Fifth Sunday after
Pentecost (14th S. Ord. Time)
BASTILLE DAY
Colossians, Chapter 1,
Verse 19-20
19For
in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, 20and
through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace*
by the blood of his cross [through him], whether those on earth or those in
heaven.
Those who have faith that
Chris is and was the promised mediator of creation and redemption have peace
with themselves and God.
Those in Christ know
the truth about Jesus and live good Christian lives because of it. God rescued
all his followers from a life lived in sin and darkness. Jesus is the physical
image of God, who is invisible. He helped creating the world. Everything that
exists was created through Jesus and for Jesus. He's more important than every
single thing and his very existence holds all of creation together. Christ is
the head and the first in everything. He was also the first to die. He died on
a cross to save all humanity. And as long as they keep the faith, Christians
can keep these good times with God going. All they need to do is believe and
trust![1]
The
importance of forgiving injuries. Again, there is a Petrine motif because of
the proximity to the feast. (This Sunday was originally known as the
"First Sunday after the Feast of the Apostles.")[3]
WITH the priest in the Introit of
the Mass, let us implore God’s assistance, and say: “Hear, O Lord, my voice,
with which I have cried to Thee; be Thou my helper, forsake not, do not Thou despise me, O God, my
Saviour. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?” (Ps. xxvi.
7, 9, 1.)
Prayer.
O God, Who hast prepared invisible goods for them that love Thee, infuse into
our hearts the affection of Thy love, that loving Thee in all things and above
all, we may obtain Thy promises which surpass every desire.
EPISTLE, i.
Peter iii. 8-15.
Dearly Beloved: Be ye all of one
mind, having compassion one of another, being lovers of the brotherhood,
merciful, mod est, humble : not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for
railing, but contrariwise, blessing: for unto this are you called, that you may
inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him
refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him
decline from evil, and do good: let him seek after peace, and pursue it :
because the eyes of the^Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers
: but the countenance of the Lord upon them that do evil things. And who is he
that can hurt you, if you be zealous of good? But if also you suffer anything
for justice sake, blessed are ye. And be not afraid of their fear, and be not troubled;
but sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts. How may and ought we to sanctify
the Lord Jesus in our hearts? By faithfully imitating Him; for thereby we
become His true and faithful disciples, honor Him, sanctify ourselves and edify
others, who by our good example are led to admire Chris tianity, and Christ its
founder, and to become His followers.
GOSPEL.
Matt. v. 20-24.
At that time Jesus said to His disciples: I tell you, unless
your justice abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to them of old:
Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgment. But I say to you: that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be
in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall
be in danger of the council. And whoso ever shall say, thou fool, shall be in
danger of hell fire. If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there
thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee: leave there thy
offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and
then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.
In what did the justice of the Pharisees consist?
They were very pious in outward appearance, and avoided those vices which
caused temporal disgrace and injury; but, on the other hand, they were full of
malice in their hearts, and this Christ often reproached them with, calling
them hypocrites.
How are we to understand what Christ says about anger and
using abusive words? The meaning of His words is, “You
have heard from your teachers and doctors of the law, that whosoever shall kill
shall be in danger of the judgment of men ; but I say to you, who think it no
sin to be angry or envious, that whosoever is angry with his brother without
cause, shall be in danger of the judgment of God. You have heard that whosoever
calls his brother fool, shall be brought before the council and punished; but I
say to you, that God punishes with hell fire every grievous offence against
your neighbor, as also the hatred and enmity of your heart towards Him.”
Why must one first be reconciled to his brother before he
offers his gift at the altar, or undertakes any good work?
Because no offering, or other good work, can be pleasing to God so long as we
are living in enmity, hatred, and strife with our neighbor, and thereby going
directly against His will and example.
Remedies for
Anger.
The first and best means to overcome anger is humility; to
become thus humble, gentle, and patient, one must often consider the example of
Christ, Who endured so many contradictions, persecutions, and insults, without
reviling again when reviled Himself, and without threatening vengeance to any
one for all He suffered. An excellent preventive to anger is, to think over in
the morning what causes will be likely to draw us into anger at any time during
the day, and to guard ourselves against them beforehand, by a firm resolution
to bear every thing patiently for the love of God; and then, when anything vexatious
occurs and excites our anger, to say and do nothing so long as the anger lasts.
