Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church  

Posted by siouxbhoney



On the day of 14 October


St. Teresa (1515-1582) was born in Avila and died in Alba, Spain. When only a child of seven, she ran away from home in the hope of being martyred by the Moors; in this way, she said she could come to see God. At the age of eighteen she joined the Carmelite Order and chose Christ as her heavenly Spouse. With the help of St. John of the Cross she reformed most of the Carmelite convents and founded new ones. She reached the highest degree of prayer and through prayer obtained such knowledge of divine things that in 1970 Pope Paul VI named her the first woman Doctor of the Church.


**Saint/Feast of the day copied from the Catholic Culture page today.


Why are we still in Galatians? I feel like I'm getting punished for something.

Okay, that was written before I actually read today's passage.

These are the times that I really like Paul. When he stops talking like a lawyer, he makes so much sense. Today's reading is about self-control. All throughout the bible, God asks us to conduct ourselves with dignity and self-control. Paul really spells out what he thinks God wants us to do in exacting measures, and lets us know that this is the new law. If we follow the spirit, our actions will follow, and we won't be breaking God's law. Okay.


So, this is the same thing. I suspect these two readings were picked to go together because Paul is just backing up Jesus here, who keeps saying it over and over and over and over. He gets really mad at the Pharisees and the scholars and the scribes, because they have built their lives around God's law and biblical law, but they don't bother to move beyond the technicalities of the law and try to actually worship and love God. It keeps coming back to honoring the spirit of the law vs the letter of the law.

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Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time  

Posted by siouxbhoney



On the day of 14 October
Today is the feast day of Saint Callistus I, who was born a slave and grew to become a Pope. He is most renowned for the reconciliation of sinners, who following a period of penance, were re-admitted to communion with the Church. He was a martyr for the faith.


Saint/Feast of the day copied from the USCCB web page.



Now I know that when I am confused, I just need to read ahead. Today's reading makes a lot more sense to me than yesterday's, even though Paul is talking about the same thing, isn't he? He wants new Christians to not worry about the old Jewish law. Paul feels that since Christ leveled the playing field to let gentiles in , they don't have to be bound by cultural laws that bound the Jews. Am I getting any closer? Is this why modern Christians can choose to circumcise or not, and don't have to stick to eating kosher foods? Anyone... Anyone?


So, this passage really reinforces Paul's little speech, doesn't it? A lot of the prophets in the Old Testament talk about the observance of the law in action but with no sense of worship behind it. I wonder if this is one of the issues that Jesus, and later Paul, was trying to reform?

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