Read: Matthew 16:13-19

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Today’s Bible Reading  

 

St. Peter , First Pope

 

Simon Peter or Cephas, the first pope, Prince of the Apostles, and founder, with St. Paul, of the see of Rome.

 

Peter was a native of Bethsaida, near Lake Tiberias, the son of John, and worked, like his brother St. Andrew, as a fisherman on Lake Genesareth. Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus, and Christ called Peter to become adisciple. In Luke is recounted the story that Peter caught so large an amount of fish that he fell down before the feet of Jesus and was told by the Lord, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men”. Jesus also gave Simon a new name: Cephas, or the rock. Becoming a disciple of Jesus, Peter acknowledged him as "... the Messiah, the son of the living God”. Christ responded by saying: "... you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.... He added: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”. Peter was always listed as the first of the Apostles in all of the New Testament accounts and was a member of the inner circle of Jesus, with James and John. He is recorded more than any other disciple, and was at Jesus’ side at the Transfiguration, the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and the Agony of the Garden of Gethsemane. He helped organize the Last Supper and played a major role in the events of the Passion. When the Master was arrested, he cut off the right ear of a slave of the high priest Malchus and then denied Christ three times as the Lord predicted. Peter then “went out and began to weep bitterly”. After the Resurrection, Peter went to the tomb with the “other disciple” after being told of the event by the women.

 

The first appearance of the Risen Christ was before Peter, ahead of the other disciples, and when the Lord came before the disciples at Tiberias, he gave to Peter the famous command to “Feed my lambs.... Tend my sheep.... Feed my sheep”. In the time immediately after the Ascension, Peter stood as the unquestionable head of the Apostles, his position made evident in the Acts. He appointed the replacement of Judas Iscariot; he spoke first to the crowds that had assembled after the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; he was the first Apostle to perform miracles in the name of the Lord; and he rendered judgment upon the deceitful Ananias and Sapphira. Peter was instrumental in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles. He baptized the Roman pagan Cornelius, and at the Council of Jerusalem he gave his support to preaching to Gentiles, thereby permitting the new Church to become universal. Imprisoned by King Herod Agrippa, he was aided in an escape by an angel. He then resumed his apostolate in Jerusalem and his missionary efforts included travels to such cities of the pagan world as Antioch, Corinth, and eventually Rome. He made reference to the Eternal City in his first Epistle by noting that he writes from Babylon . It is certain that Peter died in Rome and that his martyrdom came during the reign of Emperor Nero, probably in 64.

 

Testimony of his martyrdom is extensive, including Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Clement I of Rome, St. Ignatius, and St. Irenaeus. According to rich tradition, Peter was crucified on the Vatican Hill upside down because he declared himself unworthy to die in the same manner as the Lord. He was then buried on Vatican Hill, and excavations under St. Peter’s Basilica have unearthed his probable tomb, and his relics are now enshrined under the high altar of St. Peter’s. From the earliest days of the Church, Peter was recognized as the Prince of the Apostles and the first Supreme Pontiff; his see, Rome, has thus enjoyed the position of primacy over the entire Catholic Church. While Peter’s chief feast day is June 29, he is also honored on February 22 and November 18. In liturgical art, he is depicted as an elderly man holding a key and a book. His symbols include an inverted cross, a boat, and the cock.

 

 

 

St. Paul

 

St. Paul, the indefatigable Apostle of the Gentiles, was converted from Judaism on the road to Damascus. He remained some days in Damascus after his Baptism, and then went to Arabia, possibly for a year or two to prepare himself for his future missionary activity. Having returned to Damascus, he stayed there for a time, preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. For this he incurred the hatred of the Jews and had to flee from the city. He then went to Jerusalem to see Peter and pay his homage to the head of the Church.

 

Later he went back to his native Tarsus, where he began to evangelize his own province until called by Barnabus to Antioch. After one year, on the occasion of a famine, both Barnabus and Paul were sent with alms to the poor Christian community at Jerusalem. Having fulfilled their mission they returned to Antioch.

 

Soon after this, Paul and Barnabus made the first missionary journey, visiting the island of Cypress, then Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycaonia, all in Asia Minor, and establishing churches at Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe.

 

After the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem Paul, accompanied by Silas and later also by Timothy and Luke, made his second missionary journey, first revisiting the churches previously established by him in Asia Minor, and then passing through Galatia. At Troas a vision of a Macedonian was had by Paul, which impressed him as a call from God to evangelize in Macedonia. He accordingly sailed for Europe, and preached the Gospel in Philippi. Thessalonica, Beroea, Athens, and Corinth. Then he returned to Antioch by way of Ephesus and Jerusalem.

