READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Book of Genesis Gn 2:18-24
The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him." So the LORD God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called 'woman, ' for out of 'her man’ this one has been taken." That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.
Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews Heb 2:9-11
Brothers and sisters: He "for a little while" was made "lower than the angels, " that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering. He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers.”
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Mark Mk 10:2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" They were testing him. He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?" They replied, "Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her." But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER In the Creator’s original plan, it is not that a man marries a woman and, if things do not go well, he repudiates her. No. Rather, the man and the woman are called to recognize each other, to complete each other, to help each other in marriage. This teaching of Jesus is very clear and defends the dignity of marriage as a union of love which implies fidelity. What allows the spouses to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual giving supported by Christ’s grace. However, if in the spouses, individual interests, one’s own satisfaction prevails, then their union cannot endure. For this reason in these situations, the Church is not asked to express immediately and only condemnation. On the contrary, before so many painful marital failures, she feels called to show love, charity and mercy, in order to lead wounded and lost hearts back to God. (Angelus, 7 October 2018)
FAUSTI - " The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them", Jesus says of the children who flock around Him. There is a deep understanding with them, that escapes the disciples, He embraces them, wishes them to come to Him, blesses them and places His hands upon them. The previous chapter talked about the relationship "with the other", ruined by sin and restored by Jesus. Here this chapter talks about the new relationship with oneself, necessary in order to enter the kingdom. Adam, who had placed his own ego at the center of everything, discovering that he was naked and in need of everything, fled from God because he was afraid. The child is quietly poor and receives everything. Nothing by himself, it's what others make of him. And he lives all this naturally. Running with trust to those who welcome him, giving free expression to his filial condition, accepted by others and by him as the only possibility of surviving. But this applies to every man, who is fundamentally a relationship and a filial belonging. He is "of someone" as a child. If he does not want to be of God, he becomes of himself, of others or of something else, alienating himself respectively in selfishness, in slavery or in idolatry. The presumed self-sufficiency is actually the death of the self. Man is essentially a child, who receives as a gift of love all he has and he is, including his own self. Otherwise, he does not exist. No one, in effect, gives what he does not have, and no one has what he has not received. Pride, which is, in fact, afraid of not being loved, preventing from receiving, makes impossible to be loved and to love. Jesus, the new Adam, is the first who has lived in fullness the filial condition. His being completely of the Father, by Him and for Him, this is His infinite richness, which He pours out upon all brothers, who gather around Him. Those who are great and the powerful do not come to Him, but those who are like Him, little and poor. Welcomed by the Son, they enter the Kingdom of the Father. The disciple is he who has nothing and receives everything. He is a son, what he is, is a gift, and as such he accepts himself joyfully. He rediscovers the true dignity of man : to be a partner of God and to love Him wholeheartedly. He lives the marriage as an image of this great mystery. For him, the divorce is a shipwreck, love has not gone to port. The monogamy, more than a law, is an evangelical gift. It derives from the awareness of the love with which one is loved and to whom one is called.
AMORIS LAETITIA - POPE FRANCIS (19-3-2016) "Blessed is the one who fears the Lord And walks in his ways. Of the toil of your hands you will be nourished, thou shalt be happy and have every good thing. Thy bride as a fruitful vine In the privacy of your home Thy children as olive shoots Around thy table. How blessed is the man The man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see the children of your children! Peace be upon Israel!" (Ps 128:1-6).
11. The couple that loves and generates life is the true living "sculpture" (not the one made of stone or gold that the Decalogue prohibits), capable of manifesting God the Creator and Savior. We are enlightened by the words of St. John Paul II: "Our God, in his most intimate mystery, is not solitude, but a family, since he has in himself paternity, filiation and the essence of the family which is love. This love, in the divine family, is the Holy Spirit".[6] The family is not, therefore, something extraneous to the divine essence itself.[7] This Trinitarian aspect of the couple has a new representation in Pauline theology when the Apostle relates it to the "mystery" of the union between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:21-33).
15. In this perspective we can place another dimension of the family. We know that the New Testament speaks of the "Church gathering in the home" (cf. 1 Cor 16:19; Rom 16:5; Col 4:15; Fm 2). The living space of a family could be transformed into a domestic church, into the seat of the Eucharist, of the presence of Christ seated at the same table. Unforgettable is the scene painted in Revelation: "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him, I will dine with him and he with me" (3:20). In this way a house is delineated that brings within itself the presence of God, common prayer and therefore the blessing of the Lord. This is what is stated in Psalm 128, which we have taken as a basis: "How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion" (vv. 4-5).