How shall we be reconciled with our enemies?
Not only with the lips but from the heart, and with sin cerity and promptness. “Is
he absent whom you have wronged,” says St. Augustine, “so that you cannot
easily reach him? humble yourself then before God, and ask His pardon be fore
you offer your gift, with a firm resolution to be reconciled with your enemy as
soon as possible.”
INSTRUCTION
ON SWEARING.
To swear is to call upon God, upon His truth, His justice,
or other attributes, or upon His creatures, in the name of God, as witnesses of
the truth.
Is swearing lawful, and when?
Yes, when necessity demands it, and when the matter sworn to is true and just:
when a man thus swears he imitates God, honors Him as all-holy, all-wise,
all-just, and contributes to the triumph of justice and innocence. On the other
hand, great sins are committed:
1. By those who swear in a false and unjust cause, which may
be, besides, of little moment; for they call upon God as a witness to falsehood
and wrong, thus violat ing His truth and justice.
2. By those who swear in a good cause, but without necessity
or a sufficient reason; for it is cer tainly unseemly to call God as witness on
every trivial occasion.
3. In like manner, they sin grievously and constantly who
have become so habituated to swearing as to break out into oaths, without so
much as knowing or thinking whether the thing is true or false, whether they
will keep their word or not ; where by they expose themselves to great danger,
both because they run the risk of swearing falsely, and also because they
frivolously abuse the name of God, of His saints, and of His works.
Everyone, says St. Chrysostom, who swears often sometimes
swears falsely; just as lie wlio talks a great deal sometimes utters things
unseemly and improper. For this reason, according to the opinion of St.
Augustine, the Saviour forbade Christians to swear at all (Matt. v. 34), that
they might not fall into a habit of swearing, and, by reason of that, into
swearing falsely. Whoever has this habit should take the greatest pains to
overcome it. To accomplish which, it will be useful to him to reflect:
1. That if we have to render an account for every idle word
we speak, how much more strictly will we be judged for needless, idle, and
false oaths! “Remember thy last end, and thou shalt not sin,”
2. To remember that persons who swear so lightly are
generally less believed than others.
3. To repent each time that he swears, and to punish himself
by a penance.
·
The
pope was to have no say in the matter. In addition, clerics had to swear an
oath of loyalty to the French Constitution. Dissidents had to resign their ministries,
and many were prosecuted as criminals. Lay Catholics loyal to the pope were
treated as rebels and traitors. With only four out of 135 bishops taking the oath
in 1791, the more radical Legislative Assembly ordered additional sanctions
against the Church. All religious congregations were suppressed and wearing
clerical garb was forbidden.
·
Priests
loyal to the papacy were automatically guilty of “fanaticism” and sentenced to
ten years imprisonment. Processions were forbidden; crucifixes and religious
artifacts were stripped out of churches. Government priests were granted
freedom to marry, divorce was permissible, and marriage became a civil
procedure.
·
Also,
education, managed for centuries by the Church, was nationalized. To further
de-Christianize France, a new civil religion was introduced – patriotism. The
Gregorian calendar was eliminated and replaced with names related to nature. To
abolish Sunday worship, months were rearranged to contain three “weeks” of ten
days apiece, thus designating every tenth day for rest.
·
Catholic
holy days were replaced with national holidays and civic days of worship. The
“Cult of Great Men” (i.e., Rousseau) replaced the veneration of saints. The use
of the word “saint” was forbidden. “There should be no more public and national
worship but that of Liberty and Holy Equality,” declared the revolutionary
government. Every city and village was ordered to erect an “altar to the fatherland”
and to conduct July “Federation Month” patriotic rites.
·
The
Feast of Nature was observed in August and the Cult of Reason was celebrated at
Paris’ Civic Temple, formerly the Cathedral of Notre Dame. A female dancer was
crowned as the Goddess of Reason and performed for the assembly. In 1794, the
deistic cult of the Supreme Being replaced the atheistic adoration of reason.
At the first public worship, the self-declared high priest, Robespierre,
pronounced in his homily, “the idea of the Supreme Being and the soul’s
immortality is a continuous summons to justice and consequently social and
republican.”
