🗓️Jan 28St. Peter Nolasco, Confessor

🕯️ St. Peter Nolasco (1189-1256), born in Languedoc, France, was a nobleman who became a distinguished confessor of the faith and founder of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy. Deeply moved by the suffering of Christians enslaved by the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula, who were at risk of losing their faith due to the torments of captivity, he dedicated his fortune and his life to the ransom of these souls. In 1218, with the aid of St. Raymond of Penyafort and King James I of Aragon, and inspired by an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, he instituted the Order of Mercedarians. His religious were distinguished by a heroic fourth vow: to give themselves up as hostages, if necessary, for the liberation of Christian captives. A man of fervent prayer and boundless charity, he traversed dangerous lands to negotiate the freedom of thousands, dying holily in Barcelona on May 6, 1256, leaving an imperishable legacy of love of neighbor and fidelity to Christ.

🎼 Introit (Ps. 91, 13-14 | ib., 2 )

Justus ut palma florébit: sicut cedrus Líbani multiplicábitur: plantátus in domo Dómini: in átriis domus Dei nostri. Ps. Bonum est confitéri Domino: et psállere nómini tuo, Altíssime.

The Just shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow up like the cedar of Lebanon: planted in the house of the Lord and in the courts of the house of our God. Ps. It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to Thy Name, O Most High.

📖 Epistle (I Cor 4, 9-14)

Fratres: Spectáculum facti sumus mundo et Angelis et homínibus. Nos stulti propter Christum, vos autem prudéntes in Christo: nos infírmi, vos autem fortes: vos nóbiles, nos autem ignóbiles. Usque in hanc horam et esurímus, et sitímus, et nudi sumus, et cólaphis cǽdimur, et instábiles sumus, et laborámus operántes mánibus nostris: maledícimur, et benedícimus: persecutiónem pátimur, et sustinémus: blasphemámur, et obsecrámus: tamquam purgaménta hujus mundi facti sumus, ómnium peripséma usque adhuc. Non ut confúndant vos, hæc scribo, sed ut fílios meos caríssimos móneo: in Christo Jesu, Dómino nostro.

Brethren: We are made a spectacle to the world, and to Angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ: we are weak, but you are strong: you are honourable, but we without honour. Even unto this hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode: and we labour, working with our own hands. We are reviled, and we bless: we are persecuted, and we suffer it: we are blasphemed, and we entreat: we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now. I write not these things to confound you, but I admonish you as my dearest children in Christ Jesus our Lord.

✠ Gospel (Luke 12, 32-34)

In illo témpore: Dixit Jesus discípulis suis: Nolíte timére, pusíllus grex, quia complácuit Patri vestro dare vobis regnum. Véndite quæ possidétis, et date eleemósynam. Fácite vobis sácculos, qui non veteráscunt, thesáurum non deficiéntem in cœlis: quo fur non apprópiat, neque tínea corrúmpit. Ubi enim thesáurus vester est, ibi et cor vestrum erit.

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess, and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

✝️ The Treasure of Redemption and the Folly of the Cross

💭 The life of St. Peter Nolasco is a living and vibrant exegesis of today's Gospel, where Christ exhorts His "little flock" not to fear and to accumulate treasure in heaven through perfect almsgiving. The holy founder not only distributed his material goods but understood that true charity requires the total gift of oneself, becoming, as the Epistle says, a "spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." In the eyes of the world, exchanging one's own freedom for that of an unknown slave is madness, a "foolishness for Christ's sake," but in the economy of salvation, it is the highest wisdom. St. Augustine, reflecting on the true treasure, teaches that "what is given on earth is received in heaven; and what is received there is not lost, for it is kept by God, who is at once the guardian and the giver of the reward" (Sermon 60). Peter Nolasco accumulated this inexhaustible treasure by ransoming bodies to save souls from apostasy, preventing the infernal "thief" from stealing the faith of the captives. He shows us that where our treasure is - whether in selfish comfort or in sacrificial charity - there our heart will rest. The Order of Mercy, born of this compassionate love, reminds us that the freedom of the children of God was bought at a high price by the Blood of Christ, and that we are called to participate in this redemptive work, despising the riches that the moth consumes in favor of those that open the doors of the Kingdom.

See English version of the critical articles here.