Universalis
Sunday 17 November 2024    (other days)
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Using calendar: Slovakia. You can change this.

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the God who saves us, alleluia.

Year: B(II). Psalm week: 1. Liturgical Colour: Green.

In other years: St Elizabeth of Hungary (1207 - 1231)

She was a daughter of the King of Hungary. At the age of four she was betrothed to Hermann, the eldest son of the Landgrave Hermann I of Thuringia, as part of a grand scheme of alliances against the German Emperor. (A Landgrave is a Count whose status derives directly from a feudal relationship with an emperor and not with any subsidiary nobleman; Thuringia today is a small province in central Germany.)
  Shortly after her betrothal Elizabeth went to live at the Thuringian court. Amidst a somewhat riotous court she grew up a very religious child, given to prayer and self-mortification, with her kind mother-in-law protecting her from the more unruly elements at court. Her betrothed, Hermann, died in 1216 and Elizabeth was betrothed to the second son, Ludwig.
  In 1221 Ludwig succeeded his father as Landgrave and in the same year Ludwig and Elizabeth were married. The marriage was a happy one and Ludwig willingly supported Elizabeth’s many works of charity. When Thuringia was beset by floods, famine and the plague while Ludwig was away dealing with the affairs of the Empire, Elizabeth took charge of the affairs of the state, distributed alms in all parts of the territory, and built a 28-bed hospital below the castle itself. She visited the hospital every day and also gave daily support to some 900 of the poor.
  In 1227 Ludwig died of the plague on the way to a crusade and Elizabeth was left a widow with three children.
  Franciscan spirituality was spreading across the world and the Franciscans had made their first settlement in Germany in 1221. With Elizabeth’s help a Franciscan monastery was founded at Eisenach in Thuringia, and she herself lived as close to a Franciscan life as it was possible for her to live, given the significance of her position. By 1228 she was able to distribute her dowry among the poor and enter the Franciscan house she had founded, as one of the first members of the Third Order of St Francis in Germany. She built a new Franciscan hospital at Marburg in 1227. She died in 1231, at the age of 24, worn out by her penances and her charitable labours.
  Her husband Ludwig, who benefited so much from her influence and example, is popularly known as “Ludwig the Holy” or “Ludwig the Saint”. Elizabeth herself was canonised by Pope Gregory IX in 1235. She has been described as “the greatest woman of the German Middle Ages.”

Other saints: St Hilda (614 - 680)

England: 17 Nov
Nottingham: 12 Oct
Saint Hilda (or Hild) was born in Northumbria in 614. She was the grandniece of King Edwin of Northumbria and was not baptised until the age of 13, when she was received into the Church by Paulinus at York, at the same time as King Edwin and many of his nobles.
  The first part of Hilda’s life was spent in the ordinary secular pursuits of the day. But these were years of constant warfare and in 655, her sister Hereswith, the wife of the King of the East Angles, suffered the loss of her husband in battle and decided to withdraw from the world to the monastery of Cale in Paris where she entered religious life. At the age of 33, Hilda decided to follow her and was only prevented from doing so by the intervention of St Aidan who directed her first to establish a small religious house on the north bank of the Wear where she stayed for a year, and then to take charge of the monastery of Hieu at Hartlepool. She proved to be an able and wise superior and, after several years at Hartlepool, she set about establishing the famous double monastery at Whitby which she governed for the rest of her life.
  Hilda was an extraordinary woman for her time. Her influence was widespread and her advice was valued by high and low alike. In her monastery she gave ‘a great example of peace and charity’, as Bede says ‘all who knew her called her mother, such were her wonderful godliness and grace.’ She laid emphasis on the study of the Scriptures and insisted on careful preparation for the priesthood, after the manner of St Aidan on Lindisfarne. Among her community was the first English poet, Caedmon, who had been the community’s herdsman until his poetic genius was discovered. After the death of St Aidan, when the divisions between those who held the Celtic tradition and those who supported Roman ways became critical, it was at her monastery that the important Synod of Whitby was held in 644 to decide upon a common Church order among the rival parties.
  Although her last seven years were a time of constant illness, she continued to lead her community to the end. Towards daybreak on 17 November 680 she asked for, and received, viaticum and died peacefully with her community around her or as St Bede says, ‘she joyfully saw death approaching… and passed from death to life.’
Middlesbrough Ordo

Other saints: St Hugh of Lincoln (1140 - 1200)

England
He was born near Grenoble in France and entered the Carthusian monastery of La Grande Chartreuse at the age of 25. In 1175 he was asked by King Henry II of England to become prior of a Carthusian house in England, and a decade later he was appointed bishop of Lincoln, a post which he accepted only when directly commanded to do so by the prior of La Grande Chartreuse. His diocese was the largest in England, and he spent the rest of his life in ceaseless work there. He delegated much authority. He was a friend (and critic) of successive kings, but also worked with his own hands on the extension of his cathedral. He gained a great reputation for justice, the care of the sick, and the support of the oppressed: he risked his life to help the Jewish community. He died in London on 16 November 1200 and was declared a saint in 1220, the first Carthusian to be canonized.

Other saints: St Dionysius of Alexandria, Bishop (190 - 265)

17 Nov (where celebrated)
Dionysius was born in Alexandria in 190. After studying literature and philosophy, he became a Christian and joined the catechetical school where he was taught by Origen. In 232 he became the head of that school. Fifteen years later he was appointed bishop of Alexandria and had to endure severe persecutions and even exile because of his boldness in proclaiming the faith. He involved himself in major theological disputes of the time. He died in 265.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: St Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430)

Augustine was born in Thagaste in Africa of a Berber family. He was brought up a Christian but left the Church early and spent a great deal of time seriously seeking the truth, first in the Manichaean heresy, which he abandoned on seeing how nonsensical it was, and then in Neoplatonism, until at length, through the prayers of his mother and the teaching of St Ambrose of Milan, he was converted back to Christianity and baptized in 387, shortly before his mother’s death.
  Augustine had a brilliant legal and academic career, but after his conversion he returned home to Africa and led an ascetic life. He was elected Bishop of Hippo and spent 34 years looking after his flock, teaching them, strengthening them in the faith and protecting them strenuously against the errors of the time. He wrote an enormous amount and left a permanent mark on both philosophy and theology. His Confessions, as dazzling in style as they are deep in content, are a landmark of world literature. The Second Readings in the Office of Readings contain extracts from many of his sermons and commentaries and also from the Confessions.

Liturgical colour: green

The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the orderly sequence of weeks through the year, a season in which we are being neither single-mindedly penitent (in purple) nor overwhelmingly joyful (in white).

Mid-morning reading (Terce)1 John 4:16
We ourselves have known and put our faith in God’s love towards ourselves. God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

Noon reading (Sext)Galatians 6:7-8
What a man sows, he reaps. If he sows in the field of self-indulgence he will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he sows in the field of the Spirit he will get from it a harvest of eternal life.

Afternoon reading (None)(Galatians 6:9-10)
We must never get tired of doing good, and then we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers in the faith.

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