30. In front of every family there is the icon of the family of Nazareth, with its daily life made up of hardships and even nightmares, such as when it had to suffer the incomprehensible violence of Herod, an experience which is tragically repeated even today in so many families of rejected and helpless refugees. Like the Magi, families are invited to contemplate the Child and his Mother, to prostrate themselves and adore him (cf. Mt 2:11). Like Mary, they are exhorted to live with courage and serenity their family challenges, both sad and exciting, and to keep and meditate in their hearts on the wonders of God (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). In the treasure of Mary's heart there are also all the events of each of our families, which she carefully preserves. Therefore, she can help us to interpret them in order to recognize God's message in family history. 55. Men "play an equally decisive role in the life of the family, with particular reference to the protection and support of the wife and children. [Many men are aware of the importance of their role in the family and they live it with the particular qualities of the male character. The absence of the father seriously marks family life, the education of children and their integration into society. His absence can be physical, affective, cognitive and spiritual. This deficiency deprives sons of an adequate model of paternal behavior."[44] 56. Another challenge emerges from various forms of an ideology, generically called gender, that "denies the natural difference and reciprocity of man and woman. It envisions a society without sex differences, and empties the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology induces educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically
->disentangled from the biological diversity between male and female. Human identity is consigned to an individualistic option, even one that changes over time."[45] It is disturbing that some ideologies of this kind, which claim to respond to certain aspirations that are sometimes understandable, seek to impose themselves as a single thought that also determines the education of children. It should not be ignored that "biological sex and the social-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished, but not separated.".... It is one thing to understand human frailty or the complexity of life, quite another to accept ideologies that claim to divide inseparable aspects of reality into two. Let us not fall into the sin of claiming to replace the Creator. We are creatures, we are not omnipotent. Creation precedes us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to cherish our humanity, and this means above all accepting and respecting it as it has been created. 57. I give thanks to God that many families, who are far from perfect, live in love, realize their vocation and move forward even if they fall down many times along the way...... In all situations "the Church feels the need to speak a word of truth and hope. [...] The great values of marriage and the Christian family correspond to the quest that runs through human existence."[48] If we note many difficulties, they are - as the Bishops of Colombia have stated - an invitation to "release within us the energies of hope, translating them into prophetic dreams, transforming actions and the imagination of charity."[49] ...65. ...65...And thus to penetrate the thirty long years in which Jesus earned his bread by working with his hands, whispering the prayers and the believing tradition of his people, and educating himself in the faith of his fathers, until it bore fruit in the mystery of the Kingdom. This is the mystery of Christmas and the secret of Nazareth, full of the fragrance of family! It is the mystery that so fascinated Francis of Assisi, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and Charles de Foucauld, and to which Christian families also quench their thirst in order to renew their hope and joy.
87. The Church is a family of families, constantly enriched by the life of all the domestic Churches.... the Church is good for the family, the family is good for the Church. The safeguarding of the sacramental gift of the Lord involves not only the individual family, but the Christian community itself". 88. 90. In the so-called hymn to charity written by St. Paul, we find some characteristics of true love: "Charity is patient, charity is benevolent it is not envious it does not boast, it is not puffed up with pride, it does not lack respect, it does not seek its own interest, is not angry, does not take into account the evil received, does not rejoice in injustice but rejoices in the truth. Everything excuses, all believes, hopes for everything, he endures everything" (1 Cor 13:4-7). This is lived and cultivated in the life that spouses share every day, among themselves and with their children. Therefore, it is valuable to pause and clarify the meaning of the expressions of this text, in order to try to apply them to the concrete existence of every family.
Prayer to the Holy Family Jesus, Mary and Joseph in you we contemplate the splendor of true love, to you, confidently, we entrust ourselves.
Holy Family of Nazareth make our families too places of communion and cenacles of prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic Churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth, may there never again be in families episodes of violence, closure and division; that whoever has been wounded or scandalized be promptly comforted and healed.
Holy Family of Nazareth make us all aware of the sacred and inviolable character of the family, of its beauty in God's plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, hear us and accept our plea. Amen.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Book of Genesis
Gn 2:18-24
The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
"This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called 'woman, '
for out of 'her man’ this one has been taken."
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Yes, this will be the blessing
for the man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion;
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
May you live to see your children’s children—
peace be on Israel.
