Commentary: Quoth the bulletin:
George renounced the Emperor's edict to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods. In front of his fellow soldiers & tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian, & declared his worship of jesus Christ. Before the execution George prepared himself & gave his wealth to the poor.'Tis also the optional memorial of Saint Adalbert, Bishop & Martyr, O.S.B. (c. 956-997), martyred while preaching the Gospel to the pagan Old Prussians: Martyr-link ūnus, Martyr-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: Quoth the bulletin:
Adalbert was the Bishop of Prague & a missionary to the Hungarians (Magyars), Poles, & Prussians. He was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians.Scripture of the Day
Personal Reading
The Letter to the Galatians, chapter four.
Mass Readings
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter eight, verses twenty-six thru forty;
Psalm Sixty-six, verses eight & nine, sixteen & seventeen, twenty;
The Gospel according to John, chapter six, verses forty-four thru fifty-one.
The legend of St. George versus the dragon is almost certainly just that, a legend, but that doesn't make the imagery any less stirring as an allegory for the spiritual combat in which every Christian is engaged against the ruler of the powers of the air, both within is own heart & throughout the wider world. "Almost certainly" a legend? Why not "certainly"? I once heard a radio priest articulate the theory that the "dragon" could have been a Nile crocodile, which St. George might well have encountered at some point in his service in the Roman legions. We know so little about St. George's life that no one can say definitively that he never fought a Nile crocodile-cum-dragon, fanciful though the notion seems to us.
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