ON THE TWOFOLD COMING OF CHRIST

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

A Scrutatio for the 1st Sunday of the CHRISTIAN SEASON OF ADVENT

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
Isaiah 64:1-9 / Psalm 80 / I Corinthians 1:1-9 / Mark 13:24-37

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Isaiah  63:16b-17, 19b and 64:2-7 / Psalm 80:2-3, 15-16 and 18-19 / I Corinthians 1:3-9 / Mark 13:33-37

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 25 (24):1-3 

Epistle: Romans 13:11-14 

Gradual: Psalm 25 (24):3-4

Alleluia:

Psalm 84 (85):7

Gospel 

Luke 21:25-33

Offertory: 

Psalm 25 (24):1-3 

Communion Antiphon: Psalm 85 (84):12 

For the whole Liturgical Year B of the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Divine Liturgy of the Most Sublime Sacrifice of the Mass, in which the focus will be on the Sacred Gospel According to the blessed Evangelist Mark, who is the “first ever Papal Secretary” to the blessed Apostle Peter, Let me be “silent” and let the Sacred Fathers and Doctors of our Holy Mother Church speak to us about the Beauty of our Most Sacred Faith given to us by our Most Sweet and Sacred Redeemer, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Only Son of the Eternal Father and the Word of God made flesh!

Let us meditate on this first Sunday of Advent (from the Latin: Adventus, which means “Coming”, for this four Sundays will focus on the first coming of Jesus in his Incarnation as well as His second and final coming as the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the Ultimate Judge of the Cosmos) from this sermon of Saint Cyril, the 4^th Century A.D. Bishop of Jerusalem, entitled:

ON THE TWOFOLD COMING OF CHRIST

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.

In general, whatever relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and a coming before all eyes, still in the future.

At the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At his second coming he will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming he endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming he will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. At the second we shall say it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

The Saviour will not come to be judged again, but to judge those by whom he was judged. At his own judgment he was silent; then he will address those who committed the outrages against him when they crucified him and will remind them: You did these things, and I was silent.

His first coming was to fulfill his plan of love, to teach men by gentle persuasion. This time, whether men like it or not, they will be subjects of his kingdom by necessity.

Malachi the prophet speaks of the two comings. And the Lord whom you seek will come suddenly to his temple: that is one coming.

Again he says of another coming: Look, the Lord almighty will come, and who will endure the day of his entry, or who will stand in his sight? Because he comes like a refiner's fire, a fuller's herb, and he will sit refining and cleansing.

These two comings are also referred to by Paul in writing to Titus: The grace of God the Saviour has appeared to all men, instructing us to put aside impiety and worldly desires and live temperately, uprightly, and religiously in this present age, waiting for the joyful hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Notice how he speaks of a first coming for which he gives thanks, and a second, the one we still await.

That is why the faith we profess has been handed on to you in these words: He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

Our Lord Jesus Christ will therefore come from heaven. He will come at the end of the world, in glory, at the last day. For there will be an end to this world, and the created world will be made new.

ὕδατος ζῶντος

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

ὕδατος ζῶντος

(hydatos zōntos)

LIVING WATER

Scrutatio 

for the 

THE 24^th SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME/KINGDOMTIDE/TIME OF THE CHURCH

=AND=

THE PAULINE/VATICAN II FEAST OF JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer

Amos 5:18-24 / Psalm 70 / I Thessalonians 4:13-18 / Matthew 25:1-13

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Wisdom of King Solomon 6:12-16 / Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 / I Thessalonians 4:13-18 / Matthew 25:1-13

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Jeremiah 29:11, 12, 14 and Psalm 85:1

Epistle: Colossians 1:9-14

Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 44:7-8 and 130:1

Gospel

Matthew 24:15-35

Offertory: Psalm 130:1

Communion Antiphon: Mark 11:24

October 11, 2014...

3:45 p.m. …

The Tridentine Feast of the Immaculate (Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12:17) and Ever Virgin (Matthew 13:55 + Matthew 27:56, Jude 1:1 = John 19:25-27) Theotokos (God-Bearer/Mother of God-Luke 1:43)…

I was on my way to the Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz in Bonanza, Fortune Marikina City for our Saturday Gawarasal of our Basic Ecclesial Community while at the same time I was braving the heavy downpour and the flooded road…

Soaking wet and tired from this “ordeal” of mine, I opted to enter the chapel (which was a safe haven from the flood waters) to pray and meditate upon the Holy Rosary, and prepare for the afternoon’s activity…

But, alas, due to the fact that even the participants were cleaning the mud that entered their house due to the flood, our Gawarasal for that day was cancelled…

In spite of all this, I opted to stay up to the Celebration of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Divine Liturgy of the Most Sublime Sacrifice of the Mass…

It was a day to remember, due to the experience that I and the whole neighborhood have been through, a “mini tribulation” that ended in HAVING THE FORETATSE OF CALVARY, THE EMPTY TOMB AND THE PAROUSIA, THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD IN THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST!

