Evils of Divorce

Yesterday (4^th October) was the 27^th Sunday of Year B, and the Gospel reading is according to Mk 10: 2-16. Jesus is speaking about divorce. The celebrant at Stella Maris Church, Rev. Fr. Tony Majiwat reminded the congregation that ‘what God has united, man must not divide’. He also spoke about the evils of divorce that, among others, destroys a family which leads to the sufferings of children through no fault of theirs.

In the western countries with soaring single mother pregnancies, with the sense that youth crime and dysfunction amongst young people is out of control, the UN survey says that our children are the least happy in the world. Despite this our government applies sticking plasters to the symptoms, rather than dealing with the cause, the health of the family.

It is the family that is sick in those countries (including ours), until we address that, our social problems will continue.

(CNS) -- Many children raised by cohabitating, separated, divorced or remarried parents are deprived of fixed points of reference and can suffer from inner conflict and confusion, Pope Benedict XVI told Brazilian bishops.

The traditional family based on a man and woman united in an indissoluble marriage is under attack in today's world, he said.

"There are forces and voices in present society that seem committed to demolishing the natural homestead of human life," the pope said during a meeting Sept. 25 with bishops from the northeastern area of Brazil.

Families in secularized cultures, especially where divorce is legal, seem deeply immersed in uncertainty, he said.

More and more couples build their unions on the fragility and impermanence of cohabitation, which is merely based on an "individual's feeling or subjectivity," he said.

He said as divorces increase and cohabitation is on the rise, the children in these situations are "deprived of their parents' support and become victims of malaise and abandonment, thus spreading social disorder."

Children need concrete fixed points of reference such as having one set of parents who will always be united as a family, the pope said.

He said divorce is sabotaging the traditional sense of an extended family by creating too many "parents," such as stepmothers and stepfathers.

In fact, the majority of children today "who feel like they are orphans are not children without parents, but children who have too many parents," he said.

This situation of a child caught between the different expectations and mixed messages of too many stepparents "cannot help but create inner conflicts and confusion" within the child, he said.

The church must reach out to families and help them base their union on a solid Christian foundation and help them resist becoming "deceived and seduced by certain relativistic lifestyles promoted by films, television and other media outlets," he said.

Pope Benedict also warned the bishops of the "irregular and dangerous situation" of divorced and remarried Catholics. Only the first marriage exists, he said, "there is no husband and wife in a second marriage," rather they are a man and woman living in adultery.

Remarried couples must resolve their situation by seeking the help of a priest who can help all the people involved, he added.

The bishops were meeting with Pope Benedict and Vatican officials for their "ad limina" visits, required of heads of dioceses to brief the pope on the situation in their home territories.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, 19 July 2009

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In last Sunday’s Gospel reading, our Lord Jesus Christ sent his trusted Twelve Apostles on their mission to teach and preach, to cure the sick, cast out demons and bring the good news to the people. In today’s Gospel, the Twelve Apostles have returned to their master. You can read it in Mark 6:30-34.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:30-34.

The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat. So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them. When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Commentary of the day :

"He began to teach them many things"

«Tell me, O you whom my soul has loved, where you feed and where you have your couch?' I think that in Psalm 23[22] the prophet likewise is speaking of this place, concerning which the Bride desires of the Bridegroom to learn, set as he is under the same Shepherd. He says: «The Lord is my shepherd and I shall want nothing» (v.1). And because he knew that other shepherds, through sloth or inexperience, assemble their flocks in the drier places, he says about the Lord, this best of shepherds: «In a green place, there he has set me; he has brought me up to the water of refreshment» (v.2), thus making it clear that this Shepherd provides His sheep with water that is not only plentiful but also wholesome and pure and utterly refreshing ...

