Saint Athanasius was 4th Century Bishop who was fighting a heresy that consumed popular opinion. With zealous and faithful preaching, Bishop Athanasius was responsible for numerous letters clarifying the deposit of the faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church. In times like today, many Catholics have been put in a situation similar to Bishop Athanasius. It may seem hard but Bishop encourages that is exactly where we should be. The world does not want to accept Christ’s message and it is the role of the Catholic Church to preach it anyway.

Today’s Topics:

1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel – Jn 17:11b-19 – Lifting up His Eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name that You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are One. When I was with them I protected them in Your Name that You gave Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You. I speak this in the world so that they may share My joy completely. I gave them Your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that You keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate Myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

Memorial of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Saint Isidore, pray for us!

Bishop Strickland and Terry discuss the need to model the fourth century Saint Athanasius, a Bishop who suffered great persecution by those in the Church because he spoke the truth in defending the Deposit of Faith