Feast of St Luke, Evangelist

St Luke, a gentile and close companion of St Paul is the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. To St Luke we owe many of the parables of mercy, especially that of the Prodigal Son. In the reading from his second letter to Timothy (2 Tim 4:10-17) St Paul speaks of his companions telling Timothy that “only Luke is with me” while the Gospel Luke 10:1-9 speaks of the mission of the seventy-two disciples.