Today, June 27
Feast of the Day
No feast of the day
Saint of the Day
Cyril was a patriarch of the Eastern Church and a Greek theologian. In 412, he succeeded his uncle as Archbishop of Alexandria and, in the tradition of the pharaohs and high priests of ancient Egypt, used his power and wealth to champion his cause - the defence of the doctrines of the Church. It is said that few people have had so formidable an enemy. At the Council of Ephesus in 431 in the great christological controversy against Nestorius, Cyril held that the relationship between the divine and human in Christ was so closely united that the Virgin was actually Theotokos (Mother of God). This controversy engaged Cyril until his death in 444. His christology and his eucharistic theology were reflected in his personal devotion to Christ and to the Blessed Sacrament. In 1882, he was declared a Doctor of the Church. ©2011 Living with Christ, Novalis - Bayard Press Canada Inc., http://www.livingwithchrist.ca/. Reprinted with permission.
Readings of the Day
Book of Lamentations 2,2.10-14.18-19.
The Lord has consumed without pity all the dwellings of Jacob; He has torn down in his anger the fortresses of daughter Judah; He has brought to the ground in dishonor her king and her princes. On the ground in silence sit the old men of daughter Zion; They strew dust on their heads and gird themselves with sackcloth; The maidens of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground. Worn out from weeping are my eyes, within me all is in ferment; My gall is poured out on the ground because of the downfall of the daughter of my people, As child and infant faint away in the open spaces of the town. They ask their mothers, "Where is the grain?"--in vain, As they faint away like the wounded in the streets of the city, And breathe their last in their mothers' arms. To what can I liken or compare you, O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Zion? For great as the sea is your downfall; who can heal you? Your prophets had for you false and specious visions; They did not lay bare your guilt, to avert your fate; They beheld for you in vision false and misleading portents. Cry out to the Lord; moan, O daughter Zion! Let your tears flow like a torrent day and night; Let there be no respite for you, no repose for your eyes. Rise up, shrill in the night, at the beginning of every watch; Pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your little ones (Who faint from hunger at the corner of every street).
Psalms 74(73),1-2.3-5a.5b-7.20-21.
Why, O God, have you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your flock which you built up of old, The tribe you redeemed as your inheritance, Mount Zion, where you took up your abode. Turn your steps toward the utter ruins; Toward all the damage the enemy has done in the sanctuary. Your foes roar triumphantly in your shrine; They have set up their tokens of victory. They are like men coming up with axes to a clump of trees. With chisel and hammer they hack at all the paneling of the sanctuary. They set your sanctuary on fire; The place where your name abides they have razed and profaned. Look to your covenant, For the hiding places in the land and the plains are full of violence. May the humble not retire in confusion; May the afflicted and the poor praise your name.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 8,5-17.
When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully." He said to him, "I will come and cure him." The centurion said in reply, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven." but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." And Jesus said to the centurion, "You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you." And at that very hour (his) servant was healed. Jesus entered the house of Peter, and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him. When it was evening, they brought him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick, to fulfill what had been said by Isaiah the prophet: "He took away our infirmities and bore our diseases."
Daily Reflection
He Who is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15), is Himself the perfect man. To the sons of Adam He restores the divine likeness which had been disfigured from the first sin onward. Since human nature as He assumed it was not annulled, by that very fact it has been raised up to a divine dignity in our respect too. For by His incarnation the Son of God has united Himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin (Heb 4:15) The Christian man, conformed to the likeness of that Son Who is the firstborn of many brothers (Rom 8:29), received "the first-fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23) by which he becomes capable of discharging the new law of love. Through this Spirit, who is "the pledge of our inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of "the redemption of the body" (Rom. 8:23)… Pressing upon the Christian to be sure, are the need and the duty to battle against evil through manifold tribulations and even to suffer death. But, linked with the paschal mystery and patterned on the dying Christ, he will hasten forward to resurrection in the strength which comes from hope. All this holds true not only for Christians, but for all men of good will in whose hearts grace works in an unseen way. For, since Christ died for all men,(Rom 8:32) and since the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, and divine, we ought to believe that the Holy Spirit in a manner known only to God offers to every man the possibility of being associated with this paschal mystery.