Daily Strength - The Cross

“If you bear the cross willingly it will bear you and lead you to the desired end; that is, to that place where suffering will end, a thing which cannot happen here on earth. 

If you bear it unwillingly, you will make it a burden to you and make it heavier, while, nevertheless,you have to bear it. 

If you fling away one cross, you will certainly find another, and perhaps a heavier one.” 

(Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ)

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

As we pray today, let us reflect on Pope Benedict’s 2009 commentary on today’s Gospel (Mark 1: 21-28).

This year, among the Sunday celebrations, the liturgy proposes the Gospel of St Mark for our meditation. A unique characteristic of this Gospel is what is called the "messianic secret": namely, the fact that, for the moment, Jesus does not want it to be known outside the small group of his disciples that he is the Christ, the Son of God. Moreover, at this point he warns both the Apostles and the sick whom he heals not to reveal his identity to anyone. For example, this Sunday's Gospel passage (Mk 1: 21-28) tells of a man possessed by the devil who suddenly shouts: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God". And Jesus commands the spirit: "Quiet! Come out of him!". And immediately the Evangelist notes the unclean spirit, with excruciating cries, came out of that man. Jesus not only drives demons out of people, freeing them from the worst slavery, but prevents the demons themselves from revealing his identity. And he insists on this "secret" because what is at stake is the success of his very mission, on which our salvation depends. Indeed, he knows that to liberate humanity from the dominion of sin he will have to be sacrificed on the Cross as the true Paschal Lamb. The devil, for his part, seeks to dissuade him so as to divert him instead toward the human logic of a powerful and successful Messiah. The Cross of Christ will be the devil's ruin, and this is why Jesus always taught his disciples that in order to enter into his glory he must suffer much, he must be rejected, condemned and crucified (cf. Lk 24: 26), for suffering is an integral part of his mission.

Jesus suffered and died on the Cross for love. On close consideration, it was in this way that he gave meaning to our suffering, a meaning that many men and women of every age have understood and made their own, experiencing profound tranquility even in the bitterness of harsh physical and moral trials. … We can be certain that no tear, neither of those who are suffering nor of those who are close to them, is lost before God. The Virgin Mary kept her Son's secret in her maternal heart and shared in the painful hour of the passion and crucifixion, sustained by her hope in the Resurrection. Let us entrust to her the people who are suffering and those who work every day to support them….

Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor

Today’s saint was born in Italy and studied philosophy and theology with the most learned man of the time, St. Albert the Great. Though some called him a “dumb ox” because of his physical size and a shy, quiet personality, St. Albert declared that “the lowing of this dumb ox would be heard all over the world.” Indeed, because of his teaching and writing, St. Thomas Aquinas has often been called the greatest theologian of all time. When Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Christ, he asked Thomas to compose hymns and prayers which continue to be used for benediction, holy hours, and Eucharistic adoration: Pange Lingua, O Salutaris Hostia, Tantum Ergo, and Adoro Te Devote. In June 2010 Pope Benedict gave three of his Wednesday General Audiences on St. Thomas, from which we have the following reflection. May our love of the Eucharist increase in us and all Christians a greater dedication to peace.

In speaking of the sacraments, St Thomas reflects in a special way on the Mystery of the Eucharist, for which he had such great devotion, the early biographers claim, that he would lean his head against the Tabernacle, as if to feel the throbbing of Jesus' divine and human heart. In one of his works, commenting on Scripture, St Thomas helps us to understand the excellence of the sacrament of the Eucharist, when he writes: "Since this [the Eucharist] is the sacrament of Our Lord's Passion, it contains in itself the Jesus Christ who suffered for us. Thus, whatever is an effect of Our Lord's Passion is also an effect of this sacrament. For this sacrament is nothing other than the application of Our Lord's Passion to us". We clearly understand why St Thomas and other Saints celebrated Holy Mass shedding tears of compassion for the Lord who gave himself as a sacrifice for us, tears of joy and gratitude.

Dear brothers and sisters, at the school of the Saints, let us fall in love with this sacrament! Let us participate in Holy Mass with recollection, to obtain its spiritual fruits, let us nourish ourselves with this Body and Blood of Our Lord, to be ceaselessly fed by divine Grace! Let us willingly and frequently linger in the company of the Blessed Sacrament in heart-to-heart conversation!

Daily Strength - The Mission of My Life

God has created me to do Him some definite service. 

He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. 

I have my mission. 

I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. 

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. 

He has not created me for naught. 

I shall do good; 

I shall do His work. 

I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. 

Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. 

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. 

He does nothing in vain. 

He knows what He is about. 

He may take away my friends. 

He may throw me among strangers. 

He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. 

Still, He knows what He is about.


Cardinal Newman

St. Angela Merici, virgin

The saint was born in 1474 in the diocese of Verona. Early in life she dedicated herself to Christ as His bride. After the death of her parents, she desired to live solely for God in quiet and solitude, but her uncle insisted that she manage his household. She renounced her patrimony in order to observe most perfectly the rule for Franciscan Tertiaries.

During a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, she lost her eyesight temporarily. Pope Clement VII, whom she visited in Rome, desired her to remain in the Holy City. Later she founded a society for girls, under the protection of St. Ursula; this was the beginning of the Ursuline Order. St. Angela was almost seventy when she died; her body remained incorrupt for thirty days. Remarkable phenomena occurred at her burial in the Church of St. Afra.

— Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch

Patron: Bodily ills; disabled people; handicapped people; illness; loss of parents; physically challenged people; sick people; sickness.

Symbols: Cloak; ladder.