Second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Hebrews
Heb 2:9-11
Brothers and sisters:
He "for a little while" was made "lower than the angels, "
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated
all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers.”
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Mark
Mk 10:2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery."
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaIn the Creator’s original plan, it is not that a man marries a woman and, if things do not go well, he repudiates her. No. Rather, the man and the woman are called to recognize each other, to complete each other, to help each other in marriage. This teaching of Jesus is very clear and defends the dignity of marriage as a union of love which implies fidelity. What allows the spouses to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual giving supported by Christ’s grace. However, if in the spouses, individual interests, one’s own satisfaction prevails, then their union cannot endure. For this reason in these situations, the Church is not asked to express immediately and only condemnation. On the contrary, before so many painful marital failures, she feels called to show love, charity and mercy, in order to lead wounded and lost hearts back to God. (Angelus, 7 October 2018)
FAUSTI - " The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them", Jesus says of the children who flock around Him. There is a deep understanding with them, that escapes the disciples, He embraces them, wishes them to come to Him, blesses them and places His hands upon them. The previous chapter talked about the relationship "with the other", ruined by sin and restored by Jesus. Here this chapter talks about the new relationship with oneself, necessary in order to enter the kingdom. Adam, who had placed his own ego at the center of everything, discovering that he was naked and in need of everything, fled from God because he was afraid. The child is quietly poor and receives everything.
RispondiEliminaNothing by himself, it's what others make of him. And he lives all this naturally. Running with trust to those who welcome him, giving free expression to his filial condition, accepted by others and by him as the only possibility of surviving. But this applies to every man, who is fundamentally a relationship and a filial belonging.
He is "of someone" as a child. If he does not want to be of God, he becomes of himself, of others or of something else, alienating himself respectively in selfishness, in slavery or in idolatry. The presumed self-sufficiency is actually the death of the self. Man is essentially a child, who receives as a gift of love all he has and he is, including his own self. Otherwise, he does not exist.
No one, in effect, gives what he does not have, and no one has what he has not received. Pride, which is, in fact, afraid of not being loved, preventing from receiving, makes impossible to be loved and to love.
Jesus, the new Adam, is the first who has lived in fullness the filial condition. His being completely of the Father, by Him and for Him, this is His infinite richness, which He pours out upon all brothers, who gather around Him.
Those who are great and the powerful do not come to Him, but those who are like Him, little and poor. Welcomed by the Son, they enter the Kingdom of the Father.
The disciple is he who has nothing and receives everything. He is a son, what he is, is a gift, and as such he accepts himself joyfully. He rediscovers the true dignity of man : to be a partner of God and to love Him wholeheartedly.
He lives the marriage as an image of this great mystery. For him, the divorce is a shipwreck, love has not gone to port. The monogamy, more than a law, is an evangelical gift. It derives from the awareness of the love with which one is loved and to whom one is called.
AMORIS LAETITIA - POPE FRANCIS (19-3-2016)
RispondiElimina"Blessed is the one who fears the Lord
And walks in his ways.
Of the toil of your hands you will be nourished,
thou shalt be happy and have every good thing.
Thy bride as a fruitful vine
In the privacy of your home
Thy children as olive shoots
Around thy table.
How blessed is the man
The man who fears the Lord.
May the Lord bless you from Zion.
May you see the good of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
May you see the children of your children!
Peace be upon Israel!" (Ps 128:1-6).
11. The couple that loves and generates life is the true living "sculpture" (not the one made of stone or gold that the Decalogue prohibits), capable of manifesting God the Creator and Savior. We are enlightened by the words of St. John Paul II: "Our God, in his most intimate mystery, is not solitude, but a family, since he has in himself paternity, filiation and the essence of the family which is love. This love, in the divine family, is the Holy Spirit".[6] The family is not, therefore, something extraneous to the divine essence itself.[7] This Trinitarian aspect of the couple has a new representation in Pauline theology when the Apostle relates it to the "mystery" of the union between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:21-33).
15. In this perspective we can place another dimension of the family. We know that the New Testament speaks of the "Church gathering in the home" (cf. 1 Cor 16:19; Rom 16:5; Col 4:15; Fm 2). The living space of a family could be transformed into a domestic church, into the seat of the Eucharist, of the presence of Christ seated at the same table. Unforgettable is the scene painted in Revelation: "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him, I will dine with him and he with me" (3:20). In this way a house is delineated that brings within itself the presence of God, common prayer and therefore the blessing of the Lord. This is what is stated in Psalm 128, which we have taken as a basis: "How blessed is the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion" (vv. 4-5).
