Monday, September 30, 2013

Daily Readings

Facebook	Twitter	Newsletters	Email	Video

Daily Readings

Reading 1

Zechariah 8:1-8

Entire Reading »

Responsorial Psalm

Psalms 102:16-18, 19-21, 29, 22-23

when Yahweh builds Zion anew, he will be seen in his glory;
Entire Reading »

Gospel

Luke 9:46-50

An argument started between them about which of them was the greatest.
Entire Reading »

St. Michael the Archangel Conference

Catholic Online is staging a very special conference on November 1-3, at the Sofitel San Francisco Bay Hotel in Redwood City, CA. The Conference is "Saint Michael the Archangel, Defend Us in Battle, Spiritual Warfare and the Triumph of Love." It will focus on the role of St. Michael in our lives and in the world today. Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, the conference is only $99 per person and that price includes the conference, a meet and greet with our speakers and esteemed guests, and your meals during the conference. Click here to reserve your spot now or learn more before the conference sells out. If you cannot attend, consider sponsoring someone who wants to go but cannot because of financial hardship by clicking here.

Most Popular

NO COMMUNION FOR YOU! Pelosi MUST be denied communion under the law Read More

Not again! Catholic priest caught in the act with a 15-year-old boy in car Read More

There is No Such Thing as a Thankful Atheist Read More

Why It All Comes Down to What Catholics Will Do and What They Won't Do: A Letter to Catholics Read More

Not Again! Barilla pasta under fire after anti-gay remarks Read More

This e-mail is never sent unsolicited. You have received this Catholic Online e-mail because you subscribed to it or someone forwarded it to you. To opt out, see the links below.

TO ADVERTISE
For information on advertising at Catholic Online, please contact Advertising Sales.

TO SUBSCRIBE
If this email has been forwarded to you and would like a subscription, please sign up for Catholic Online Newsletters.

Remove your e-mail address from our list. We respect your right to privacy. View our policy.

This e-mail was sent by: Catholic Online, P.O. Box 9686 Bakersfield, CA 93389 USA

Saint of the Day (Monday, September 30, 2013) - St. Jerome

Monday, September 30, 2013
St. Jerome
(345-420)

Most of the saints are remembered for some outstanding virtue or devotion which they practiced, but Jerome is frequently remembered for his bad temper! It is true that he had a very bad temper and could use a vitriolic pen, but his love for God and his Son Jesus Christ was extraordinarily intense; anyone who taught error was an enemy of God and truth, and St. Jerome went after him or her with his mighty and sometimes sarcastic pen.

He was above all a Scripture scholar, translating most of the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He also wrote commentaries which are a great source of scriptural inspiration for us today. He was an avid student, a thorough scholar, a prodigious letter-writer and a consultant to monk, bishop and pope. St. Augustine (August 28) said of him, "What Jerome is ignorant of, no mortal has ever known."

St. Jerome is particularly important for having made a translation of the Bible which came to be called the Vulgate. It is not the most critical edition of the Bible, but its acceptance by the Church was fortunate. As a modern scholar says, "No man before Jerome or among his contemporaries and very few men for many centuries afterwards were so well qualified to do the work." The Council of Trent called for a new and corrected edition of the Vulgate, and declared it the authentic text to be used in the Church.

In order to be able to do such work, Jerome prepared himself well. He was a master of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldaic. He began his studies at his birthplace, Stridon in Dalmatia (in the former Yugoslavia). After his preliminary education he went to Rome, the center of learning at that time, and thence to Trier, Germany, where the scholar was very much in evidence. He spent several years in each place, always trying to find the very best teachers. He once served as private secretary of Pope Damasus (December 11).

After these preparatory studies he traveled extensively in Palestine, marking each spot of Christ's life with an outpouring of devotion. Mystic that he was, he spent five years in the desert of Chalcis so that he might give himself up to prayer, penance and study. Finally he settled in Bethlehem, where he lived in the cave believed to have been the birthplace of Christ. On September 30 in the year 420, Jerome died in Bethlehem. The remains of his body now lie buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.

Comment:
Jerome was a strong, outspoken man. He had the virtues and the unpleasant fruits of being a fearless critic and all the usual moral problems of a man. He was, as someone has said, no admirer of moderation whether in virtue or against evil. He was swift to anger, but also swift to feel remorse, even more severe on his own shortcomings than on those of others. A pope is said to have remarked, on seeing a picture of Jerome striking his breast with a stone, "You do well to carry that stone, for without it the Church would never have canonized you" (Butler's Lives of the Saints).

Quote:
"In the remotest part of a wild and stony desert, burnt up with the heat of the scorching sun so that it frightens even the monks that inhabit it, I seemed to myself to be in the midst of the delights and crowds of Rome. In this exile and prison to which for the fear of hell I had voluntarily condemned myself, I many times imagined myself witnessing the dancing of the Roman maidens as if I had been in the midst of them: In my cold body and in my parched-up flesh, which seemed dead before its death, passion was able to live. Alone with this enemy, I threw myself in spirit at the feet of Jesus, watering them with my tears, and I tamed my flesh by fasting whole weeks. I am not ashamed to disclose my temptations, but I grieve that I am not now what I then was" ("Letter to St. Eustochium").

(This entry appears in the print edition of Saint of the Day.)

CLICK HERE FOR PRINT VERSION
If you are having difficulty listening to Saint of the Day audio, or need help setting up an audio player, go to our Audio Help page for more information.

SHARE THIS EMAIL:
Facebook	Twitter	LinkedIn	Google+

Check out all our fine free e-newsletters from Franciscan Media: