"Peter replied, 'Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.'"(John 6:68-69)Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Feast of the Church:
Saints of the Day:
SAINT WILLIBRORD
Bishop
(657-739)
Willibrord was born in Northumberland in 657, and when twenty years old went to Ireland, to study under St. Egbert; twelve years later, he felt drawn to convert the great pagan tribes who were hanging as a cloud over the north of Europe.He went to Rome for the blessing of the Pope, and with eleven companions reached Utrecht. The pagans would not accept the religion of their enemies, the Franks; and St. Willibrord could only labor in the track of Pepin Heristal, converting the tribes whom Pepin subjugated.
At Pepin's urgent request, he again went to Rome, and was consecrated Archbishop of Utrecht. He was stately and comely in person, frank and joyous, wise in counsel, pleasant in speech, in every work of God strenuous and unwearied. Multitudes were converted, and the Saint built churches and appointed priests all over the land. He wrought many miracles, and bad the gift of prophecy.
He labored unceasingly as bishop for more than fifty years, beloved alike of God and of man, and died full of days and good works.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Saint Carina & her Companions
Martyrs
Nothing is known about this saint (also called Cassina) apart from the Acts of her martyrdom. In the year 360, at the time of Emperor Julian the Apostate in the city of Ankara, she and her husband Antonius as well as her thirteen-year-old son Melasippus were arrested on account of their Christian Faith.
The local autorities, as was the custom in such matters, endeavored to sway them from their devotion to the true God by means of cruel and inhuman tortures. But, aided by grace from on high, the three Christians remmained unswerving in their allegiance and steadfast in their Faith. they thus attained the crown of martyrdom and went on to receive their heavenly reward from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whom they had so closely followed on earth.
PRAYER
God, You surround and protect us by the glorious confession of
St. Carina and her Companions. Help us to profit from their example and be supported by their prayers. Amen.
Feast: November 7
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Letter to the Philippians 3:17-19 Stick with me, friends. Keep track of those you see running this same course, headed for this same goal. There are many out there taking other paths, choosing other goals, and trying to get you to go along with them. I’ve warned you of them many times; sadly, I’m having to do it again. All they want is easy street. They hate Christ’s Cross. But easy street is a dead-end street. Those who live there make their bellies their gods; belches are their praise; all they can think of is their appetites.
20-21 But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.
4:1 My dear, dear friends! I love you so much. I do want the very best for you. You make me feel such joy, fill me with such pride. Don’t waver. Stay on track, steady in God.
Psalms 122: A Pilgrim Song of David
1-2 When they said, “Let’s go to the house of God,”
my heart leaped for joy.
And now we’re here, O Jerusalem,
inside Jerusalem’s walls!
3-5 Jerusalem, well-built city,
built as a place for worship!
The city to which the tribes ascend,
all God’s tribes go up to worship,
To give thanks to the name of God—
this is what it means to be Israel.
Thrones for righteous judgment
are set there, famous David-thrones.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 16: The Story of the Crooked Manager
1-2 Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’
3-4 “The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg. . . . Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do . . . then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’
5 “Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’
“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write fifty.’
7 “To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’
“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’
“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in eighty.’
8-9 “Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Commentary of the Day:Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), Jesuit missionary
Letter of 15/01/1544
Living as a good steward of God's gifts
I have no idea what to write you from these parts [India and Sri Lanka] except this: the consolations bestowed by our Lord God to those who go among the pagans to convert them to the faith of Christ are so great that, if there is any joy to be had in this life, it is surely this. I've often heard it said to someone going about amongst these Christians: “Lord, do not give me so many consolations in this life! Yet since, in your infinite goodness and pity, you are giving them me, take me into your holy glory! For indeed, there is such great suffering in living without seeing you after you have shown yourself to your creature in this way”. Ah! If only those who look for knowledge in study took as much trouble in looking for the consolations of the apostolate as they give day and night to the pursuit of knowledge! If only those joys that the scholar seeks in what he is learning he were to seek in making his neighbor feel what he is in need of to know and serve God, how much more consoled he would find himself to be and better prepared to give an account of himself when Christ returns and asks him: “Give me an account of your stewardship”...
I will end, asking our Lord God... to bring us together in his holy glory. And to obtain this blessing let us take as our intercessors and advocates all the holy souls of the region where I now am... I beg all these holy souls to obtain for us from our Lord God, for so long as we remain separated, the grace of feeling his holy will in the depth of our souls and of fulfilling it perfectly.
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