Saints + Scripture

The Popish Plot
"Off Topic from St. Scholastica: Holiness"

'Tis the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes (apparitions 11 February-16 July 1858): Madonna-link ūna, Madonna-link duæ, Madonna-link Array of Hope, & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

The first of these is the apparition of 11 February 1858, when fourteen-year-old [St.] Bernadette Soubirous [16 April] told her mother that a "lady" spoke to her in the cave of Massabielle while she was gathering firewood with her sister & a friend. Similar apparitions of the "Lady" were reported on eighteen occasions that year, until the climax revelation of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception took place.

Quoth Minute Meditations from the Popes:

O Mary, you appeared to the humble young woman St. Bernadette Soubirous, to call us to conversion. Help me to respond to that call with generosity.

Wikipedia-link Grotto of Massabielle, Wikipedia-link Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, Wikipedia-link Lourdes water, & Wikipedia-link Lourdes grottoes

'Tis also the World Day of the Sick (established 1992): Day-link ūnus, Day-link duo, & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Soteris, Virgin & Martyr (died circa 305, A.K.A. Sotra, etc.), martyred in the reign of the Roman emperors Diocletian & Maximian, a victim of the Great Persecution (303-313): Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Persecutions-link & Wikipedia-link Great Persecution.

Commentary: Kinswoman of the bishop & Doctor of the Church St. Ambrose of Milan [7 December].

'Tis also the festival of Saint Cædmon, Religious (died circa 684, A.K.A. Cadfan), composer of "Cædmon's Hymn" (circa 657-680): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link "Cædmon's Hymn."

'Tis also the festival of Saint Gregory II, Pope (669-731), eighty-ninth (LXXXIX) Bishop of Rome (715-731), an opponent of the first bout of the Byzantine iconoclastic heresy: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontifex-link, & Wikipedia-link Pontifex; & Heresy-link & Wikipedia-link Iconoclasm.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Paschal I, Pope, O.S.B. (died 824, A.K.A. Pascale Massimi), ninety-eighth (XCVIII) Bishop of Rome (817-824), an opponent of the second bout of the Byzantine iconoclastic heresy: Saint-link ūnus, Saint-link duo, & Wikipedia-link; Pontifex-link, & Wikipedia-link Pontifex; & Heresy-link & Wikipedia-link Iconoclasm.

'Tis also the festival of Saint Pedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero, Priest & Martyr (1892-1937), martyred in the reign of the Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas, one of the twenty-five Martyrs of the Mexican Revolution, part of the larger group of Saints of the Cristero War: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Martyr-link México, Wikipedia-link México, & Wikipedia-link Cristero War.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
The First Book of Kings, chapter eight, verses twenty-two, twenty-three, & twenty-seven thru thirty;
Psalm Eighty-four (R/. two), verses three, four, five & ten, & eleven;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter seven, verses one thru thirteen.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they "disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition."

For instance: "If someone says to father or mother, ‘Any support you might have had from me is qorban’ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother." If you claim to be a person of love, but fail to honor your parents, something is seriously off. Thus the hypocrisy of the Pharisees is a disregard of love.

In its essence, love is an act of the will—more precisely, the willing of the good of the other as other. To love is really to want what is good for someone else and then to act on that desire.

Real love is a leaping outside of the narrow confines of my needs and desires, and an embrace of the other’s good for the other’s sake. It is an escape from the black hole of the ego, which tends to draw everything around it into itself.

Video reflection by Deacon Miguel Santos (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.

Mass Readings—Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes
The Book of Isaiah, chapter sixty-six, verses ten thru fourteen(c);
The Book of Judith (R/. chapter fifteen, verse nine), chapter thirteen, verses eighteen(b/c/d/e), nineteen;
The Gospel according to John, chapter two, verses one thru eleven.

Scripture Study—Exodus 90: Day 30
The Book of Exodus, chapter twelve, verses thirty-one thru thirty-six.

Commentary: The Tenth Plague: The Death of Egypt's First-born (concluded; Exodus, 12:31-32) & the Exodus: From Rameses to Succoth (Exodus, 12:33-36).

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Lourdes is a prophecy of justice & peace, where there is no room for pride & hardness of heart. Indeed, Lourdes is where this hardness is dissolved by one's witness of charity, mercy, serene resistance to evil, human solidarity, & sincere & moving generosity."
—Pope St. John Paul II the Great (1920-2005, r. 1978-2005; feast day: 22 October)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"The closer we get to Christ, the less certain we are of any merit of our own. Just study the way St. Paul characterizes himself in his epistles, in intervals of four, five, & six years between the letters. At first he says, I am the chief of the apostles, I have labored more abundantly than any of them. He works a little longer & then he says, I am not worthy to be called a member of the Church, & the least worthy of all of the apostles. Finally he ends up by calling himself the chief of sinners. St. Peter, too became wiser, his first letter begins, Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ. Here's a clear-cut affirmation of what he is. A few years later, Peter changes & he begins his letter, Simon Peter. Simon, poor weak human nature—Simon Peter, apostle servant of Christ."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Catholic Quote o' the Day

"Science—the very instrument that's being used by modern atheists to say that there is no God—is screaming at us that there's a God! The discoveries of thermodynamics, the Hubble Space Telescope, & Einstein's Theories of Relativity have exploded in the scientific world & have led untold numbers of scientists to faith in God."
—Tim Staples (floruit 2020)