Friday 13 May 2022
Friday of the 4th week of Eastertide
or Our Lady of Fátima
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Friday of the 4th week of Eastertide
From a letter of Pope St Clement I to the Corinthians
There are many paths but one Way
My dear friends, this is the way in which we find our Saviour Jesus Christ, the High Priest of all our offerings, the defender and helper of our infirmity.
By him we look up to the heights of heaven. In his face, exalted and without blemish, we see ourselves reflected. By him the eyes of our hearts are opened. By him our foolish and darkened understanding blossoms up anew towards his marvellous light. By him the Lord has willed that we should taste of immortal knowledge. He is the radiant light of God’s glory. He is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than their own name.
Let us then, men and brethren, with all energy act the part of soldiers, in accordance with his holy commandments.
Think of the soldiers who serve under our generals, and with what order, obedience, and submissiveness they perform the things which are commanded them. Not all are prefects, nor commanders of a thousand, nor of a hundred, nor of fifty, nor the like, but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals. The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small without the great. There is a kind of mixture in all things, and thence arises mutual advantage.
Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head. The very smallest members of our body are necessary and useful to the whole body. All work harmoniously together and they are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.
In Christ Jesus let our whole body be preserved intact. Let every one of us be subject to his neighbour, according to the special gift bestowed upon him.
Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect to the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and let the poor man bless God, because he has given him one by whom his need may be supplied. Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by mere words, but through good deeds. Let the humble not bear testimony to himself, but leave witness to be borne to him by another. Let him that is pure in the flesh not grow proud of it, and boast, knowing that it was another who bestowed on him the gift of continence.
Let us consider, then, brethren, of what matter we were made. Let us consider how we came into this world, as it were out of a sepulchre, and from utter darkness: who and what manner of beings we were. He who made us and fashioned us, having prepared his bountiful gifts for us before we were born, introduced us into his world.
Since, therefore, we receive all these things from him, we ought for everything to give him thanks; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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Other choices for today:
Our Lady of Fátima
The canonically crowned image enshrined within the Chapel of the Apparitions at Fátima. Photographer: © Manuel González Olaechea y Franco. 15/04/2004.
From a sermon by Saint Ephraem, deacon
He whom the whole world cannot contain, Mary alone embraces
Mary was made heaven on our behalf by bearing the divinity which Christ, without leaving the glory of the Father, enclosed in the narrow confines of her womb so as to lead men to greater dignity. He chose her alone from the whole assembly of virgins to be an instrument of our salvation.
In her the oracles of all just men and prophets found their fulfilment. From her was born that brilliant star under whose guidance the people who walked in darkness saw a great light.
Mary can be called very appropriately by different names. She is the temple of the Son of God, who came forth from her in a different way from which he had entered; for he had entered her womb without a body, and came forth clothed in one.
She is the mystical new heaven, in which the King of kings dwelt as in his abode, and from which he came down to earth in an earthly form and likeness.
She is the fruitful vine of gentle fragrance. Her fruit, though absolutely differing in nature from the stock, was necessarily changed by the stock to be like it.
She is the fountain springing from the house of the Lord, from which flowed living waters to the thirsty who, even just tasting them with the lips, would never thirst.
Is it wrong, beloved, to think that the day of Mary’s reparation can be compared with another day of creation? In the beginning the earth was created; through her it is renewed. In the beginning its activity was cursed by the deed of Adam; through her peace and security is restored. In the beginning, death entered all through the sin of their first parents, but now we have been transferred from death to life. In the beginning, the serpent through the attention of Eve’s ears, spread poison to the whole body; now Mary receives through her ears the author of perpetual happiness. What was an instrument of death, now stands as an instrument of life.
He who sits above the Cherubim is now held in a woman’s arms. He whom the whole world cannot contain, Mary alone embraces. He whom Thrones and Dominations fear, a young girl protects. He whose dwelling is eternal, sits on the lap of a virgin. He who has the earth for a footstool, steps on it with the feet of a child.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Saint Erconwald, Bishop
St Erkenwald instructing monks. A historiated initial from the Chertsey Breviary. Circa 1300.
From the Ecclesiastical History of the English People by St Bede the Venerable
Archbishop Theodore appointed Erconwald bishop in London, for the East Saxons. Sebbi and Sighere were the reigning monarchs. Both before and after his consecration, Erconwald lived so holy a life that even now miracles bear witness to it. To this day the horse-litter in which he used to be carried when ill is preserved by his followers and continues to cure many people afflicted with fevers and other complaints. Not only are people cured who are placed in or near the litter but splinters cut from it and taken to the sick bring speedy relief.
Before he was made bishop, he founded two famous monasteries, one for himself and the other for his sister Æthelburh, and established an excellent form of monastic Rule and discipline in both. His own was in the kingdom of Surrey near the river Thames at a place called Chertsey, that is, the island of Ceorot. His sister’s monastery he established at a place called Barking in the kingdom of the East Saxons where she was to live as mother and nurse of a company of women devoted to God. When she had undertaken the rule of this monastery, she proved herself worthy in all things of her brother the bishop, both by her own holy life and by her sound and devoted care for those who were under her rule; and of this heavenly miracles were the witness.
Copyright © 1996-2022 Universalis Publishing Limited: see www.universalis.com. Scripture readings from the Jerusalem Bible are published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. Text of the Psalms: Copyright © 1963, The Grail (England). Used with permission of A.P. Watt Ltd. All rights reserved.