Overheard in the Sacristy

In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

Ye men of Galilee, why wonder you, looking up to heaven?

… whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice…

Thank goodness the “liturgy” committee has fled. They were a useless bunch of knuckleheads. They thought they were meaningful in their self-aggrandized illusion of liturgy. Good riddance!

In illo témpore: Duo ex discípulis Jesu ibant ipsa die in castéllum, quod erat in spétio stadiórum sexagínta ab Jerúsalem, nómine Emmaus. Et ipsi loquebántur ad invicem de his ómnibus, quæ accíderant. Et factum est, dum fabularéntur, et secum quærerent: et ipse Jesus appropínquans ibat cum illis: óculi autem illórum tenebántur ne eum agnóscerent. Et ait ad illos: “Qui sunt hi sermónes quos confértis ad ínvicem ambulántes, et estis tristes?” Et respóndens unus, cui nomen Cléophas, dixit ei: Tu solus peregrínus es in Jerúsalem, et non cognovísti quæ facta sunt in illa his diébus? Quibus ille dixit: “Quæ?” Et dixérunt: De Jesu Nazaréno, qui fuit vir prophéta potens in ópere et sermóne coram Deo, et omni pópulo: et quómodo eum tradidérunt summi sacerdótes, et príncipes nostri in damnatiónem mortis, et crucifixérunt eum. Nos autem sperabámus quia ipse esset redemptúrus Israël: et nunc super hæc ómnia, tértia dies est hódie, quod hæc facta sunt. Sed et mulíeres quædam ex nostris terruérunt nos, quæ ante lucem fuérunt ad monuméntum, et, non invénto córpore ejus, venérunt, dicéntes se étiam visiónem Angelórum vidísse, qui dicunt eum vívere. Et abiérunt quidam ex nostris ad monuméntum: et ita invenérunt sicut mulíeres dixérunt, ipsum vero non invenérunt. Et ipse dixit ad eos: “”O stulti, et tardi corde ad credéndum in ómnibus, quæ locúti sunt prophétæ! Nonne hæc opórtuit pati Christum, et ita intráre in glóriam suam?” Et incípiens a Móyse, et ómnibus prophétis, interpretabátur illis in ómnibus Scriptúris, quæ de ipso erant. Et appropinquavérunt castéllo, quo ibant: et ipse se fìnxit lóngius ire. Et coëgérunt illum, dicéntes: Mane nobíscum, quóniam advesperáscit, et inclináta est jam dies. Et intrávit cum illis. Et factum est, dum recúmberet cum eis, accépit panem, et benedíxit, ac fregit, et porrigébat illis. Et apérti sunt óculi eórum, et cognovérunt eum: et ipse evánuit ex óculis eórum. Et dixérunt ad ínvicem: Nonne cor nostrum ardens erat in nobis, dum loquerétur in via, et aperíret nobis Scriptúras? Et surgéntes eádem hora regréssi sunt in Jerúsalem: et invenérunt congregátos úndecim, et eos, qui cum illis erunt, dicéntes: Quod surrexit Dóminus vere, et appáruit Simóni. Et ipsi narrábant, quæ gesta erant in via: et quómodo cognovérunt eum in fractióne panis.

At that time, two of the disciples of Jesus went that same day to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus Himself also, drawing near, went with them. But their eyes were held that they should not know Him. And He said to them; “What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad?” And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to Him: Art Thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? To whom He said: “What things?” And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, Who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; and how our chief priests and princes delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we hoped that it was He that should have re-deemed Israel: and now, be-sides all this, to-day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company affrighted us, who, before it was light, were at the sepulchre, and, not finding His body, came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that He is alive. And some of our people went to the sepulchre, and found it so as the women had said, but Him they found not. Then He said to them: “O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?” And, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning Him. And they drew nigh to the town whither they were going; and He made as though He would go farther. But they constrained Him, saying: Stay with us, because it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And He went in with them. And it came to pass, whilst He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to them; and their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to the other, Was not our heart burning within us whilst He spoke in the way, and opened to us the Scriptures? And, rising up the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how they knew Him in the breaking of bread.