THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2018

«  The readings for this Sunday put in front of us God’s Law, and Jesus as the incarnation of the Law and of the Temple. 

FIRST READING   –  Ex 20:1-17                                                                                                                                  

Ø  The people that had been liberated from Egypt by God, and that made a covenant with God on Mount Sinai, is called by his God to translate this covenant into a behavior which reflects this love between God and his people, and the response of the  people.

Ø  The Law, the Torah is about the behavior towards God, towards the other persons and towards the whole of creation.      

Ø  The covenant has been made between God and the people. From now on there will be no more sins against God and sins against the people, all sins will be against God. 

Ø  This explains why Jesus in his farewell to his disciples gave only one commandment, the commandment of the fraternal love, because this love presupposes the love of God.   

Ø  The gratitude towards Yahweh who loves and liberates is the reason for living the Decalogue, if we separate the Decalogue from the covenant it loses its value.    

Ø  The biblical morality goes from the love of thanksgiving to the Lord, to a marital commitment and then to the morality of imitation.   

Ø  The people of Israel have to continue in the world the liberating work begun by God.   

Ø  With its fidelity to the covenant manifested in the content of the Law, it will help its brothers and sisters, members of the human race, to discover, through the witness, the God who loves them.  

Ø  The code of the covenant is formulated in the negative form. It is the most ample way to express the precept, much more than the positive way.   

Ø  The negative formulation of the law allows all the other actions which are not prohibited.  

Ø  This way to formulate the law makes it universal and forever, no matter what culture, what time. This law is valid always and for all.  

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM –Ps  18: 8. 9. 10. 11

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

v  This psalm is a hymn to the Law of God, to its beauty, its perfection, its power to give us joy.   

v  In this four stanzas the law is:    

o   Perfect and it refreshes the soul   

o   Clear and enlightens the eyes and gives joy to  the heart  

o   pure, permanent, just

o   more attractive than any other appealing thing. 

SECOND READING  1Cor 1:22-25

«  The Jews asked Jesus for a sign to be able to believe, or to accept his message. 

«  The Greeks, so full of human wisdom, ask for what they call  ”wisdom” 

«  But Paul says that Christ is this “wisdom” of God, which seems foolishness or a scandal. 

«  And Paul adds something very hard “the weakness of God=Jesus on the cross” is more powerful than men.    

«  Christ on the cross on mount Golgotha is the Covenant which is expressed in the New Law, the Law of the scandal of the cross. THIS IS OUR LAW!!! THE LAW OF THE FOLLOWERS OF THE CRUCIFIED AND RISEN CHRIST!!! Fable, scandal, foolishness…   

GOSPEL Jn 2:13-25

      This Gospel has two parts: the purification of the Temple and the sign that Jesus gives 

      This episode takes place during    

o   The first Passover of Jesus during the first year of his ministry   

o   John mentions three Passovers: that of the Temple, that of the Bread of Life; and that of his death and resurrection.   

o   The synoptic Gospels  speak of only one Passover, the last one, and they introduce this episode of the purification of the Temple during that Passover.   

§  Jesus at the same time that he overturns the tables of the money changers (they changed the profane currency, that had the image of Cesar, by the sacred currency to  give it to the Temple) says some words from Scripture: “stop making my Father's house a marketplace. “

§  The evangelist John adds that his disciples recalled the words of the Scriptures “the zeal for your house consumes me.”  

§  “To recall: it is not to look back but, to make present, it is to enter into the meaning of the words, that is what  the disciples did after the resurrection.   

o   The second part of this reading has to do with the sign they asked for:   

§  Jesus gives a mysterious and provocative sign.  

§  The destruction of the Temple and its being raised again.   

§  John says that only after the resurrection did the disciples “recalled” and understood that He was speaking of the temple of his body.  

§  Jesus is    

·         The true Temple where God is truly adored.

·         The Temple where we worship God as the first word pronounced on Mount Sinai says.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

·         But Jesus is also the Law, the fullness of the Words spoken by God on Mount Sinai.   

