Daily Readings

Mark 2:18-22
The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

Born at 1581 at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain in 1581, SAINT PETER CLAVER was the son of a farmer. He studied at the University of Barcelona and entered the Jesuits at age 20. After his ordination as a priest he was influenced by Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez to become a missionary in America. He ministered physically and spiritually to slaves when they arrived in Cartegena, Colombia, having converting a reported 300,000, and working for the humane treatment on the plantations for 40 years. He organized charitable societies among the Spanish in the New World similar to those organized in Europe by Saint Vincent de Paul.

Saint Peter died on 8 September 1654 at Cartegena of natural causes.

Let us pray.

God of mercy and love,
you offer all peoples
the dignity of sharing in your life.
By the example and prayers of Saint Peter Claver,
strengthen us to overcome all racial hatreds
and to love each other as brothers and sisters.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.