The gift of power to reign with the Lord

[Rich]

The gift of power to reign with the Lord

"All the power possessed by the Lord is bestowed upon the apostles!
Those who were prefigured in the image and likeness of God in Adam
have now received the perfect image and likeness of Christ. They have
been given powers in no way different from those of the Lord. Those
once earthbound now become heaven-centered. They will proclaim that
the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that the image and likeness of God
are now appropriated in the company of truth, so that all the holy
ones who have been made heirs of heaven may reign with the Lord. Let
them cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and cast out
devils. Whatever impairment Adam's body had incurred from being goaded
on by Satan, let the apostles wipe away through their sharing in the
Lord's power. And that they may fully obtain the likeness of God
according to the prophecy in Genesis, they are ordered to give freely
what they freely have received (Mt 10:8). Thus a gift freely bestowed
should be freely dispensed."
by Hilary of Poitiers (315-367 AD) excerpt from commentary ON Mt. 10.4)

<<>><<>><<>>
December 5th – Bl. Peter of Siena

PETER TECELANO was a citizen of Siena and a comb-maker by trade. After
living for some years in happiness with his wife, she died, leaving
him childless, and he joined the third order of St. Francis,
determining to devote to his neighbour the time and money that was no
longer required for his own household. His life was quite without
exterior event, such as might be led by any pious artisan. He worked
hard and for long hours, and at night would go to some church to pray,
where meditating on St. Francis’s following of our Lord he conceived
the desire to be yet more closely associated with his religious
children.

The guardian of the Friars Minor accordingly gave him permission to
live in a cell adjoining their infirmary, where he continued to carry
on his business almost to the end of his life. He used frequently to
visit the sick in the hospital of our Lady della Scala and he had a
strong sense of his public as well as his private duties as a citizen:
once when he had been deliberately passed over in the collection of a
war-tax, he assessed himself and insisted on paying what seemed to him
to be due.

Bl. Peter attained to a high degree of contemplative prayer and
received spiritual graces, which it was difficult to hide, so that
many knew his holiness. Priests and theologians equally with
laybrothers and fellow workmen valued his opinion and advice, but not
at all by himself: “You are raising too much wind for this poor dust”,
he said to one who praised him. Among his chief faults in his own
opinion was talkativeness, and it took him fourteen years of hard work
to reduce it and build up the habit of silence at which he aimed. He
lived to a very advanced age, and as he lay dying foresaw the
calamities that were shortly to fall on Pistoia and Florence as well
as on his own city. He was buried in the Franciscan church and
pilgrims came from all over Italy to pray and be cured of their
infirmities at his tomb. His cultus was approved in 1802.

This holy tertiary, who is sometimes called Peter Pettinaio
(comb-maker), is noticed by Wadding and other annalists of the
Franciscan Order. There is a life by Peter di Monterone, said to have
been a contemporary, which was printed in Italian in 1529. Another
account was based upon a set of breviary lessons compiled in 1333.
Further details regarding sources will be found in the Archivum
Franciscanum Historicum, vol. xiv (1921), p. 27. See also Monumenta
Franciscana, vol. v (1890), pp. 34-52; Mazzara, Leggendario
Francescano, vol. iii (1680), pp. 618-623, and Leon, Aureole
Séraphique (Eng. trans.), vol. i, pp. 456-463. It is commonly held
that the “Pier Pettinagno”, the efficacy of whose prayers is made
known by Dante in the Purgatorio, canto xiii, line 128, was no other
than this beatus.


Saint Quote:
Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to
satisfy the heart?
-- Saint Gerard Majella

Bible Quote:
Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be
ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy
angels. (Mark 8:38)


<><><><>
Meditations for Advent and Christmas
[4] Further Claims Of Our King

Jesus Christ is our King and Lord, and we are His subjects; nay, we
belong to Him as His property and possession, because He has purchased
us for a great price. The price He has paid is not gold or earthly
treasure. It is nothing less than His own precious blood, of which He
shed the last drop upon the Cross as the price of our redemption. Each
drop of that blood had a greater value than all things that are in
Heaven and on earth: yet our King gave it all, and at the cost of pain
and anguish unspeakable, that we poor miserable wretches might be His
loyal servants, instead of the slaves of the devil. Hence we belong
entirely to Him, absolute, complete submission is our duty and our
privilege.

Our King also has dominion over us as members of His mystical Body,
the Church which He has founded, and which He has joined to Himself as
His mystical Spouse. Inasmuch, then, as we belong to the Church, we
claim Him as our Sovereign, and we also share in all the gifts and all
the privileges that He has communicated to His holy Spouse. As the
Church obeys Him, so ought we to do; as she can never be unfaithful to
Him in the very smallest detail, so ought our devotion to enter into
every action.

Our King also rules over us by our free choice. We chose Him at our
Baptism by the voice of our Sponsors; we chose Him at our Confirmation
by our own free will; we choose Him by each prayer we offer, each hymn
we utter in His honor, each aspiration we make to Him to guide and
help us, each time we cry out to Him, My Lord and My God! Once again,
0 Christ my Lord, I freely choose Thee as the King to rule my heart,
my will, my intellect, my whole self.