Monday, Oct. 18, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
ST. LUKE (Greek, born in Antioch, Syria; died in Thebes, Greece at age 84)
Apostle and Evangelist, Patron Saint of Physicians
Companion of St. Paul, author of the Gospel considered to be the most historical of the four Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles, recounting the history of the early Church following the Resurrection. He met Saint Paul in Troas, and evangelized Greece and Rome with him, being there for the shipwreck and other perils of the voyage to Rome; He also stayed in Rome for Paul’s two years of in prison. Much of his Gospel was based on the teachings and writings of Paul, interviews with early Christians, and his own experiences. He is believed to have painted an icon of Mary now kept in the Patriarchate of Constantinople and model for icons like the Salus Populus Romanum in Santa Maria Maggiore and the Virgin of Czestochowa. His remains have had quite an itinerary and have been kept in the Church of St. Giustina in Padua since the 12th century where it was taken from Constantinople for safekeeping. In 2001, scientific testing established that the remains in Padua corresponded to what is known about Luke, and a head that had been kept in Pargue was shown to fit the Padua remains perfectly. See
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1360095/DNA-test-pinpoints-St-Luke-the-apostles-remains-to-Pa...
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/101810.shtml
[Because they were not apostles, the evangelists Luke and Mark have somehow been left out of Benedict XVI's catechesis. They should have come after St. Paul in the series, before Timothy and Titus, perhaps? I wonder if anyone has pointed that out. He will surely talk about St. Mark when he goes to Venice next May, but St. Luke, strangely, is not the patron saint of any major city!]
No OR today.
THE POPE'S DAY
The Holy Father took part in the morning session of the Syndal assembly, after which he met with
- H.E. César Mauricio Velásquez Ossa, Ambassador from Colombia, who presented his credentials. Message in Spanish.
- Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, and president of the Italianbishops' conference
- H.E. Manuel Roberto López Barrera, Ambassador from El Salvador, who presented his credentials. Message in Spanish.
The Vatican earlier released a letter from the Holy Father to the seminarians of the world, in all the official
languages of the Vatican. It seems this is yet another unprecedented action by Benedict XVI.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/10/2010 23:21]