The Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist, October 18th., 2012

The Gospel of Luke is my favourite gospel because it is the “Marian Gospel.” It has always been held by Holy Tradition that not only was St. Luke a friend of St. Paul but that he was a friend and confidant of the Blessed Mother. This is the reason that he, though being a gentile who had never met Christ in the flesh, still was accepted so readily as an evangelist and his gospel counted in the canon of scripture.

He is known as the evangelist of the little and poor; of women and the Holy Ghost; of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Holy Angels. He, a physician himself, tells of the Healing Christ, the Divine Physician of our bodies and our souls.

He is presented to us as the recounter of the poem of Our Lady’s Magnificat, (a direct fulfillment of the Old Testament, describing the New Eve, as Christ is the New Adam), the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis of St. Simeon of the Temple and who closes his gospel with the resplendent image of the Church Triumphant and full of glory- Sempre in templo benedicentes Deum!

Also according to Holy Tradition, he was a painter. It is said that he painted three icons of the Blessed Mother and the Baby Jesus and presented them to Our Lady. The Blessed Mother looked at them with joy and blessed them, saying: “May the grace of Him to Whom I gave birth be within them.” This is one of the foundations for the belief in and of the theology of holy icons, defined and granted to the Church in the Council of Nicea.

Today read at least a portion of the Gospel of Luke; and may the grace of Him Who was born of the Virgin Mary be with you and those you love.+

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