Daily Reflections

OCTOBER 13 – THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN

Every year on October 13 Catholics remember one of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to the three sheppard children in Fatima, Portugal. On this day in 1917, 70,000 people “At the hour of the last Apparitions they witnessed all the manifestations of the sun which paid homage to the Queen of Heaven and earth, more brilliant than the heavenly body itself at its zenith of light.“

Friday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Edward, Confessor, King (England)

The alarming message from the Prophet Joel (1:13-15;2:1-2) is not an irreversible reality before which we abandon all Hope, but a saving “attack” that can break through sin’s paralysing stronghold in our life and bestir us to be with Jesus. For Christ doesn’t merely cast out unclean spirits, leaving us empty inside; He fills us with His own Spirit. Knowing that the LORD “will judge the world with justice” invites our gratitude, gladness, and praise, for it means the devil’s kingdom cannot stand (Luke 11:15-26).

ST. EDWARD, CONFESSOR, KING

Saint Edward, the Confessor, the last but one of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England, reigned holily and happily for 24 years. On the throne, he rivaled the Saints by his untiring practice of austere virtue; his reign was one of almost  unbroken peace; the country grew prosperous, ruined churches rose under his hand, the weak lived secure, and for long ages after, man spoke of the laws of “good King Edward.“ He died January 5, 1066. The saint’s body reposes in the shrine in Westminster Abbey, behind what used to be the High Altar.

From the first instruction by Saint Vincent of Lerins, Priest
(Cap. 23: PL 50, 667-668)

The development of Doctrine

Is there to be no development of religion in the Church of Christ? Certainly, there is to be development and on the largest scale.

Who can be so grudging to men, so full of hate for God, as to try to prevent it? But it must truly be development of the Faith, not alteration of the Faith. Development means that each thing expands to be itself, while alteration means that a thing is changed from one thing into another.

The understanding, knowledge and wisdom of one and all, of individuals as well as of the whole Church, ought then to make great and vigorous progress with the passing of the ages and the centuries, but only along its own line of development, that is, with the same doctrine, the same meaning and the same import.

The religion of souls should follow the law of development of bodies. Though bodies develop and unfold their component parts with the passing of the years, they always remain what they were. There is a great difference between the flower of childhood and the maturity of age, but those who become old are the very same people who were once young. Though the condition and appearance of one and the same individual may change, it is one and the same nature, one and the same person.

The tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.

There is no doubt, then, that the legitimate and correct rule of development, the established and wonderful order of growth, is this: in older people the fullness of years always brings to completion those members and forms that the wisdom of the Creator fashioned beforehand in their earlier years.

If, however, the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the Doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.

In ancient times our ancestors sowed the good seed in the harvest field of the Church. It would be very wrong and unfitting if we, their descendants, were to reap, not the genuine wheat of truth but the intrusive growth of error.

On the contrary, what is right and fitting is this: there should be no inconsistency between first and last, but we should reap true doctrine from the growth of true teaching, so that when, in the course of time, those first sowings yield an increase it may flourish and be tended in our day also.

DAILY MEDITATION 

Saint Edward III, grand son of the holy king and martyr, Edward, was born in England, but educated in Normandy by his maternal uncle, as the Danes had conquered England. In the midst of the sensuality around and the temptations to all possible frivolities, Edward, while still very young, endeavoured to lead so retired and innocent a life, he was admired by all and was called the “Angel” of the court. He took no pleasure in those amusements in which young princes generally delight, but found his greatest joy in prayer and study. His devotion at church during Holy Mass was truly wonderful; and no time spent there seemed to him too long. He had the greatest horror for everything that was in the least contrary to angelical chastity. No immodest word ever passed his lips, and none was ever uttered in his presence without being severely censured by him.

The long absence from his home and kingdom he bore with the most admirable patience, and when, one day, some courtiers said to him that he must regain his kingdom by force of arms, he said that he did not desire a crown which must be won by shedding blood. But when the Danes had been driven from English soil, and peace restored throughout the land, the nobility recalled Edward from exile and placed him upon the throne. The new king bestowed his first care on the restoration of the prosperity of the kingdom, and to this end, he endeavoured to revive the worship of the true God and to reform the corrupted morals of his subjects. The revenues taken from the church were restored to it; churches were repaired or rebuilt, together with many monasteries for religious men and women, whose duty it would be to restore the old religion and the fear of God throughout the land; for he used to say: “The most efficacious means to secure happiness of a country is religion and the fear of God: for the well-being of a state depends mostly on the prosperity of the Church.“

Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger [D. 1888] – Austrian priest, professor, and author, joined the Jesuits as missionary preacher to the United States.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER

Hasten, O most powerful destroyer of heresy, hasten the hour of mercy, seeing that the hour of judgement is dearly challenged by innumerable offenses…. Enable me to live, a just life on earth, and reign with the just in Heaven, whilst with the faithful throughout the world, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I salute thee and cry out: Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us! Amen.

Ephesians 2:20, 22, 21

You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
with Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.
– In whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit

In whom all the building, being framed together, groweth up into an holy temple in the LORD.
– In whom you also are built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.

Thursday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Feria after Pentecost (Traditional)

Saint Wilfrid, (England)

“How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:5-13). Jesus knows that the real answer to prayer that we all need is not merely a material object or earthly good, but the presence of God Himself. Thus, the LORD invites us to beg with persistence and to be steadfast in the deeper meaning of prayer—our constant attachment to a personal God.

SAINT WILFRID, BISHOP

Born in Northumberland in 634, St. Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected Abbot of Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the celtic ways of northern England. In 664, he was the architect of the definitive victory of the Roman party at the Conference of Whitby. He was appointed Bishop of York and after some difficulty finally took possession of his See in 669. He laboured zealously and founded many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, but he was obliged to appeal to Rome in order to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. While waiting for the case to be decided, he was forced to go into exile, and worked hard and long to evangelize the heathen south Saxons until his recall in 686. In 691, he had to retire again to the Midlands until Rome once again vindicated him. In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential practices, until his death in 709. St. Wilfrid was an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed of unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He helped bring the discipline of the English Church into line with that of Rome. He was also a dedicated pastor and a zealous and skilled missionary; his brief time spent in Friesland in 678-679 was the starting point for the great English mission to the Germanic peoples of continental Europe. His feast day is October 12th.

From a letter to the Philadelphians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
(1, 1-2, 1; 3, 2-5: Funk 1, 226-229)

One Bishop with the presbyters and deacons

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the church of God the Father and the LORD Jesus Christ located at Philadelphia in the province of Asia. You have found mercy and have been strengthened in the peace of God; you are now filled with gladness because of the Passion of Our LORD, and by His mercy you are made believers in His Resurrection. I greet you in the Blood of Jesus Christ. You are my abiding and unshakeable joy, especially if your members remain united with the Bishop and with his presbyters and deacons, all appointed in accordance with the mind of Christ who by His own Will has strengthened them in the firmness which the Spirit gives.

I know that this bishop has obtained his ministry, which serves the community, neither by his own efforts, nor from men nor even out of vainglory, but from the love of God the Father and of the LORD Jesus Christ. I am deeply impressed by his gentleness, and by his silence he is more effective than the empty talkers. He is in harmony with the Commandments as is a lute with its strings. I call him blessed, then, for his sentiments toward God, since I know these to be virtuous and perfect, and for his stability and calm, in which he imitates the gentleness of the living God.

As sons of the light of truth, flee divisions and evil doctrines; where your shepherd is, follow him as his flock.

For all who belong to God and Jesus Christ are with the bishop; all who repent and return to the unity of the Church will also belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived, my brothers. If anyone follows a schismatic, he will not obtain the inheritance of God’s Kingdom; if anyone lives by an alien teaching, he does not assent to the Passion of the LORD.

Be careful, therefore, to take part only in the One Eucharist; for there is only One Flesh of Our LORD Jesus Christ and One Cup to unite us with His Blood, One Altar and One Bishop with the presbyters and deacons, who are his fellow servants. Then, whatever you do, you will do according to God.

My brothers, I overflow with love for you and with a joyous heart I make you strong—although it is not so much I but Jesus Christ. Although imprisoned for His sake, I fear more because of my imperfection. But your prayers will perfect me in the eyes of God so that I might yet receive the inheritance promised me by the merciful God. I seek refuge in the person of Christ through the Gospels and I appeal to the true ministry of the Church through the Apostles.