That first life, the pastoral, was a preparatory one, in order that, being set in a green place, he might be brought up to the water of refreshment. But the things that follow have to do with progress and perfection. And, since we have brought up the subject of pastures and of greenness, it seems fitting to support what we say out of the Gospels also. There, too, I have encountered this Good Shepherd talking about the pastures of the sheep; there is a passage where He styles Himself the Shepherd, and even calls Himself the Door, saying: I am the Door. By me, if anyone enters, he shall be saved; and he shall go in and go out, and shall find pastures» (Jn 10,9). Him, therefore, the Bride now plies with questions... And what she calls 'midday' denotes those secret places of the heart in which the soul pursues the clearer light of knowledge from the Word of God; for midday is the time when the sun is at the zenith of its course. So when Christ, the Sun of Justice (Mal 3,20), shows to his Church the high and lofty secrets of his power, then he will be teaching her where lie His pleasant pastures and his places of repose at noon.

For when she has only begun to learn these things and is receiving from Him the rudiments, so to speak, of knowledge, then the prophet says: «And God will help her in the morning early» (Ps 46[45],6). At this time, however, because she is now seeking things that are more perfect, and desiring higher things, she asks for the noonday light of knowledge.

15th Ordinary Sunday Year B (Bible Sunday)

Today is 15th Sunday of Ordinary time Year B and is also Bible Sunday 2009 with a theme: 'A God who speaks.' The Gospel reading is according to Mark 6:7-13 and it deals with the Mission given by our Lord Jesus to his Twelve Apostles:

“Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. 8 He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts. 9 They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave from there. 11 Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.” 12 So they went off and preached repentance. 18 They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”

There is no question that this passage is directed to the Apostles, after all, this is the Mission of the Twelve. But by Apostolic succession, this mission has now been handed down by the Twelve Apostles, down to the Early Fathers of the Catholic Church, whose names should be common to us, like, Tertullian, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin the Philosopher and Martyr, St. Clement of Rome, St. John Chrysotom or St. Irenaeus of Lyons. From the Early Fathers, this succession goes all the way down to the Pope in Rome.

This divine proclamation wasn’t written only by the Evangelist Mark, but Matthew also wrote this, which was the Gospel reading last Thursday perhaps to signify the importance of this teaching. Allow me to reprint from Matt.10: 7-15, which is also called the Mission of the Twelve.

“Jesus said to his Apostles; “As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. 9 Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; 10 no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep.

11Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. 12 As you enter a house, wish it peace. 13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. 14 Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. 15 Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town.”

The first question that comes to mind when we read this passage is directed to our Parish priests especially when our Lord said, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” The “philosopos” around us are quick to trap our priests why weddings cost so much in this or that parish, why there is a “price” for baptizing our children and for offering masses for the living or the dead? Indeed, on a worse case scenario, you can get those services for free if it comes to a certain point that the person offering truly has no money or is in dire straits.

The reason why I also reprinted the Gospel reading of Matthew is because it’s a bit more complete than Marks. In Matt; 10: 10 our Lord Jesus pointed out that “The laborer deserve his keep.” This means that priests after all can accept certain things from the faithful. But in this modern age, we give them paper money, which for all intents and purposes is not really gold, silver or copper. But this happens only in urban areas. I know that in the rural areas, especially in the provinces, priests get all sorts of animals, like chicken, goats or palay in lieu of money for the maintenance of the church.

So we have stumbled upon the issue of tithing in the church, which as you know is a very delicate subject. But then let me remind you of what our Lord Jesus told the Scribes and priests, “I have come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it!” As our Lord Jesus only teaches us the truth, then this must also be written in scripture.

Indeed it is written in the Cleansing of the Leper in Matt 8: 4 when after the leper approached our Lord and did him homage, he was made clean then our Lord Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses prescribed.” Maybe we should ask, wasn’t it enough for the cured leper to give thanks to the Lord after he was given a miracle? Apparently, we must do something that the church has prescribed the faithful to do.

While other Christian churches prescribe a certain percentage as tithe, the Catholic Church does not impose any amount. This is up to the churchgoers. But if we truly love our Church, which is we the Body of Christ, then we should give not just money, but ourselves to her service.

Adapted from SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila

Commentary of the day :

Saint Gregory the Great (c.540-604), Pope, Doctor of the Church

Homilies on the Gospel, 17,1-3

"He began to send them out two by two"

Dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Savior teaches us sometimes by his words and sometimes by his actions. His actions themselves are commandments, for when he does something without saying anything, he shows us how we must act. So here he is sending his disciples out two by two to preach, because there are two commandments of love: love of God and of the neighbor. The Lord sent his disciples to preach two by two to suggest to us without saying it that the person who does not have love for the other must absolutely not take on the ministry of preaching.

