SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2021

« 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 be 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 or 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 his 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  This situation is a constant theme in the life of every believer, in the life of every man or woman who seek the Lord with all their being. Let us think of Mary, the young girl from Nazareth, to whom God asked her to give up her “Isaac”, change her plans for the plans of God. How difficult it is for us and how often we are not able to make this leap in the dark, where there are always the divine hands to receive us. 

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. It is the    moment of unconditional love, of faith without seeing without light.   

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 or what 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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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 an 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.   

 

 I never sought any consolation, either interior or exterior, from any creature; I always kept a profound silence of the graces that Our Lord put in my soul. And I kept this silence even with my confessors, because I did not have as a matter of consultation the Holy Law of the Lord; thus on speaking of the acts I practiced, to fulfill with perfection the Divine Commandments, it always seemed to me vanity or idle words, because I had the duty to fulfilled them;^[1]  and on the contrary it would have given me great remorse of conscience to hide the smallest thing that I had omitted due to my neglect or laziness, which, by the mercy of God, I was always very careful to confess with clarity. (Venerable Ma. Antonia Paris, Memories and Notes. First Series of Memories 9 in Writings.)

The reason is that, as I have said, I am so soft-hearted and compassionate that I can't bear seeing misfortune or misery without doing something to help. I would take the bread out of my own mouth to give it to the poor. In fact, I would abstain from putting it into my mouth in order to have something to give to those who are asking for it. I am even scrupulous about spending anything at all on myself when I think of the needs I can remedy. Well, then, if these momentary physical misfortunes affect me so much, it is understandable what I feel in my heart at the thought of the everlasting pains of hell--not for me, but for all those who willingly live in mortal sin. (St. Anthony Ma. Claret. Autobiography 10.)

 

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[1] From “because” it is crossed out in the original.

 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2021

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 entirely true. 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  As for us men and women of the XXI century we can understand the consequences of bad use of the resources of the earth and our free will. We are suffering this consequences we are suffering very bad weather in winter with freezing winds and rains and in summer with very high temperatures to which our body has to adjust.

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 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 drops of water, 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. Because He is that salary. 

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 remind us about 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 be true.  

§  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

 J. M. J.

To Mother Antonia de S. Pedro 

Madrid, February 23 1863

My dear Mother:  let us ask God Our Lord to fill us with his holy grace. Amen. I am very pleased to see that the members of that community are increasing.  Form  all of them in a true spirit of humility, poverty, charity and zeal for the greatest glory of God and the good of the souls. 

I am here at the Court, because they tell me that this is the will of God,  but I am not pleased, every day I have to do acts of resignation and submission to the will of God;  my wishes are, as always, to run through the whole world preaching the holy Gospel and to seal with my blood the evangelical truth like my divine Master and beloved Jesus; I have neither  rest, nor my soul finds any consolation, but running and preaching. When I was traveling through Andalucia avec the Majesties, than I could live, but in this Court I suffer much; thanks to God that I can use my time, if not I would have died from sorrow; but my sighed work is to run through the villages and towns where so little is peached and so much is needed.   However, since I cannot go I send others, my dear Brothers, called the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; we have already three houses, one in Vic another in Gracia- Barcelona and another in Segovia. All together they are more than thirty and they work wonderfully…(From a letter from Fr. Antonio Ma. Claret to Mother Ma. Antonia Paris, February 22  1863 in Cartas de los Origenes (Letters from the Origins)  

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.

 

  

 

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2021  

« Jesus continues his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom, healing all sorts of sicknesses, manifesting the kindness and tenderness of God to all who approached him

o   Today Jesus heals the leper and gives back to him his dignity, the possibility to live in community at home,  work and place of worship.

o   The reading from the Old Testament and the Gospel speak about the leprosy.

o   Paul invites all to be all for all.    

BOOK OF THE LEVITICUS    

Ø  This third book of the Pentateuch, is called in Hebrew   Wayyiqrā’ = “and He called.”

Ø  The name Leviticus comes from the Latin translation of the Greek translation of the Bible that was made in times of the Old Testament   “Leuitikon.”

Ø  The name is well given since it is a book about liturgical laws for the priesthood of the Levites. 

Ø  Besides these laws there are other laws in regards to the holiness of life, in all its different aspects: physical, psychological and moral. 

THE AUTHOR  – THE BOOK 

o   As it is the case for all the books, it is difficult, impossible to know  who  the author is. The book was being formed over several centuries with the contribution of many hands. 

o   It belongs to the “priestly” tradition.  

o   The legislation points out to Moses.  

o   Although we find in this book some ancient laws, in its present shape the book belongs to the time of the return from the Babylonian exile.  

o   The book has the following parts:   

I           THE LAW OF SACRIFICE   

II          THE PRIESTLY ORDINATIONS 

III         THE LEGAL PURIFICATIONS 

IV         THE FEAST OF THE ATONEMENT   

V          THE CODE OF SANCTITY.   

