The miraculous catch of fishes should have reminded the disciples of our Lord’s promise, “I will make you fishers of men” (Jn 5:10). Simon Peter had a larger share in it, by Divine Providence, because he will take greatest part in fishing for souls. He will be made head of the apostles as Sovereign Pontiff.
To hold this great dignity worthily, Jesus required great sanctity; or love, the perfection of sanctity. That is why “when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you’. He said to him ‘Feed my lambs’.” (cf Jn 21:14-5)
We, also, by the grace of our vocation, are obliged to tend to a higher degree of charity or sanctity. To each of us also, our Lord asks, ‘Do you love me more than these?’ What heartfelt answer can we give him?
“Jesus asked him again, ‘Peter, son of John, do you love me?’ He said, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you’. ‘Feed my lambs.’ Jesus said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ And he said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know I love you’. ‘Feed my sheep.’” (cf Jn 21:16-7)
By the words, ‘Feed my sheep’, not only the lambs, but their mothers, too Jesus Christ placed the faithful and their pastors under the charge of St Peter and his lawful successors. As sole visible head of his Church he will thus ensure its perfect unity till the end of time.
St Peter speaks with great modesty! Unlike during the Last Supper, he doesn’t say his love is sure. Now he appeals to his Master who knows the depths of the heart. His faults and weaknesses had made him humble but not distrustful of his Lord’s goodness.
Imitate him in this attitude and we will draw good out of evil. Note also the eagerness and happiness by which St Peter seized the occasion offered to him of repairing the scandal of his three-fold denial: a three-fold and fervent declaration of love.
“Peter was grieved because he had said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’” The poor Galilean fisherman was about to be promoted to the highest dignity and crowned with honors by the Son of God himself. Such distinction should naturally have made him joyful and happy. However, he was sad; aggrieved.
Why? Because he was afraid of not ‘really’ having the love for his Divine Master which he ‘believed’ he had, or of failing a second time in manifesting it. Our Lord’s three questions awoke this fear in his heart.
Happy is the person whose love of God and the desire of increasing it reigns supreme; and has no other cause for fear than a decreasing fervor or generosity in the service of the Lord his God!
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp249-51
` ` ` MAY DEVOTIONS ` ` `
Mary is our model in ordinary life
“We can’t forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life just like millions of other women who look after their family, bring up their children and take care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary everyday things -- what some people wrongly regard as unimportant and insignificant: everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness that can be so full of love of God.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 148)
Let us offer our Mother: ‘Affectionate details of service and attention to those closest to us.’
Ref: Fr Charles Belmonte and Fr James Socias (Eds), “Handbook of Prayers”, 1988, p314
‘Mary’s Psalter’
Ever since St Dominic established the devotion to the Holy Rosary until the time when Blessed Alan de la Roche re-established it in 1460, it has always been called the ‘Psalter of Jesus and Mary’. This is because it has the same number of Angelic Salutations as there are psalms in King David’s Book of Psalms.
Since simple and uneducated people cannot read the Psalms of David, the Rosary is just as fruitful for them as David’s Psalter is for others. But the Rosary can be considered even more valuable because:
1) the ‘Angelic Psalter’ bears a nobler fruit, the Word Incarnate; whereas David’s Psalter only prophesies His coming;
2) just as the real thing is more important than its prefiguration; as the body is more than its shadow, similarly, the ‘Psalter of Our Lady’ is greater than David’s Psalter which just prefigured it; and
3) ‘Our Lady’s Psalter’ (the Rosary) is the direct work of the Most Blessed Trinity and was not made through a human instrument.
‘Our Lady’s Psalter’ is divided into three parts of five decades each for the following special reasons: 1) To honor the three Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity [now four parts with the “Luminous mysteries”];
2) To honor the life, death and glory of Jesus Christ;
3) To imitate the Church Triumphant, to help the members of the Church Militant and to lessen the pains of the Church Suffering;
4) To imitate the three groups into which the Psalms are divided: a) The first being for the purgative life; b) the second for the illuminative life; c) the third for the unitive life.
5) And, finally, to give us abundant graces during our lifetime, peace at death, and glory in eternity.
Ref: St Louis de Montfort, “The Secret of the Rosary”, 1954, pp25-6
The Rosary is most pleasing to Mary
She recommended it at Lourdes and Fatima. The Rosary must be recited when we are discouraged, during temptations; or before making a serious decision. The Rosary was the common practice of many Saints; and serves for all life’s needs, consoles us at the point of death. It serves like a chain that will pull us up to Heaven.
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p57
• Our Lady of Haut, in Hainaut, where is seen one of the three little statues of the Blessed Virgin which St Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary, had religiously honored, and which she left by will to her holy daughter Sophia, who gave it to the church of Haut, in the year 1267. Several miracles have been since wrought by it. — Justus Lipsius, History of Our Lady of Hal, o. 3.) (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Haut (Hainaut, France, 1267). (www.divinewill.org/feastofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Second feast of Our Lady of Haut (Hainaut, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html);
• Seven Joys of Our Lady (11th Century). (MaryLinks Calendar.htm)
• “Notre Dame of Fourviéres” (Lyons, France). Moveable feast -- Saturday after Low Sunday. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
• Our Lady of the Pearls. Palermo, It. Moveable feast -- Saturday after Low Sunday. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
• Our Lady of the Valley Catamarca, Argentina. Moveable feast -- Saturday after Low Sunday. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
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