Saints + Scripture

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the festival of Saint Agapitus of Palestrina, Martyr (circa 259-274), martyred in the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Helena (circa 248-328), who discovered the True Cross (320): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Cross.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Inan, Hermit (floruit ninth century, also spelt Evan; A.K.A. Tennant, etc.): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Martín Martínez Pascual, Priest & Martyr (1910-1936), martyred by Spanish Communist "Republicans" (Rojos): Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link (en español).

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The Book of Ezekiel, chapter eighteen, verses one thru ten, thirteen(b), thirty, thirty-one, & thirty-two;
Psalm Fifty-one, verses twelve & thirteen, fourteen & fifteen, & eighteen & nineteen;
The Gospel according to Matthew, chapter nineteen, verses thirteen, fourteen, & fifteen.

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

Friends, in our Gospel for today, Jesus proposes that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like children. Why? For starters, 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. “Kids say the darndest things,” because they don’t know how to hide the truth of their reactions.

In this, they are like stars or flowers or animals, things that are what they are, unambiguously, uncomplicatedly. They are in accord with God’s deepest intentions for them.

To say it another way, they haven’t yet learned how to look at themselves. Why can a child immerse himself so eagerly and thoroughly in what he is doing? Why can he find joy in the simplest thing, like pushing a train around a track or watching a video over and over, or kicking a ball around? Because he can lose himself; because he is not looking at himself, not conscious of other people’s reactions, expectations, and approval.

Mind you, this childlikeness has nothing to do with being unsophisticated, unaccomplished, or childish. Thomas Aquinas was one of the most accomplished men to ever live, the greatest intellectual in the history of the Church, and one of the subtlest minds in the history of the West. Yet the terms that were used over and over to describe him were “childlike” and “innocent.”

Childlikeness has to do with that rootedness in what God wants us to be. Thomas was born to be a theologian and a writer, and nothing would get him off of that beam: neither the critiques of his enemies, nor the blandishments of his religious superiors, nor the temptations to become a bishop. He was and remained who God wanted him to be, and thus he was like a great mountain or a flower or, indeed, a child.

Video reflection by Deacon Bernard Nojadera: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Bible Study—Catholic Epistles
The Second Letter of Peter, chapter one (of three, verses one thru twenty-one);
The Second Letter of Peter, chapter two (verses one thru twenty-two);
The Second Letter of Peter, chapter three (of three, verses one thru eighteen).

Commentary: I. Address: Greeting (2 Peter, 1:1-2); II. Exhortation to Christian Virtue: The Power of God's Promise (1:3-11) & Apostolic Witness (1:12-21); III. Condemnation of the False Teachers: False Teachers (2:1-3), Lessons from the Past (2:4-10a), & False Teachers Denounced (2:10b-22); IV. The Delay of the Second Coming (3:1-10) & Exhortation to Prepardeness (3:11-16); & V. Final Exhortation & Doxology (3:17-18).

Bible Study—Wisdom Books
The Book of Psalms, psalm forty-nine (verses one thru twenty-one);
The Book of Psalms, psalm fifty (verses one thru twenty-three);
The Book of Psalms, psalm fifty-one (verses one thru twenty-one);
The Book of Proverbs, chapter eighteen (verses one thru twenty-four).

Commentary: Confidence in God rather than in Riches (Psalm 49), the Acceptable Sacrifice (Psalm 50), & The Miserere: Prayer of Repentance (Psalm 51); II. First Collection of the Proverbs of Solomon (cont'd; Proverbs, 18:1-24).

Proverb o' the Day (Proverbs, 18:1)

In estrangement one seeks pretexts:
with all persistence he picks a quarrel.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"In the interior life we are not alone, but live with Christ. We share His thoughts & actions, & we associate with Him as a friend, a disciple, &, as it were, a collaborator."
—Pope Venerable Pius XII (1876-1958)

Little Flower Quote o' the Day

"Very often God is satisfied with our wish to labor for His glory, & how immense are my desires to do so."
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"Let the Creed be like a mirror for you. Look at yourself in it to see whether you really believe all that you claim to believe. And rejoice every day in your faith."
—St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church (354-430, feast day: 28 August)