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		<td align=left valign=top width=20%><font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262 size=+1><i>Feed the Poor, but Feed Your Soul First.</i>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The Ninth Thursday of Ordinary Time.<small><br><br>Lessons from the primary feria, according to the ordinary form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>• Tobit 6: 10-11; 7: 1, 9-17; 8: 4-9.<br>• Psalm 128: 1-5.<br>• Mark 12: 28-34.</small>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The First Class Feast of Corpus Christi.<small>*<br><br>Lessons from the proper, according to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite:<br><br>• I Corinthians 11: 23-29.<br>• Psalm 144: 15-16.<br>• John 6: 56-59.</small>

<p><hr noshade align=center color=#7c6262><p>The First Thursday of the Apostles Fast; the Feast of Our Venerable Father Metrophanes, Patriarch of Constantinople; and, the Feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearers Martha & Mary.<small><br><br>Lessons from the pentecostarion, according to the typicon of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Rite:<br><br>• Romans 5: 10-16.<br>• Matthew 8: 23-27.</small>

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		<td valign=top width-80%><font face="Maiandra GD"><p align=justify><img src="communion3.jpg" align=right hspace=15 vspace=5>1:22 PM 6/4/2015 — An extremely brief thought on the two great commandments as explained by our Lord:

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;שְׁמַע, יִשְׂרָאֵל:  יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ, יְהוָה אֶחָד (<i>Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad</i>): “Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is God.  The Lord is One.”  The first of the two great commandments is from Deuteronomy (6: 4).  It's what a devote Jew will tack on the door-post of his home.  The second commandment is word for word from Leviticus: “Do not seek revenge, or bear a grudge for wrong done to thee by thy fellow-citizens; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; thy Lord is his” (19: 18 Knox).  What is new in the teaching of Jesus is the fact the He puts these two commandments together and puts them in a certain order.  This one is first, and the other is second.  That's the point that Jesus is making.  And when you think about it, you can see how important a point that is for us in our time.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;There are too many today who seek to assuage a guilty conscience by having recourse to the corporal works of mercy.  That's not to say that they aren't important, or that they don't cancel a multitude of sins, because they do; and, we know our Holy Father is encouraging us to rededicate ourselves to the care of the poor and the needy.  I'm not contradicting him, but only pointing out the danger: the danger of reinventing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, seeing it as nothing more than a blueprint for social justice, and Christian living as simply a matter of feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless, having little, if anything, to do with how we live our private lives.  This is rooted in the inability of modern man to acknowledge a truth outside of himself, which results in him professing a religion of which he knows little, making it up for himself as he goes along.  Christians who think this way are really the Scribes of our time, who, like their counterparts of the first century, think that they have it all figured out.  And it takes the Divine wisdom of Our Lord to put it all back in perspective so simply: yes, we must do good for others;— that is a part of the Gospel message—but, we must do it for the right reason.  It is not our good works themselves that please God, but the fact that they are done for Him, in conjunction with an otherwise holy life; just as the Psalmist says, "… here, O God, is my sacrifice, a broken spirit; a heart that is humbled and contrite thou, O God, wilt never disdain" (51: 19 Knox).

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Practically speaking, we have to look at our own lives.  How many of us think that we are all right before God because of all the wonderful things we've done for our fellow man or even for the Church, when the real question should be: "When was the last time I went to confession?  When did I last really prepare myself for Holy Communion?  When did I do something for God that wasn't rooted in the social gospel but rather in the moral gospel?"  God want's our good works only if they bring us closer to Him and motivate us to live holy and moral lives; otherwise they are worthless to Him.  All that is important to God is that we are His: heart, mind, and soul.

<br>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;As we offer up together the Sacrifice of the Lord's Body and Blood, let us remember that, if we can't offer ourselves, then we have nothing of value to offer.

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<font face="Maiandra GD" color=#7c6262><p align=justify><small>* It is generally understood that, in the personal parish described in <i>Summorum Pontificum,</i> Art. 10, where both forms of the Roman Rite are celebrated, the bishop can grant permission for the Feast of Corpus Christi to be observed in the extraordinary form on the same day it is observed in the ordinary form in the United States; that is, the Sunday following Trinity Sunday.  If, on the other hand, the personal parish of Art. 10 is dedicated exclusively to the extraordinary form, then the feast must be observed today.  This understanding is not held by everyone, nor is it clear what would be celebrated on this day if the feast is observed the following Sunday; e.g., would the Mass for Corpus Christi be celebrated today <i>and</i> on Sunday, or would a ferial day be observed using the orations and lessons from the First Sunday after Pentecost as on the other ferias of this week?  Note that the Mass for the First Sunday after Pentecost is provided exclusively for use on the ferias following Trinity Sunday on which no saint's day is observed, the First Sunday itself always being displaced by Trinity Sunday.</small></font>

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