DAILY MEDITATION 

 God asks of us a full, perfect, and faithful correspondence to grace, in all circumstances in which we may find ourselves. The grace of beginners is not the same as that of those who are more advanced, and the grace of those who are advanced is not the same as that of those who are consummated in the way of perfection. A disposition that is good in a beginner is not so in one who is more advanced; such and such a practice is proper for one state and would not be so for another. We must, then, understand how to take them up and leave them, following the instinct of grace, and not to attach ourselves to any one of them with any kind of obstinacy. Still less must we desire to raise ourselves above our present state, until God himself reaches us; nor must we undertake or wish for what is beyond our strength, or imagine we can do what we admire in the saints, or think we may allow ourselves certain liberties that God grants only to those souls who have passed through every sort of trial….

God asks of us that when we have given ourselves to Him, we shall never take ourselves away from Him in anything; that we shall never act on our own responsibility, but always consult Him in everything, and also those guides whom He has given us to direct us, especially when we wish to do anything extraordinary. He asks that we shall remain passive and submissive to His Will in any state in which it pleases Him to place us; that we shall never do anything of ourselves to go out of this state, on the pretext that it is too painful for human nature and that we cannot bear it any longer. We must not ask Him to deliver us from a temptation, or a humiliation, or an interior trial, if He Wills that we should be tempted, or humiliated, or tried for our greater  purification; but we must ask of Him the courage and strength to bear it to the end.

Fr. Jean Nicolas Grou [d.1803] – French Jesuit, priest, and spiritual director, whose writings sustained the spiritual life of  many during the French revolution.

Ask, Seek, Knock

I beg you, Son of the Living God, You have worked so many miracles. You changed water into wine at Cana to enlighten Israel. You healed the eyes of the blind; You restored hearing to deaf ears and movement to paralysed limbs. You corrected the stammering tongue, freed the possessed, made the lame run like the deer, raised up the dead, and taking him by the hand You made Peter walk upon the water, safe from sinking.

You have left us this saying: Ask and you will receive, knock and it will be opened to you. All that you ask of the Father, in My name, I too will ask of My Father, that you may have it. I ask that I may receive, seek that I may find, knock that it may be opened to me. I ask in Your name that You will ask Your Father and He will hear me. I am ready to pour out my blood as a victim for Your name’s sake, to bear any torment. You, LORD, are the One who hears and protects me; defend me from the enemy.

May the angel of Light protect me, for You have said, What you ask of Me with Faith in prayer, I will grant. May Your Spirit work in me and Your Will be accomplished in me, that I may be wholly Yours, all the days of my life.

A prayer attributed to Saint Cyprian of Antioch

Saint Cyprian of Antioch († 304), a magician or sorcerer in his youth, was converted to Christianity by Saint Justina and died a martyr. [From Hymns to Christ: And a Concert of Miniatures. ©]

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

INTROIT Is. 7:14; Ps 97:1

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and His name shall be called Emmanuel. Sing ye to the LORD a new canticle: because He has done wonderful things.

Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Traditional)

 Saint Canice,  (Ireland)

MATERNITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

In the first ages of the Church the day sacred to our  Blessed Lady, under her great title of Mother of God, was January 1. Evident traces of this devotion remain in the liturgy proper to the feast of the Circumcision, which is now kept on that day. Many churches having petitioned for a special festival in honour of Our Lady’s divine maternity, a day, usually in the month of October, was granted by the Holy See for its celebration. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, April 24, 1914, the eleventh of October was assigned. Pius 1X raised it to a double of the second class and extended it to the Universal Church to commemorate in the Liturgy the fifteenth centenary of the Council of Ephesus (held in 431), which vindicated the title of “Theotokos” or “Mother of God” for Our Lady.

All Catholics believe that Mary is the Mother of God. This does not mean that she is not a creature of God, nor that God did not exist before she was created. It means that He who was her Son was a Divine Person. In Christ there are two natures: the nature of God and the nature of man; but in Him, there is only one Person, a Divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.  Hence all that may be predicated of either nature may with propriety be said of the Saviour in the concrete form, without distinguishing the two natures. So we may say that God was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We then refer to the Person of the Son of God, Who is both God and man. Christ, Who is God, was born according to His human nature of the Blessed Virgin. She is, therefore, truly the Mother of God.

DAILY MEDITATION 

As I said before, the maternity of the Blessed Virgin, considered as a material of fact, is the least wonderful part of the subject. What will it be then, if we consider it as a moral fact, that is, as involving all those prerogatives that naturally belong to it? I confess that the very thought of these prerogatives astonishes me, and that I am bewildered in contemplating them. For the dignity of Mother of God, in this moral point of view, is absolutely the highest rank to which a pure creature can be raised, without exceeding its own proper limits. It is the very closest possible union of a creature with the Supreme uncreated Good. It is so near an approach to Deity, notwithstanding the infinite distance between God and any created thing, that Saint Thomas could not find more appropriate terms in which to express it than by saying that, in its operation, it comes closer than anything else to the limits of the Divinity. And in this sense he styles our Blessed Lady, Affinem Deo, that is, according to Cajetan, bordering upon God; though no doubt she might also as properly be said, in the ordinary sense of the word affinis, to be a kinswoman of God, since she truly is, and ought to be called, His Mother. 

For this reason likewise, there is a peculiar species of worship [hyperdulia] due to her, which belongs to her alone, and is superior to all that may be granted to any other saint. For her dignity as Mother of God is of a rank far superior to that of all of the Saints or angels, and belongs in some manner to the dignity of the hypostatical union, on account of its necessary connection with it. Hence the Blessed Virgin, as I have already observed, forms of choir by herself in the kingdom of glory, and is exalted to a greater elevation above the other choirs in the emphyreal, than the emphyreal itself, though made to be the court and palace of God, is raised above the lower heavens, which were only designed for the use and benefit of men.

Fr. Paolo Segneri [d. 1694] – Italian Jesuit missionary preacher, ascetical writer, and one of Italy’s greatest orators.

ST. CANICE, ABBOT

A native of Glengiven, Ireland, Canice, an Abbot of great virtue, preached across Ireland and Scotland. He was a close friend of the missionary priest, Saint Columba of Iona, and witnessed several prodigies in the life of the latter. In one instance, a pagan king who had refused to open his gates to Columba was startled to see the bolts unfastened and the gates opened by unseen hands after Columba had made the Sign of the Cross. On another occasion, Canice was among those who saw a fiery globe of light appear over the head of Columba as he was consecrating the Holy Eucharist, remaining thus until the end of the Mass. One day, as Canice was eating, he heard in his heart the voice of Columba, who at that moment was aboard a ship foundering in a storm at sea. Canice thereupon ran to the chapel so hastily that he lost one shoe. As Canice knelt to pray for his friend, miles away Columba watched the churning sea around him suddenly subside. Having seen in a vision Canice’s dash to the chapel, Columba thanked him in his heart, saying, “Your swift course to the church with one shoe exceedingly assists us.” He died in 600 A.D.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER

Hasten, O most powerful destroyer of heresy, hasten the hour of mercy, seeing that the hour of judgement is dearly challenged by innumerable offenses…. Enable me to live, a just life on earth, and reign with the just in Heaven, whilst with the faithful throughout the world, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I salute thee and cry out: Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us! Amen.

Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 4:2

Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock,
wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops,        – to rule the Church of God which He hath purchased with His own Blood.

Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithful.                                 – to rule the Church of God which He hath purchased with His own Blood.

Tuesday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Francis Borgia, Confessor (Traditional)

Saint Paulinus of York, (England)

The witness and preaching of the prophet Jonah moves the wayward people of Nineveh to repentance and penitence—“their efforts to renounce their evil behaviour” (Book of Jonah 3:1-10). It is the presence of Jesus that transforms each of our own lives, too, and in different ways. Mary chose a life of perfect contemplation. Yet Martha, worried about “many things”, (Luke 10:38-42) needed to realise that all of her busyness and activity could also be unified by the one thing necessary—love for Jesus.

ST. FRANCIS BORGIA, CONFESSOR

Born October 28, 1510, St. Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia and Viceroy of Catalonia, one of the most honoured nobles of Spain, after the death of his wife cut himself off from the chance of dignity or preferment, and entered the Society of Jesus, of which later he became the General. Conspicuous for the holiness of his life, he ended his days in Rome, October 10, 1572. He was canonized by Pope Clement X on June 10, 1670.

