[Pre-sermon note on the Sunday obligation, both to attend Mass as well as to rest from labor -- What circumstances excuse us from the obligation to attend Mass and what sorts of "work" violate the day of rest.]
The age of the Maccabees was a time of most intense persecution of the Jewish people by Antiochus Epiphanes, which foreshadows the great persecution of the Church at the end of time.
2 Maccabees contains many important Catholic Doctrines, including the intercession of the saints and praying for the souls in purgatory. Martin Luther rejected this book, but there is no justification for excluding it from Scripture.
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