The chapel’s children’s choir (known as “tinig kerubin”-cherubims’ voices) sang with utmost gusto for the praise and glory of our BLESSED LORD!

Father Randy’s homily was both hilarious and edifying!

The evening’s simple Liturgy was celebrated with its deserved splendor and dignity in that small chapel!

A foretaste of HIM WHO IS ALWAYS WITH US YET IS STILL COMING IN FULL SPLENDOR AND GLORY!

MARANATHA! COME O LORD!

MARAN’ATHA! THOU HAST COME, O LORD!

RAYMOND LOVES EVERYBODY... WITH THE LOVE OF CHRIST!

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

RAYMOND LOVES EVERYBODY... WITH THE LOVE OF CHRIST!

Scrutatio 

for the 

 THE 22^nd SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME/KINGDOMTIDE/TIME OF THE CHURCH 

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
Zephaniah 1:7 and 12-18 / Psalm 90 / I Thessalonians 5:1-10 / Matthew 25:14-15 and 19-29

  

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20 and 30-31 / Psalm 128:1-2, 3 and 4-5 / I Thessalonians 5:1-6 / Matthew 25:14-30 

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

 Introit: Jeremiah 29:11-12, 14 and Psalm 85:1

Epistle: Philippians 3:17-21-14:1-3

Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 44:7-8 and 130:1-2

Gospel 

Matthew 9:18-26

Offertory: Psalm 130:1-2

Communion Antiphon: Mark 11:24 

For today's SCRUTATIO, I would like to share with you about the PASTORAL LOVE that His Eminence, Archbishop Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke has in shepherding the flock that Christ has entrusted to his care:

How Cardinal Burke welcomed home a gay activist

Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke emerged from the recent, tempestuous Extraordinary Synod on the Family as a champion of orthodox Catholic sexual morality just as Pope Francis has removed him from the Church’s most senior canon law posting.

However, if you sit across the Church leadership’s widening cultural gap from the former archbishop of St. Louis, as Alicia Ambrosio, producer and host of Vatican Connections on Canada’s Salt and Light Television, evidently does, you see him as stuck in “an ivory tower” cut off from “the messiness of life” that homosexual Catholics contend with.

Now a testimony from one of those homosexual Catholics has resurfaced on the Internet, saluting Cardinal Burke for helping him to escape, rather than live in, that so-called messiness, and to reclaim his Catholic birthright.

“While some malign Archbishop Burke for his fidelity to God, Church and all souls, I say that he is a true shepherd of the faithful and a present day Athanasius."

Former homosexual activist Eric Hess, writing three years ago in Celebrate Life magazine, broke with several cherished dogmas of militant homosexuality in recounting how he returned like the Prodigal Son and found a warm welcome from the man he once spurned.

Hess’ first heresy was to name the cause of his homosexuality—a dreadful relationship with an alcoholic father who frequently beat his mother “in addition to threatening me and my brother.” Hess writes how he reacted by looking for a substitute father in his teens and thought he had found one in a teacher until the latter took advantage of his vulnerability to seduce him.

While this account dovetails with what psychology had concluded by the mid-20thcentury as an explanation for homosexuality and a basis for treatment, fierce lobbying by the homosexual lobby forced both the psychology and psychiatry professions into suppressing it in the mid-70s. Both groups now meekly toe the line dictated by the gay lobby, which preaches, without evidence, that homosexuality is innate, and therefore immutable and untreatable.

But Hess goes further, ascribing to Pope Paul VI’s prediction that the Pill, by disconnecting sexuality from its Divine purpose, promoted not only homosexuality, but adultery, abortion, and embryonic stem cell use—all expressions of people reduced to “sexual objects.”

In 1995, after four years of trying to combine sporadic Catholic worship with fulltime homosexual cohabitation, Hess gave up, and melodramatically “boxed up all my crucifixes and Bibles and dropped them off at the office of the bishop of La Crosse, Wisconsin with a letter renouncing the Catholic faith.”

