This is our saint of the day today. I get these from the USCCB website and I just cut and paste this little blurb right from them:






Of Saint Bridget of Sweden, religious, who, having been given in marriage to Ulf, a lawgiver, with the greatest devotion educated the eight children whom she bore and by word and example roused her husband to godliness. Upon his death, she travelled through many sacred places and, having bequeathed writings mystically concerned with head and members of the Church being reformed and having completed the foundations of the Order of the Most Holy Savior, departed for heaven from Rome.





Well, I know that I haven't been too regular, but I will get better now.





Reading 1: Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10





I am just getting back into the swing of things, so I'm gonna let the NAB footnotes speak for me:





Jeremiah was destined to the office of prophet before his birth; cf Isaiah 49:1, 5; Luke 1:15; Gal 1:15, 16. I knew you: I loved you and chose you. I dedicated you: I set you apart to be a prophet. Some Fathers and later theologians understand this to mean that Jeremiah was freed from original sin before his birth. The context does not justify this conclusion. The nations: the pagan neighbors of Judah, besides the great world powers-Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt-intimately associated with Judah's destiny.





On to the Gospel: Matthew 13:1-9



Well this felt familiar to me, and sure enough, I went back and looked, and we did this reading on Sunday the 13th of this month. Now, I'm sure that this probably means that I should look at this reading a little closer, but instead I will cut and paste what I wrote back then, because I just stole from NAB footnotes anyway. They still say it better than any insight I may have:



Since in Palestine sowing often preceded ploughing, much of the seed is scattered on ground that is unsuitable. Yet while much is wasted, the seed that falls on good ground bears fruit in extraordinarily large measure. The point of the parable is that, in spite of some failure because of opposition and indifference, the message of Jesus about the coming of the kingdom will have enormous success.



Also



See Mark 4:14-20; Luke 8:11-15. In this explanation of the parable the emphasis is on the various types of soil on which the seed falls, i.e., on the dispositions with which the preaching of Jesus is received. The second and third types particularly are explained in such a way as to support the view held by many scholars that the explanation derives not from Jesus but from early Christian reflection upon apostasy from the faith that was the consequence of persecution and worldliness respectively. Others, however, hold that the explanation may come basically from Jesus even though it was developed in the light of later Christian experience. The four types of persons envisaged are (1) those who never accept the word of the kingdom (Matthew 13:19); (2) those who believe for a while but fall away because of persecution (Matthew 13:20-21); (3) those who believe, but in whom the word is choked by worldly anxiety and the seduction of riches (Matthew 13:22); (4) those who respond to the word and produce fruit abundantly (Matthew 13:23).





Well, I just skated through my come-back, didn't I? Anyway, here is some news. I took the running headlines off of the blog because I didn't like the stories that the news gadget was coming up with. They were salacious and made fun of the church and christianity, not just stories that I didn't agree with or wasn't interested in. If I can figure out how to filter them better, I'll put them back, because I really like the idea. Here's a story to tide me over until then:



Pope's tree flourishes while others wither