Today’s readings
On this feast day of Saint Luke the Evangelist, we can imagine that the First Reading was chosen for its brief mention of the saint. The Gospel passage is taken from Luke’s account of the Gospel, but he is not mentioned there as he never met Jesus during His earthly life. Nonetheless, today’s Gospel passage is about being appointed and sent by Jesus. As such, each of us can directly relate it to his life as a disciple.
“To be sent” is the literal meaning of an “apostle”. Today’s Gospel passage, however, is not about the sending of the Twelve, but about the sending of the 72 whom Jesus sent ahead of Him as “advance men”. The 72 are to prepare people to receive Jesus. This is how we can relate this Gospel passage to our own lives as disciples. Very few members of the Church serve as successors of the apostles in the role of bishop, but every Christian is sent by Jesus to prepare others to receive Him. This fact is often overlooked today. There is a confusion still, fifty years after the start of the Second Vatican Council, between the roles of the clergy and laity.
The role of the laity in the Church is largely “outside” the Church, in that the laity carries the fruits of the Church into the wider, secular world. The word “apostolate” is all but obsolete today in referring to the work of the laity, but it needs to be reclaimed to describe the right and responsibility of the laity to engage the “world” with the Good News of Christ.
Diocese of Wichita
Catholic News Service is the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Read their news briefs for today.
(Vatican Radio) If a Christian “becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith.”
This was the theme of Pope Francis’ homily during his Thursday morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
Read more
Today’s Mass Readings
Saint Teresa of Avila lived at the time of the Protestant Reformation: that powerful movement which sought to heal the Church by breaking her in two. Saint Teresa herself suffered personally and greatly from the same abuses that the Protestant Reformers preached against. Saint Teresa knew, however, that the four marks of the Church—its unity, its holiness, its catholic nature, and its apostolic nature—could not be given up.
By contrast, many wanted to reform the Church by saying that her oneness was a unity that only needed to be manifested in the Spirit: that the Church’s unity was an invisible bond, without any clear and visible expression in worship. Many wanted to reform the Church by saying that her holiness was based merely upon the gift of faith that comes from the Spirit: that the Church’s holiness did not need to be expressed through good works. Many wanted to reform the Church by saying that her catholic nature was based upon the same Spirit calling all peoples to follow Christ, without any concrete organization to His Church throughout the world. Many wanted to reform the Church by saying that her apostolic nature was based upon returning to the example of the apostles in the New Testament, without expecting them to have successors in one’s own age.
What Saint Teresa — as a doctor of the Church — taught was that the Holy Spirit always expresses Himself sacramentally. Within the Church, each of her four marks is manifested in a sacramental manner, by faith being “enfleshed” within the Body of Christ: through the ritual celebration of the sacraments, through morally good actions, through the Christian communities that are united as parishes and dioceses under the guidance of shepherds whose authority extends back to Christ Himself, and which is ratified in our own day by the Vicar of Christ who serves the Church as the Pope.
Above all, Saint Teresa taught that allowing the Word of God to take flesh in our lives means allowing the Cross to take flesh within our lives. We take the flesh of the Cross in the Eucharist, then, so that we might be able to love the Cross for the gift that it is.
Catholic Diocese of Wichita
Catholic News Service is the official news agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Here are their News Briefs for Oct. 14
The Pope celebrated mass in St Peter’s square this morning in honour of the Marian Day, an event organised as part of the Year of Faith on the anniversary of the final apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima (13th of October 1917). He also consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Read more.
Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) A Marian prayer vigil was held on Saturday evening in St. Peter’s Square, with a special catechesis by Pope Francis. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima from the Portuguese shrine was flown to Rome for the event. The Pope was scheduled to consecrate the world to Our Lady during a Mass on Sunday.
Read the Pope’s homily.
Click here to see today’s readings.
Today’s First Reading from the Book of Joel is taken from its final chapter. The second half of Joel concerns the judgment of the LORD at some unspecified future time. This “day of the LORD” is described in apocalyptic terms that are much more sweeping than the prophecies Joel makes in the first half of the book.
Eschatology is the branch of theology that concerns “the last things”. The Greek word “eschaton” means “end” in the sense of “goal” or “fulfillment”. In both the Old and New Testaments, the “end times” includes the LORD’s judgment. But with the coming of the Gospel, this judgment was revealed in a new light. That light, of course, is “the light of the world” [John 8:12]: Jesus Christ.
Old Testament eschatology, however, is not without hope even if it is without saving knowledge of the One who will bring that hope. Today’s First Reading uses language that can seem dramatic and frightening, but which is finally reassuring for those who are truly the LORD’s people. For example, we hear today that the “heavens and the earth quake, but the LORD is a refuge to His people….” For us Christians, we can reflect on this First Reading in light of the Church being the People of God, and how our sharing in the life of the Church reflects our closeness to the Lord Himself
Diocese of Wichita
THE CONCHO PADRE POST 
Scriptures for Monday, October 14
Read the Scriptures here.
Romans is the longest of St. Paul’s letters: that’s one reason why you find it first among all the apostolic letters, immediately following Acts of the Apostles. But Romans is also the most profound of all the apostolic letters. St. Paul explores for the Romans every important theme of the Gospel. This week—perhaps in an hour of Adoration, or in your prayer corner at home—take your study bible and read the introduction to this great letter of St. Paul.
Given its importance, our First Reading at weekday Mass comes from Romans for the next four weeks. Within today’s passage is a brief phrase that sounds innocent enough, but is full of matter for spiritual reflection. Saint Paul points out to the Romans that they are “called to be holy”. The same, of course, is true of each of us Christians. One could say that the whole of Romans is an unpacking of this call.
The word “called” is used three times in today’s First Reading. Reflect on how these three instances fit together. The first is in the first sentence of Romans, where Paul describes himself as “called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God”. The second is where Paul, fulfilling his own calling, describes the Roman Christians as “called to belong to Jesus Christ”. The third is Paul’s concluding phrase in describing those to whom he’s writing: “called to be holy”. We can say that the last phrase describes all Christians, who through baptism begin to “belong to Jesus Christ”: that is, His Mystical Body which is the Church. Within this Church each member has his or her particular role, so that all the members of the body might work together. For Paul, this particular vocation was apostleship. For yourself, pray for an increase of grace today either to discern or to live out this vocation, so that through it you may grow in that holiness which is participation in Jesus Christ.
Diocese of Wichita
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