Gospel 6-4-24. Luke 12:35-40. St Carraciolo, Confessor
35 Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.
Sint lumbi vestri praecincti, et lucernae ardentes in manibus vestris,
36 And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.
et vos similes hominibus exspectantibus dominum suum quando revertatur a nuptiis : ut, cum venerit et pulsaverit, confestim aperiant ei.
37 Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.
Beati servi illi quos, cum venerit dominus, invenerit vigilantes : amen dico vobis, quod praecinget se, et faciet illos discumbere, et transiens ministrabit illis.
38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
Et si venerit in secunda vigilia, et si in tertia vigilia venerit, et ita invenerit, beati sunt servi illi.
39 But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.
Hoc autem scitote, quoniam si sciret paterfamilias, qua hora fur veniret, vigilaret utique, et non sineret perfodi domum suam.
40 Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
Et vos estote parati : quia qua hora non putatis, Filius hominis veniet
Three things made Francis of Caracciolo stand out from his wealthy Neopolitan friends: he was powerfully drawn to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, he fasted every Saturday, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he had a generous love for the poor. When he was seriously ill at the age of twenty-two, he vowed that if he were cured he would devote himself to the service of God and to his felloq men. He became a priest and was the founder of the Order of Minor Clerks Regular. Francis instituted perpetual adoration as one of the works of his order. He died A.D. 1608.