ST. PAULINUS OF YORK

In 601 St. Paulinus, a Roman monk, was named by Pope St. Gregory I the Great to accompany Sts. Justus and Mellitus on their mission to England to advance the cause of evangelization undertaken by St. Augustine of Canterbury. Paulinus laboured for some twenty four years in Kent and, in 625, was ordained Bishop of Kent. He was also responsible for bringing Christianity to Northumbria, baptizing the pagan king Edwin of Northumbria on Easter 627, and then converting thousands of other Northumbrians. Following the defeat and death of Edwin by pagan Mercians at the Battle of Hatfield in 633, Paulinus was driven from his See, and he returned to Kent with Edwin’s widow Ethelburga, her two children, and Edwin’s grandson Osfrid. Paulinus then took up the See of Rochester, which he headed until his death in 644. 

Bede describes Paulinus as “a man tall of stature, a little stooping, with black hair and a thin face, a hooked and thin nose, his aspect both venerable and awe-inspiring”.

From the beginning of a letter to the Trallians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
(Caput 1,1-3, 2; 4,1-2; 6,1; 7,1-8: Funk 1, 203-209)

I wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in the province of Asia, dear to God the Father of Jesus Christ, elect and worthy of God, enjoying peace in body and in the Spirit through the Passion of Jesus Christ, Who is our Hope through our resurrection when we rise to Him. In the manner of the Apostles, I too send greetings to you with the fullness of grace and extend my every best wish.

Reports of your splendid character have reached me: how you are beyond reproach and ever unshaken in your patient endurance—qualities that you have not acquired but are yours by nature. My informant was your own bishop Polybius, who by the will of God and Jesus Christ visited me here in Smyrna. He so fully entered into my joy at being in chains for Christ that I came to see your whole community embodied in him. Moreover, when I learned from him of your God-given kindliness toward me, I broke out in words of praise for God. It is on Him, I discovered, that you pattern your lives.

Your submission to your Bishop, who is in the place of Jesus Christ, shows me that you are not living as men usually do but in the manner of Jesus Himself, who died for us that you might escape death by belief in His death. Thus one thing is necessary, and you already observe it, that you do nothing without your bishop; indeed, be subject to the clergy as well, seeing in them the Apostles of Jesus Christ our Hope, for if we live in Him we shall be found in him.

Deacons, too, who are ministers of the mysteries of Jesus should in all things be pleasing to all men. For they are not mere servants with food and drink, but emissaries of God’s Church; hence they should guard themselves against anything deserving reproach as they would against fire.

Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the bishop as the image of the Father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the college of the Apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a Church. I am confident that you share my feelings in this matter, for I have had an example of your love in the person of your bishop who is with me now. His whole bearing is a great lesson, and his very gentleness wields a mighty influence.

By God’s grace there are many things I understand, but I keep well within my limitations for fear that boasting should be my undoing. At the moment, then, I must be more apprehensive than ever and pay no attention at all to those who flatter me; their praise is as a scourge. For though I have a fierce desire to suffer martyrdom, I know not whether I am worthy of it. Most people are unaware of my passionate longing, but it assails me with increasing intensity. My present need, then, is for that humility by which the prince of this world is overthrown.

And so I strongly urge you, not I so much as the love of Jesus Christ, to be nourished exclusively on Christian fare, abstaining from the alien food that is heresy. And this you will do if you are neither arrogant nor cut off from God, from Jesus Christ, and from the Bishop and the teachings of the Apostles. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; but whoever is not is unclean. That is to say, whoever acts apart from the bishop and the clergy and the deacons is not pure in his conscience. In writing this, it is not that I am aware of anything of the sort among you; I only wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children.

DAILY MEDITATION 

St. Francis instituted at his court, before he entered the religious life, the veneration of the saints of the month. Every Catholic, besides worshipping the Almighty, ought to honour the Saints. We should especially honour the divine Mother, as the Queen of All the Saints; then, the foster-father of Christ, St Joseph; and further, our guardian angel and patron saint. Besides this, we ought to select some special patrons for whom we feel particular esteem, and love. It is also very beneficial to adopt the practice of monthly patrons. This consists in selecting, on the last day of every month, a saint whose festival will be celebrated during the following month. Daily should he be invoked and honoured. If possible, his life should be read and something from it be selected for imitation. We may also approach the Sacraments on his festival, or on the Sunday after it; and employ a little more time than usual, in good works.

It is known that several great servants of God, at the end of their days, called upon the saints, whom they had honoured as their monthly patrons during life, and it cannot be doubted that they received benefit and comfort. “Everyone,“ says St. Bonaventure: “ought to venerate an especial saint with great devotion. To him, he ought daily to commend himself, and practice some good work in his honour.”

Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger [d. 1888] – Austrian priest, professor, and author; joined the Jesuits as missionary preacher to the United States.

The One Thing Necessary: Love

External occupations merely serve as a further means of raising the mind to God. They furnish constantly new motives for loving Him and ever more desiring Him and seeking Him in others. I am continually overwhelmed and filled with praise and wonder at the infinite Wisdom and goodness of our God. When I see how He permits Himself to dwell in souls which are so often distraught and engrossed in material occupations, I marvel. And yet I often become more aware of His presence in the midst of such duties than during the time of prayer itself. It seems to me that it is here the text “in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me” applies. For I have always regarded the service of the sick in that way, and I am always conscious of His Presence when I am working among them.

For me, it suffices to work in silence, because then all things will help to unite us to God. It is enough to keep the outer doors closed, for then the heart and soul have no other place to go than into their centre, where God is to be found. As He is the beginning of all our work, so He is its end; and with His aid we accomplish it quickly and well, so that He is also the Way.

God is not tied by time or space. How great are the gifts which we continually receive from Him. We swim like little fish in the ocean of His mercy. We can make Him no suitable return, for we have nothing that we have not already received from Him. That being so, we are perpetually in debt, and that knowledge leads us to the pure, generous beneficence of our God.

I think of it as two people—let us say, two sisters—who love each other very dearly. Although they are constantly thrown into the closest companionship, they will never find such ubiquity distasteful, but rather in their mutual affection they will draw help and strength for their external occupations. It seems to me that living in the presence of God is as simple as that. Just as someone who loves a person often recalls that person to mind, so too we must constantly recall to mind that God is present and always working for our greater good. All that we have to do is return love for love. Our whole exercise and obligation is in loving alone.

Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

Saint Teresa Margaret († 1770) was an Italian Carmelite nun who died at the age of twenty-two. [From God Is Love: Saint Teresa Margaret—Her Life, Margaret Rowe.] ©

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER

Hasten, O most powerful destroyer of heresy, hasten the hour of mercy, seeing that the hour of judgement is dearly challenged by innumerable offenses…. Enable me to live, a just life on earth, and reign with the just in Heaven, whilst with the faithful throughout the world, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I salute thee and cry out: Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us! Amen.

1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 2:17

For there is One God
and One mediator of God and men,
the man Christ Jesus.
– Who gave Himself a redemption for all.

Wherefore, it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that He might be a propitiation for the sins of the people.                                                          – Who gave Himself a redemption for all.

Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Saint John Henry Newman, Bishop (Ireland, England and Wales)

                     Saint John Leonardi, Confessor 

St. Dionysius, Rusticus, Priest & Eleutherius, Deacon, Martyrs (Traditional)

ST. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN, BISHOP

Born in London in 1801, John Henry Newman was for over twenty years an Anglican clergyman and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. His studies of the early Church led him progressively towards Catholicism, and in 1845 he embraced “the One True Fold of the Redeemer”. In 1847 he was ordained priest and went on to found the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England. He was a prolific and influential writer on a variety of subjects. In 1879 he was created Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. Praised for his humility, unstinting care of souls and contributions to the intellectual life of the Church, he died in Birmingham on 11 August 1890. He was canonised in Rome on 13 October 2019, the first English Saint to be canonised since 1970.

