Saints + Scripture

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

'Tis the Optional Memorial of Saint Margaret of Scotland (circa 1045-1093, "the Pearl of Scotland;" A.K.A. of Wessex), Queen of Scots: Saint-link ūna, Saint-link duæ, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Great-niece of St. Stephen of Hungary [16 August] & niece of St. Edward the Confessor [13 October].

Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

Margaret was a very pious Roman catholic, & among many charitable works she established a ferry across the Firth of Forth in Scotland for pilgrims traveling to St. Andrew's in Fife. Margaret was the mother of three kings of Scotland.

'Tis also the Optional Memorial of Saint Gertrude, Virgin, O.S.B. (circa 1256-1302, the Great, A.K.A. of Helfta): Saint-link ūna, Saint-link duæ, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

Gertrude was a German Benedictine nun, mystic, & theologian.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Othmar, Priest & Abbot, O.S.B. (circa 689-759, of Saint Gall; also spelt Audemar), inaugural abbot of the Abbey of Saint Gall: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Abbey.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Edmund of Abingdon, Bishop (circa 1174-1240, A.K.A. Edmund Rich, of Canterbury), who preached the Sixth Crusade (1228-1229): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Crusade.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Edward Osbaldeston, Priest & Martyr (circa 1560-1594), martyred in the reign of the English queen Elizabeth I, one of the Eighty-five Martyrs of England & Wales: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link LXXXV & Wikipedia-link LXXXV.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
The Second Letter of John, verses four thru nine;
Psalm One Hundred Nineteen, verses one, two, ten, eleven, seventeen, & eighteen;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter seventeen, verses twenty-six thru thirty-seven.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel passage the Lord compares the clueless behavior of our time with that of Noah. Listen to his warning: "Jesus said to his disciples, ‘The coming of the Son of Man will repeat what happened in Noah’s time.’" Those aren’t very reassuring words.

Then he specifies: people were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage right up to the time of the flood, and then, when it came, with shocking suddenness, they were destroyed. The end of an old world had arrived, but the inhabitants of that world were clueless. A new world was coming, but the prospective citizens of it had no idea how to prepare for it.

Our version of Noah’s world-destroying flood might be the crashing of a huge comet into the earth. What if we knew that a comet was coming, but we did nothing about it; we adjusted in no way to it? This was the situation of those in Noah’s time and, Jesus suggests, those in his own time. And it’s our situation, too. We must prepare for the Lord’s coming by patterning our lives on the Gospel.

Video reflection by Doctor Jane Grovijahn: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Mass Readings—Optional Memorial of St. Margaret of Scotland
The Book of Isaiah, chapter fifty-eight, verses six thru eleven;
Psalm One Hundred Twelve, verse one;
The Gospel according to John, chapter fifteen, verses nine thru seventeen.

Mass Readings—Optional Memorial of St. Gertrude
The Letter to the Ephesians, chapter three, verses fourteen thru nineteen;
Psalm Twenty-three, verse one;
The Gospel according to John, chapter fifteen, verses one thru eight.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Genuine happiness of the home is based on love that gives itself & sacrifices itself simply & perseveringly. This love can be sustained only with the food of faith, & faith is a gift of God that is nourished in prayer & the Sacraments."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, feast day: 22 October)

Little Flower Quote o' the Day

"I (pray) like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, & He always understands me."
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Catholic Quote o' the Day

"Nowhere in the world has so great a miracle occurred as in that little stable in Bethlehem; here God & man become one."
—Thomas à Kempis (1379-1471)