SEPTEMBER 4 Mon Weekday 1 Thes 4:13-18/Lk 4:16-30 

5 Tue Weekday 1 Thes 5:1-6, 9-11/Lk 4:31-37 

6 Wed Weekday Col 1:1-8/Lk 4:38-44 

7 Thu Weekday Col 1:9-14/Lk 5:1-11 

8 Fri Nativity of Mary Mi 5:1-4a or Rom 8:28-30/Mt 1:1-16, 18-23 

9 Sat USA: Saint Peter Claver,  Col 1:21-23/Lk 6:1-5 

10 SUN TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY  Ez 33:7-9/Rom 13:8-10/Mt 18:15-20 

This week we begin reading from the Gospel of Luke and continue with Luke till the beginning of Advent. Luke takes the account of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth from Mark’s gospel (Mark 6:1-6), a story summarizing the whole ministry of Jesus in Galilee from Mark’s gospel (Mark 6:1-6), and puts it at the beginning of Jesus Galilean ministry. Initially he was received favorably, then rejected violently. Here’s the Introduction to Luke’s Gospel from the New American Bible.

Readings from I Thessalonians end Tuesday with Paul’s teaching on the last days. Then we begin the Letter to the Colossians.  Good introduction and notes from the American Bible .

St. Gregory the Great, September 3, is one of the most important popes in the history of the church and one of its great spiritual teachers. A “Servant of the Servants of God.” This year we don’t celebrate his feast because it falls on a Sunday. At a time the Roman Empire was falling apart, Gregory not only kept the church afloat but reached out to peoples afar to bring them the gospel. Reminds me of Pope Francis and his visit to Mongolia.

St. Peter Claver reminds us of the slave trade and its terrible consequences for millions of people.

Friday is one of Mary’s major feasts, her Nativity. Mary’s birth is one of three important births celebrated in the Roman calendar: the birth of Jesus (December 25), John the Baptist (June 24) and Mary (September 8). Though her birth is not mentioned in the scriptures, an early tradition of the Jerusalem church says she was born near the temple and the pool of Bethsaida (John 5, 1-9), where the church of St. Ann stands today. As far back as the 5th century a feast celebrated her birth there. By the 8th century the feast was also celebrated in Rome. Today it is celebrated by churches of the east and west. 

The family record of Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 1,1-23) is the principal reading for this feast because Mary completes “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.” She conceives by the Holy Spirit and gives birth to him who is “God with us.” Generations awaited the Word who became flesh. Her birth is the “daybreak of salvation for all the world”  (Prayer after Communion)

“Mary the dawn; Christ the perfect day.”