ST. JOHN LEONARDI, CONFESSOR

John Leonardi was born at Diecimo, Italy. He became a pharmacist’s assistant at Lucca, studied for the priesthood, and was ordained in 1572. He gathered a group of laymen about him to work in hospitals and prisons, became interested in the reforms proposed by the Council of Trent, and proposed a new congregation of secular priests. Great opposition to his proposal developed, but in 1583, his association—formally designated Clerks Regular of the Mother of God in 1621—was recognized by the bishop of Lucca with the approval of Pope Gregory XIII. John was aided by Saint Philip Neri and Saint Joseph Calasanctius, and in 1595, the congregation was confirmed by Pope Clement VIII, who appointed John to reform the monks of Vallombrosa and Monte Vergine. He died in Rome on 9 October of plague contracted while he was ministering to the stricken. He was venerated for his miracles and religious fervour and is considered one of the founders of the College for the Propagation of the Faith. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

SAINT DIONYSIUS, BISHOP AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS 

St. Dionysius seems to have suffered in the persecution of Valerian in 272, though some moderns defer his death to the beginning of the reign of Maximian Hereuleus, who resided chiefly in Gaul from the year 286 to 292. Ado calls the judge by whom he was condemned, Fescenius. The Acts of his Martyrdom, Saint Gregory of Tours, Fortunatus, and the western Martyrologists inform us, that after a long and cruel imprisonment he was beheaded for the Faith, together with Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon. The Acts add that the bodies of the martyrs were thrown into the river Seine, but taken up and honourably interred by a Christian lady, named Catalla, not far from the place where they had been beheaded. The Christians soon after built a chapel over their tomb. In 469, through the pious exhortations of Saint Genevieve, a church was raised upon the ruins of this chapel that was a place of great devotion, much resorted to by pilgrims, as appears from the works of Saint Gregory of Tours in many places, by which it is clear that this church stood without the walls of the city, though very near them. By a donation of Clotaire II, it appears that here was then a religious community governed by an abbot, Degobert, who died in 638, founded the great abbey in this place in which he was interred, and which has been, for many ages the usual burial place of the French kings. Pepin and his son, Charlemagne were principal benefactors to this monastery, which was magnificently rebuilt by Abbot Suger. The relics of Saints Dionysius, Rusticus, and Eleutherius are kept here in three silver shrines. The miraculous cure of Pope Stephen II in this church has been already related. Saint Dionysius of France is commonly called Saint Denis, from the French Denys. A portion of his relics is said to be possessed by the abbey of Saint Emmeran, at Ratisbon.

Those apostolic pastors who converted so many nations to Christ were men filled with his Spirit, who regarded nothing but his glory, and acted and lived for him alone.  Christ on earth never entertained any regard but for the glory of His Father, to whom He offered Himself and His kingdom.  Whoever becomes His minister, must, in like manner, have no aim, no intention but to advance the divine honour:  for this he must be dead to the world, and have bid adieu to it, that is, to all desires of honours, applause, pleasures, riches, or any earthly goods whatever. Such a one sees nothing in this world which he hopes or desires, nothing that he much fear; he seeks no composition with it while he is engaged in the cause of his Master; no threats or apprehensions of terror from its persecution can damp his courage in defending the honour of God, or cool his zeal for the salvation of souls.

From a treatise on Cain and Abel by Saint Ambrose, Bishop
(Lib. 1, 9, 34, 38-39: CSEL 32, 369, 371-372)

Pray especially for the whole Body of the Church

Offer God a sacrifice of praise and fulfill your vows to the Most High. If you praise God you offer your vow and fulfill the promise you have made. So the Samaritan leper, healed by the LORD’s word of command, gained greater credit than the other nine; he alone returned to Christ, praising God and giving thanks. Jesus said of him: There was no one to come back and thank God except this foreigner. He tells him: Stand up and go on your way, for your faith has made you whole.

The LORD Jesus, in His divine Wisdom, taught you about the goodness of the Father, who knows how to give good things, so that you might ask for the things that are good from Goodness itself. He urges you to pray earnestly and frequently, not offering long and wearisome prayers, but praying often, and with perseverance. Lengthy prayers are usually filled with empty words, while neglect of prayer results in indifference to prayer.

Again, Christ urges you, when you ask forgiveness for yourself, to be especially generous to others, so that your actions may commend your prayer. The Apostle, too, teaches you how to pray; you must avoid anger and contentiousness, so that your prayer may be serene and wholesome. He tells you also that every place is a place of prayer, though our Saviour says: Go into your room.

But by “room” you must understand, not a room enclosed by walls that imprison your body, but the room that is within you, the room where you hide your thoughts, where you keep your affections. This room of prayer is always with you, wherever you are, and it is always a secret room, where only God can see you.

You are told to pray especially for the people, that is, for the whole Body, for all its members, the family of your mother the Church; the badge of membership in this Body is love for each other. If you pray only for yourself, you pray for yourself alone. If each one prays for himself, he received less from God’s goodness than the one who prays on behalf of others. But as it is, because each prays for all, all are in fact praying for each one.

To conclude, if you pray only for yourself, you will be praying, as we said, for yourself alone. But if you pray for all, all will pray for you, for you are included in all. In this way there is a great recompense; through the prayers of each individual, the intercession of the whole people is gained for each individual. There is here no pride, but an increase of humility and a richer harvest from prayer.

“What must I do to inherit Eternal Life?”

Faith at most makes us a hero. Love makes a saint. Faith can put us above the world, but love brings us under God’s Throne. Faith can make us sober, but love makes us happy. It is possible for a man to have the clearest, calmest, most exact view of the realities of Heaven, may most firmly realize and act upon the Truths of the Gospel, may have that full confidence in God’s Word as to be able to do miracles, may have such simple, absolute faith as to give up his property to feed the poor, may so scorn the world and with so royal a heart trample upon it as even to give his body to be burned by a glorious martyrdom, and yet it is abstractedly possible that not one of these proper acts of faith in itself necessarily implies love. The Apostle says that though a person be all that has been said, yet unless he be also something besides—unless he have love—it profits him nothing (1 Co 13:1-3).

O fearful lesson to all those who are tempted to pride themselves in their labours or sufferings or sacrifices or works! We are Christ’s, not by Faith merely, nor by works merely, but by love. Not by hating the world, nor by hating sin, nor by venturing for the world to come, nor by calmness, nor by magnanimity—though we must do and be all this. We are saved, not by any of these things, but by that heavenly flame within us, which, while it consumes what is seen aspires to what is unseen. Love is the gentle, tranquil, satisfied acquiescence and adherence of the soul in the contemplation of God. Not only a preference of God before all things, but a delight in him because he is God. Not any violent emotion or transport, but, as Saint Paul describes it, long-suffering, kind, modest, unassuming, innocent, simple, orderly, disinterested, meek, pure-hearted, sweet-tempered, patient, enduring (1 Co 13:4-7). Faith without Charity is dry, harsh, and sapless; it has nothing sweet, engaging, winning, soothing. It was Charity which brought Christ down. Charity is but another name for the Comforter. It is eternal Charity which is the bond of all things in Heaven and earth. It is Charity wherein the Father and the Son are One in the unity of the Spirit, by which the angels in Heaven are One, by which all saints are One with God, by which the Church is One upon earth.

Saint John Henry Newman

Saint John Henry Newman († 1890) established the English Oratory in Birmingham, was a preacher of great eloquence, and a highly influential figure during the Catholic Revival in England. His feast day is 9 October. [From The Tears of Christ: Meditations for Lent. ©

DAILY MEDITATION 

As the prospect of an abundant harvest soothes the labours and  cheers the heart of the husbandman – so, in like manner, hope and reward ought to support us and relieve our fatigues. The harvest will be ours, for “in due time we shall reap“ [Galatians 6:9]. We cannot cherish a doubt of this, without questioning the fidelity of the LORD our God. 

The labourer, notwithstanding his wise precautions, his defatigable care, his well-founded hopes, may, in a single night, find his fields torn and spoiled by a mighty storm or by some other accident. But the just man has nothing to fear. Let him but persevere in the practice of good works, and nothing in the world can hinder him the fruit: “And in doing good let us not fail; for, in due time, we shall reap, not feeling” [Ibid.] Some commentators explain those words of the apostle in another way. It is right, say they, that we should sow without respite; since, in Heaven, the harvest will be eternal: “We shall reap, not failing.“ This is the opinion of St. Augustine.

Do not relax your efforts, says the holy Doctor, and God will not fail to reward you. But if you tire of your work, or flag in your efforts, the judgement of the LORD, says a prophet, will overwhelm you, like those bitter weeds that grow in the midst of the wheat. The words of the apostle signify that we should not cease from preparing for the harvest: “We shall reap, not failing.“

Fr. Paolo Segneri [d.1694] – Italian Jesuit missionary preacher, ascetical writer, and one of Italy’s greatest orators.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH OF OCTOBER

Hasten, O most powerful destroyer of heresy, hasten the hour of mercy, seeing that the hour of judgement is dearly challenged by innumerable offenses…. Enable me to live, a just life on earth, and reign with the just in Heaven, whilst with the faithful throughout the world, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I salute thee and cry out: Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us! Amen.