 

On his third missionary journey, Paul visited nearly the same regions as on the second trip, but made Ephesus where he remained nearly three years, the center of his missionary activity. He laid plans also for another missionary journey, intending to leave Jerusalem for Rome and Spain. Persecutions by the Jews hindered him from accomplishing his purpose. After two years of imprisonment at Caesarea he finally reached Rome, where he was kept another two years in chains.

 

The Acts of the Apostles gives us no further information on the life of the Apostle. We gather, however, from the Pastoral Epistles and from tradition that at the end of the two years St. Paul was released from his Roman imprisonment, and then traveled to Spain, later to the East again, and then back to Rome, where he was imprisoned a second time and in the year 67, was beheaded.

 

St. Paul untiring interest in and paternal affection for the churches established by him have given us fourteen canonical Epistles. It is, however, quite certain that he wrote other letters which are no longer extant. In his Epistles, St. Paul shows himself to be a profound religious thinker and he has had an enduring formative influence in the development of Christianity. The centuries only make more apparent his greatness of mind and spirit. His feast day is June 29th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Prayer Before Mass

 

Prayer After Mass

Prayer of St. Gertrude the great dictated by Our Lady to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said. The prayer was extend to include living sinners which would alleviate the indebtedness accrued to them during their lives.

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the Universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”

St. Gertrude the Great was born in Germany in 1263. She was a Benedictine Nun, and meditated on the Passion of Christ, which many times brought floods of tears to her eyes.

She did many penances, and Our Lady appeared to her many times. Her holy Soul passed away in 1334. November 16 is her Feast Day.

Prayer  for All Souls

 

 

Weekly Guide for Daily prayer

 

 

Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time

 

Daily Prayer This Week

 

 

 

 

Today is the celebration of two great leaders/founders of the early church, Peter and Paul.  The readings today share the story of Peter’s escape from Herod’s guards, Paul’s reflection on his impending death, and Jesus’ renaming of Simon Cephas as Peter, the rock.

Of these three readings, the one that most resonated for me at this time is Paul’s.  Recently I was privileged to observe the last weeks of a good friend and my spiritual director, Fr. Jack Zuercher, S.J.  Jack was 86, and had several health issues that caused him to slowly lose his physical vigor over the last few years.  But he was blessed that his mental capacities did not seem to diminish.  A few memory lapses, but nothing more serious was evident to me.  Several months ago Jack and his health providers and his rector decided that hospice would be the next step in his life journey.  I had visited him several times in the months before he went to hospice, and again several times while he was in hospice.

I don’t know if Jack prayed over Paul’s few lines from today, but he certainly died like he had.  I didn’t sense that Jack had any of the human anxiety over death, or the uncertainties.  He was not impatient for it to arrive, but was wholeheartedly cooperating with the inevitable (a paraphrase from Tony deMello!).  His room had a window with a bird feeder by it, and he told me he was watching a couple of regular feeders to his space, and I could tell the joy he felt in seeing one of these simple creatures that God so loved doing what they do with utter disregard for worry and stress and all those human impediments we have to loving God fully.

The last time I saw Jack, I suspected I would not see him again.  But I said the normal polite things as I left – “I’ll be back to see you next week” or something to that effect.  Jack said no, he didn’t think so.  He felt his time was nearing, and he was not encouraging me to make another visit.  He gave me his blessing, and as I left the room his eyes followed me as if he were searing a memory into his mind.

So Jack felt he was being poured out like a libation, and that the time for his departure was at hand.  He kept the faith, he finished the race strongly and with confidence that he had lived the life God had called him to follow, to be the difference that God called him to make, to manifest God’s love in his interactions with the many people he served.  As someone said at Jack’s wake, if Jack Zuercher is not in heaven, no one is!

How many of us are ready for our final days as Jack was, and Paul calls us to be?  When I was in high school at school masses, one of the prayers of the faithful from a participant in the congregation was sometimes, “For the next one of us to die, that we may be prepared.”  Paul gives us his personal evaluation of what he was feeling as his death was imminent.  Jack Zuercher gave me a personal testament to how one can live his life so his death is not a time of regret or worry or fear, but another event in this great journey God has provided us.

And so my prayer today is for the grace to live each day with the wonder of the songbird, with the confidence that God will provide all I really need, and that when I realize my death is near, that I can trust my faith and to look with anticipation to the next step in my journey with God.