Friday, August 31, 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Central illustration shows Joseph and Nicodemus taking down Christ's body from the Cross.
SAINTS JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA and NICODEMUS (Judea, 1st century), Pharisees and early followers of Jesus
Both Joseph and Nicodemus were Pharisee leaders, probably both members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council of 23 judges that passed sentence on Jesus. Nicodemus was said in the Bible to have gone to see Jesus secretly at night to learn from him, and later defended his cause before the Sanhedrin. Joseph is cited in all four Gospels for having obtained permission from Pilate to take Jesus's body and bury it - in the tomb near Golgotha that he had had prepared for himself. In the Gospel of John, Joseph and Nicodemus together assist in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. While tradition says that Nicodemus eventually died a martyr in Jerusalem, Joseph passed on to legends of the Holy Grail in which he had custody of the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, conflated with the legend that he introduced Christianity to Britain, where he came to Glastonbury, and planting his staff on the ground, it took root and became the Glastonbury thorn.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083112.cfm
No bulletins from the Vatican so far.
Pray for Cardinal Martini
The Archdiocese of Milan issued a bulletin yesterday to say that the condition of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini,
who suffers from the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease, has worsened. Cardinal Angelo Scola, Archbishop
of Milan, asked the faithful to pray for the Jesuit cardinal, who has lived at a Jesuit retirement home in Gallareta
near Milan since 2008. He is 85. He was Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002 when he retired.
It's Friday, so I won't be able to do any Forum work till this evening.