It is very good that he «sent them in pairs before him to every town and place he intended to visit.» (Lk 10:1) For the Lord comes after his preachers, because preaching is a prerequisite: the Lord comes to dwell in our soul when the words of exhoration have come as a forerunner and have caused us to welcome the truth in our soul. That is why Isaiah said to the preachers: «Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!» (Isa 40:3) And the psalmist also told them: «Prepare the way for him who rises up to the west.» (Ps 67:5 Vulgate) The Lord rises up to the west [the lying down of the sun] because in lying down in his passion, he showed himself in greater glory in his resurrection. He rose up to the lying down, because in rising, he trampled underfoot the death that he suffered. Thus, we prepare the way for him who rises up to the lying down when we preach his glory to your souls, so that when he comes after, he might enlighten them by the presence of his love.

THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (CYCLE B)

Today the Church celebrates : St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, Priest (1502-1539)

Gospel, Mk 6:1-6a

¹ Leaving that district, he went to his home town, and his disciples accompanied him.

² With the coming of the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, 'Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him?

³ This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?' And they would not accept him.

⁴ And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house';

⁵ and he could work no miracle there, except that he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them.

⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith. He made a tour round the villages, teaching.

Commentary of the day Saint Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk Catecheses, III, 19 (©Friends of Henry Ashworth; cf SC 113, p.165f.)

Believing in Jesus today

Many people never stop saying - I have heard them myself - "If only we had lived in the days of the apostles, and been counted worthy to gaze upon Christ as they did, we should have become holy like them." Such people do not realize that the Christ who spoke then and the Christ who speaks now throughout the whole world is one and the same... The position now is not the same as it was then, but our situation now, in the present day, is very much better. It leads us more easily to a deeper faith and conviction than seeing and hearing him in the flesh would have done. Then he appeared to the uncomprehending as a man of lowly station: now he is proclaimed to us as true God. Then in his body he associated with tax collectors and sinners and ate with them: now he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and is never in any way separated from him... Then even those of lowliest condition held him in contempt. They said: «Is not this the son of Mary, and of Joseph the carpenter?» (Mk 6,3; Jn 6,42) Now kings and rulers worship him as Son of the true God, and himself true God... Then he was thought to be mortal and corruptible like the rest of humankind. He was no different in appearance from other men. The formless and invisible God, without change or alteration, assumed a human form and showed himself to be a normal human being. He ate, he drank, he slept, he sweated, and he grew weary. He did everything other people do, except that he did not sin. For anyone to recognize him in that human body, and to believe that he was the God who made heaven and earth and everything in them was very exceptional... It is certain, therefore, that anyone who now hears Christ cry out daily through the holy gospels and proclaim the will of his blessed Father, but does not obey him with fear and trembling and keep his commandments: it is certain that such a person would have refused to believe in him then.

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Sunday, 28 June 2009

Today the Church celebrates : St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (+ 202)

Saint Irenaeus was born about the year 120. He was a Grecian, probably a native of Lesser Asia. His parents, who were Christians, placed him under the care of the great St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. It was in so holy a school that he learned that sacred science which rendered him afterward a great ornament of the Church and the terror of her enemies. MORE ...

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 5:21-43.

When Jesus had crossed again (in the boat) to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward. Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying, "My daughter is at the point of death. Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." He went off with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.

There was a woman afflicted with haemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said, "Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?" Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid; just have faith." He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, "Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep." And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child's father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum," which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!" The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. (At that) they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

"The child is not dead but asleep"