FIRST READING  Lv 13:1-2; 44-46

     Leprosy was a skin disease, the skin looked infected and it was permanent, but it was not always the same disease we now call leprosy.  It included many other skin affections.

     The precautions and the rules for those who suffered this illness probably began as a hygiene regulation to protect the population.

     We can understand these rules now that we are suffering due to the pandemic. Those who suffer the COVID19 have to be isolated either at home or at the hospital.

     We need to be isolated from the family, the work companions, the members of our faith community, so that we do not infect them.   

     As time went by, as it always is the case, even now we do many things without knowing its meaning because we do not know why they began. 

     If we add to these rules a religious meaning, then what was regulated for the good of the people becomes a heavy weight on the people.  Something that does not help as was the case with all the rules about leprosy.

     According to the religious belief of Israel, which we have already mentioned in another occasion, if you are good things will go well for you, if you are a sinner things will go bad for you. Thus if you are sick it is because you have sinned.    

     Than we understand the isolation of the sick person because he or she is a sinner, impure and has to be separated from the rest of the community, “outside the camp.”   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 32: 1-2, 5, 11  

R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.

 

The psalmist describes very well the joy of the leper when he is declared clean by the priest. He was cured physically but now he is also cured spiritually and socially, he is healed.   

 

GOSPEL  – MARK 1:40-45

ü  A leper, who as we have seen was subjected to   isolation and scorn, approaches Jesus.  

ü  He has heard that this new young Rabbi from Nazareth has cured and healed so many people, he never rejects anyone, he has compassion of all, He treats everyone with respect and dignity.   

ü  If you wish, you can make me clean.  Yes I do.

ü  Jesus as he pronounces these words “Yes, I do” touches the man.  

ü  As if He wanted to take that leprosy of that man and the scorn to which he has been subjected, on Him to destroy it in his person. It is like an anticipation of what He will do on the cross for all of us.   

ü  Yes I want to be one with you, yes I want you to go back to your loved ones, to your community, yes I want you to regain your self-esteem, yes I want you to discover the infinite love that God has for you, yes I want you to be happy. 

ü  Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation, He is God among us. And He, who has come to announce the good news of the Father’s love, says to us that the Father does not want us, sinners,  to be isolated, to suffer scorn, but he wants us to experience that God loves us, in such a way, that this experience makes us return to Him and in so doing find our happiness. 

   

SECOND READING  1 Cor 10:31-11:1

 

• Paul speaks to the members of the Community of Corinth, and invites them, that whatever they do (eat, drink, celebrate, work, pray, travel, rest….) do everything for the glory of God.   What does it mean to do everything for the glory of God?   
• The glory of God is the human being in its fullness,  that is,  a human being free with no other ties than the love of God manifested in the love for the other human beings. 
• How must that love to the other human beings be, in order to be true love for God,  
• To please everyone whenever possible
• Not to seek our own interest    
• Do not be  the cause of scandal for anyone  
• And all of this to cooperate in the salvation of our brothers and sisters.   
• In a word, it is to take seriously our life as baptized persons and followers of Jesus.  

 J. M. J.

To M. Antonia Prioress of Tremp 

 Madrid March 26 1862

 

My dear Sister in J.C.: I have received your letter and I let you know that a long time ago I have sent the Arte y Cantoral , and for what you tell me I am sure it has been lost. Today I send a new copy , I think you are going to like it. Let all be for the greatest glory of God.  I would like the nuns to read it too, it  has been difficult for me to do it for the diversity of opinions  among the Cantors.   The Hymnal  and the volumes of the Student or Seminarian will be a single work for the formation of the young  men called by God to the ecclesiastical profession, as I am sure you already are aware  of it if you have read them, and if you have not read them, I ask you please to read them more than once you and the Nuns, and if you can have the last edition of            Barna. , much better. It is ok with me that you order for this house and for the house of Cuba the “Glories of Mary,” charged to my account. I asked  Félix Ríu to give you the Rules which are printed and bound, as you had said, and I have already paid them. I have asked  also  Pedro Naudó to put at your disposal the alms of 300 duros which you may spent in what you see fit.  As for the Spiritual Exercises for Girls I have not been in a hurry to seek time to write, because I have many things that I considered more urgent than this, because they can use the book I have written for boys and girls of First Communion. The priests that preach the exercises to the girls in the schools use the book I have mentioned above. If you read it you will see it leaves little to be desired; however, I will write it as soon as possible, to please you and also for some special ideas of great importance that I want to mention for the wellbeing of the girls.      

My kind regards to the Nuns and the Girls and as for you, you may count on your servant Anthony Mary Archbishop of Trajanopolis.     

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

FALEY, ROLAND J., T.O.R. “Leviticus” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey  1988.

FLOR SERRANO, GONZALO. “Salmos” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento II, Casa de la Biblia, 1997.