Saints + Scripture

'Tis the Optional Memorial of Saint Rita of Cascia, Religious, O.S.A. (1381-1457): Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

In many Catholic countries, Rita came to be known as the patroness of abused wived & heartbroken women. One day when she was about sixty years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified, as she was long accustomed to doing. Suddenly a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ's head had loosed itself & penetrated her own flesh. For the next fifteen years she bore this external sign of stigmatization & union with the Lord.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Bobo of Provence, Hermit (died 986, also spelt Beuvon, Bovo): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Dulce Pontes, Religious, S.M.I.C. (1914-1992, A.K.A. Maria Rita Lópes Pontes de Souza Brito, Irmã Dulce Pontes), foundress of the Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce (A.K.A., in Portuguese, Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link O.S.I.D.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The Letter of James, chapter four, verses one thru ten;
Psalm Fifty-five, verses seven & eight, nine & ten(a), ten(b) & eleven, & twenty-three;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter nine, verses thirty thru thirty-seven.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus presents a child as the model for his disciples. Jesus lays out for his disciples what is going to happen to him in Jerusalem, how he will be rejected, tortured, and killed. Oblivious to this, the disciples are discussing who among them is the most important. For Jesus, the path to greatness lies on the road to Calvary, to self-forgetting love; for the disciples—and for most people of most ages—it lies along the road to ego inflation.

What is the antidote? A child is proposed as a kind of living icon to these ambitious disciples. We notice first how Jesus physically identifies with the child, sitting down at his level and placing his arms around him. It is as though he is saying that he himself is like a child. How so? Children don’t know how to dissemble, how to be one way and act another. They are what they are; they act in accordance with their deepest nature.

Why was this story of Jesus’ identification with children preserved by all of the synoptic Gospels? Somehow it gets close to the heart of Jesus’ life and message.

Video reflection by Sister Sharon Erickson, R.S.M.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Mass Readings—Optional Memorial of St. Rita of Cascia
The Letter to the Philippians, chapter four, verses four thru nine;
Psalm Forty, verse five(a);
or, Psalm One, verse two(a);
or, Psalm Ninety-two, verses thirteen & fourteen;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter six, verses twenty-seven thru thirty-eight.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"The longing of Christ's Heart [that all be one] must be our invitation. We must dedicate ourselves anew to the task of establishing among Catholics a firm & abiding love & witness to that unity which is the first mark of the Church."
—Pope St. John XXIII (1881-1963, feast day: 11 October)

Little Flower Quote o' the Day

"The greatest of all is that He has shown me my littleness & how, of myself, I am incapable of anything good."
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"Be children of the Church."
—St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821, feast day: 4 January)