Saints + Scripture

The Popish Plot
"Meatless Meal Collaboration"

'Tis the festival of Saint Liudhard, Bishop (died circa 600, A.K.A. Letard), who helped establish Saint Martin's Church, the oldest church in the Anglosphere: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Saint Martin's.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Chaplain to the Christian queen St. Bertha [1 May], who was married to the pagan king Æthelberht of Kent [see below]. St. Æthelberht was eventually converted to the Faith, by St. Augustine of Canterbury [27 May].

'Tis also the festival of Saint Æthelberht of Kent (circa 550-616; also spelt Ethelbert, Ædilberct, etc.), King of Kent: Saint-link & Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Husband of St. Bertha [1 May] & father of St. Æthelburh [8 September].

'Tis also the festival of Saint Cumméne Find, Abbot (died 669, of Iona; A.K.A. Cumméne the White), seventh (VII) abbot of Iona Abbey (657-669): Saint-link & Wikipedia-link; Abbey-link Iona & Wikipedia-link Iona.

Commentary: Brother of St. Comman of Iona [18 March].

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Tommaso Maria Fusco, Priest (1831-1891), founder of the Priestly Society of the Catholic Apostolate & the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood: Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés, Virgin, O.C.D.S. (1820-1893): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link.

'Tis also the festival of Blessed Josef Mayr-Nusser, Martyr (1910-1945, the "Martyr of the First Commandment"), martyred in the reign of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link.

Scripture of the Day
Mass Readings—Monday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
The Letter of James, chapter three, verses thirteen thru eighteen;
Psalm Nineteen (R/. nine[a]), verses eight, nine, ten, & fifteen;
The Gospel according to Mark, chapter nine, verses fourteen thru twenty-nine.

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

Friends, in today’s Gospel Jesus drives a demon from a deaf and mute child and heals him.

The account demonstrates the role of faith in divine healing. Jesus describes his disciples who could not heal the boy as a "faithless generation." And when the child’s father wonders if Jesus can heal his son, he says, "Everything is possible to one who has faith." Then he heals the child by driving out the deaf and mute spirit.

We have an adventurous God, and faith is the proper response to such a God. Don’t think of faith so much first in propositional form—the things that I believe—but rather in psychological or spiritual form.

Faith is an attitude of trust in the God who is always holding out new possibilities to us. When our lives and hearts are aligned to the God who creates the universe, when our wills are directed according to his purposes, we become the conduits of enormous power.

Video reflection by Monsignor James Vlaun (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops): Daily Reflection.

Scripture Study—Exodus 90: Day 43
The Book of Exodus, chapter seventeen, verses eight thru sixteen.

Commentary: Amalek Attacks Israel & Is Defeated (Exodus, 17:8-16).

Scripture Study—The 3:16 Project
The Book of Exodus, chapter chapter three, verse sixteen.

"Go & gather the elders of Israel together, & say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, & of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have observed you & what has been done to you in Egypt…" ' "

Papal Quote o' the Day

"The new evangelization depends largely on the Domestic Church. In our time, as in times past, the eclipse of God, the spread of ideologies contrary to the family & the degradation of sexual ethics are connected. And just as the eclipse of God & the crisis of the family are linked, so the new evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family. The family is indeed the way of the Church because it is the 'human space' of our encounter with Christ."
—Pope Benedict XVI (b. 1927, r. 2005-2013)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"Heaven is social; it is a fellowship. In some places, heaven is called a country, to indicate its vastness. It is called a city, to suggest the number of its inhabitants. It is called a kingdom, to suggest order & harmony. It is called a paradise in order to tell of its delights. And it is called the Father's house in order to indicate its eternity & its permanence of love & peace. In order to be perfectly happy after the end of the world, we will have to have our body with us because our body has done a great deal for the salvation of our souls. There we will meet, in the fullness of the communion of saints, all those who were our friends on earth. Husbands who have been grieved in time by the loss of a wife, will find a wife."
—Ven. Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)