That would be Bishop Raymond “Ivory Tower” Burke. To Hess’ surprise and chagrin, Bishop Burke responded kindly, saying he respected Hess’ decision but would pray for his return. A self-described “gay activist,” Hess was outraged at the bishop’s “arrogance,” and wrote back to accuse him of harassment and instruct him to never write again. But Bishop Burke did write again, one last, kind letter, promising to obey Hess’ dictate, but also promising, “if I should want to reconcile with the Church, he would welcome me back with open arms.”

Of course, Hess was having none of this, he thought, but when he told his lover three years later, after a short but intense period of prayer and discernment led by a parish priest, that he needed to return to the Church, the lover responded, “I knew all along that this day would come. Do what you need to do to be happy.”

Hess then describes the wonderful welcome he received. His parish priest heard his confession and found him a Catholic family to live with until he could find a new apartment. As for Bishop Burke, when Hess called at his office to reconcile, “he embraced me.” He also wondered if Hess remembered the package of Catholic objects he had left there in his anger, which, of course, Hess did. The bishop had kept them, in the belief that Hess would return, and now he gave them back.

Hess recounts how he then considered—and studied for—the priesthood but ultimately concluded his vocation was to “faithfully live the single life” in chastity.

But some “apostate” priests (mostly in their 50s and 60s) still try to convince him, even from within the Confessional, that God wanted him to reactivate his homosexuality. These men were not helping him, he writes. “As someone who suffered in the state of mortal sin for many years, I assure you that there is no happiness outside of the moral order.” 

The man who has helped him was his bishop, who let him leave the Church so he could return to it. “While some malign Archbishop Burke for his fidelity to God, Church and all souls, I say that he is a true shepherd of the faithful and a present day Athanasius,” Hess wrote. “I tell you that he remains a mentor and an inspiration to me. Although my own biological father rejected me, Archbishop Burke became my spiritual father by lovingly representing our Father in heaven.” 

SOURCE: How Cardinal Burke welcomed home a gay activist

May we learn and be challenged by this humble and CHRISTOCENTRIC example of this humble prince of Holy Mother Church!

בָּ֫יִת

SCRUTATIO SCRIPTURAE

בָּ֫יִת

(bayith)

HOUSE

Scrutatio 

for the 

 THE 22^nd SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME/KINGDOMTIDE/TIME OF THE CHURCH 

Readings from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer
Amos 5:18-24 / Psalm 70 / I Thessalonians 4:13-18 / Matthew 25:1-13 

  

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Wisdom of King Solomon 6:12-16 / Psalm 63:2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 / I Thessalonians 4:13-18 / Matthew 25:1-13 

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Psalm 130:3-4 and 1-2 

Epistle: Philippians 1:6-11

Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 133:1-2 and 147:11

Gospel 

Matthew 22:15-21

Offertory: 

Esther (Septuagint version) 14:12-13

Communion Antiphon: Psalm 17:6

FOR THE FEAST OF THE SACRED DEDICATION OF THE "FIRST HOUSE OF OUR HOLY MOTHER CHURCH IN ROME", THE ARCHBASILICA OF MOST BLESSED SAVIOR AND HIS SERVANTS, SAINTS JOHN TH BAPTIST AND JOHN THE EVANGELIST AT THE LATERAN

Readings for the Pauline/Vatican II Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9 and 12 / Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6 and 8-9 / I Corinthians 3:9c-11 and 16-17 / John 2:13-22  

 

Readings for the Tridentine Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Introit: Genesis 28:17 and Psalm 84:1-2

Epistle: Revelations 21:2-5

Gradual and Alleluia: 

This place was made by God, a priceless mystery, it is without reproof. 

V.: O God, before Whom stands the choir of Angels, give ear to the prayers of Thy servants.  Psalm 138:2

Gospel 

Luke 19:1-10

Offertory: 

I Chronicles 29:17

Communion Antiphon: Matthew 21:13

As I was learning about the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, as well as the stand of Cardinal Kasper, my heart was pounding...

I was imploring the ALMIGHTY GOD to please intervene during these sessions...

But after learning about the interventions (testimonies) of Mr. and Mrs. George and Cynthia Campos from the Philippines, members of the Couples for Christ:

As well as Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey and Alice Heinzen from Wiscosin, who are one of the propagators of the NFP in the Diocese of La Crosse:

All I can say is...

JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD, IS INDEED THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH!

And no matter what challenges OUR HOLY MOTHER CHURCH faces, still, THE GATES OF HELL WILL NEVER PREVAIL AGAINST HIS HOUSE AND ONE AND ONLY BRIDE FOREVERMORE!

THIS IS THE FATHER'S HOUSE!

THIS IS THE HOLY SPIRIT'S TEMPLE!

THIS IS THE ALMIGHTY AND MOST HIGH GOD'S FAMILY AND INHERITANCE!