Portsmouth Ordo, 29th Week in Ordinary Time
Sunday, October 17: Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Monday, October 18: Luke, evangelist
Tuesday, October 19: Jean de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, and companions, martyrs
Wednesday, October 20: Feria
Thursday, October 21: Feria
Friday, October 22: John Paul II, pope (Mass only)
Saturday, October 23: Blessed Virgin Mary (Mass only)
“Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.” The psalm response of Sunday of this week, from Psalm 33, seems to serve well to draw together our saints this week. One may immediately look to the 17th-century North American Martyrs, and consider what this prayer could have meant for them, amidst the harsh treatment and brutal conditions they experienced, leading up to their martyrdom. John Paul II must have also absorbed such a prayer, serving as a vibrant contemporary example of the fruitful possibilities open to one whose life is entirely entrusted to God, as well as to Our Lady, perfect embodiment of trust, whom we commemorate Saturday. Saint Luke, the Evangelist, entrusted his life to the gospel, and to the message of Jesus still fresh and new to the world, a message he sets out to write for the generations of Christians to follow, including our own. May we with gratitude look to these shining examples of those trusting the Lord and find our own faith strengthened and directed.