Today is the feast of Saint Mark, martyr for the faith and author of the first Gospel. In his homily today, Father Brennan explained that Saint Mark was a close companion of Saint Peter. He would have been immersed in the story of Christ directly from Saint Peter's lips. Inspired by these truths and wanting to share them with others who were not as priviledged to hear "the Good News" from Saint Peter directly, Saint Mark wrote the first Gospel. Saint Mark basically "invented" a new genre of writing, the Gospels. This would have been a radical act in the world of oral tradition and story-telling. Imagine all that work to write out a Gospel by hand before the age of the printing-press. All of Saint Mark's intensive liteary work was motivated by love!
