October 12, 2016 Wednesday of Week 28; St. Seraphim of Montegranaro

October 12, 2016

Wednesday of Week 28; St. Seraphim of Montegranaro

FIRST READING
Galatians 5:18–25

Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self–control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 1:1–2, 3, 4 and 6

R. (see Jn 8:12) Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life. 

Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked Nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, But delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night.

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life. 

He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. 

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life. 

Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. For the LORD watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. 

R. Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life.

ALLELUIA
John 10:27

R. Alleluia, alleluia. 

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me. 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL
Luke 11:42–46

The Lord said:
"Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk." 

Then one of the scholars of the law said to him in reply, "Teacher, by saying this you are insulting us too." And he said, "Woe also to you scholars of the law! You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them."

About Today

Psalm week: 4.

Other saints: St Wilfrid (634 - 709)

Wilfrid was born in Northumbria in 634 and was educated at Lindisfarne and Rome. On his return to Northumbria he took part in the Synod of Whitby (664), where he promoted Rome’s way of calculating the date of Easter, and the Roman form of Christian worship. Two years after the Synod at Whitby, he was appointed bishop of York. However, because of a row with the Celtic bishops, he was immediately replaced by Chad, though three years later he was restored to his see at York. There followed a decade of hard work in which he preached widely, built many churches (for example the two great churches in Hexham and in Ripon), introduced the Benedictine rule into Northumbria, and strengthened the place of Christianity in the community at large.

  Over the next 25 or so years he was imprisoned, and exiled. During his period of exile he worked in the south of the country among the Saxons in Sussex who had never heard the Christian message. In due course he returned to York as bishop for a dozen or so years; he was again driven out by the king, reinstated by Rome, resigned from the see, then accepted the bishopric of the newly established see of Hexham, and all the while kept in touch with Ripon, which his biographer says he “loved better than any other place”. He died in Oundle, in October 709 but was later buried in the church he had built in Ripon, in what is the oldest crypt in Europe north of the Alps.

  Wilfrid’s life was tempestuous (in tune with the times). He said what he meant without fear or favour, whether to king or archbishop, and at whatever personal risk. His was a life full of incident – undoubtedly he was at times unjustly treated. He was missionary, evangelist, monk, bishop and (despite his evident shortcomings), saint.