·         Because God is the LAW, and Jesus is the Word=the Son=the Second Person of the Trinity made man and thus He is the Law made visible among us.  

·         From the moment the Incarnate Word=Jesus has come among us, we do not have any other LAW than His WORDS echo and fullness of the WORDS OF LOVE PRONOUNCED BY YAHWEH ON MOUNT SINAI.  

  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Éxodo” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La Casa de la Biblia, Estella Navarra, 1997.
• LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.
• LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”.   Barcelona 1985.
• RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.

§  VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  “Autobiografía ” de San Antonio María Claret.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER  

I was very attentive, overwhelmed to what was happening, and it seemed to me that I was reading the Holy Law of God, but without seeing any books nor letters; I  was seeing it written, and I was understanding it so very well, that it seemed to me it was imprinting in my soul but in a particular way the book of the Holy Gospels, which till then I had never read, neither  the Sacred Scripture (O.T). After, by God’s grace, I have read something and I have seen it written word by word, as our Lord taught it to me from the holy tree of the cross. It seems to me that the words I understood were coming out from his host holy mouth.  Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography  5). 

 From the very beginning I have been thrilled by the preaching style of Jesus, his likenesses and parables. And how He was persecuted! He was a sign of contradiction, persecuted for his teaching, his works, and his very person. Finally, they took his life amid affronts, torments, and insults, making Him suffer the most shameful and painful death imaginable.

 (St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 222)

                                                                                                                                                                                           

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2018

«  On the first Sunday of Lent we contemplated Jesus tempted, to help us to see his vulnerability as a member of the human race. 

«  In the second Sunday we are invited to contemplate his glory, his divine being.   

«  We need to meditate and contemplate both realities to able to follow the Lord unconditionally.   

 FIRST READING  – Gen 22:1-2.9.10-13.15-18.

Ø   The cycle of Abraham ends with the story of the sacrifice of Isaac.  Frightening story which poses a great number of questions, probably because we read it literally, in a fundamentalist way. 

Ø  According to a commentator the biblical author uses a legend to give a message on the meaning of faith, on the value of life and that God is the God of life, and does not want human sacrifices. A legend which fits well with the behavior of Abraham.   

Ø  Another commentator thinks that Abraham in his process of learning to know God who has spoken to him, has called him and has made promises to him, wants to offer to God the best he has, even if this entails that the promises will not be able to be fulfilled, or God will provide.  

Ø  A third commentator says that the story is about a believer who discovers, through the tortuous way of the divine silence, the promise of a complete salvation. 

Ø  In the Old Testament God is portrayed in contradictory ways, sometimes with the tenderness of a parent and other times with great rigor. Sometimes God promises and later on asks to do something different.   

Ø  In truth it is not God who is ambivalent, but the faith of human being who in his/her process of maturing understands  God  better little by little.  This is what the writings of the different authors of the Old Testament reflect. The Bible is in truth the story about God who seeks the human being, and the slow and sometimes contradictory response of that same human being.     

Ø  Let us try to draw something from the great theological richness of this text, to nurture our faith.     

Ø  Abraham does not have Ishmael anymore because he has sent away the mother with the child. The warranty of having descendants rests now on Isaac. 

Ø  Abraham understands o believes that God calls him and he responds quickly “Here I am.” 

Ø  He thinks that God wants him to sacrifice his son that he gave to him. And he makes himself ready to fulfill God’s order.   

Ø  But this will entail that the promises will not be able to be fulfilled, there will be neither descendants nor land, nor promises. Everything will be over. 

Ø  Abraham will lose what is the support of his faith, and in the darkness of her heart he is ready to execute what he believes is the will of God, and thus he will become the father of all believers from all times, who will trust even without seeing, who will hope against hope.  

Ø  God stops the arm of Abraham. God condemns the sacrifice of children or of any other human being.  

