Confident.Faith

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle. Brother of Simon Peter, St. Andrew was born in the village of Bethsaida. Originally a follower of St. John the Baptist, Andrew was called and became the first disciple of Christ. Church tradition holds that Andrew was martyred on an X-shaped cross. It is St. Andrew’s Day that determines the beginning of the Western Church Year, as the First Sunday in Advent is always the Sunday nearest to St. Andrew’s Day.

Today we commemorate Noah. Noah, son of Lamech, was instructed by God to build an ark. Faithful and obedient to God, Noah constructed the Ark that would carry him and his wife and his sons and their wives — the only eight people to survive the Flood. After the floodwaters subsided, Noah built an altar and gave thanks to God for His mercy in preserving the human race through Noah and his family. In promising never again to destroy all life from the Earth, God made the rainbow a sign of His covenant with man and all life. Whenever we see a rainbow, we should think of God’s great mercy and His steadfast love. We commemorate Noah for his faith and for his obedience to the word of God — for believing that God will do what He says He will do.

Today we commemorate Clement of Rome, Pastor. An early father of the Church, Clement lived in the first century AD and helped to establish the pattern of apostolic authority that governed the Early Church. In a letter to the Christians in Corinth, Clement emphasized that Christ must remain at the center of our faith:

“Let us fix our eyes on the blood of Christ, realizing how precious it is to His Father, since it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to the whole world.”

Clement helped to lay the foundation upon which the Western Church would be built. He is commemorated for his steadfast love and perseverance in the faith. Clement of Rome was martyred in approximately AD 100 by drowning.