·
Despite
all the efforts of the missionaries of terror, the Church was not stamped out
of existence. The heroism of the thousands of martyred bishops, priests, and
religious inspired millions of the faithful and caused a spiritual renascence
in France during the nineteenth century. The notorious political rogue and
excommunicated bishop of Autun, the Prince de Talleyrand, reviewing that
terrible period of persecution, conceded, “Regardless of my own part in this
affair, I readily admit that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy . . . was
perhaps the greatest political mistake of the Assembly, quite apart from the
dreadful crimes which flowed there from.” General of the Republic, Henri
Clarke, agreed. In a report to the government in 1796, he wrote, “Our
revolution, so far as religion is concerned, has proved a complete failure.
·
France
has become once more Roman Catholic, and we may be on the point of needing the
pope himself in order to enlist clerical support for the Revolution.” The
French ideologues learned, as did their barbaric heirs in the twentieth
century, that every effort to destroy the Church and eliminate the faithful
fails. As Christ Himself promised: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.”
“Therefore,
do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor
secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the
light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not be afraid
of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the
one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
Bastille Day marks the anniversary of the attacks on the French prison of Bastille, a symbol of King Louis XVI's power. On, July 14, 1789, a group of Parisian revolutionaries attacked the Bastille looking for gun powder to go with the rifles they had recently stolen from the Invalides. The revolutionaries stormed the prison, defeating the soldiers and bringing victory to the common people of France. This event marked the beginning of the French Revolution, the defeat of a monarchy and the birth of a republic as King Louis XVI was beheaded by use of a guillotine on July 21, 1793 in front of a crowd of Parisians. The anniversary of this attack is now the French National holiday and is observed on July 14th each year.
Bastille Day Facts & Quotes
·
The
French Revolution was brought about partially due to the unequal class system
found in France during the late 1700s. The Catholic clergy held the
highest position, next came Louis XVI and his court, and lastly were the
general population. Without the benefit of being born into a higher
class, the general population had almost no hope of ever bettering their
station in life.
·
Louis
XVI's spending at Versailles and his financial support of the American
Revolutionary War against the British, placed France in severe economic crisis.
The general population was starving while King Louis XVI was building a
great navy and continuing his lavish lifestyle in Versailles.
·
The
French flag consists of blue, white and red. White was the color of the
Monarchy and red and blue represented Paris. During the Revolution, the white
was surrounded by blue and then red.
·
A
revolution can be neither made nor stopped. The only thing that can be done is
for one of several of its children to give it a direction by dint of victories.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Bastille Day Top Events and Things
to Do
·
Watch
the Fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. They usually start around 11pm and can be
viewed from the Champs de Mars and Trocadero.
·
Attend
a French military parade.
·
Visit
a French national museum as most are free to visit on Bastille Day or visit a
local firehouse in France - they are open to the public on this holiday.
·
Watch
a movie or a documentary about the French Revolution. Our picks: The French
Revolution (2005), Jefferson in Paris (1995), Marie Antoinette
(2006), Danton (1983) and That Night in Varennes (1982)
·
Go
out to a French Restaurant. Many have specials for this day.
Grand Marnier Day[6]
How to Celebrate Grand Marnier Day
·
The
best way to celebrate Grand Marnier Day is to try out a few of the mixed drinks
that can be made with it, and indulge in its rich succulent flavors.
·
Why
not start off with a Marnier & Bubbles! All you need to do is mix Grand
Marnier with Champagne or another French sparkling white wine. The proportions
are 1 ounce of Grand Marnier and 4 ounces of sparkling white wine. Then, for a
splash of color, add a cherry.
·
Or
you can mix up a Grand Marnier-Ita. Simply mix 2 parts Tequila with 1-part
juice of lime and mix it up. Pour it into a cocktail glass through a strainer
with ice, and then add some lime wheels to finish it off.
Daily Devotions
* A person with fear of
the Lord is filled with peace, faith, hope and love.
[1]https://www.shmoop.com/ephesians-and-colossians/colossians-chapter-1-summary.html
[2]
Goffine’s Devout Instructions, 1896.
[6]
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/grand-marnier-day/
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