Ø  Abraham, guided by God, does not sacrifice his son and instead he offers a goat

Ø  The people of Israel, influenced maybe by this account, understood that the first born belongs to God, and thus they recue him offering a sacrifice, the paschal lamb on the night of the Passover.  Like  Abraham who offered the sacrifice of a sheep in place of his son.  Remember also the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the parents offer   two turtle-doves and two pigeons as a ransom for the son.  

Ø  We are called to live our faith, our intimate relationship with God in every situation of our life, in the light and in the darkness when everything seems lost and we are alone facing the abyss. This is the    moment of unconditional love, of faith without seeing without light.  Truly it is the most shining moment of our life.    

Ø  Abraham understands that God does not want human sacrifices. The happiness he experiences when God stops his hand, seems to be reflected in the words “for having done this, for not having denied your only son to me… because you have obeyed…   

Ø  I transcribe beneath something I have read and which I find very interesting and clarifying. The author of the  book According to the Scriptures quotes from the book Temor y Temblor of the Danish philosopher  S. Kierkegaard  the following words:

“When the child has to be weaned, the mother dyes her breast with dark color. It would be cruel if the breast continued to be desirable when the child has to be weaned. Thus the child thinks that the breast has changed. But the mother has not changed at all, she continues to be the same, her eyes are filled with tenderness and love, precisely in the moment when she takes away  the child from her to help him or her grow.”   

Ø  There are two important points in Abraham’s story:  the faith of Abraham, the call to a trusting faith in Yahweh,  and the name of the mount “The Lord will provide” which continues to be a profession of unconditional faith in the God of the promises.   

Ø  Who is our Isaac? Are we willing to give it to the Lord? Even if this entails a radical change in our life? Or,  maybe it will require the acceptance of darkness that frightens us, because we think that in darkness we are without the Lord? but the truth is that he is always there.   

SALMO RESPONSORIAL 116,10.15.16-17.18-19

I WILL WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING

I believed even when I said

I am greatly afflicted

Precious in the eyes of the Lord

Is the death of his faithful ones.

O Lord, I am your servant

The son of your handmaid

You have loosed my bonds

To you will I offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving

And I will call upon the name of the Lord.

My vows to the Lord I will pay

In the presence of all his people

In the courts of the house of the Lord

In your midst, O Jerusalem!

ü  The words of the first stanza might  reflect the feelings that filled the heart of Abraham when he thought that God wanted him to sacrifice Isaac. 

ü  In the second stanza, the author declares himself the servant of the Lord who has loosen his bonds. Yes the Lord broke the chains, freed Abraham from anguish, when he revealed to him that he was not asking for the life of his son.  

ü  His reacts with joy and thanksgiving “I will offer to you a sacrifice of praise, I will invoke your name.”   

ü  Thus he will sing, he will be faithful and trustful in the Lord in the midst of the faith community.

GOSPEL OF MARK  9:2-10 

Ø  Six days after the first announcement of his passion, Jesus is transfigured in the presence of his disciples, as a announcement of his glorious resurrection. 

Ø  The two magnificent pictures that today’s liturgy offers to us happened on a mountain. In the first narration from the Old Testament it is Mount Moriah which the tradition identifies symbolically with mount Zion where the temple of Jerusalem was built.   

Ø  Moses represents the LAW and Eliah the PROPHETS (The Hebrew  Scriptures are organized into two sections the Law and the Prophets). 

Ø  Jesus takes with him to the mountain Peter, James and John, they will also be with him during his agony in the garden, during his defeat and vulnerability like every other human being. These men will be able to testify to Jesus man and God.  

Ø  Peter, as usual speaks in the name of the other disciples. How good it is to be here Lord! To be in the glory without passing through the darkness of faith, the cross, the desolation. Peter does not want that Jesus go back to where they came from, it is better to stay here, we will build the necessary tents.  

