♦️No one has sure knowledge of his state of soul
When St. Joan of Arc faced the process that was pitted against her, one of her interrogators, Jean Beaupère, professor from the University of Paris, put a cunning question to her: “Are you in the state of grace?” An affirmative response would warrant reproach for contradicting Catholic doctrine; a negative one would goad on her accusers. Nevertheless, the young shepherdess stood up to the insidious question perfectly, like an experienced theologian: “If I am not, may God place me there; if I am, may God so keep me.”
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 331-333
Read the commentary for the 24th Week of Ordinary Time: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/24th-Sunday.pdf
Audio of Gospel Commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/24th-Sunday_Ordinary-Time_YrA.mp3
When St. Joan of Arc faced the process that was pitted against her, one of her interrogators, Jean Beaupère, professor from the University of Paris, put a cunning question to her: “Are you in the state of grace?” An affirmative response would warrant reproach for contradicting Catholic doctrine; a negative one would goad on her accusers. Nevertheless, the young shepherdess stood up to the insidious question perfectly, like an experienced theologian: “If I am not, may God place me there; if I am, may God so keep me.”
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 331-333
Read the commentary for the 24th Week of Ordinary Time: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/24th-Sunday.pdf
Audio of Gospel Commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/24th-Sunday_Ordinary-Time_YrA.mp3
⚜️ Let us imagine the scene: the good thief on one side of Our Lord writhing in pain; a bandit who, touched by grace, was repentant and, in the midst of his suffering thought:
"Here, in the midst of my pain and seeing His pain, I feel happier than at any other time in my life! Death approaches me with its heavy steps and terrible claws, but He looks at me with love and restores his friendship with me. If I could remain eternally nailed to this cross, suffering as I am, but looking at Him, how good it would be! I am only something because He looks at me and I look at Him. I never want to leave Him again."
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
"Here, in the midst of my pain and seeing His pain, I feel happier than at any other time in my life! Death approaches me with its heavy steps and terrible claws, but He looks at me with love and restores his friendship with me. If I could remain eternally nailed to this cross, suffering as I am, but looking at Him, how good it would be! I am only something because He looks at me and I look at Him. I never want to leave Him again."
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
♦️ An impossible debt to settle
“That is why the Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”
However, for us, unlike the Immaculate Virgin, each fault adds an incalculable amount to our debt, because the liability contracted by just one sin is infinite, since the dignity of the One offended is infinite. Consequently, even if we spent eternity making arduous sacrifices, we would be unable to clear our debt. Nothing that we ourselves can do suffices to repair the sin of our first parents and our own, against the Creator.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 335-336
“That is why the Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount. Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.”
However, for us, unlike the Immaculate Virgin, each fault adds an incalculable amount to our debt, because the liability contracted by just one sin is infinite, since the dignity of the One offended is infinite. Consequently, even if we spent eternity making arduous sacrifices, we would be unable to clear our debt. Nothing that we ourselves can do suffices to repair the sin of our first parents and our own, against the Creator.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 335-336
St. Patrick's Cathedral in the diocese of El Paso in the United States was vandalized. A statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was destroyed.
♦️The king’s forgiveness invites our forgiveness
“At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”
In face of sincere repentance, God treats us in this way, overflowing with goodness, extending to us an infinitely greater mercy than we could anticipate. For this, He places only one condition: “a broken and contrite heart”.
Our Lord substitutes the talion penalty with a new approach: loving one’s neighbour as oneself, for love of God.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 337-338
“At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.”
In face of sincere repentance, God treats us in this way, overflowing with goodness, extending to us an infinitely greater mercy than we could anticipate. For this, He places only one condition: “a broken and contrite heart”.
Our Lord substitutes the talion penalty with a new approach: loving one’s neighbour as oneself, for love of God.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias
New Insights on the Gospels II, pp. 337-338
🔸Saint Joseph of Cupertino - September 18
He commonly saw people in the form of animals that represented the state of their souls. If he met someone whose soul was not clean, he smelled the bad odor of sin and warned: "You stink, go wash yourself". After they had made a good Confession, he smelled a pleasant scent of perfume.
Carlos Toniolo, Heralds of the Gospel Magazine
He commonly saw people in the form of animals that represented the state of their souls. If he met someone whose soul was not clean, he smelled the bad odor of sin and warned: "You stink, go wash yourself". After they had made a good Confession, he smelled a pleasant scent of perfume.
Carlos Toniolo, Heralds of the Gospel Magazine
♦️The Gospel Commentary for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Gnawing Worm of Envy
Envy is venom that corrodes souls, and it is more noxious still when it revolts against spiritual favours granted by God to neighbour, a moral vice called envy of fraternal grace.
Read the commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/25th-Sunday.pdf
Audio of Gospel Commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/25th-Sunday_Ordinary-Time_YrA.mp3
The Gnawing Worm of Envy
Envy is venom that corrodes souls, and it is more noxious still when it revolts against spiritual favours granted by God to neighbour, a moral vice called envy of fraternal grace.
Read the commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/25th-Sunday.pdf
Audio of Gospel Commentary: https://donalucilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/25th-Sunday_Ordinary-Time_YrA.mp3
⚜️ Confident and Humble Prayer
If we truly knew how to pray, if we had the confidence and humility that makes man's prayer pleasing to God, we would be omnipotent. The confident and persevering prayer of the just attains everything. The history of the Church is above all the narration of the triumphs which it has attained by the prayers of the faithful.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Legionário, January 14, 1945
If we truly knew how to pray, if we had the confidence and humility that makes man's prayer pleasing to God, we would be omnipotent. The confident and persevering prayer of the just attains everything. The history of the Church is above all the narration of the triumphs which it has attained by the prayers of the faithful.
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Legionário, January 14, 1945