His name is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Gospel Theme Song: click here to download

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:35-37.
As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, "How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David?
David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: 'The Lord said to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet."'
David himself calls him 'lord'; so how is he his son?" (The) great crowd heard this with delight.

Friday of the Ninth week in Ordinary Time : Mc 12,35-37

Commentary of the day
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350), Bishop of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church
Baptismal Catechesis 10, 2-5; PG 33, 662f

His name is «King of kings and Lord of lords." (Rv 19:16)

If any one wishes to show piety towards God, let him worship the Son; otherwise the Father does not accept his homage. The Father spoke with a loud voice from heaven, saying, «This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased» (Mt 3:17). The Father was well pleased with the Son... who is called «Lord» (Lk 2:11), not improperly as those who are so called among men, but as having a natural and eternal lordship...

While remaining who he is and truly holding unchanged the dignity of his Sonship, he adapts himself to our infirmities, like an excellent physician or a compassionate teacher. He is truly Lord; he did not receive this title by some sort of advancement. The dignity of lordship is his by nature. He was not given the title»lord» as we are, but he is so in truth, since by the Father's bidding he is Lord over his own works. Human lordship is exercised over people of dignity and weakness equal to our own, even over our elders; often a young master rules over aged servants. But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, lordship is not of this nature: he is first Maker, then Lord. First he made all things by the Father's will, then, he is Lord of the things which were made by him.

This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it.

Gospel Theme Song:
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Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:28-34.
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, «Which is the first of all the commandments?»
Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
De Trinitate, VIII, 12 ; PL 42, 958B-959A

“This is the greatest and first commandment. The second is like it.” (Mt 22:38-39)

“Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten of God and has knowledge of God. The man without love has known nothing of God, for God is love.” (1 Jn 4:7-8) In this text, the apostle John with his great authority shows clearly that fraternal love not only comes from God, but that this fraternal love, which causes us to love one another, is God himself.

Consequently, when we love our brother with a genuine love, we are loving our brother according to God, through God. And it is impossible not to love above everything that love itself, thanks to which we love our brother. From which we can conclude that these two precepts cannot exist one without the other. Since “God is love”, the person who loves love certainly loves God; and the person who loves his brother necessarily loves love. That is why the apostle John says a little later: “One who has no love for the brother he has seen cannot love the God he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20). What stops him from seeing God is that he does not love his brother. The person who does not love his brother is not in love; and the person who is not in love, is not in God, for “God is love.”

"To give his life as a ransom for many"

My Gospel Blog beginning today composes of Gospel Theme Song, The Gospel and The Reflection. Stay Holy and Faithful readers....

Theme song for today's Gospel:

click here to download this beautiful song....


Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:32-45.
They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles
who will mock him, spit upon him, scourge him, and put him to death, but after three days he will rise."
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish (me) to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."


Commentary of the day : Saint Alphonsus Liguori
"To give his life as a ransom for many"

A God who serves, who sweeps the house and gives himself to the most onerous work – a single one of these reflections should be enough to fill us with love! When our Savior began preaching his Gospel he made himself «the servant of all», himself asserting that «he had not come to be served, but to serve». It was as though he had said he wanted to be servant to everyone. And Saint Bernard says that, at the end of his life, he was not satisfied «with having taken the condition of a servant that he might place himself at our service but he wanted to take on the appearance of an unworthy slave and be struck and undergo the punishment due to us by reason of our sins.»

See how our Lord, as an obedient servant to all, undergoes the sentence of Pilate, unjust as it is, and yields to his executioners... In this way has this God so loved us that, out of love for us, he wanted to obey like a slave even to death and die a death that was both painful and humiliating: the torture of the cross (Phil 2,8).


Yet in all this he obeyed, not as God but as man, as the slave whose condition he had assumed. There are holy men who have surrendered themselves as slaves in order to redeem a poor man and have won the world's admiration by this heroic act of charity. But what sort of charity is this compared with that of the Redeemer? Being God; desiring to redeem us from the slavery due to us to the devil and death, he made himself as slave, allowing himself to be bound and nailed to the cross. «That the servant might become lord,» Saint Augustine says, «God willed to make himself a servant.»

They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17:11-19.
And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.
They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.


Commentary of the day : Saint Augustine
«They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.»