Ø  Again the voice from heaven is Heard “This is my  beloved son, listen to him

Ø  In two different occasions the Father tells us that Jesus is his beloved son. Moments when we are reminded of the glory of this son, who in the daily life is not noticed and he is considered as a simple and poor man. These occasions are: his baptism and his transfiguration.   

Ø  The cloud reminds to us the cloud that covered the meeting tent in the desert. The cloud which is the symbol of the presence of God. From the cloud the voice is heard, the disciples are frightened.  

Ø  But when they lift up their eyes, they see only Jesus.      

Ø  He tells them, do not say what has happened to anyone. Why? Because they will not understand until the resurrection, then you will say it, now is not the time. 

Ø  Like the disciples, we also wish to be in the glory, in the joy without passing through the darkness of faith, through the difficult way in the following of the Lord who goes to the cross.   

SECOND READING FROM THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS 8,31-34

      With this hymn to the love of God, Paul ends the central section of his letter.   

      The dark faith of Abraham, in his journey to Mount Moriah, the place of his son’s sacrifice, the sacrifice of all his hopes, is the trusting faith of this hymn.  

o   Who will be against us? Who will accuse us? Who will condemn us? 

o   If God is with us nothing and nobody can harm us.  

      This is the security of the believer, even if everything around him or her shout something different. Nothing and nobody will separate us form the unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Génesis” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La Casa de la Biblia, Estella Navarra, 1997.
• LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.
• LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”.   Barcelona 1985.
• RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.

§  VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  “Autobiografía ” de San Antonio María Claret.   

CLARETIAN CORNER 

God was preparing me with so many troubles to receive the great, the indescribable joy which had to flood my soul with the arrival of the Bull from Rome on July 16, 1855, as rapidly as I was expecting and I had told the Archbishop every time he presented me so many difficulties.

            The fights and quarrels, tears and sighs that the foundation of this first house is costing me. Only God, who is pleased with the sighs of a heart distressed for his love, knows them.

When the Royal permission came from Madrid, the Archbishop and the procurator saw the mistake that they despised before as the advice of- in their opinion – an ignorant and hallucinated woman.

The procurator came to read the Royal permission to me in the parlor and, without paying attention to the laws, he fixed the day for my profession, but I, without contradicting him was laughing  inside, because even though I am unlearned, God had told me  already how they had to proceed in these things and I was sure that my profession depended on or had to come from Rome, but this, in the opinion of the procurator , was a heresy.

herejía. (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 202-204)

With the help of the Vicar General I got rid of many grave abuses in chaplaincies. I saw to it that those chaplaincies I could dispose of were awarded to native sons of good character who were resident seminarians and showed some expectations of eventually becoming good pastors.

I increased the number of parishes and saw to it that pastors taught Christian doctrine and either preached or read to the people every Sunday.

I established the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and, from the very outset of my stay in Cuba, insisted that seminarians be sent about to all the churches of the diocese to teach Christian doctrine. Every Sunday we had a children's procession, which used to stop in the courtyard of the church, where two tables had been set up, facing each other. A child would get up on each of these tables and in their clear, high voices ask each other their catechism questions. The first two would be followed by two others, and so on. The people who crowded around just for the novelty of it would also learn some sorely needed Christian doctrine in the process.

I also established a convent of nuns dedicated to teaching girls, and I bought them a house that cost me about 12,000 duross. (Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 558-561)

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2018

v  We begin Lent, a time of grace in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. 

v  Although we do every year almost the same, this is not so. We change over time, God is always new, thus Lent is always a new time of grace, a time of encounter with the Lord, who invites us to follow him more closely during this season and to participate in his saving cross.    

v  This Sunday’s readings remind us of the covenant made between God and Noah in the name of humankind. Peter reminds us about our baptism and the Gospel presents Jesus who goes to the desert, where he will be tempted. At the end of his “retreat” he will proclaim to us that the time is fulfilled, that the Kingdom of God is at hand.   

FIRST READING  – Gn 9:8-15

Ø  The blessing which we read in the first reading today, comes after the story of the flood.   

