Beggar

November 30  ST. ANDREW, APOSTLE      St. Andrew was one of the 12 Apostles whom Jesus personally picked.  He was a brother of St. Peter.  He was born in Bethsaida, one of the towns where Jesus ministered.        Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist; he was hungry for God, even before he’d met Jesus.  He left John and sought out Jesus after John said of our Lord, “Behold the Lamb of God”.  Andrew was the first Apostle that Jesus called.      It was Andrew who introduced his brother Peter to Jesus, telling him “We have found the Messiah”.  I want to be a better Andrew; I want to tell people better, “We have found the Messiah”.        When Jesus was preaching to thousands, in a remote place east of Sea of Galilee, Andrew brought a boy to Jesus who had five loaves of bread and two fish, which Jesus multiplied.      On the Mount of Olives, someone remarked to Jes...

November 25                                                       St. Catherine of Alexandria      There are several saints named Catherine.      Saint Catherine of Alexandria was born about AD 285 in Egypt.  She was raised a pagan, although she grew up in Alexandria, where the Apostle St. Mark had established the faith.        At about 14 years old, Catherine had a vision of Mary and the infant Jesus, and converted to Christ and his Church.      When the Roman Emperor Maxentius began a severe persecution of Christians, Catherine visited him.   She denounce his cruelty.  Maxentius, respecting her striking intelligence, beauty, and courage, summoned fifty orators and philosophers to debate her.   Catherine spoke in defense of the faith--moved, she later said, by the powe...

                                                          Revelation 3 : 1-6, 14-22 Today’s Mass reading from the book of Revelation consists of two messages straight from Jesus himself, and copied down by the Apostle John.   The first message is to the Church in the city of Sardis.  Sardis had once been an important city, the capital of ancient Lydia.  It is located in modern western Turkey, conquered and controlled by Muslems.  Its current name is Sartmustafa, a name combining the original "Sardis" and the Moslem name "Mustafa".  In its ancient heyday its strategic location made it a central point connecting the interior of Anatolia (Turkey) to the coast of the Aegean Sea.  Its people were proud that it  was associated with several famous Greek kings of old.      By the first century AD, ...

                                                                    Revelation! I see that, for the next two weeks before Advent, the Mass readings include passages from the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse.  Some  people experience the book as strange and confusing, but I think it is helpful.  The people of God have heard our Lord's voice in the pages of the book, and their souls have been stirred and strengthened.    It is more familiar than we often realize.  It is found throughout our liturgy.  For example t ake hymns.  Revelaton 1:7 says: Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,  and every eye will see him,  even those who  pierced him.   All the peoples of the earth will lament him.   Yea, Amen! Now th...

   What We Know about St. Joseph      Most of what we know about St. Joseph, Jesus' foster-father and Mary's husband, we know from Scripture.        We know that he was a skilled laborer.  He was a carpenter, a stone-mason, a brick-layer, and whatever other skills it took to build a home and the furniture within it.  We know this from the biblical word  ( tekton )  used to describe his work .  We also learn something of his work when some of the people of Nazareth, skeptical of Jesus, objected, "This this not the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55).        We know that Joseph was of modest means.  When he brought Jesus and Mary to the Temple for her purification celebration after childbirth, he brought for sacrifice two turtledoves or two young pigeons (Luke 2:24), an offering allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Leviticus 12:8).       Yet we know Jos...