This Week’s Gospel Message for Sunday, November 18th is from Mark 13:24-32.
“Jesus said to his disciples, … ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away … But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.’”
“We cannot know when the world will end, just as we do not know when our own worldly end will arrive. Therefore, we must always be ready. But we can be consoled in the redemptive sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross … Jesus has enabled us to be worthy of being gathered by God at the end of time.”
Source: Pastoral Patterns, Autumn 2018
DAILY READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Monday Rev 1:1-4; 2:1-5; Luke 18:35-43
Tuesday Rev 3:1-6,14-22; Luke 19:1-10
Wednesday Rev 4:1-11; Luke 19:11-28
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Memorial)
This feast began as a commemoration of the dedication of the basilica of St. Mary’s the New in Jerusalem in 543. An apocryphal source recounts that Mary’s parents brought her to the temple to offer her to God…to be educated and to serve God. Today, the feast celebrates Mary as a temple, where God dwelt in a special way through her role as Mother of Jesus.
Thursday Rev 5:1-10; Luke 19:41-44
Saint Cecilia, Virgin & Martyr (Memorial)
According to tradition she was a Roman woman who was martyred sometime in the second or third century. Her association with music stems from the story that at her wedding feast she sang to God in her heart.
Friday Rev 10:8-11; Luke 19:45-48
Saturday Rev 11:4-12; Luke 20:27-40
Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs (Memorial)
In the sixteenth century, Christian missionaries went to Vietnam. From the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, some 130,000 Christians were martyred. Some were foreign missionaries, but most were native Vietnamese people killed by their own government and people. Pope St. John Paul II declared 117 Vietnamese martyrs saints of the Church.
Source: Living With Christ (November 2018)