Ø  The biblical author of these texts uses a mythical account of the countries found in the Mesopotamian region, and it transforms it into a theological reflection on the consequences of the bad use of freedom on the part of the human being, this leads him to drown, to his or her own destruction and, also to the destruction of the whole creation. 

Ø  It is a waste of time to ask whether the flood happened, because the author has used a myth to explain a truth of faith.  The author is not interested in the truth about the flood, because he is interested in the message he wants to convey.     

Ø  The author uses a composition full of color, images which become engraved in our memory, but these images have to lead us to the message which the author wants to tell us. 

Ø  God makes a universal covenant with Noah, who represents the whole human race, and also the entire creation, is thus a universal covenant, which goes beyond the chosen people, it is for all the peoples of the earth, and for the rest of creation. The emphasis is on the universality of the covenant. 

Ø  As in the beginning,  God blesses now his creating work, and in a very especial way the human beings “… and God saw that it was good…” “and saw that it was good…” … and saw that it was good…” God gives a new opportunity to man, God does not go wearied to start anew.  

Ø  The author describes the sign of the covenant with a natural phenomenon, a sign of great beauty, “when I see the bow on the clouds I will remember this covenant…”   

Ø  God is portrayed like a human person. God needs to see to remember, this is how the human being remembers… 

Ø  When two nations or tribes were fighting, it was customary that the one who did not want to fight anymore would hang his bow at the entrance of his tent as a sign of peace.   

Ø  God, who has his tent in heaven, hangs his bow on the clouds, at the entrance of his abode,   as a sign of peace.      

Ø  People believed that God was he who sent the rain, God who punished the human beings either with drought or with floods; these are the weapons of God. 

Ø  The story of the flood says that God is tired of the evil of the human being, of his sin and uses one of  his weapons  “the flood” to destroy him. 

Ø  Now he makes peace and, the sign of that peace is that wonderful bow on the clouds. When I will send clouds over the earth, my arc will appear on the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you, and with every human being.   

Ø  We know that the colors of the rainbow are produced by the light passing through the water drops, but, even  knowing it, we are in awe when we see it, and from our heart we praise and give thanks to God our Creator and Father.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Your ways O Lord, make known to me

Teach me your paths

Guide me in your truth and teach me

For you are God my savior.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Remember that your compassion, O Lord

And your love are from of old

In your kindness remember me

Because of your goodness, O Lord.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Good and upright is the Lord

Thus he shows sinners the way

He guides the humble to justice

And he teaches the humble his ways.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

«  The psalmist asks God to teach him his ways and to guide him. 

«  That he remember his compassion and his kindness    

«  God, who is good, teaches the way to the sinner, guides the humble to justice, to what is right.  

«  Let  us remember that the justice of God is to make us just like Him, it is not a retributive justice like ours, it is  God’s justice, who loves and gives without measure to all, just and sinners, and he calls all to his love.    He pays the same salary to the one who worked all day long and, to the one who worked only one hour.

SECOND READING  1Pe  3:18-22

      Christ’s suffering is a suffering for doing good to all.   

      Christ in his sufferings is our savior and example. 

      Peter reminds   the story of the flood.

      He compares the story of the flood with the baptismal bath, which is not for a small group alone, but for everyone who accepts Christ.    

      Baptism is not a bath that cleanses material dirt, but it is the commitment done with God to cultivate an

Irreproachable conscience through the resurrection of Christ Jesus.  With his death and resurrection he has open for us the way to the Father.   

      Christ Jesus is glorified by the Father “at his right hand”. This image reminds us of the courts of the kings where he or she who sits at the right hand of the king is the most important person of the kingdom after the king.   

GOSPEL OF MARK  1:12-15

ü  After the baptism of the Lord, the same spirit of God who came on him at his baptism, leads him to the desert.     

ü  The desert was for the people of Israel the place of temptation and also the place to make decisions.   

