Thursday 6 October 2016  Thursday of week 27 in Ordinary Time Saint Bruno, Priest

Thursday 6 October 2016



Thursday of week 27 in Ordinary Time

  Saint Bruno, Priest

About Today

Psalm week: 3.

St Bruno (c.1033 - 1101)

He was born at Cologne and educated partly at Reims. He was head of the episcopal school there for almost 20 years. In 1075 he was appointed chancellor of the church of Reims and had to devote himself to the administration of the diocese. The bishop at that time, Manasses de Gournai, was impious, corrupt, and violent. Through the intervention of Bruno and others, the Council of Autun suspended Manasses, who retaliated by demolishing the houses of their accusers and confiscating their goods. In 1080 a final decision of the Pope, together with a popular uprising, deposed Manasses.

  Bruno was the obvious candidate as his successor – nearly 50, known and trusted, and experienced in administration. But in 1077 he and two of his fellow-canons at Reims had made a vow to abandon the world and enter the religious life. It had not been possible to act on that vow at the time. Now it was. Bruno fled.

  He went first to join St Robert, who had settled at Molesme and gathered followers round him, who were later to become the Cistercian Order. But this was not his vocation. In 1084, with six of his companions, he presented himself to St Hugh of Châteauneuf, Bishop of Grenoble, who installed them in a wild spot called Chartreuse, not far from Grenoble, among steep rocks and snow-covered mountains. They built a small monastery where they lived in deep retreat and poverty, entirely occupied in prayer and study.

  In 1088 one of Bruno’s pupils from Reims became Pope Urban II and resolved to continue the work of reform begun by Gregory VII. In 1090 Urban summoned Bruno to Rome to help. Narrowly avoiding being elected bishop again – of Reggio in Calabria, this time, which he escaped by getting one of his former pupils to be elected instead – Bruno managed to persuade the Pope to let him resume the solitary life. He founded a new monastery in the diocese of Squillace in Calabria, and for the rest of his life led an amphibian existence, being called away from time to time to help the Pope in his project of reform, but always returning.

  Bruno pioneered the “mixed” form of religious life, of hermits who live together in a community. He did not plan to found an Order, but the seed he had planted at Chartreuse grew into the Carthusian Order, which continues to this day, with some 24 houses spread across the world.

  

Other saints: Blessed Marie Rose Durocher (1811 - 1849)

Eulalie Durocher was born at Saint Antoine-sur-Richelieu in Quebec. Housekeeper at the rectory in Beloeil and facilitator of pastoral activities from 1831 to 1843, she saw the great need for instruction of youth. Girls especially received little schooling. At the request of Bishop Ignace Bourget, she went to Longueuil to found a new teaching community with her companions Henriette Céré and Mélodie Dufresne. On December 8, 1844, the three foundresses made their religious profession in the church of Longueuil.

  She died on 6 October 1849 at the age of 38. By her faith, her judgement and her apostolic creativity, this woman had a great influence on the society and the Church of Quebec.


Thursday of Week 27;

FIRST READING
Galatians 3:1–5

O stupid Galatians!
Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? I want to learn only this from you: did you receive the Spirit from works of the law, or from faith in what you heard? Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so many things in vain?— if indeed it was in vain. Does, then, the one who supplies the Spirit to you and works mighty deeds among you do so from works of the law or from faith in what you heard?

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Luke 1:69–70, 71–72, 73–75

R. (68) Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people. 

He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David. 

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people. 

Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us. 

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people. 

He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. 

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people. 

This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life. 

R. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people.

ALLELUIA
See Acts 16:14b

R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

Open our hearts, O Lord, to listen to the words of your Son. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL
Luke 11:5–13

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,' and he says in reply from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.' I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence. 

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"