Saints + Scripture: Eastertide — Better Late than Never

The Popish Plot
Wordy Wednesday: "The Story of Your Life"

'Tis the festival of Saint Brendan of Clonfert, Priest & Abbot (circa 484-577, A.K.A. the Navigator, the Voyager), one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link XII.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Simon Stock, Religious, O.Carm. (circa 1165-1265), to whom was revealed the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Scapular-link & Wikipedia-link Scapular.

'Tis also the festival of Saint John of Nepomuk, Priest & Martyr (circa 1340-1393, A.K.A. John Nepomucene, etc.), martyred in the reign of the Bohemian king Wenceslaus IV: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Andrzej Bobola, Priest & Martyr, S.J. (1591-1657, the "Apostle of Lithuania"), martyred in the reign of the Cossack warlord Bohdan Khmelnytsky: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Vladimir Ghika, Priest & Martyr (1873-1954), martyred in the reign of the Communist dictator Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of This Day
Mass Readings—Easter Weekday
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter twenty, verses twenty-eight thru thirty-eight;
Psalm Sixty-eight, verses twenty-nine & thirty; thirty-three, thirty-four, & thirty-five9a); & thirty-five(b/c) & thirty-six(a/b);
The Gospel according to John, chapter seventeen, verses eleven(b) thru nineteen.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus prays, saying: “I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.”

Sadness of soul follows from the heaviness of self-regard, a sadness and weight which precludes real union with the other. Joy, on the other hand, must be the principal “emotion” shared by the trinitarian persons, since their life is nothing but self-forgetting love. Joy, a concomitant of that ecstasy, is the mark of anyone caught in the loop of grace and the gift of Jesus Christ to his Church.

Chesterton’s magnificent comment is apposite here: “A characteristic of the great saints is their power of levity. Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly.” And nothing so conquers the dull sadness and heaviness of self-regard—nothing so makes us fly with lightness and levity—as the surprise and facticity of the Resurrection.

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

Papal Quote o' This Day

"How sweet, how consoling it is for us who wish to walk in the footsteps of the Lord to have before us Mary, her image, her remembrance, her kindness, her humility & purity, her greatness. How close to us the Gospel is in the power that Mary personifies & radiates with human & superhuman splendor."
—Pope Bl. Paul VI (1897-1978, feast day: 26 September)

Little Flower Quote o' This Day

"The power of prayer has been understood by all the saints, & especially, perhaps, by those who have illumined the world with the light of Christ's teaching."
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Saint Quote o' This Day

"One little deed, done against natural inclinations for God's sake… has in it power outbalancing all the dust & chaff of mere profession."
—Bl. John Henry Newman (1801-1890, feast day: 9 October)