From: hildegard8@excite.com   
      
   October 18th - St. Luke, Evangelist   
      
   1st century.   
      
   Saint Luke was a gentile (not mentioned as a Jew by Saint Paul in Col.   
   4:10-11), a Greek (according to Saint Jerome), perhaps born in Antioch (per   
   Eusebius), and a medical man by profession-Saint Paul speaks of him as 'our   
   beloved Luke, the physician' (Col. 4:14). He was the author of the Gospel   
   the bears his name and of its continuation-the Acts of the Apostles.   
      
   The Gospel was definitely written by a Gentile Christian for Gentile   
   Christians. Though Jesus lived and worked almost entirely among Jews, He   
   also reached out to others. Whenever Jesus has dealings with, for example,   
   Syrians, or praises a Roman centurion, Luke tells us about it. He also shows   
   Jesus' special friendship with the outcasts of society and his love of the   
   poor.   
      
   One of the interesting aspects of Luke's Gospel is his frequent   
   juxtaposition of a story about a man and then another about a woman. For   
   example, the cure of the demoniac (Luke 4:31-37) is followed by the cure of   
   Peter's mother-in-law (4:38-39); the centurion's slave is healed (7:1-10),   
   then the widow of Nain's son is raised (7:11-17); the Gerasene demoniac is   
   healed (8:26-39) followed by the raising of Jairus's Daughter and healing of   
   the woman with the hemorrhage (8:40-56).   
      
   Luke also mentions the women who followed and assisted Jesus in His ministry   
   (e.g., 8:1-3). Thus, in a way that no other evangelist does, Luke depicts a   
   Jesus who cares for the status and salvation of women quite as much as He   
   does for men. Perhaps this is because Luke probably learned much about Jesus   
   from the Blessed Virgin herself. Only he and Matthew record elements about   
   the hidden life of the Lord before his public ministry.   
      
   Luke stresses God's mercy and love of all mankind. He alone records the   
   parables of the lost sheep, the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, the   
   Pharisee and the publican, the barren fig tree, Dives and Lazarus. He is   
   also the only one to record Jesus' forgiveness of Mary Magdalen (?) (Luke   
   7:47), His promise to the good thief (Luke 23:43), and His prayer for his   
   executioners (Luke 23:34). And he is also the only evangelist to record the   
   Ave Maria the Magnificat, the Benedictus, and the Nunc Dimittis, which are   
   all used in the Liturgy of the Hours (Night, Evening, Morning, and Night   
   Prayer respectively). Luke also emphasizes the call to poverty, prayer, and   
   purity of heart, which comprise much of his specific appeal to the Gentiles.   
      
   Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, which might more appropriately be   
   known as the Acts of the Holy Spirit. This is a continuation of his Gospel   
   account, though the Acts may have been written first. According to Eusebius   
   and Jerome, Acts was written during Paul's imprisonment, though Saint   
   Ireneaus says after Paul's death c. 66. Eusebius says that the Gospel was   
   set down before Paul's death, Jerome says after, and an early tradition   
   records it as being composed shortly before Luke's death.   
      
   Legend has him as one of the 72 disciples, and some scholars identify him   
   with Lucius of Cyrene, a teacher and prophet at Antioch (Acts 13:1) and with   
   Lucius, Paul's companion at Corinth (Rom. 16:21). We don't know exactly when   
   he was converted; perhaps in 42 when Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas came to   
   preach at Antioch, or possibly even earlier when the Christians fled from   
   Jerusalem to Antioch after the stoning of Saint Stephen.   
      
   Certain passages of Acts, written in the first person plural, are usually   
   held to show that the writer was with Saint Paul on parts of his second and   
   third missionary journeys and on the voyage to Italy, when the ship was   
   wrecked off the coast of Malta (Acts 16:10ff; 20:5ff; 27-28). He was with   
   Paul during both his first and second imprisonments. In his letters, Paul   
   thrice (AD 61-63) refers to Luke's presence in Rome, writing to Timothy,   
   'Luke is my only companion.'   
      
   Between the two missionary journeys (AD 51-57), he stayed at Philippi as a   
   leader of the Christian community. Then he rejoined Saint Paul on the third   
   trip, meeting him in Macedonia and accompanying him to Jerusalem.   
   Thereafter, he was Paul's constant companion. He was with Paul after his   
   arrest in the Temple and during the two years (57-59) of his imprisonment at   
   Caesarea. When Paul appealed to Caesar, Luke went with him and was   
   shipwrecked with Paul on the coast of Malta. Until St. Paul's martyrdom in   
   67, Luke never left his side.   
      
   A writer perhaps as early as the late second century declares that, having   
   served the Lord constantly and written his gospel there, According to a less   
   reliable tradition, Luke died, unmarried, in Boeotia, Greece, at the age of   
   84, 'full of the Holy Spirit.' He is said to have been martyred, which is   
   very doubtful, but we have no record of his history after the time he was in   
   Rome with Paul.   
      
   Though Luke may never have known Our Lord in the flesh, it is possible that   
   he did know the Mother of God and Saint John. He was in Rome at the same   
   time as Saints Peter and Mark and, while in the company of Paul, must surely   
   have known many of the disciples.   
      
   Translations of his relics were claimed by Constantinople and Padua   
   (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia, Farmer,   
   Green-Armytage, Walsh, White).   
      
   Perhaps one of the best novels about Saint Luke is Taylor Caldwell's "Dear   
   and Glorious Physician", which is especially good in portraying extant pagan   
   heralds to the coming of Christ.   
      
   . Saint Luke is the patron saint of physicians and surgeons, and also of   
   guilds of artists, art schools, and painters of pictures because later   
   tradition in the Greek Church claims that Luke was also an artist. Reputedly   
   Luke carried a portrait of the Blessed Mother with him and that it was the   
   instrument of many conversions. Indeed, he was a great artist in words, and   
   his narratives have inspired many masterpieces of art; but the existing   
   pictures of the Blessed Virgin, which he is said actually to have painted,   
   are all works of a much later date, including that of Our Lady of Perpetual   
   Help. Unfortunately, a rough drawing in the catacombs inscribed as "one of   
   seven painted by Luca" confirmed the Greek legend in the popular mind.   
   Additionally, he is considered the patron of sculptors, bookbinders,   
   goldsmiths, lacemakers, notaries (because of his account of Christ's life),   
   and butchers (because of his emblem, the winged ox) (Appleton, Roeder,   
   Tabor).   
      
   Saint Irenaeus is credited with having first assigned the mysterious winged   
   ox, described in Ezekiel and by Saint John in Revelation, to Saint Luke. The   
   first known usage of the emblems of the apocalyptic creatures is in the apse   
   mosaic of Saint Pudentiana in Rome dating to the end of the 4th century,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)