Every gospel reading, Beloved, is most helpful both for our present life and for the attainment of the life to come. Today's reading, however, sums up the whole of our hope, banishing all grounds for despair. Let us consider the synagogue official who took Christ to his daughter and in so doing gave the woman with a hemorrhage an opportunity to approach him... Christ could foresee the future and he knew this woman would approach him. Through her the Jewish official was to learn that there is no need to move God to another place, take him on a journey, or attract him by a physical presence. One must only believe that he is present in the whole of his being always and everywhere, and that he can do all things effortlessly by a simple command; that far from depriving us of strength, he gives it; that he puts death to flight by a word of command rather than by physical touch, and gives life by his mere bidding, without need of any art... So when Christ reached the house and saw the mourners lamenting as though the girl were dead, he declared that she was not dead but sleeping, in order to move their unbelieving minds to faith and convince them that one can rise from death more easily than from sleep. «The girl is not dead,» he told them, «but asleep.» And indeed, for God death is nothing but sleep, since he can raise the dead to life more quickly than we can rouse a sleeper... Listen to the Apostle Paul: «In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead will rise» (1Cor 15,52)... How could he explain its swiftness verbally when divine power outstrips the very notion of swiftness? How could time enter the picture when an eternal gift is given outside of time?

June 21, 2009 - Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Theme:In the Storm

Job 38:1, 8-11 Psalm 107:23-26, 28-31 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, as evening drew on, he said to them, "Let us cross to the other side." Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was already filling up. Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

"Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

Creation is the foundation of "all God's saving plans," the "beginning of the history of salvation" that culminates in Christ. Conversely, the mystery of Christ casts conclusive light on the mystery of creation and reveals the end for which "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"(Gn 1,1): from the beginning, God envisaged the glory of the new creation in Christ (Rm 8,18-23)... The revelation of creation is inseparable from the revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God with his People. Creation is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal witness to God's all-powerful love... "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"... "In the beginning was the Word. . . and the Word was God. . . all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made" (Jn 1,1-3). The New Testament reveals that God created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son. In him "all things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col 1,16-17). The Church's faith likewise confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of life", "the Creator Spirit", the "source of every good". The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the Father. This creative co-operation is clearly affirmed in the Church's rule of faith: "There exists but one God. . . he is the Father, God, the Creator, the author, the giver of order. He made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom", "by the Son and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands". Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity.

Source: USCCB

Comments from Dr. Scott Hahn

“Do you not yet have faith?” Our Lord’s question in today’s Gospel frames the Sunday liturgies for the remainder of the year, which the Church calls “Ordinary Time.”

In the weeks ahead, the Church’s liturgy will have us journeying with Jesus and His disciples, reliving their experience of His words and deeds, coming to know and believe in Him as they did.

Notice that today’s Psalm almost provides an outline for the Gospel. We sing of sailors caught in a storm; in their desperation, they call to the Lord and He rescues them.

Mark’s Gospel today also intends us to hear a strong echo of the story of the prophet Jonah. He, too, was found asleep on a boat when a life-threatening storm broke out that caused his fellow travelers to pray for deliverance, and then to marvel when the storm abated (see Jonah 1:3-16).

But Jesus is something greater than Jonah (see Matthew 12:41). And Mark wants us to come to see what the apostles saw - that God alone has the power to rebuke the wind and the sea (see Isaiah 50:2; Psalm 18:16). This is the point of today’s First Reading.

If even the wind and sea obey Him, shouldn’t we trust Him in the chaos and storms of our own lives?

As with the apostles, the Lord has asked each of us to cross to the other side, to leave behind our old ways to travel with Him in the little ship of the Church.

In their fear today, they call Him, “Teacher.” And it is only faith in His teaching that can save us from perishing. We should trust in Christ, and like Christ - who was able to sleep through the storm, confident that God was with Him (see Psalm 116:6; Romans 8:31).

We should live in thanksgiving for our salvation, as today’s Epistle tells us - as new creations, no longer for ourselves but for Him who died for our sake.

FOR MORE READING.

Corpus Christi

Sunday 14^th June 2009

This Week: The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus (Corpus Christi).

A Reading from the Holy Gospel, Mk 14:12-16, 22-26

²² And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. 'Take it,' he said, 'this is my body.'

²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them, and all drank from it,

²⁴ and he said to them, 'This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many.

²⁵ In truth I tell you, I shall never drink wine any more until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.'

²⁶ After the psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.

¹² On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'

¹³ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,

¹⁴ and say to the owner of the house which he enters, "The Master says: Where is the room for me to eat thePassover with my disciples?"

¹⁵ He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.'

¹⁶ The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.

Corpus Christi – Blood of the Covenant

By Dr. Scott Hahn

All of today’s readings are set in the context of the Passover. The First Reading recalls the old covenant celebrated at Sinai following the first Passover and the exodus.

