Tuesday 9 September 2025
St Peter Claver; Blessed Frederick Ozanam
Colossians 2:6-15. The Lord is compassionate to all his creatures – Ps 144(145):1-2, 8-11. Luke 6:12-19.
Lord, what task have you in mind for me?
The reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians today offers an insightful reflection on the life of St Peter Claver, whom we celebrate today. ‘As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.’ In Claver’s time in the 16th century, black people were bought and enslaved by wealthy interests in the Old World. Colombia was a centre of this slave trade and Claver, a Spanish Jesuit, spent 40 years there working among them, teaching them that their dignity, and ours, is rooted and built up in our belonging to Christ. The Gospel today is Luke’s version of the selection of the twelve apostles. The Lord is still selecting apostles in our day. Has he got a task in mind for me? Claver is the patron saint of slaves, and of Colombia.
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