1 Timothy 1:14, 15; Romans 3:23

Now the grace of Our LORD hath abounded exceedingly with faith and love.
– A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

For all have sinned and do need the glory of God.
– A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost (Traditional)

There is no reason for the tenants in the vineyard to feel threatened by or envious of the son and heir; they already have a stake in the landowner’s property (Mt. 21:33-43). He has equipped them with all that is necessary to make a good profit; they simply have to be content that it is not theirs by right, but on loan to them by the landowner. Saint Paul pleads, “Keep doing all the things that you learnt from me and have been taught by me and have heard or seen that I do.” Converted to what is true, honourable, just, pure, and gracious, our own life is the vineyard leased to us and which bears fruit when we welcome the Son. We have “no need to worry” (Philippians 4:6-9). Like Isaiah, let us call the vineyard owner our friend, for in truth He is.

TRADITIONAL: 

The Holy Mass of this Sunday reminds us that all men are called to heavenly reward and happiness.

The Apostle exhorts us to put on the new man, to be renewed in the spirit (Ephesians 4:24-28). 

Parable of the marriage guests (Mt 22:1-14).  All men are called to the heavenly beatific union, but few are chosen: those who wear the nuptial robe of Baptism, and of the state of grace.

From the Pastoral Guide by Saint Gregory the Great, Pope
(Lib. 2, 4: PL 77, 30-31)

Let the pastor be discreetly silent, and to the point when he speaks

A spiritual guide should be silent when discretion requires and speak when words are of service. Otherwise he may say what he should not or be silent when he should speak. Indiscreet speech may lead men into error and an imprudent silence may leave in error those who could have been taught. Pastors who lack foresight hesitate to say openly what is right because they fear losing the favour of men. As the voice of Truth tells us, such leaders are not zealous pastors who protect their flocks, rather they are like mercenaries who flee by taking refuge in silence when the wolf appears.

The LORD reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion He complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the LORD. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defence of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the LORD means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.

When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the LORD again says to His unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and thereby lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing.

The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the Bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachias: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. Finally, that is also the reason why the LORD warns us through Isaias: Cry out and be not still; raise your voice in a trumpet call.

Anyone ordained a Priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Ghost descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for He causes those whom He has filled, to speak out spontaneously.

DAILY MEDITATION 

In the Gospel of the day (Mt. 22:1-14)…. Under the figure of the chastisement inflicted upon the man invited to the wedding who had not on the wedding garment, are represented to us the torments of hell reserved for the sinner, who has soiled the robe of his innocence, and who has not bleached it by penance. 

We shall find in this thought a remedy against sin, and an efficacious help to form the soul to virtue…. this remedy has the triple effect of making us expiate our past sins, correct our actual sins, and prevent those to which the future may expose us.

First, we must expiate our past sins. Filled with the thought that we have  deserved hell, and that God has pardoned us only on the condition that we offer Him compensation by penance, there is no penance which seems too hard, and the soul need rather to be restrained than excited, as in the case of the hermits of Egypt who, because of a single fault, condemned themselves during their whole life to austerities at which our effeminacy would tremble. 

Second, the thought of hell corrects actual faults. Seriously meditating upon this thought makes it impossible to remain a single day in a state of sin, even when it is doubtful. it is folly to risk our eternity and not to take the sure means of escaping a misfortune which is, at the same time, terrible and eternal.

Third, This thought prevents sins to which the future might expose us. When we say, like Saint Teresa, “Always, never; always suffer, never an end to our sufferings, never a moment of freedom from them,“ it is impossible to expose ourselves voluntarily to the danger of sin; not to watch over ourselves, our actions, our words, our thoughts; not to fly from everything that would expose our salvation to danger, even occasions and appearances of sin, dissipation, idleness, dangerous society, books, or conversations into which too great freedom enters; it is impossible, lastly, not to pray with our whole heart, and not to take every precaution to avoid sin.

Fr. André Jean M. Hamon [d. in 1874] – French Sulpician professor of dogmatics and author of several spiritual and historical works.

Remembering the Landowner and His Goodness

Scripture is full of the commands remember and do not forget. The Ten Commandments likewise begin not with a commandment but with a reminder: I am the LORD your God. After all, if we forget that Truth then we should not hope to keep the Commandments.

The parable of the wicked tenants presents Israel’s tragic failure to remember. The parable’s landowner represents God, and the vineyard He built is Jerusalem, or Israel in general. The tenants—Israel’s leaders—failed to remember that He was the One who made their vineyard. They had, as Isaias warned, forgotten the God of their salvation…. We face the same danger as the wicked tenants. When forgetfulness creeps in—when we forget that it is He who made us and redeemed us—we begin to view ourselves as independent from Him. We fall into a false sense of self-sufficiency. We grow to resent His commands as inconveniences, intrusions, and violations of our autonomy. His messengers become annoying to us, and we dismiss them….

The Church constantly guards us against this forgetfulness. As a good Mother she forever reminds us of the LORD, His works, and His law…. She persistently says, in effect, take care you do not forget the LORD (Dt 6:12). Through Her priests and bishops she puts our LORD’s teachings before us always. She points to what He has already accomplished, reminding us that it was He who established us as His vineyard. At the same time She looks to the future and makes us “remember” that moment when He will come again and gather His harvest.

Mother Church fulfils this apostolate to the memory most especially in the Liturgy. In the cycle of the Liturgical year she walks us through the life of Christ. Year after year she causes us to remember His Incarnation, birth, life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection. We revisit His words and deeds over and over again. Furthermore, in the Mass she actually makes present Our LORD’s greatest work—His sacrifice on the Cross. She does not just recall or recollect His sacrifice. Rather, She makes His sacrifice truly present so that we can conform our lives to it. And She does this in obedience to His own command: Do this in remembrance of Me.

Father Paul Scalia

Father Scalia is a priest of the diocese of Arlington, Virginia. He is the son of Justice Antonin Scalia († 2016), who served on the United States Supreme Court for thirty years. [From That Nothing May Be Lost: Reflections on Catholic Doctrine and Devotion ©].

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Hasten, O most powerful destroyer of heresy, hasten the hour of mercy, seeing that the hour of judgement is dearly challenged by innumerable offenses…. Enable me to live, a just life on earth, and reign with the just in Heaven, whilst with the faithful throughout the world, O Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, I salute thee and cry out: Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us! Amen.

FIRST SATURDAY OF THE MONTH

FIRST SATURDAY DEVOTIONS:

Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia in 1925, promising her gracious assistance unto salvation to all those who practised devotion to her Immaculate Heart through the Five First Saturdays.

Five Saturdays in Reparation for:

The five first Saturdays correspond to the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary:

1.  Blasphemies against her Immaculate Conception;
2.  Blasphemies against her perpetual virginity;
3.  Blasphemies against her divine maternity, at the same time refusing to accept her as the Mother of all men;
4.  Publicly instilling indifference, contempt and even hatred toward this Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children;
5.  Insulting her directly in her sacred images.

How to Complete the Five First Saturdays:

On the first Saturday of five consecutive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, and keep Our Lady company by saying five decades of the Rosary with 15 minutes of meditation, with the intention of making reparation for the offences listed above.

Saturday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary

First Saturday of the Month

In its present form the Rosary [according to the accepted tradition] is due to St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, his objective being to stem the flow of the Albigensian heresy, then spreading far and wide throughout Europe. He propagated this form of prayer in obedience to a revelation received from the Blessed Virgin, to whom he had recourse for this purpose, about the year 1206, and to him, we owe the spread of a devotion, which, for many centuries, has produced the most marvellous results in the Christian world.

October 7 is the anniversary of the glorious victory won in 1571 by the Christian forces over the Turkish fleet at Lepanto. This triumph of the Cross over the Crescent was universally attributed to the powerful intercession of the Mother of God whom Pope Pius V fervently invoked with her Rosary in his hand, and to whom the prayers of all Christiandom were addressed. Two years after this great favour had been obtained, Gregory XIII instituted an annual feast of thanksgiving to be celebrated on the first Sunday of October in all churches where an altar in honour of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary had been erected. From being a local festival, this celebration gradually spread and became general, until Pope Leo XIII raised it to the rank of a double of the second class for the whole Church.

This decisive defeat of the Turks, at the famous battle of Lepanto [1571] and at Belgrade [1716] gave occasion to the institution of the feast and to its extension to the Universal Church.

