Good morning.
Bruno left a chair at Reims for a cell in the Alps. Today's Gospel says what Mary did with hers.
Tuesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The Church also offers the optional memorials of St. Bruno, Priest, and Blessed Marie-Rose Durocher, Virgin.
First reading: Paul tells the Galatians how he was called: "But when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood. Neither went I to Jerusalem, to the apostles who were before me: but I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus." — Galatians 1:15-17. The psalm response is Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.
Gospel: "Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard his word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me. And the Lord answering, said to her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her." — Luke 10:38-42
The Latin for the last line is Maria optimam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea.
In the Catena Aurea, Augustine will not let the passage be read against Martha: "Our Lord then does not blame the actions, but distinguishes between the duties. For it follows, Mary has chosen that good part, &c. Not yours a bad one, but hers a better." Theophylact: "Our Lord does not then forbid hospitality, but the troubling about many things, that is to say, hurry and anxiety." And Augustine on why the better part is better: "Trouble shall be taken away, that rest may be given. You are yet at sea; she is in port." Gregory: "Martha's care is not blamed, but Mary is praised."
The full readings are on USCCB.org.
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100626.cfm →
The founder who stayed in the background
Bruno was born at Cologne about 1030 and died on October 6, 1101. He went to Reims to study, and in time he was head of the episcopal school there. In 1075 he became chancellor of the church of Reims. The Catholic Encyclopedia says that when the clergy were about to elect him bishop, "He, however, had far different designs in view."
In 1084, with six companions, he was installed by the Bishop of Grenoble "in a wild spot on the Alps of Dauphiné named Chartreuse," where they "built a little monastery where they lived in deep retreat and poverty, entirely occupied in prayer and study." That is the beginning of the Carthusian Order.
One of his pupils at Reims, Eudes of Châtillon, became Pope Urban II, and in 1090 he called his old master to Rome. Bruno went, and the Encyclopedia says of that time that "he took care always to keep himself in the background," and that "His part in history is effaced." When the clergy of Reggio in Calabria elected him archbishop, he arranged for one of his former pupils to be elected in his place. The Pope gave him leave to return to solitude, and he spent his last years in Calabria.
The Gospel and the saint are easy to set side by side, and Augustine's reading cautions against doing it carelessly: the work is not blamed. Bruno held posts and was known for his teaching. What the Encyclopedia records is that, when the chance came, he chose the retreat, and that he stayed in it as far as he was allowed.
Work is for man
The Catechism does not set Martha against Mary. It sets work in its place: "Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ." (CCC 2427) And, a paragraph later: "Work is for man, not man for work." (CCC 2428)
That is the line Augustine draws at Bethany. The service is good, and the person it is for is better.
Monday's close: SPY $774.97, +0.7% · Nasdaq 100 +0.9% · Russell 2000 +0.7% · tape BULL, regime choppy · new longs paused by the two-loss warning
Monday was a quiet advance with no scheduled economic report. The S&P 500 fund rose 0.7% to $774.97, between a low of $769.80 and a high of $776.61, and ten of the eleven sector funds rose, materials the best at +1.3%. The Nasdaq 100 fund gained 0.9% to $756.09, its highest close in the six months of daily bars we checked. The S&P 500 fund closed 0.4% below its own six-month closing high of $777.84, set on August 13.
The two-loss warning is still on: no new long until SPY closes above $779.37, which is 0.6% above Monday's close. The tape turns, and the system sells every long, only on a SPY close below $629.29. A rising day changes neither number. By our own count, 9 of the last 25 sessions are distribution days for the S&P 500 fund (one dropped out of the window) and 4 for the Nasdaq 100 fund. The scanner's list holds twenty-eight names at or near their 52-week pivots, and none triggered.
AMD closed at $631.96, down 0.3% on the day and 3.4% above its entry of $611.31. CrowdStrike (CRWD) closed at $272.72, up 1.0% and 9.7% above its $248.69 average over 636 shares; the stops at $249 are my own call as Fund manager. The seven puts cost $18,426 and were worth $14,419, which is what insurance costs while the market rises. The idle-cash sleeve is in commodities (DBC) and short-term Treasuries (SHY).
The Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its September meeting on Wednesday, October 7.
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The week ahead, per the USCCB daily readings calendar for the United States:
St. Bruno, pray for us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
In Christ,
Jonathan Simmons
Enoch Capital LLC
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