St Martha – July 29
“Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus” (John 11:5).
Saint Martha is mentioned in three Gospel passages: Luke 10:38-42, John 11:1-53, and John 12:1-9, and the type of friendship between her and her siblings, Mary and Lazarus, with the Lord Jesus is evident in these passages.
In the gospel of Luke, Martha receives Jesus into her home and worries herself with serving Him, a worry that her sister Mary, who sat beside the Lord’s feet “listening to Him speak,” doesn’t share. Her complaint that her sister is not helping her serve draws a reply from the Lord who says to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”
The over anxiousness she displays in serving is put into the right context by Jesus who emphasizes the importance of contemplating Him before all things.
Yet she is seen next in John, outside the tomb of her brother Lazarus who had died four days earlier, as the one who receives the Revelation from the Lord that “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
When asked by the Lord if she believed this she said to Him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world,” displaying her great faith which is confirmed by Jesus’ subsequent raising of her brother Lazarus from the grave.
In the third and last instance, we see Martha, again in John, at a house in Bethany where Jesus was reclining at table with her brother Lazarus after he had raised him from the dead. During dinner, John’s Gospel tells us, “Martha served.” She is revealed here performing the same task as when we first saw her, but now her service is infused with her faith, and the brevity of the description suggests the silence and peace in which she serves as opposed to the nervous anxiety she displayed earlier. Martha, whom we have seen serving, in Luke, and then believing, earlier in John, is now seen expressing her belief in the action of serving the Lord. “Martha served,” and in doing so teaches us the way of Christian life.
Saint Martha is the patron of housewives, servants, waiters and cooks.
POSITIVE LIVING 
Saint Martha
19h ago
catholiccatholicismcatholic restorationGodRoman Catholic
Saint Martha
Virgin
(† 84)
Saint John tells us that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus (John 11:5), but only a few glimpses are vouchsafed us of them in the Gospels. First, the sisters are set before us: Martha received Jesus into her house, and was busy in outward, loving, lavish service, while Mary sat in silence at the feet she had bathed with her tears. Then we learn that their brother is ill when they send word to Jesus concerning their brother Lazarus, Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick. (John 11:3) In His own time the Lord came, and they went out to meet Him; then follows that scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity unsurpassed: the silent mourning of Mary; Martha strong in faith, but realizing so vividly, with her practical turn of mind, the fact of death, and hesitating: Lord, by this time he is already decayed! He has been dead four days.
And then once again, on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at Bethany, with His resurrected disciple. Martha, true to her character, is serving; Mary, as at first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, on His divine head, as a preliminary to His burial. (John 12:1-4) We do not hear of the beloved family again in the Scriptures, but tradition tells us that when the storm of persecution came, the family of Bethany, with a few companions, were put into a boat without oars or sail, and borne miraculously to the coast of France. Martha assembled a holy company of women, with whom she lived in great austerity of life and admirable sanctity at Tarascon where her tomb is venerated. Saint Mary’s tomb is at La Sainte-Baume; Saint Lazarus is venerated as the founder of the Church of Marseilles. It is this family which brought to France the relics of Saint Anne.
Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894); Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 9
Saint Martha
Saint Martha Virgin († 84) Saint John tells us that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus (John 11:5), but only a few glimpses are vouchsafed us of them in the Gospels. First, the sisters are set before us: Martha received Jesus into her house, and was busy in outward, loving, lavish service, while Mary sat in silence at the feet she had bathed with her tears. Then we learn that their brother is ill when they send word to Jesus concerning their brother Lazarus, Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick. (John 11:3) In His own time the Lord came, and they went out to meet Him; then follows that scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity unsurpassed: the silent mourning of Mary; Martha strong in faith, but realizing so vividly, with her practical turn of mind, the fact of death, and hesitating: Lord, by this time he is already decayed! He has been dead four days. And then once again, on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at Bethany, with His resurrected disciple. Martha, true to her character, is serving; Mary, as at first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, on His divine head, as a preliminary to His burial. (John 12:1-4) We do not hear of the beloved family again in the Scriptures, but tradition tells us that when the storm of persecution came, the family of Bethany, with a few companions, were put into a boat without oars or sail, and borne miraculously to the coast of France. Martha assembled a holy company of women, with whom she lived in great austerity of life and admirable sanctity at Tarascon where her tomb is venerated. Saint Mary’s tomb is at La Sainte-Baume; Saint Lazarus is venerated as the founder of the Church of Marseilles. It is this family which brought to France the relics of Saint Anne.
