April 25, Fourth Sunday in Easter
Third from left, a depiction of Mark's martyrdom; the statue is by Donatello.
ST. MARK, EVANGELIST & MARTYR
Little is known of Mark's early life, except that he was born in Judea. The Acts and Paul's letters tell us he was a friend of both Peter and Paul. Peter called him 'my son', and Mark's house in Jerusalem apepared to have been a gathering place for the early Christians. He travelled with Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey, but Paul did not want him along on the second one, though apparently they made up later as Paul asked him to visit him in prison. His Gospel is the oldest and shortest of the four Gospels, and Eusebius says it is his account of what Peter preached. Ten to 20 years after Christ's Ascension, Mark came to Alexandria, in Egypt, where the Church he founded is now the Coptic Orthodox Church. He is considered the first bishop of Alexandria and the founder of Christianity in Africa. He died a martyr under Nero's rule, when anti-Christian feeling led the people of the city to drag him through the streets with a rope around his neck until he died. He is the patron saint of Venice, where in 825, two Venetian merchants brought his relics from Alexandria. The Copts venerate his head at the St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. [NB: I have just now realized that in a strange oversight, the Holy Father has not given a catechesis on St. Mark or St. Luke. Since neither of them was an Apostle, one might have expected their stories to follow the first catecheses oon St. Paul in the Apostles series, before the cycle on the early Christians which began with Timothy and Titus.!]
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/042510.shtml
OR today.
Both papal events yesterday - receiving the credentials of the new Belgian ambassador, and an address to an
Italian conference on the new media - do not even get mentioned on Page 1, nor the usual Rinunce e Nomine,
though they are reported in the inside pages. Is a commentary by Lucetta Scaraffia on the state of neuro-
physiology more important to the OR? Besides, the international 'news' reported on Page 1 is all generic -
the Taliban threat to Pakistan's nuclear arms; Iraq still caught in terrorist violence; Obama's administration
does not mind Hamas in a future Palestinian government; and thousands of civilians still suffering from the
effects of Sri Lanka's long civil war.
THE POPE'S DAY
'Regina caeli' - Recalling that this Sunday is also known as the Sunday of the Good Shepherd, the Holy Father spoke on the Church's World Day fof Prayer for Vocations, calling on the faithful to pray for more vocations and to pray for our priests to be stronger witnesses to the Gospel of Christ in their own lives as an example to the flock entrusted to their spiritual care.
He also reminded the faithful that today the Church beatified two priests - the 18th century Carmelite Angelo Paoli who was known as Rome's 'apostle of charity' and 'father of the poor', beatified in St. John's Lateran; and Jose Tous y Soler, a Catalonian Capuchin who founded a charitable sisterhood, and was beatified today in Barcelona.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/04/2010 03:20]