30. In front of every family there is the icon of the family of Nazareth, with its daily life made up of hardships and even nightmares, such as when it had to suffer the incomprehensible violence of Herod, an experience which is tragically repeated even today in so many families of rejected and helpless refugees. Like the Magi, families are invited to contemplate the Child and his Mother, to prostrate themselves and adore him (cf. Mt 2:11). Like Mary, they are exhorted to live with courage and serenity their family challenges, both sad and exciting, and to keep and meditate in their hearts on the wonders of God (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). In the treasure of Mary's heart there are also all the events of each of our families, which she carefully preserves. Therefore, she can help us to interpret them in order to recognize God's message in family history.
55. Men "play an equally decisive role in the life of the family, with particular reference to the protection and support of the wife and children. [Many men are aware of the importance of their role in the family and they live it with the particular qualities of the male character. The absence of the father seriously marks family life, the education of children and their integration into society. His absence can be physical, affective, cognitive and spiritual. This deficiency deprives sons of an adequate model of paternal behavior."[44]
56. Another challenge emerges from various forms of an ideology, generically called gender, that "denies the natural difference and reciprocity of man and woman. It envisions a society without sex differences, and empties the anthropological basis of the family. This ideology induces educational projects and legislative guidelines that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically
->disentangled from the biological diversity between male and female. Human identity is consigned to an individualistic option, even one that changes over time."[45] It is disturbing that some ideologies of this kind, which claim to respond to certain aspirations that are sometimes understandable, seek to impose themselves as a single thought that also determines the education of children. It should not be ignored that "biological sex and the social-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished, but not separated.".... It is one thing to understand human frailty or the complexity of life, quite another to accept ideologies that claim to divide inseparable aspects of reality into two. Let us not fall into the sin of claiming to replace the Creator. We are creatures, we are not omnipotent. Creation precedes us and must be received as a gift. At the same time, we are called to cherish our humanity, and this means above all accepting and respecting it as it has been created.
RispondiElimina57. I give thanks to God that many families, who are far from perfect, live in love, realize their vocation and move forward even if they fall down many times along the way...... In all situations "the Church feels the need to speak a word of truth and hope. [...] The great values of marriage and the Christian family correspond to the quest that runs through human existence."[48] If we note many difficulties, they are - as the Bishops of Colombia have stated - an invitation to "release within us the energies of hope, translating them into prophetic dreams, transforming actions and the imagination of charity."[49] ...65.
...65...And thus to penetrate the thirty long years in which Jesus earned his bread by working with his hands, whispering the prayers and the believing tradition of his people, and educating himself in the faith of his fathers, until it bore fruit in the mystery of the Kingdom. This is the mystery of Christmas and the secret of Nazareth, full of the fragrance of family! It is the mystery that so fascinated Francis of Assisi, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and Charles de Foucauld, and to which Christian families also quench their thirst in order to renew their hope and joy.
87. The Church is a family of families, constantly enriched by the life of all the domestic Churches.... the Church is good for the family, the family is good for the Church. The safeguarding of the sacramental gift of the Lord involves not only the individual family, but the Christian community itself".
88.
90. In the so-called hymn to charity written by St. Paul, we find some characteristics of true love:
"Charity is patient,
charity is benevolent
it is not envious
it does not boast,
it is not puffed up with pride,
it does not lack respect,
it does not seek its own interest,
is not angry,
does not take into account the evil received,
does not rejoice in injustice
but rejoices in the truth.
Everything excuses,
all believes,
hopes for everything,
he endures everything" (1 Cor 13:4-7).
This is lived and cultivated in the life that spouses share every day, among themselves and with their children. Therefore, it is valuable to pause and clarify the meaning of the expressions of this text, in order to try to apply them to the concrete existence of every family.
Prayer to the Holy Family
Jesus, Mary and Joseph
in you we contemplate
the splendor of true love,
to you, confidently, we entrust ourselves.
Holy Family of Nazareth
make our families too
places of communion and cenacles of prayer,
authentic schools of the Gospel
and small domestic Churches.
Holy Family of Nazareth,
may there never again be in families
episodes of violence, closure and division;
that whoever has been wounded or scandalized
be promptly comforted and healed.
Holy Family of Nazareth
make us all aware
of the sacred and inviolable character of the family,
of its beauty in God's plan.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
hear us and accept our plea.
Amen.