ü  In the desert the people will learn to trust in God  

ü  Jesus who has taken our human condition will be tempted  

ü  He is the perfect Israel, who in the peace and contemplative silence of the desert chooses the way of the Father. He is also the new Adam who lives in harmony with the wild animals, thus transforming the desert into an inner Paradise where the angels of God are present.   

ü  Mark does not tell us what the temptations were.   

ü  But Mark makes clear the triumph of Jesus over the devil, and his complete trust in the Father’s providence.  

ü  Jesus the new Adam has a peaceful relationship with creation, which reminds to us  the first Adam in the garden, in peace with the animals to whom he gave their names, this means that the animals were subjected to him.   

ü  Jesus in the desert makes also real the prophecy of Isaiah… the lamb with the wolf, the cow with the bear… Jesus makes real the dream of God over creation .

ü  The forty days makes us think of the 40 years of the people of Israel in the desert   Ex 34:28,.

ü  Satan the tempter,

o   In the book of Job Satan accuses Job,  (see the beginning of the book of Job)   

o   In the book of Revelation he is the one who opposes the  divine plan    Rev 12:7-9

ü  When John is put in prison Jesus returns to Galilee to begin his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom.   

ü  He proclaims:    

o   That the time is fulfilled, what time? The time of God’s promises  

o   The kingdom of God is at hand, so close that Jesus is this Kingdom.  He is close to everyone, but not all of us allow him to enter into our heart.    

o   What does he ask  from each one of us, and from society in order that the kingdom may be present.   

§  To believe in the Good News. Sometimes they are so good that it is difficult for us to believe them.   

§  To believe is to allow God to enter in our heart, to change us, to make us like his Son who died for all. This is the reason why we cannot exclude anyone.   

§  Only in this way the world will believe and will be able to change.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER

  

Time revealed the false vocation of some of these free women, one of them escaped by the roofs after 14 months to the great scandal of all the people  who until then considered us as angels. The other two died without any vocation to religious life. The ones, who professed, were good religious even though they gave me much work.

I cannot say of these young ladies what St. Teresa says about her first nuns: that it seemed God was choosing those fitted for that house. I can also say that God our Lord sent them to me expressly to purify my soul. I only found rest with the first three, for it seems God gave them to me for my consolation and help. They have been untiring in works and hardships, always contented and happy in the midst of the many trials and tribulations we experienced in the beginnings. I think the Lord will make the three of them saints.

            A few days after the apostate escaped, our Lord told me: “How could third order be a perfect copy of the Apostolic College had you not had a Judas?” then, I felt the pain that pierced the Most Holy Soul of our Divine Savior for the loss of the unfortunate Judas. That time  we remained twelve and the devil was roaming around sowing weeds everywhere seeking how to dissolve  this holy house, but, since this happened, all became much more fervent, what they were not before. Our Lord always acted in this His work in the same way: from all things that the Devil tried to get evil, God our Lord was obtaining greater good. Blessed may He be for so much goodness!   (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 200-201)

With God's help this situation was completely changed. I appointed Father Anthony Barjau, a priest whom heaven had endowed with a gift for educating young men and boys, as rector of the seminary. This good churchman by his winning ways put them back on course again, bringing them to practice their religion and apply themselves to their studies. Thus they finally began to show some progress, both in virtue and learning, and many of them have been ordained or soon will be.

Since the need for priests was pressing and the seminary could provide none for a long time, I hit upon the plan of writing to several Catalonian seminarians who were nearing the end of their studies and inviting them to come to Santiago to finish them. I ordained 36 of them with title to the benefice of a sacristy and the right to apply later for a parish of their own. (Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 556-557.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CERVANTES GABARRÓN, Juan, “Primera Carta de Pedro” en Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. La Casa de la Biblia. Estella, Navarra 1995.

GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Génesis” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La Casa de la Biblia, Estella Navarra, 1997.

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.

RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.

VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  “Autobiography” of St. Anthony Mary Claret.