Saints + Scripture

Simplex Complex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the festival of Saint Hermione of Ephesus, Martyr (died 117), martyred in the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Daughter of the deacon St. Philip the Evangelist [11 October].

'Tis the festival of Saint Boniface I, Pope (circa 350-422), forty-second (XLII) Bishop of Rome: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontiffs-link & Wikipedia-link Pontiff.

'Tis the festival of Saint Ida of Herzfeld (circa 770-825): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Great-granddaughter of Bl. Charlemagne [28 January].

'Tis the festival of Saint Rosalia, Virgin (circa 1130-1160, "La Santuzza" [the "little saint"]): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Descendant of Bl. Charlemagne [28 January].

'Tis the festival of Saint Rose of Viterbo, Virgin, T.O.S.F. (circa 1233-1251), venerated annually by the procession of the magnificent Macchina di Santa Rosa through the streets of Viterbo: Saint-link ūna, Saint-link duæ, & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Machine.

'Tis the festival of Blessed Marie of Saint Cecilia of Rome, Religious, R.J.M. (1897-1929, A.K.A. Dina Bélanger): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
The Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses one thru eight;
Psalm Fifty-two, verses ten & eleven;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter four, verses thirty-eight thru forty-four.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, in our Gospel we see Jesus in action. He is always hurrying from place to place, on the go. Today, Luke gives us a sort of “day in the life” of Jesus. And it is quite a day! Our Gospel opens just after the dramatic expulsion of a demon in the Capernaum synagogue. And after entering the house of Simon, Jesus cures Peter’s mother-in-law, and then the entire town comes to his door. He spends the whole evening curing presumably hundreds who were variously afflicted.

In the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, in an attempt to make Jesus more palatable to rationalists and “realists,” theologians put great stress on Jesus’ preaching, especially his ethical teaching.

But this is not the Jesus that Luke presents. Rather, he is a healer—Soter, rendered in Latin as salvator, which just means “the bearer of the salus” or health. Jesus is portrayed as a healer, a savior. In him, divinity and humanity have come together; in him, the divine life and divine power are breaking through. God’s deepest intentions for his beloved creatures appears—what God plans for us in the kingdom to come is now historically anticipated.

Video reflection by Jem Sullivan, Ph.D.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"How consoling it is to know the telephone number of a friend, to know good people who love us, who are always available & never aloof: at any time we can call them & they can call us. This is precisely what the Incarnation of God in Christ says to us: God has written our names & phone numbers in His address book! He is always listening; we do not need money or technology to call Him. Thanks to baptism & confirmation, we are privileged to belong to His family."
—Pope Benedict XVI (born 1927, reigned 2005-2013)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"One day a woman came to me & told me that she could never love her husband again. I told her to try & think back to how much she loved him the day of their marriage, as they stood side by side at the altar. For that is the way he really was. What the woman had to do was to see, beneath the distorted image, the real person to whom she committed her life. This is precisely what our Lord does in coming to this earth. Even when men raged & stormed beneath His cross, He saw them as homeless & unhappy children of the Father in heaven. For them He grieved & for them He died. This is the vision our Lord has of humanity."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)