From a sermon by Saint Bernard, Abbot
(Sermo de Aquaeductu: Opera Omnia, Edit. Cisterc. 5 [1968], 282-283)

We should meditate on the Mysteries of Salvation

The child to be born of you will be called Holy, the Son of God, the Fountain of Wisdom, the Word of the Father on High. Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become Flesh, so that even though, as He says: I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, it is still true for Him to say: “I came forth from God and am here.”

In the beginning was the Word. The Spring was gushing forth, yet still within Himself. Indeed, the Word was with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light. And the LORD said from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. Yet your thought was locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not know; for who knew the mind of the LORD, or who was His counselor?

And so the idea of peace came down to do the work of peace: The Word was made flesh and even now dwells among us. It is by Faith that He dwells in our hearts, in our memory, our intellect and penetrates even into our imagination. What concept could man have of God if He did not first fashion an image of Him in His Heart? By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, He was invisible and unthinkable, but now He wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.

But how, you ask, was this done? He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer. He hung on a Cross, grew pale in death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose again on the third day, and showed the Apostles the wounds of the nails, the signs of victory; and finally in their presence He ascended to the Sanctuary of Heaven.

How can we not contemplate this story in truth, piety and holiness? Whatever of all this I consider, it is God I am considering; in all this He is my God. I have said it is wise to meditate on these Truths, and I have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root; and Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this sweetness to overflow for us.

DAILY MEDITATION

If, in reciting the Rosary, we do not reflect at all, or only carelessly, on the mysteries of our holy Faith, we may be assured that we do not pray except with our lips, and that such a prayer would be to us of no, or of, but little avail. And yet, of all prayers, that of the Rosary is most likely to degenerate into a mere mechanical recital of words, on account of the constant repetition of the same forms.  It is evident, then, that, in order to perform this beautiful devotion to the Blessed Virgin well, we must occupy our mind with the truths of our holy Faith. Now, the mysteries of which we meditate, whilst reciting the rosary are , according to the events which they call to our mind, divided into the Joyful, Sorrowful, and the Glorious mysteries…

O Mary, Mystical Rose, as holy Church calleth thee, would that as often as we perform the beautiful devotion of the Rosary, it might ascend to thy heavenly throne as a perfumed offering of thy devoted children!

It is especially to the devotion of the Rosary that the admonition of the Holy Ghost has referenced when He says: “Before prayer prepare thy heart” [Ecclesiasticus 18:23]. Observe well this counsel, O child of Mary, and the roses that will spring up whilst reciting the beads would change themselves into precious gems to adorn the crown that is awaiting you in Heaven! Amen!

Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger [died 1888] – Austrian priest, professor, and author; joined the Jesuits as missionary preacher to the United States.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Pray for us Sinners…

As God’s Mother, Mary is the one through whose mediation all blessings come to us. Mary is a creature, and as such is separated by infinite distance from the God who made her. But as His Mother she has become a co-helper in our redemption. Through her free consent at the Annunciation, God took from her the flesh and blood needed for His Incarnation…. In regard to our spiritual life, Mary does not act independently of Christ, and she is never honoured apart from her office as His Mother. She was herself redeemed by His sacrifice. Without Christ, Mary would be as poor as any other creature, but with Him she is immensely rich in grace. With such influence over the heart of her Son, Mary’s intercessory help is almost more than we can imagine. Only in Heaven shall we ever know how many souls she has wrested from the hold of evil. She is the one person whose virtue is unconquerable by the malice of Satan, the one person he hates above all others. Before her he retires in confusion. None of his wiles have any effect against her prayers. In this world where our poor flesh must wrestle with the powers of darkness, it is of inestimable help to know that one stands ever at our side ready to deal our powerful enemy a decisive blow….

Mary, Mother of us all and dispenser of graces, will never stand and let a faithful child be lost. No mother would, were it in her power to save her child. Mary has seen the terrible cost of sin: no wonder she hates it. She has seen how much her Son suffered for ­mankind: no wonder she loves us. She was present when the price of man’s infidelity was measured in the suffering flesh of her Son. She saw every wound inflicted on His beautiful body, and she watched Him die after frightful agony in order to redeem us. He has bought us with a great price…. Dispenser of the vast stores of Heaven through her Son, Mary stands between our nothingness and the majesty of God. To us she gives the perfect example of a creature not only free from all taint of sin but also full of all grace. And for us, on the other hand, as she stands at the court of heaven, what does she do? She fulfils the office of all good mothers: promising, explaining, pleading for us, as mothers always do.

Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, o.p.

Sister Mary Jean († 1988) was a Dominican sister and a prolific author and illustrator, especially of children’s literature. [From Our Lady’s Feasts. Copyright © ].

FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

Our LORD appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque in 1673, promising great favours to all those who practised devotion to His Sacred Heart, and especially the Nine Holy Communions.

(1) “I will give them all the graces necessary in their state of life.

(2) I will establish peace in their homes.

(3) I will comfort them in all their afflictions.

(4) I will be their secure refuge during life, and above all, in death.

(5) I will bestow abundant blessings upon all their undertakings.

(6) Sinners will find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

(7) Lukewarm souls shall become fervent.

(8) Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high perfection.

(9) I will bless every place in which an image of My Heart is exposed and honoured.

10) I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.

(11) Those who shall promote this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart.

(12) I promise you in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My All-powerful love will grant to all those who receive Holy Communion on the First Fridays in nine consecutive months the grace of final perseverance; they shall not die in My disgrace, nor without receiving their Sacraments. My divine Heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment.”

HOW TO COMPLETE THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS:

On the first Friday of nine consecutive months, receive holy communion with the intention of honouring and making reparation for the offences against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Ephesians 4:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:15-18

This then I say and testify in the LORD: That henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind;                         See that none render evil for evil to any man:                  but ever follow that which is good towards each other and towards all men.                – In all things give thanks for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all.

Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing.                   – In all things give thanks for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you all.

Friday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

First Friday of the Month 

Saint Bruno, Confessor 

Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, Virgin

SAINT BRUNO, CONFESSOR

Saint Bruno, born of an illustrious family at Cologne in A.D 1030. After brilliant studies at Paris, was made a canon of Cologne and then of Rheims Cathedral. On the death of the bishop the see fell for a time into evil hands, feeling himself called to a life of retirement and penance, betook himself with six of his friends to one of the desert mountains of Dauphiny, called the Chartreuse, in the south east of France. There he established the first house with the Order of the Carthusians. They lived in poverty, self-denial, and silence, each apart in his own cell, meeting only for the worship of God, and employing themselves in copying books.

Six years later, Urban II called Bruno to Rome, that he might avail himself of his guidance.  Bruno tried to live there as he had lived in the desert, but the echoes of the great city disturbed his solitude, and, after refusing high dignities, he wrung from the Pope permission to resume his monastic life in Calabria.  There he passed the rest of his life in a  most desolate cave, in humility and mortification and great peace, until his blessed death in 1101. Upon Bruno’s death in 1101, he was eulogised by his brethren: “His face was always joyful, and he was modest of tongue; he led with the authority of a father and the tenderness of a mother. No one found him too proud, but gentle like a lamb.” 

BLESSED ROSE MARIE DUROCHER, VIRGIN

Blessed Marie-Rose was born Eulalie Mélanie in Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, on 6 October 1811.  The tenth of eleven children born to a prosperous farming family.  Home-schooled by her grandfather Olivier Durocher until the age of 10, she became pupil at a convent run by the Congregation of Notre Dame in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu.

In 1827, aged 16, Durocher entered the boarding school of the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal in 1827, where she intended to enter the novitiate as her sister Séraphine had earlier done, but her health proved to be too precarious.  Upon the death of her mother, she assumed the role as homemaker.  In 1831, her brother Theophile, curate of Saint-Mathieu Parish in Belœil, persuaded his father and her to move from the family farm to the rectory of his parish.  Here, she worked as housekeeper and secretary to her brother.  She became aware of the severe shortage of schools and teachers in the surrounding countryside and discussed with her family and acquaintances the need for a religious community specifically dedicated to the education of children both rich and poor.

