Saturday, July 27, 2013

7/30/2013 – Tuesday of 17th week of Ordinary Time – St Peter Chrysologus – Bishop and Doctor of the Church – Psalm 103

       When I looked over the readings for today, it was the Psalm that struck me, especially in its response: “The Lord is kind and merciful.”  The psalmist goes on to say that: “The Lord secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed.  Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.” 
         Our saint of the day is also a Doctor of the Church – St Peter Chrysologus. His name may seem a little odd to us, but the word “Chrysologus” means “golden-tongued” or “golden-worded”.  He was given that name due to the brief and eloquent homilies he used to give.  One might wonder what relevance a bishop from Ravena, Italy who was born at the turn of the 5th century might have to us in our modern world.  Well, in relationship to the psalm today, Peter Chrysologus asserted that there are three things that we need to practice in our lives of faith that will help our faith remain constant and that will help our virtue and our values to endure.  Those three things are prayer, fasting, and mercy.  These are also the three holy practices that we are called to in the season of Lent in preparation for Easter each year.
         Our God is merciful – we hear this again and again in Sacred Scripture.  Yet, how do we reflect that mercy in our own lives? 


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