"...bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas", Paul says in today's first reading.

The early Church was built on the missions of Peter and Paul. They were the pillars of the first evangelisation, and still, they were simple people who had to depend on others and fend for their daily sustenance.

We commemorate the feast of St Luke, the evangelist - one who was a gentile and who did not live with Christ while Jesus lived in this world.

St Luke's gospel is known as the people's gospel and quite rightly so. It is the only gospel that celebrates the contributions of women to the early church. It is the gospel that proclaims the Magnificat. Thanks be to God, who acts through simple people in history, through whom the Good News is taken to the corners of the world.