Saints + Scripture: Octave of Easter (Pascha)

'Tis the Friday within the Octave of Easter: Easter-link, Octave-link, Wikipedia-link Easter Week, & Wikipedia-link Octave.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Friday within the Octave of Easter
The Acts of the Apostles, chapter four, verses one thru twelve;
Psalm One Hundred Eighteen, verses one, two, & four; twenty-two, twenty-three, & twenty-four; & twenty-five, twenty-six, & twenty-seven(a);
The Gospel according to John, chapter twenty-one, verses one thru fourteen.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel the risen Jesus appears to seven disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias. Jesus rose bodily from the dead. This is the fact—eminently surprising and unexpected—that gives birth to Christianity. The excitement that you can sense on every page of the New Testament comes from this novelty.

Why did the risen Jesus appear only to a few? Why didn’t he make himself readily apparent to anyone who wanted to see? Cardinal Newman commented on this. If Jesus had appeared publicly and indiscriminately to all, the power of the Resurrection would have been lessened. Some would believe; others wouldn’t. Some would get it; others wouldn’t. Some would be fascinated; others indifferent.

Instead, he deigned to appear to a small coterie of dedicated disciples who knew him, loved him, understood him—confident that they would be the effective bearers of his message. We are those now who eat and drink with him after his Resurrection. And so we have a commission to announce this Good News.

Video reflection by the Very Reverend Kevin P. Fausz, C.M., V.U.: U. S. C. of Catholic Bishops.

Scripture Study—Wisdom Books
The Book of the Psalms, psalm eighty-eight (verses one thru eighteen);
The Book of the Psalms, psalm one hundred seventeen (verses one & two);
The Book of the Psalms, psalm one hundred eighteen (verses one thru twenty-nine);
The Book of the Proverbs, chapter twenty-six (verses one thru twenty-eight).

Commentary: Prayer for Help in Despondency (Psalm 88), Universal Call to Worship (Psalm 117), A Song of Victory (Psalm 118), & Further Wise Sayings of Solomon (cont'd; Proverbs, 26:1-28).

†

Otherwise, 26 April would be the festival of Our Lady of Good Counsel: Madonna-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Cletus, Pope & Martyr (circa 25-89, A.K.A. Anacletus), third (III) Bishop of Rome, martyred in the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, mentioned in the Roman Canon (A.K.A. Eucharistic Prayer I): Martyr-link ūnus, Martyr-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontiff-link & Wikipedia-link Pontiff; & Canon-link & Wikipedia-link Canon.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Marcellinus, Pope & Martyr (died circa 304), twenty-ninth (XXIX) Bishop of Rome, martyred in the reign of the Roman emperors Diocletian & Maximian, a victim of the Great Persecution: Martyr-link ūnus, Martyr-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontiffs-link, & Wikipedia-link Pontiff; & Wikipedia-link Persecution.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Paschasius Radbertus, Abbot, O.S.B. (circa 785-865), abbot of Corbie Abbey: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Abbey-link Corbie & Wikipedia-link Corbie.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Stephen of Perm, Bishop (1340-1396, the "Apostle of the Permians"): Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

'Twould also be the festival of Blessed Stanislaw Kubista, Priest & Martyr, S.V.D. (1898-1940), martyred in the reign of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, one of the One Hundred Eight Blessed Polish Martyrs: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyrs-link Polska & Wikipedia-link Polska.

Proverb o' the Day (Proverbs, 26:21)

As charcoal to hot embers & wood to fire,
so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Every believer ought to be an active member of the Church. Every Catholic lay person is invested with the right & has the duty to work in order to testify to & spread the Kingdom of God."
—Pope St. Paul VI (1897-1978, feast day: 26 September)

Little Flower Quote o' the Day

"You are wrong to find fault with this thing & with that, or to try & make everyone see things as you see them. We desire to be as little children & little children do not know what is best: to them all seems right."
—St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church (1873-1897, feast day: 1 October)

Commentary: I disagree utterly with this quote, but include it here because St. Thérèse is a Doctor of the Church & I am not; so, though I am confident she is wrong, I hope & pray the Lord will show me the sense in what seems to me nonsense & will show me just how wrong I am.

Saint Quote o' the Day

"If there was one dominant characteristic about St. Peter, it was that he hated discipline, mortification, & self-denial. He's just like the rest of us. He wanted to lay hold of the immediate & that which is joyful, but he did not want to have anything really crucial in his life. That is evidenced first of all on the Mount of the Transfiguration. Here our Blessed Lord revealed Himself in His risen glory when His face shone as the sun & His garments were as white as snow. While He was in this state, Moses and Elijah appeared. And what did our Lord talk to them about? His death. Peter all the while was asleep in a trance, & when he became conscious of the transfiguration, his first thought was: 'Lord it's wonderful to be here.' Let's capture this glow. This is the kingdom of God. The gospel says, 'He did not know what he was saying.' So our Lord later took him down the mountain where there was the father with the demonic child. Peter was to go to still another mountain, & only after climbing that mountain—Calvary—would he ever understand the glory that came after another, & very different, kind of transfiguration at Calvary. So Peter did not understand suffering."
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979