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Br. Francis Therese’s Q&A Br. Francis Therese’s Q&A Search Like What You See? Ask me anything Submit a post Get the RSS Browse the Archive About Tumbleroll Tumblr powered Bill Israel designed May 26 2019 ∞ Sixth Sunday of Easter Sixth Sunday of Easter CHRYSOSTOM: The phrase he remains with you” is what someone who himself is leaving would say. And so, to calm their grief, he says that as long as he remains with them the Spirit won’t come, which means they wouldn’t come to know the greater or more sublime things to come. He wanted them, in other words, to see his departure as a blessing. Notice how he often calls [the Spirit] Comforter,… View On WordPress May 24 2019 ∞ Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter Paradoxically, the most sublime teaching on the reality of God – that He is the source and spirating substance of Love – provokes many who hear it to hatred. Jesus is hated because His Word powerfully breaks down the worldly and all too human facades that encombre the mystery of God. This is the world which John counts as the enemy of Jesus and of all who keep His words. When Jesus’ Word… View On WordPress May 20 2019 ∞ Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter MARK THE HERMIT: Do you see how [Jesus] has hidden his manifestation in the commandments? Of all the commandments, therefore, the most comprehensive is to love God and our neighbor. This love is made firm through abstaining from material things and through stillness of thoughts. Knowing this, the Lord enjoins us not to be anxious about tomorrow,” and rightly so. For if someone has not freed… View On WordPress Apr 28 2019 ∞ The symbols in today’s Gospel teach us about God’s mercy. God uses the language of Creation and Human Life to help us perceive the significance of His mercy. Jesus’ first gives peace to the disciples to counteract their sorrow and fear. Then as He breathes on them and invokes the gift of the Holy Spirit, we recall the first act of Creation, wherein God breathes into the nostrils of Adam and… View On WordPress Apr 23 2019 ∞ Easter Tuesday AUGUSTINE: Mary calls her Lord’s inanimate body her Lord, meaning a part for the whole. It is the same as when all of us acknowledge that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord, who of course is at once both the Word and soul and flesh, was nevertheless crucified and buried, while it was only his flesh that was laid in the sepulcher. View On WordPress Apr 01 2019 ∞ Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent The joy of the Lord must be your strength.” The fourth week of Lent is marked by the importance of joy in the lives of the faithful. Today’s Gospel bears witness to Jesus’ unique ability to transform sorrow into joy. He does this by healing – not just the physically ill, but those who are afflicted in spirit. Joy returns to the heart when wholeness is restored. Most of us suffer brokenness… View On WordPress + ∞ Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A) Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A) CHRYSOSTOM: Here again is another difficulty if [it is true that] it was not possible that the glory of God should be shown without this man’s punishment. Certainly it was not impossible, for it was possible. But it happened so that [God’s glory] might be made evident even in this man.” One might ask, however, Did he suffer wrong for the glory of God? Tell me what he did wrong. For what if God… View On WordPress Mar 18 2019 ∞ Monday of the Second Week of Lent Monday of the Second Week of Lent JUSTIN MARTYR: We pray for you that you might experience the mercy of Christ. He instructed us to pray for our enemies, when he said, Be kind and merciful, even as your heavenly Father is merciful.” We can observe that almighty God is kind and merciful, causing his sun to shine on the ungrateful and on the just and sending rain to both the holy and the evil. All of them, he has told us, he will… View On WordPress Mar 12 2019 ∞ Tuesday of the First Week of Lent Tuesday of the First Week of Lent ORIGEN: Since some understand from this that we are commanded to pray for material bread, it will be well to refute their error here and to establish the truth about the epiousios (supersubstantial)35 bread. We must ask them how it could be that he who commanded us to ask for great and heavenly favors should command us to intercede with the Father for what is small and of the earth, as if he had… View On WordPress Mar 03 2019 ∞ Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE: When, therefore, weakness and inefficiency and any destruction seize us, then our strength is made perfect. Then, if our faith is put to the test, it will stand fast and receive a crown, as it is written: The furnace tries the vessels of the potter, and the trial of tribulation tests just people.” This, in short, is the difference between us and others who do not know God,… View On WordPress ← Older entries Page 1 of...