In 1841, Louis-Moïse Brassard, parish priest of Longueuil, entered discussions with Charles-Joseph-Eugène de Mazenod, Bishop of Marseilles, France, for the establishment of a mission to Quebec by a French religious congregation known as the Sœurs des Saints-Noms de Jésus et de Marie (Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary).  Rose Marie learned of the proposed mission and along with her friend Mélodie Dufresne, she applied to join the novitiate of the new congregation upon its arrival in Canada.  However, the mission ultimately did not go ahead, and Mazenod instead advised Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal to establish a similar congregation in Canada, based upon the two women who had been eager to be part of the French group.  In 1841, a mission of the Oblate Fathers arrived in Montreal, and in August 1842 opened a church at Longueuil.  Among the Oblates was Father Pierre-Adrien Telmon, who traveled to Belœil to conduct popular missions, where he met Marie Rose and became her spiritual director.  On 6 October 1843, she traveled to Longueuil to witness her brother Eusèbe profess his religious vows, and there she met Bishop Bourget.  Together, Bourget and Telmon petitioned her to take a leading role in the foundation of a new religious congregation dedicated to the Christian education of youth.  She agreed to this request, and in later that month she began her postulancy at Saint-Antoine Church in Longueuil under the direction of the Oblates.  Two companions entered training alongside her:  her friend Mélodie Dufresne, and Henriette Céré, a schoolteacher of Longueuil at whose school building Durocher and Dufresne roomed during their postulancy.

On 28 February 1844, in a ceremony conducted by Bishop Bourget, the three postulants began their novitiate, assumed the religious habit and received their religious names.  Bishop Bourget gave the newly founded community diocesan approval and named it the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, after the French community Durocher had hoped to join.  The sisters adopted the rule and constitutions of their French namesakes, as well as a modified version of their habit.  In December 1844, all professed religious.  Bourget named Durocher as mother superior, mistress of novices, and depositary of the new congregation.

The new congregation began teaching out of Henriette Céré’s schoohouse, but demand for their services was extraordinary and in 1844 they were forced to move to larger premises.  The number of prospective pupils continued to rise over the following years, with the result that between 1844 and 1849 the sisters established four convents employing 30 teachers and enrolling 448 pupils.  The sisters developed a course of study that provided equally for English and French pupils.  Originally the sisters had planned to teach only girls but their missionary requirements eventually forced them to teach boys in some provinces.

Durocher, troubled throughout her life by ill health, died on 6 October 1849, aged 38.  On 23 May 1982 she was beatified by decree of Pope John Saint Paul II.

From the beginning of a letter to the Trallians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr
(Caput 1, 1-3, 2; 4, 1-2; 6, 1; 7, 1-8: Funk 1, 203-209)

I wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in the province of Asia, dear to God the Father of Jesus Christ, elect and worthy of God, enjoying peace in body and in the Spirit through the Passion of Jesus Christ, who is our Hope through our resurrection when we rise to Him. In the manner of the Apostles, I too send greetings to you with the fullness of grace and extend my every best wish.

Reports of your splendid character have reached me: how you are beyond reproach and ever unshaken in your patient endurance—qualities that you have not acquired but are yours by nature. My informant was your own bishop Polybius, who by the will of God and Jesus Christ visited me here in Smyrna. He so fully entered into my joy at being in chains for Christ that I came to see your whole community embodied in Him. Moreover, when I learned from him of your God-given kindliness toward me, I broke out in words of praise for God. It is on Him, I discovered, that you pattern your lives.

Your submission to your Bishop, who is in the place of Jesus Christ, shows me that you are not living as men usually do but in the manner of Jesus Himself, who died for us that you might escape death by belief in His death. Thus one thing is necessary, and you already observe it, that you do nothing without your bishop; indeed, be subject to the clergy as well, seeing in them the Apostles of Jesus Christ our hHope, for if we live in Him we shall be found in Him.

Deacons, too, who are ministers of the mysteries of Jesus should in all things be pleasing to all men. For they are not mere servants with food and drink, but emissaries of God’s Church; hence they should guard themselves against anything deserving reproach as they would against fire.

Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the Bishop as the image of the Father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the College of the Apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a church. I am confident that you share my feelings in this matter, for I have had an example of your love in the person of your bishop who is with me now. His whole bearing is a great lesson, and his very gentleness wields a mighty influence.

By God’s grace there are many things I understand, but I keep well within my limitations for fear that boasting should be my undoing. At the moment, then, I must be more apprehensive than ever and pay no attention at all to those who flatter me; their praise is as a scourge. For though I have a fierce desire to suffer martyrdom, I know not whether I am worthy of it. Most people are unaware of my passionate longing, but it assails me with increasing intensity. My present need, then, is for that Humility by which the prince of this world is overthrown.

And so I strongly urge you, not I so much as the love of Jesus Christ, to be nourished exclusively on Christian fare, abstaining from the alien food that is heresy. And this you will do if you are neither arrogant nor cut off from God, from Jesus Christ, and from the bishop and the teachings of the Apostles. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; but whoever is not is unclean. That is to say, whoever acts apart from the bishop and the clergy and the deacons is not pure in his conscience. In writing this, it is not that I am aware of anything of the sort among you; I only wish to forewarn you, for you are my dearest children

DAILY MEDITATION 

Bruno had the happiness to possess pious parents, who left nothing undone to give him an excellent education, as well at home, as by sending him to college.

The first duty of parents is to give their children an education, the good fruits of which their afterlife will show. This education, to have a sound foundation, must begin at home…. As a rule, they cannot with safe conscience permit to have their children instructed in the public, or free schools, where they hear nothing of God, and, from which, all religious instruction is excluded. Never can parents excuse themselves by saying that their child is taught as well, or, perhaps, even better, in a free school…. How foolish such excuses are is made clear by the fact that such parents do not think why a child is sent to school. To learn? Yes, to learn, but still more to be taught to believe, and to live rightly. Hence the influence of religion is absolutely necessary…. Those who maintain that religion may be expelled from schools, and that it should be confined within the walls of the Church, are but poor dreamers, and do not know what education means.

Children are not sent to school merely to learn, but to be rightly educated, in order that they may live rightly, and not go to eternal perdition, but  attain life everlasting. This education cannot be imparted where they do not speak of God.

Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger [d. 1888] – Austrian priest, professor, and author; joined the Jesuits as missionary preacher to the United States.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Philippians 3:8,10; Romans 6:8

For whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ.                                                                   – That I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live also together with Christ.

– That I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

Thursday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

     Saint Faustina Kowalska, Religious     

Saints Placidus and Companions, Martyrs (Traditional)

ST. FAUSTINA KOWALSKA, RELIGIOUS

Born in the village of Głogowiec, near Łódź, in Poland in 1905, Helena Kowalska went at nineteen to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, where she became Mary Faustina. Saint Faustina spent her short life amongst the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, generously conforming herself to the vocation she received from God and developing an intense spiritual life, rich in spiritual gifts and in faithful harmony with them.  After an initial time of spiritual purification, she received regular visions of Our LORD, who asked her to share His message of “divine mercy”. “When sinners repent,” He told her, “My Mercy is limitless…. The greatest sinners could become the greatest saints if they trusted in My Mercy.” Faustina insisted that Jesus wanted a devotional image of Himself to be painted, which provoked her fellow nuns. She folded the humiliations into her prayer and offered to God her many sufferings.

In the Diary of her soul, the sanctuary of her encounter with the LORD Jesus, she herself recounts what the LORD worked in her for the benefit of all: listening to Him who is Love and Mercy she understood that no human wretchedness could measure itself against the mercy which ceaselessly pours from the heart of Christ.  Thus she became the inspiration for a movement dedicated to proclaiming and imploring Divine Mercy throughout the whole world.  Canonized in the year 2000 by Saint John Paul II, the name of Faustina quickly became known around the world, thereby promoting in all the parts of the People of God, Pastors and lay faithful alike, the invocation of Divine Mercy and its credible witness in the conduct of the lives of believers. She died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-three in 1938.

ST. PLACIDUS AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS

St. Placidus, together with Saint Maurus were committed by their father Tertullus to the care of Saint Benedict when both were very young. The parents were friendly to the holy patriarch, who, like them belonged to the nobility. Seemed Benedict had a great love for these two early companions. On one occasion, while drawing water from the lake of Subiaco, as St. Gregory relates, Placidus fell in and the waves carried him far from the shore. At the command of Benedict, Maurus hastened to the rescue, and only after he had safely brought the young Placidus to the shore did he note that he had walked upon the waters. Little is known of the life of Saint Placidus. Out of hatred for the Faith, he was murdered with his monks, by heathen pirates in 541.

Since the tenth century, he has been venerated as a saint in the Benedictine order.

From a treatise on Cain and Abel by Saint Ambrose, Bishop
(Lib. 1, 9, 34, 38-39: CSEL 32, 369, 371-372)

Pray especially for the whole Body of the Church

Offer God a sacrifice of praise and fulfill your vows to the Most High. If you praise God you offer your vow and fulfill the promise you have made. So the Samaritan leper, healed by the LORD’s word of command, gained greater credit than the other nine; he alone returned to Christ, praising God and giving thanks. Jesus said of him: There was no one to come back and thank God except this foreigner. He tells him: Stand up and go on your way, for your faith has made you whole.

