Readings
I - Ex. 33: 7-11, 34: 5-9, 28
II - Mt. 13: 36-4
SAINT ALPHONSUS MARIA DE LIGUORI
Today the Church celebrates the feast of t Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, the Doctor of the Church. He was the founder of the Congregation of the Redemptorists. St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori was the firstborn in his family. His poor eyesight and asthma prevented him from pursuing a military career and so his father decided that pursued a legal career. He was educated at the University of Naples and at the age of 16, he graduated with doctorates in civil and canon law. He started practicing law and became very successful. But in his heart, he heard a consistent interior voice that kept telling him, “Leave the world, and give yourself to me.” Adhering to this voice he decided to join the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri and was ordained a priest at the age of thirty. St Alphonsus spent his initial priestly years preaching and taking care of the marginalized and homeless youths of Naples. His preaching was simple and plain that attracted many congregants. In 1732, Alphonsus founded the Redemptorists Congregation with the aim of teaching and preaching to the poor in slums and poor countryside. St. Alphonsus had great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to our Blessed Mother. At one time in the interior town of Foggia, Alphonsus saw the vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a young teenage girl wearing a veil. He had books, articles and sermons about the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin Mary. St Alphonsus Liguori had written 111 works on spirituality and theology. There are 21,500 editions of these works which have been translated into 72 languages.
In the Gospel passage today, Jesus explains the parable of the wheat and the weeds to his disciples. God sows the good seeds, the wheat and the evil one sows the weeds. Out actions determine who we are whether seeds or weeds. Become like the saint of the day good seeds yielding hundredfold in all our words and actions bearing witness to the truth that we are the children of God.
