Saints + Scripture: XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

'Tis the Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Book of Wisdom, chapter two, verses twelve & seventeen thru twenty;
Psalm Fifty-four, verses three & four; five; & six, seven, & eight;
The Letter of James, chapter three, verse sixteen thru chapter four, verse 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 who want to be the most important. 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 Apostles. 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 Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Video reflection by Father Claude Burns (uCatholic): Weekend Reflection with Father Pontifex.

Audio reflection by Scott Hahn, Ph.D. (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Breaking the Bread.

Mass Journal: Week Thirty-nine
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:

My favorite passage from the Catechism of the catholic Church appears as the first line of the first chapter, & it reads, "The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God & for God; & God never ceases to draw man to Himself. Only in God will he find the truth & happiness he never stops searching for.

†

Otherwise, 23 September would be the festival of Saint Linus, Pope (died circa 76), second (II) Bishop of Rome: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Pontiff.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Twould also be the festival of Blessed William Way, Priest & Martyr (died 1588, A.K.A. William May, William Flower), martyred in the reign of the English queen Elizabeth I, one of the Martyrs of Douai: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link Douai & Wikipedia-link Douai.

'Twould also be the festival of Blessed Jozef Stanek, Priest & Martyr (1916-1944), martyred in the reign of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hiter, one of the One Hundred Eight Blessed Polish Martyrs: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link (List, № 41); Martyrs-link CVIII & Wikipedia-link CVIII.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest, O.F.M. Cap. (1887-1968, "Padre Pio;" A.K.A. Francesco Forgione), stigmatic: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Stigmata-link & Wikipedia-link Stigmata.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Every burden is light when we are united to Christ, when it is He Who gives us the strength & breath to go on walking. On the other hand, how heavy the burden is when it is carried without Christ!"
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, feast day: 22 October)

Little Flower Quote o' the Day

"I understood that each person is free to respond to the call of Jesus, to do little or much for Him, to select among the sacrifices He asks. Then I cried out: 'My God, I choose ALL!'"
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Catholic Quote o' the Day

"Man is neither angel nor beast, & unfortunately anyone who tries to make an angel out of him makes him a beast."
—Blaise Pascal (1588-1651)