Monday of the Thirty-Second Week in Ordinary Time

For the Poor Souls in Purgatory

Saints: Saint Willibrord (658-739); Saint Engelbert (1185-1225)

Readings of the Day

Rule of Saint Benedict: Ch 31:1-12 Qualifications of the Monastery Cellarer

Mass: Titus 1:1-9; Resp Ps 24; Lk 17:1-6

The Lord's are the earth and its fullness.

MARY, QUEEN OF PEACE,

SAINT GERTRUDE THE GREAT OF HELFTA,

SAINT NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

Increase our faith.

(Lk 17:5)

We have several good qualities to emulate as we look to our reading from Saint Paul to Titus. Saint Paul exhorts a bishop to be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled ... (see Titus 1:7-8). And if those aren't enough qualities to strive for, Saint Benedict writes about the monastery cellarer. The monk or nun chosen as cellarer should be someone who is wise, mature in conduct, temperate, not an excessive eater, not proud, excitable, offensive, dilatory or wasteful, but God-fearing (see Rule of Saint Benedict, 31:1-2. After all, she will take care of everything (RB 31:3). This should keep up busy enough.

As we continue in this month of saints galore, here is a friendly reminder to add another saint's name to your growing collection. At the same time, we learn from one of our saints of the day that affirms what the Holy Father Pope Francis writes below, that is, the saints were made of flesh and blood. It may also be helpful to remember something that Jacques Philippe (b. 1947) writes: "The person I'm judging and condemning will perhaps one day be a great saint. When we look at the lives of the saints, there are assassins, adulterers, criminals - but grace changed their hearts." Saint Engelbert, elected Archbishop of Cologne, Germany [I was at the Cathedral in Cologne in high school], was anything but a saint. It is said that the pope excommunicated Engelbert at one point for waging war on a neighboring archbishop ("Saint of the Day," in The Loop from CatholicVote, November 7, 2022). He repented though and by the grace of God kept going. So how does dear Saint Engelbert help us understand what some our actions may mean? United in faith and prayer, there is hope for all of us as we keep going too. 

Let us read the lives of the saints which narrate in a comprehensible way the style God uses in the lives of people not that different from us since they were made of flesh and blood like us. Their deeds dialogue with our own actions, and help us understand what they mean.

(Pope Francis, Twitter, November 7, 2022)

SAINT WILLBRORD,

SAINT ENGELBERT,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: The world and those who dwell in it.

© Gertrude Feick 2022