The Feast of Saint Mathias: Called to Go Forth

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According to the Acts of the Apostles, Matthias, a witness of the Lord’s ministry and resurrection, was chosen by the apostles to take the place of Judas Iscariot (cf. Acts 1:15-26). Saint Matthias received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and he is said to have preached the Gospel in Judea. Later traditions link him to the churches in Cappadocia and Ethiopia. Honored as a martyr, his relics were translated from Jerusalem to Rome by the Empress Saint Helena.

Saint Matthias from the workshop
of Simone Martini
It is fitting that we celebrate the feast day of an Apostle on this final day before Pentecost. The witness of Saint Matthias and the other Apostles and early Church leaders who left behind home and family to preach and teach about Jesus is an important lesson for us today: Each of us has received the same Holy Spirit that inspired their ministry and service and we too are called to go out from our homes into our parishes and communities to invite others to follow Jesus.

Take time today to reflect on how the Holy Spirit is at work within your heart and soul. How do you feel God calling you to “go forth”? What does it mean for you that you have been chosen by God and entrusted with a unique vocation for the building up of the Kingdom of God?

Prayer +
O God, who assigned Saint Matthias
a place in the college of Apostles,
grant us, through his intercession,
that, rejoicing at how your love has been allotted to us,
we may merit to be numbered among the elect.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal)

This reflection was originally written for www.aleteia.org and published on their website on May 14, 2016.

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