Good morning.
He was handed money to make his house presentable. He sent it to a hospital instead.
Tuesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
The first reading, from Proverbs, sets the measure plainly: "Every way of a man seemeth right to himself: but the Lord weigheth the hearts. To do mercy and judgment, pleaseth the Lord more than victims." And a few verses on, the line Thomas of Villanova lived: "He that stoppeth his ear against the cry of the poor, shall also cry himself and shall not be heard." (Proverbs 21:2-3, 13)
Christ's answer in the Gospel is not a rebuke of His mother. She is the first who heard the word of God and did it. It is an invitation: the family is open to anyone who will do the same.
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092226.cfm →
Father of the poor
Thomas García was born in Castile in 1488. His father, a miller, gave food to the poor, and so did his mother. He taught arts, logic and philosophy at the University of Alcalá, joined the Augustinians in 1517, and was ordained the next year. In 1544 his superiors ordered him to accept the archdiocese of Valencia.
He did not live like an archbishop. He wore the habit he had received as a novice and mended it himself. When he was given money to furnish the archbishop's residence, he sent it to a hospital that needed repair. The poor of Valencia called him their father.
What makes him more than a generous man is the shape of his charity. He did not only hand out alms. He found work for those who had none, set up schools, and looked after orphans, the sick, and poor women who could not marry without a dowry. The saying handed down about him puts it simply: charity is not just giving, but removing the need of the one who receives it, and freeing them from it where possible. He died on September 8, 1555, after Mass in his own house, and was canonized in 1658.
The dignity of work
The Church has never treated almsgiving and justice as rivals, and Thomas of Villanova shows why. A gift meets today's need. Work restores a person's ability to meet their own. Pope Leo XIV makes the same point for our own moment in Magnifica Humanitas: work is a source of human dignity, never merely a cost to be cut (Art. 93-94). Four centuries apart, the archbishop of Valencia and the Pope are saying the same thing. Help that leaves a person dependent is not yet the whole of charity.
Monday's close: SPY $773.50, +1.55% · Nasdaq 100 +2.77% · system ACTIVE, tape bullish
A strong session, led by technology: the sector's largest fund rose 2.77%. Three names broke out to new 52-week highs on volume and cleared every gate. The system ranks them by the likelihood of an outsized move and takes only what its open slots allow. Tonight that meant two new A+ signals: Neogen (NEOG), ranked first, and AMD, second. The third was turned away, because the system holds four positions at most.
Two positions moved hard in opposite directions. CrowdStrike (CRWD) rose 4.9% to $249.35, making a new high after a clean pullback, the condition for adding to a winner. Marathon Petroleum (MPC) fell 5.3% to $402.38, closing below its exit level of $413.52 (its breakout pivot less 2%). Under the system's rule a close below that level sells at the next open, so MPC exits this morning. LifeStance Health (LFST) was sold Monday at $12.59 by the same rule, a 4.5% loss. The rule decides; the day's mood does not.
Enoch Capital · Chart · Research & Due Diligence
→ Zero management fee. 20% performance only. 10% of that tithed.
The week ahead, per the USCCB General Roman Calendar for the United States:
St. Thomas of Villanova, pray for us — that our giving would free, and not only feed.
In Christ,
Jonathan Simmons
Enoch Capital LLC
Catholic Daily goes out Monday through Saturday.
LinkedIn · X @jonenochcap · enochcap.com
Enoch Capital LLC · 2121 S. Broadway, #511, Denver CO 80210
Catholic Daily is an educational publication. It is not investment advice. References to markets, specific securities, or economic conditions are illustrative only and do not constitute recommendations to buy or sell any security. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Enoch Capital LLC operates under the Publisher's Exemption from the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Lowe v. SEC, 472 U.S. 181, 1985). Nothing on this site constitutes the rendering of personalized investment advice. Enoch Capital LLC is not a registered investment adviser.