17 February 2026 - Seven Founders of the Servite Order - Tuesday of the 6th week of Ordinary Time - Mark 8:14-21

In the early 13th century, there were seven men who were successful cloth merchants from Florence, Italy. They were good friends, devout Catholics, and members of a lay organization dedicated to the Blessed Mother. Their friendship was centered around their Catholic faith; it united them more fully to God and to each other with a holy bond and a holy mission. In 1233, all seven of them individually experienced an apparition of Mary, calling them to withdraw from the world and to devote themselves to the service of God. They obeyed. On September 8, the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, they gave up their careers and property and moved into an abandoned house outside the city wall, embracing the mendicant life of begging, poverty, and prayer. In 1240, at Monte Senario, they received a joint vision of Mary who appeared to them surrounded by angels. She instructed them on their mission, clothed them in their habits, presented them with their rule of life, and personally founded their order. Central to their mission was to spread devotion to the Seven Sorrows of Mary and to be her servants. Their order was soon approved by the Pope. They grew in numbers and the ministry spread throughout the world. Today, there are around 900 Servite friars who serve around the world. We honor these seven founders of the Servite Order on their feast day. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a warning, to watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. So often Jesus’ disciples don't understand what he is talking about. They think he is talking about bread. We also might miss his point, or we might focus on some surface issue or some issues on the fringes rather than his main point. In today’s Gospel, Jesus points out that being able to feed them was not a problem, as he references his miracle of the loaves and the fish. The leaven of the Pharisees is found in their pride and scrupulosity, in the way that they placed importance on a rigid adherence to the law. At the same time, the Pharisees violate the spirit of the law as they try to mold God and their approach to religion into what they themselves want rather than being open to God’s will. We might have a tendency to do same thing in our lives of faith. May we open our hearts to God’s will for us.