Listen everybody, Jews and Gentiles... Listen, all the kingdoms of the earth! I am not preventing you from ruling over this world, «my kingdom is not of this world.» (Jn 18:36) So don't be afraid with that senseless fear which seized Herod when my birth was announced to him... «No,» the Savior says, «my kingdom is not of this world.» All of you, come to a kingdom, which is not of this world; come by faith. May you not be made cruel by fear. It is true that the Son of God, speaking of the Father, says in a prophecy: «Through him, I was established as king on Zion, his holy mountain.» (Ps 2:6) But that Zion and that mountain are not of this world.

And what is his kingdom? It is they who believe in him, those to whom he says: «You are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.» But he nevertheless wants them to be in the world; he prays to his Father: «I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the evil one.» For he did not say: «My kingdom is not in this world,» but rather: «It is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over.» (Jn 18:36)

For his kingdom really is here on earth until the end of the world and up until the harvest the weeds are mingled with the good seed (Mt 13:24f.)... His kingdom is not from here, for he is like a traveler in this world. To those over whom he reigns, he says: «You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.» (Jn 15:19) So they did belong to this world when they were not yet his kingdom, and they belonged to the prince of this world (Jn 12:3)... All who are born of Adam's sinful race belong to this world; all who were reborn in Jesus Christ belong to his kingdom and no longer belong to this world. For «God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son.» (Col 1:13)

Yielding fruit in due season

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:1-8.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.


Commentary of the day : Blessed Charles de Foucauld
Yielding fruit in due season

Yielding fruit in due season

«Happy the man who... meditates on the Law day and night. He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season» (Ps 1,1-3). O my God, you tell me how happy I shall be, happy with a true happiness, happy on the last day... and that, wretched though I be, I am a palm tree planted near running waters, waters running with your divine will, your divine love and grace... and that I shall yield my fruit in due season. Thus you deign to comfort me. It seems to me that I am without fruit, without any good works, and I say to myself: I was converted eleven years ago and what have I done? What comparison is there between the works accomplished by the saints and my own? I see myself with hands completely empty.

But you deign to comfort me; you tell me: «You will bear fruit in your season»... What season is this? The season that comes to all of us is the hour of judgement. And you promise me that, if I persevere with good will and in the struggle, however small I see myself to be, I shall yield fruit at the final hour.

The light of the world

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 8:12-20.
Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
So the Pharisees said to him, "You testify on your own behalf, so your testimony cannot be verified."
Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I do testify on my own behalf, my testimony can be verified, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.
And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid, because I am not alone, but it is I and the Father who sent me.
Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two men can be verified.
I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me."
So they said to him, "Where is your father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also."
He spoke these words while teaching in the treasury in the temple area. But no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.


Commentary of the day : Saint Augustine
The light of the world

Monday of the Fifth week of Lent : Jn 8,12-20

Commentary of the day
Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (North Africa) and Doctor of the Church
Sermons on St John's Gospel, no. 34

The light of the world

It would seem to me that the Lord's words: «I am the light of the world» are clear enough for those with eyes that enable them to have a share in that light. But those who only have bodily eyes are astonished to hear it said by our Lord Jesus Christ: «I am the light of the world.» There may even be those who say: «Would Christ be the sun that determines the day by its rising and setting?»... No, Christ is not that. The Lord is not the created sun but him by whom the sun was created. For «all things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be» (Jn 1,3). Therefore he is the light who created the light we see. Let us love this light, understand it, desire it, that led by it we may in due course attain it and may live in it so as never to die...

So you see, my brethren, you see, if you have eyes that see spiritual things, what kind of light this is of which the Lord says: «Whoever follows me does not walk in darkness.» Follow that sun and let us see whether or not you walk in darkness. Behold how he arises and comes towards you. Following his course he makes his way westwards; but you on your part, must walk towards the rising sun, the Christ.

Loving God and neighbor

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 12:28-34.
One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that (he) answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Commentary of the day
Pope Benedict XVI
Encyclical « Deus caritas est », § 17 – 18 ( © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Loving God and neighbor

The love-story between God and man consists in the very fact that this communion of will increases in a communion of thought and sentiment, and thus our will and God's will increasingly coincide: God's will is no longer for me an alien will, something imposed on me from without by the commandments, but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is in fact more deeply present to me than I am to myself.[10] Then self- abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy (cf. Ps 73 [72]:23-28).

Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend... Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.