29. SRPNJA
Sveta Marta iz Betanije – zaštitnica kućanica, žena čije napore i važnost ovaj svijet danas ne priznaje
Marta, sestra Marijina i Lazarova, bila je brižna domaćica kuće u Betaniji u koju bi Isus rado svraćao kako bi se malko odmorio od propovijedanja, dok je boravio u Judeji
Marta se u Evanđelju upravo i pojavljuje prigodom jednoga od Isusovih posjeta njihovoj kući. Kao i uvijek, zavrnutih rukava, zauzeta ulogom kuće domaćice, prima goste, poslužuje ih pićem, priprema sve potrebno za okrepu. Bacivši pogled na sestru, ugleda je kako sjedeći do nogu Isusovih, sluša Njegovu riječ, posve nesvjesna užurbanosti koja se odvija oko nje. Neko je vrijeme sve to strpljivo promatrala, a zatim ipak rekla nešto poput ovoga: “Isuse, reci ovoj mojoj dokonoj sestri neka mi pomogne: ostavila me posve samu posluživati!”
Isus je pogleda i s ljubavlju odvrati: “Marta, Marta, za mnogo se brineš, a jedno je potrebno. Marija je zacijelo odabrala bolji dio, koji joj se neće oduzeti.” (Lk 10, 38-42).
Isus time nikako nije želio zanijekati vrijednost svakodnevnih kućanskih poslova kojima se tolike žene bave, baš kao niti rad kojim muževi priskrbljuju hranu, odjeću i sve ostalo što je potrebno njima i djeci, već je samo htio uspostaviti stanoviti poredak vrijednosti. Prije svega treba tražiti Kraljevstvo nebesko i pobrinuti se za potrebe duha: u svjetlu toga traganja, i sve ostalo dobiva smisao. U svakom slučaju, Crkva časti svetu Martu kao sveticu i predanu zaštitnicu te utjehu domaćica, čiji su svakodnevni napori nerijetko slabo priznati.
U Evanđelju Martu susrećemo još i kada je umro njezin brat Lazar. Znajući kako se Isus približava Betaniji, kako bi se oprostio od svoga preminuloga prijatelja, trči Mu ususret Marta. Iako joj je srce u komadićima, ne može samo stajati skrštenih ruku, poput svoje sestre Marije, shrvane od boli.
I u ovoj se tužnoj prigodi otkriva njezin poduzetni značaj. Dolazi ususret Isusu i govori Mu: “Da si Ti bio ovdje, brat moj ne bi umro! No, znadem da će Te Bog i sada uslišiti u svemu što Ga zaišteš!” Koliko god zauzeta i poduzetna bila, vjere joj ne manjka. Upravo je ta njezina jednostavna, ali nepokoljebiva vjera, i navela Isusa na čudo. I tako je Lazar bio vraćen u život.
Nešto kasnije, Isus se ponovo našao u kući Marte i Marije u posjeti, a bio je ondje i Lazar. Približavala se Pasha. U zraku se osjetio duh slavlja pa nam je Marta i opet predstavljena u svojoj ulozi: “Marta posluživaše” – piše nam Ivan evanđelist.
U ovom posljednjem spomenu Evanđelja zaključuju priču o Marti, ženi iz Betanije, koja jest bila zauzeta i užurbana, ali samo iz ljubavi prema Isusu i braći.
Ime Marta potječe iz aramejskoga i znaci “gospodarica”.
Zaštitnica je domaćica, kuharica, radnica, ugostitelja, sluškinja, pralja, umirućih, slikara i kipara, pomoćnica je kod krvarenja, kao i redovničkih zajednica koje nose njezino ime.
Molitva sv. Marti
O sveta Marto, tvoja je vjera nagnala Isusa da kaže: “Ja sam uskrsnuće i život”; vjera ti je dala da vidiš više od Njegove čovječnosti kad si uzviknula: “Gospodine, ja tvrdo vjerujem da si Ti Mesija, Sin Božji.”
S nepokoljebivom si nadom rekla: “Gospodine, znam da će Ti Bog dati sve što god zaisteš od Njega”, a Isus je zazvao tvoga brata Lazara i vratio ga od mrtvih. Čistom si ljubavlju dočekala Isusa u svom domu.
Prijateljice i sluškinjo našega Spasitelja, i ja sam opterećen/a mnogim problemima… Moli za mene da rastem u vjeri, nadi i ljubavi, da me Isus, koji je sjedio za tvojim stolom, čuje i dodijeli mi mjesto na gozbi vječnog života. Amen.
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