Sunday's Readings: Numbers 11:25–29 Psalm 19:8,10,12–14 James 5:1–6 Mark 9:38–48

Here are several commentaries on these readings:

• St. Charles Borromeo Lectionary Site (PDF)


• To Belong to Christ (Also available to be heard as an MP3) from St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology


• Taking Aggressive Action from The Crossroads Initiative

Mary of Nazareth International Center is part of an evangelization project to publicize the mystery of the Mother of God through technology.

The Association is formed by Catholic laypeople and submitted to the A.O.C.T.S. (Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land), who delegated Bishop Marcuzzo, bishop in Nazareth, to accompany the project "Mary of Nazareth".

This associated website was created to provide in-depth texts for the visitors to an International Marian Center or simply those who visit maryofnazarth.com on the Internet.

The website is divided into ten topics compiling different questions: for each one they have done worldwide research asking experts for their help and they have submitted questions to the most apt authors they could find.

Theologians, exegetes, historians, scientists and archeologists have been asked to offer a synthetic and user-friendly answer, to ensure that the website can become a reference tool at all levels. The most serious topics are treated side by side with less central but more current events, which are of general interest to the public, such as apparitions, miracles, works of art, various scientific perspectives, or the great witnesses.

This site is for everyone and is available in multiple languages.

From Catholic Culture.

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St. Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist

The Church celebrates the feast of St. Matthew on September 21st.

Apostle and evangelist. The name Matthew is derived from the Hebrew Mattija, being shortened to Mattai in post-Biblical Hebrew. In Greek it is sometimes spelled Maththaios, B D, and sometimes Matthaios, CEKL, but grammarians do not agree as to which of the two spellings is the original. Matthew is spoken of five times in the New Testament; first in Matt., ix, 9, when called by Jesus to follow Him, and then four times in the list of the Apostles, where he is mentioned in the seventh (Luke, vi, 15, and Mark, iii, 18), and again in the eighth place (Matt., x, 3, and Acts, i, 13). The man designated in Matt., ix, 9, as "sitting in the custom house", and "named Matthew" is the same as Levi, recorded in Mark, ii, 14, and Luke, v, 27, as "sitting at the receipt of custom". The account in the three Synoptics is identical, the vocation of Matthew-Levi being alluded to in the same terms. Hence Levi was the original name of the man who was subsequently called Matthew; the Maththaios legomenos of Matt., ix, 9, would indicate this. The fact of one man having two names is of frequent occurrence among the Jews. It is true that the same person usually bears a Hebrew name such as "Shaoul" and a Greek name, Paulos. However, we have also examples of individuals with two Hebrew names as, for instance, Joseph-Caiaphas, Simon-Cephas, etc. It is probable that Mattija, "gift of Iaveh", was the name conferred upon the tax-gatherer by Jesus Christ when He called him to the Apostolate, and by it he was thenceforth known among his Christian brethren, Levi being his original name. Matthew, the son of Alpheus (Mark, ii, 14) was a Galilean, although Eusebius informs us that he was a Syrian. As tax-gatherer at Capharnaum, he collected custom duties for Herod Antipas, and, although a Jew, was despised by the Pharisees, who hated all publicans. When summoned by Jesus, Matthew arose and followed Him and tendered Him a feast in his house, where tax-gatherers and sinners sat at table with Christ and His disciples. This drew forth a protest from the Pharisees whom Jesus rebuked in these consoling words: "I came not to call the just, but sinners". No further allusion is made to Matthew in the Gospels, except in the list of the Apostles. As a disciple and an Apostle he thenceforth followed Christ, accompanying Him up to the time of His Passion and, in Galilee, was one of the witnesses of His Resurrection. He was also amongst the Apostles who were present at the Ascension, and afterwards withdrew to an upper chamber, in Jerusalem, praying in union with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with his brethren (Acts, i, 10 and 14).

Of Matthew's subsequent career we have only inaccurate or legendary data. St. Irenæus tells us that Matthew preached the Gospel among the Hebrews, St. Clement of Alexandria claiming that he did this for fifteen years, and Eusebius maintains that, before going into other countries, he gave them his Gospel in the mother tongue. Ancient writers are not as one as to the countries evangelized by Matthew, but almost all mention Ethiopia to the south of the Caspian Sea (not Ethiopia in Africa), and some Persia and the kingdom of the Parthians, Macedonia, and Syria. According to Heracleon, who is quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Matthew did not die a martyr, but this opinion conflicts with all other ancient testimony. Let us add, however, that the account of his martyrdom in the apocryphal Greek writings entitled "Martyrium S. Matthæi in Ponto" and published by Bonnet, "Acta apostolorum apocrypha" (Leipzig, 1898), is absolutely devoid of historic value. Lipsius holds that this "Martyrium S. Matthæi", which contains traces of Gnosticism, must have been published in the third century. There is a disagreement as to the place of St. Matthew's martyrdom and the kind of torture inflicted on him, therefore it is not known whether he was burned, stoned, or beheaded. The Roman Martyrology simply says: "S. Matthæi, qui in Æthiopia prædicans martyrium passus est". Various writings that are now considered apocryphal, have been attributed to St. Matthew. In the "Evangelia apocrypha" (Leipzig, 1876), Tischendorf reproduced a Latin document entitled: "De Ortu beatæ Mariæ et infantia Salvatoris", supposedly written in Hebrew by St. Matthew the Evangelist, and translated into Latin by Jerome, the priest. It is an abridged adaptation of the "Protoevangelium" of St. James, which was a Greek apocryphal of the second century. This pseudo-Matthew dates from the middle or the end of the sixth century. The Latin Church celebrates the feast of St. Matthew on 21 September, and the Greek Church on 16 November. St. Matthew is represented under the symbol of a winged man, carrying in his hand a lance as a characteristic emblem.

