Thursday, September 2 : Saint Patrick

I am greatly indebted to God who has granted me so great a grace that “many peoples” have been born anew to God through me (…). “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth”. (…) This is how I want to “wait for the promise” of him who never fails us, as he assures us in the Gospel: “They will come from East and West and will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” So we are confident that believers will come from the whole world. That is why we should apply ourselves diligently to the catch as we ought to do, following the exhortation and teaching of the Lord who said: “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.” And again, he said through the prophets: “Look! I will send many fishermen and hunters.” That is why it was so important to cast our nets so that “a great number [of fish]”, “a crowd” of people might be caught for God and that everywhere there might be priests according to the word of the Lord: “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And, behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team