The LORD Jesus, in His divine Wisdom, taught you about the goodness of the Father, Who knows how to give good things, so that you might ask for the things that are good from Goodness itself. He urges you to pray earnestly and frequently, not offering long and wearisome prayers, but praying often, and with perseverance. Lengthy prayers are usually filled with empty words, while neglect of prayer results in indifference to prayer.

Again, Christ urges you, when you ask forgiveness for yourself, to be especially generous to others, so that your actions may commend your prayer. The Apostle, too, teaches you how to pray; you must avoid anger and contentiousness, so that your prayer may be serene and wholesome. He tells you also that every place is a place of prayer, though Our Saviour says: Go into your room.

But by “room” you must understand, not a room enclosed by walls that imprison your body, but the room that is within you, the room where you hide your thoughts, where you keep your affections. This room of prayer is always with you, wherever you are, and it is always a secret room, where only God can see you.

You are told to pray especially for the people, that is, for the whole Body, for all its members, the family of your Mother the Church; the badge of membership in this Body is love for each other. If you pray only for yourself, you pray for yourself alone. If each one prays for himself, he received less from God’s goodness than the one who prays on behalf of others. But as it is, because each prays for all, all are in fact praying for each one.

To conclude, if you pray only for yourself, you will be praying, as we said, for yourself alone. But if you pray for all, all will pray for you, for you are included in all. In this way there is a great recompense; through the prayers of each individual, the intercession of the whole people is gained for each individual. There is here no pride, but an increase of humility and a richer harvest from prayer.

DAILY MEDITATION 

Saint Placidus was born in Rome, in the year, 515, of a patrician family, and at seven years of age was taken by his father to the monastery of Subiaco. At thirteen years of age, he followed Saint Benedict to the new foundation at Monte Casino, where he grew up in the practice of a wonderful austerity and innocence of life. He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year, when he was selected to establish a monastery in Sicily, upon some estates, which had been given by his father to Saint Benedict. He spent four years in building his monastery, and the fifth had not elapsed before an inroad of barbarians burned everything to the ground, and put to a lingering death not only St. Placidus and thirty monks who had joined him, but also his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit him. The monastery was rebuilt, and still stands under his invocation.

Reflection: Adversity is the touchstone of the soul, because it discovers the character of the virtue which it possesses. One act of thanksgiving when matters go wrong with us is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations.

John Gilmary Shea [d.1892] – American author and celebrated historian, regarded as the father of American Catholic history

Carrying Nothing but the Peace of Christ

Physical weakness was for me a school of patience. Only Jesus knows how many efforts of the will I had to make to fulfil my duty. In order to purify a soul, Jesus uses whatever instruments He likes…. The grace of God pursued me at every step, and God spoke to me when I least expected it….

I have experienced an increasing devotion to the Mother of God. She has taught me how to love God interiorly and also how to carry out His holy Will in all things. O Mary, you are joy, because through you God descended to earth and into my heart….

I often felt the Passion of the LORD Jesus in my body, although this was imperceptible to others, and I rejoiced in it because Jesus wanted it so. But this lasted for only a short time. These sufferings set my soul afire with love for God and for immortal souls. Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing….

Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Saviour; in suffering love becomes crystallised; the greater the suffering, the purer the love….

O life so monotonous, how many treasures you contain! When I look at everything with the eyes of Faith, no two hours are alike, and the dullness and monotony disappear.

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska († 1938), was a Polish Sister of Our Lady of Mercy whose mystical visions of Jesus inspired the Divine Mercy devotion. She was canonised in 2000. [From Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. ©

Psalm 60/61:2-3, 6

Hear, O God, my supplication:                             be attentive to my prayer.                                     – To Thee have I cried from the ends of the earth

For Thou, my God, hast heard my prayer: Thou hast given an inheritance to them that fear Thy name.                                                                   – To Thee have I cried from the ends of the earth.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen

2 Peter 1:10, 11; Ephesians 5:8, 11

Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election.                                                                – For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the ever-lasting Kingdom of Our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord.  Walk then as children of the light.

– For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the ever-lasting Kingdom of Our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Wednesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Francis of Assisi, Confessor

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, CONFESSOR 

Francis was born in 1182 in Assisi, Italy, the son of a rich cloth merchant.The Seraphic Patriarch of Assisi was a man especially raised up by God in the Middle Ages with the mission to re-convert the world to Christ. Francis was born in a stable, and heralded into the world by angelic song; In 1208, he heard the Gospel in which Christ sends his disciples forth, telling them to take “no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff” (Mt 10:10). Immediately, Francis went out to preach on the streets of Assisi as Christ instructed. He commenced his work with twelve followers, whom he sent two by two to preach the Gospel. He expoused most high Poverty, and received in his own body the marks of the Sacred Passion on Mount Alvernia. Francis’s message of charity, peace, and justice was heard by men and women of every grade of society, and thousands in consequence, desired to leave all and follow Francis in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Therefore he founded the Order of Friars Minor, the Second Order, or the Poor Clares, and the Tertiaries or Third Order, which bear his name. Francis died about sunset on Saturday, October 3, 1226. 

From a letter written to all the faithful by Saint Francis of Assisi
(Opuscula, edit. Quaracchi 1949, 87-94)

We must be simple, humble and pure

It was through His archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from Heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though He was wealthy beyond reckoning, He still willingly chose to be poor with His blessed mother. And shortly before His passion He celebrated the Passover with His disciples. Then He prayed to His Father saying: Father, if it be possible, let this Cup be taken from Me.

Nevertheless, He reposed His will in the Will of His Father. The Father willed that His blessed and glorious Son, whom He gave to us and who was born for us, should through His own Blood offer Himself as a sacrificial Victim on the altar of the Cross. This was to be done not for Himself through Whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in His footsteps. And He desires all of us to be saved through Him, and to receive Him with pure heart and chaste body.

O how happy and blessed are those who love the LORD and do as the LORD Himself said in the Gospel: You shall love the LORD your God with your whole heart and your whole soul; and your neighbour as yourself. Therefore, let us love God and adore Him with pure heart and mind. This is His particular desire when he says: True worshippers adore the Father in spirit and truth. For all who adore Him must do so in the spirit of Truth. Let us also direct to Him our praises and prayers saying: Our Father, Who art in Heaven, since we must always pray and never grow slack.

Furthermore, let us produce worthy fruits of penance. Let us also love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us have Charity and Humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the LORD the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise and prudent according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do His work. They are the spouses, brothers and mothers of Our LORD Jesus Christ.

DAILY MEDITATION 

I also warn and exhort the brothers in the LORD Jesus Christ, that they beware of all pride, vainglory, envy, covetousness, the cares and solicitudes of this world, of  detraction and murmuring. Let not those who are ignorant of letters, care to learn letters, but let them consider that, beyond all, they should desire to possess the Spirit of the LORD and His holy operation, to pray always to Him with a pure heart, and to have humility, patience in persecution, and in infirmity, and to love those who persecute, reprove, and accuse us. “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven“ [Matthew 10:22].

Saint Francis of Assisi [+1226] – Italian mendicant friar, mystic, preacher and beloved founder of multiple religious orders.

The Prayer of a True Disciple

LORD Jesus Christ, who chose the twelve apostles, and though one of them was lost, the rest remained true to You and preached the Gospel, being filled with the Holy Ghost: now, LORD, in Your mercy You have endowed the brothers with faith so that they can strengthen others and so fulfil the mystery of the Gospel….

LORD Jesus Christ, You are the Good Shepherd. You grant us Your loving mercy without our having deserved it, and many a time it must endure the pangs of sharp pain. Since You have called me to Your flock, I beg You by Your grace and strength that in trouble, anguish and distress I may never turn away from You….

LORD, look down on me in my infirmities and help me to bear them patiently…. I will rejoice at my tribulations and infirmities and be strong in the LORD, at all times giving thanks to God the Father and to His Only Son Our LORD Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost, for the great grace He has given me in deigning to assure me, His unworthy servant, while I am still alive, that His Kingdom will be mine.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis of Assisi († 1226) was a deacon, father to the poor, missionary, and religious founder. [From The Prayers of Saint Francis, Alan Neame, Tr. ©

Matthew 5:3-4, 6

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.                   – Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.                        – Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” – Ven. Archbishop Fulton Sheen