From EWTN

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The St. Anselm Institute will host a lecture on Wednesday, September 30th at 7:00 p.m. at Minor Hall at the University. The lecture, entitled "Holy Icons - Holy Churches", will be presented by Rev. Brendan McAnerney, OP. Fr. McAnerney is a Dominican priest with an additional grant of priestly faculties in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. He is also an artist in the Byzantine tradition, an art historian, and a former director of art galleries.

This is the first lecture in the 2009-2010 St. Anselm Institute lecture series.

Minor Hall can be found on this map of the grounds.

Our Participation in Christ's Sacrifice

September is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows. The Blessed Virgin Mary, like Our Lord, was not immune from the sorrows that are part of this fallen world. In her participation in the redemptive suffering of Christ's sacrifice, she was fully united with Him in His passion and death. In this excerpt from the Catechism, we learn that we are all called to participate in Christ's passion and in a mystery of faith contribute to His holy sacrifice.

618   The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men". But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery" is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross and follow (him)", for "Christ also suffered for (us), leaving (us) an example so that (we) should follow in his steps." In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.

Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

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Via Matris

September is devoted to Our Lady of Sorrows. As the Mother of God, Our Blessed Mother was united to Christ's sufferings in a unique way. Devotion to her sufferings unites us even more closely to Our Lord.

As Christ and Our Lady of Dolours were associated in God's saving plan (Lk 2, 34-35), so too they are associated in the Liturgy and popular piety.

As Christ was the "man of sorrows" (Is 53, 3) through whom it pleased God to have "reconciled all things through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross" (Col 1, 20), so too, Mary is "the woman of sorrows" whom God associated with his Son as mother and participant in his Passion (socia passionis).

Since the childhood of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary's life was entirely lived out under the sign of the sword (cf, Lk 2, 35). Christian piety has signaled out seven particular incidents of sorrow in her life, known as the "seven sorrows" of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Modeled on the Via Crucis, the pious exercise of the Via Matris dolorosae, or simply the Via Matris, developed and was subsequently approved by the Apostolic See. This pious exercise already existed in embryonic form since the sixteenth century, while its present form dates from the nineteenth century. Its fundamental intuition is a reflection on the life of Our Lady from the prophecy of Simeon (cf. Lk 2, 34-35), to the death and burial of her Son, in terms of a journey in faith and sorrow: this journey is articulated in seven "stations" corresponding to the "seven dolours" of the Mother of Our Savior.

This pious exercise harmonizes well with certain themes that are proper to the Lenten season. Since the sorrows of Our Lady are caused by the rejection of her Son (cf. John 1,11; Lk 2, 1-7; 2, 34-35; 4, 28-29; Mt 26, 47-56; Acts 12, 1-5), the Via Matris constantly and necessarily refers to the mystery of Christ as the suffering servant (cf. Is 52, 13-53, 12). It also refers to the mystery of the Church: the stations of the Via Matris are stages on the journey of faith and sorrow on which the Virgin Mary has preceded the Church, and in which the Church journeys until the end of time.

The highest expression of the Via Matris is the Pietà which has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for Christian art since the middles ages.

From Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (136-7)

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Forty days for life is about to begin again in Charlottesville. The purpose of Forty Days for Life is to help foster a culture of life in which all human beings from conception to natural death are treated justly. In particular, through prayer, Forty Days for Life seeks to end the injustice of abortion.

This year's session of Forty Days for Life will begin on Wednesday, September 23rd and continue until November 1st.

On Monday, September 21st, there will be a Kickoff Rally at the Covenant School from 7:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. The rally will be held a the lower campus across from McIntire Park in the Multi-Purpose Room.

The rally will help prepare for the forty days when Christians will be gathering together from all around the Charlottesville area to pray for an end to abortion.

The rally will feature ice cream, prayer, and more information about how people can participate in saving lives and spreading the Gospel of Life.

For more information contact Irene Xenos (227-6055).

Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God's gift of Himself. - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta

The Holy Father's prayer intentions for September are:

General:   That the word of God may be better known, welcomed and lived as the source of freedom and joy.

Mission:   That Christians in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, who often meet with great difficulties, may not be discourage from announcing the Gospel to their brothers, trusting in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

Pro-Life Prayer Intention

For blessings upon all pro-life organizations.