Today, October 24
Feast of the Day
No feast of the day
Saint of the Day
Born in Spain in 1807, Anthony Claret, a weaver like his father, studied Latin and printing in his spare time. He entered the seminary at 22 and was ordained in 1835.
For 10 years he preached missions and gave retreats throughout Catalonia and in 1849 founded a congregation known as the 'Claretians.' Shortly afterwards he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba where he brought reform, both to the clergy and the laity. He stayed until 1857 when he returned to Spain and became confessor to Queen Isabella II. He combined this assignment with overseeing the activities of his congregation, preaching, and publishing books and pamphlets.
In the revolution of 1868 both Anthony and the queen were exiled and, after attending Vatican I, Anthony sought refuge at a Cistercian monastery in France where he died in 1870. He was canonized in 1950.
©2011 Living with Christ, Novalis - Bayard Press Canada Inc., http://www.livingwithchrist.ca/. Reprinted with permission.
Readings of the Day
Letter to the Ephesians 4,7-16.
Brothers and sisters: Grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says: "He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men." What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended into the lower (regions) of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming. Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, with the proper functioning of each part, brings about the body's growth and builds itself up in love.
Psalms 122(121),1-2.3-4a.4b-5.
I rejoiced because they said to me, "We will go up to the house of the LORD." And now we have set foot within your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem, built as a city with compact unity. To it the tribes go up, To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD. In it are set up judgment seats, seats for the house of David.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13,1-9.
Some people told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?' He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'"
Daily Reflection
Let us strive to be found associated with Christ's resurrection and pass from death to life while still in this mortal body. For to pass through a conversion of whatever kind, to pass from one state to another, signifies the end of something for each of us – not to be what one was – and the beginning of something else – becoming what one was not. But it is important to know for whom one is dying and for whom one lives since there is a kind of death that brings about life and a kind of life that brings about death. And it is precisely in this passing world that both the one and the other are found. It is by the quality of our actions here below that that the difference between eternal retributions will hang. Let us die, therefore, to the devil and live for God; let us die to sin to rise up to righteousness; let the old self disappear that the new self may arise. Because, according to the word of Truth, “No one can serve two masters” (Mt 6,24) let us take as our master not he who causes the upright to stumble so as to lead them to destruction but he who lifts up the fallen to lead them to glory.