Friday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Year of Saint Joseph

Year of the Family "Amoris Laetitia The Joy of Love"

World Day Against Trafficking in Human Persons

Saints: Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop, Doctor (380-450); Saint Justin de Jacobis (1800-1860)

Readings of the Day

RB: Ch 48:22-25 The Daily Manual Labor

Mass: Lev 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37; Resp Ps 81; Mt 13:54-58

Sing with joy to God our help.

IT WAS NOT YOU WHO CHOSE ME, SAYS THE LORD, BUT I CHOSE YOU AND APPOINTED YOU TO GO AND BEAR FRUIT, FRUIT THAT WILL LAST.

(Communion Antiphon, Mass)

May we not be like the people in today's Gospel and question Jesus' wisdom and mighty deeds. We have work to do, as Saint Peter Chrysologus tells us: [The Creator] "has made you in His image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth; He has made you His legate, so that the vast empire of the world might have the Lord's representative" (From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop, in Office of Readings, July 30). And Saint Ignatius of Antioch has something to say too. 

Give yourself to prayer continually, ask for wisdom greater than you now have, keep alert with unflagging spirit. Speak to each man individually, following God's example; bear the infirmities of all, like a perfect athlete of God. The greater the toil, the greater the reward ... be prudent as the serpent in all things, and innocent as the dove always. You are both body and soul; treat gently the manifestation of human fault, even as you pray for the knowledge of things invisible, and then you will lack nothing but abound in every good blessing ... Exercise self-discipline, for you are God's athlete; the prize is immortality and eternal life, as you know full well ... And above all we must bear with everything for God, so that He in turn may bear with us. Increase your zeal.

(From the beginning of a letter to Polycarp by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr, in Office of Readings, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Friday)

A gentle maiden [Mary], having lodged a God in her womb, asks as its price, peace for the world, salvation for those who are lost, and life for the dead.

(Saint Peter Chrysologus)

SAINT PETER CHRYSOLOGUS,

SAINT JUSTIN DE JACOBIS,

SAINT JOSEPH,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Heavenly bamboo at the monastery. 

© Gertrude Feick 2021