In sprinkling the blood of the covenant on the Israelites, Moses was symbolizing God’s desire in this covenant to make them His family, His “blood” relations.

Quoting Moses’ words in today’s Gospel, Jesus elevates and transforms this covenant symbol to an extraordinary reality. In the new covenant made in the blood of Christ, we truly become one with His body and blood.

The first covenant made with Moses and Israel at Sinai was but a shadow of this new and greater covenant made by Christ with all humankind in that upper room (see Hebrews 10:1).

The Passover that Jesus celebrates with His 12 apostles “actualizes,” makes real, what could only be symbolized by Moses’ sacrifice at the altar with 12 pillars. What Jesus does today is establish His Church as the new Israel, and His Eucharist as the new worship of the living God.

In offering himself to God through the Spirit, Jesus delivered Israel from the transgressions of the first covenant. And, as we hear in today’s Epistle, by His blood He purified us, and made us capable of true worship.

God does not want dead works or animal sacrifices. He wants our own flesh and blood, our own lives, consecrated to Him, offered as a living sacrifice. This is the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving that we sing of in today’s Psalm. This is the Eucharist.

What we do in memory of Him is to pledge our lives to Him, to renew our promise to live by the words of His covenant and to be His servants.

There is no other return we can offer to Him for the eternal inheritance He has won for us. So let us approach the altar, calling upon His name in thanksgiving, taking up the cup of salvation.

DOCTRINAL MESSAGE

The blood offering, as the seal of the Covenant, tied the chosen people more publicly and more firmly to God. We for whom Christ has shed his blood have been bought at a price that infinitely surpasses any ever paid; we belong to him, we are no longer our own and must from now on live for him (cf. Fourth Eucharistic Prayer). A sign of our loyalty to Christ is to "do everything the Lord has told us", like the people at Sinai (First Reading; cf. John 15:10), with the difference that the blood he has already shed for us sustains us so we can be faithful to that promise.

Sunday - Holy Trinity

Today (07-06-09) is the Holy Trinity Sunday – a solemnity - and the reading is taken from Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 28:16-20.

The Great Commission

16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Commentary of the day : Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (c.130-c.208), Bishop, theologian and martyr Demonstration of the apostolic preaching, 6-7 (©St Vladimir's seminary press, 1997)

"Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit"

This is the order of our faith, the foundation of the edifice and the support of our conduct: God, the Father, uncreated, uncontainable, invisible, one God, the Creator of all: this is the first article of our faith. And the second article: the Word of God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was revealed by the prophets according to the character of their prophecy and according to the nature of the economies of the Father, by whom all things were made, and who, in the last times, to recapitulate all things,' became a man amongst men, visible and palpable, in order to abolish death, to demonstrate life, and to effect communion between God and man. And the third article: the Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied and the patriarchs learnt the things of God and the righteous were led in the path of righteousness, and who, in the last times, was poured out in a new fashion upon the human race renewing man, throughout the world, to God. For this reason the baptism of our regeneration takes place through these three articles, granting us regeneration unto God the Father through His Son by the Holy Spirit: for those who bear the Spirit of God are led to the Word, that is to the Son, while the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father furnishes incorruptibility. Thus, without the Spirit it is not possible to see the Word of God, and without the Son one is not able to approach the Father; for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy Spirit, while the Spirit, according to the good-pleasure of the Father, the Son administers, to whom the Father wills and as He wills.

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and of Christian life. God alone can make it known to us by revealing himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Incarnation of God's Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father the Son is one and the same God. The mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in the name of the Son (⇒ Jn 14:26) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jn%2014:26)%20&version=31 and by the Son "from the Father" (⇒ Jn 15:26), reveals that, with them, the Spirit is one and the same God. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).

"The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as the first principle and, by the eternal gift of this to the Son, from the communion of both the Father and the Son" (St. Augustine, De Trin. 15, 26, 47). By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf. Paul VI, CPG).

"Now this is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity, without either confusing the persons or dividing the substance; for the person of the Father is one, the Son's is another, the Holy Spirit's another; but the Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal" (Athanasian Creed).

Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

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