth. The unbeliever has not a single penny. The widow cast but two small coins into the treasury and yet she shall be preferred before Croesus with all his wealth. (St. Jerome)
The Church sends her whole living into God's treasury, because she understands that even her very living is not of her own power, but of Divine grace. (Bede the Venerable)
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Released by Primus Pilus
Legio Christi-Ecclesia Militans
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another" [St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans 14:19]
* ORDO CENTURIONUM * IN HOC SIGNO VINCES * TIME DEUM ET OPERARE IUSTITIAM
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