Daily Reflections

SATURDAY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Jeremias 31:29; Ezechiel 18:20, 30

In those days they shall say no more:
The fathers have eaten a sour grape,
and the teeth of the children shall be set on edge.
– The soul that sinneth, the same shall die.

Therefore will I  judge every man according to his ways,                                                                   The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son.
– The soul that sinneth, the same shall die.

Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Ember Saturday in September (Traditional)

Saturday of the Blessed Virgin Mary 

Saint Linus, Pope, Martyr (Traditional)

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest

Saint Thecla, Virgin, Martyr (Traditional)

EMBER SATURDAY IN SEPTEMBER

For more information on Embers Days, click on link below: https://fatima.org/news-views/catholic-apologetics-232/

GUARDIAN ANGEL NOVENA

Celebrated on October 2nd, the feast of the Guardian Angels offers a yearly opportunity to pay greater honour and love to those invisible protectors given by God to every man and woman on earth. A traditional novena – nine days of repeated prayers for a particular intention– may be begun today, ending on the eve of the feast of the Guardian Angels. 

O pure, and happy spirits, whom the Almighty selected to become the angels and guardians of men! I most humbly prostrate before you, to thank you for the charity and zeal with which you execute this commission. Alas! How many pass a long life, without ever thanking that invisible friend to whom they a thousand times owed it’s preservation! 

O charitable guardians of those souls for whom Christ died! O burning spirits, who cannot avoid loving those whom Jesus eternally loved! Permit us to address you on behalf of all those committed to your care, and to implore for them all in general, a great full sense of your many favours, and also the grace to profit by your charitable assistance.

O angels of those happy infants who as yet are without spot before God, preserve their innocence, we earnestly conjure you. Angels of youth, who are exposed to so many dangers, conduct them safely to the bosom of God, as Tobias was conducted back to his father. Angels of those who employ themselves in the instruction of youth, animate them with your zeal and love; teach them to emulate your purity, and ever to keep God in view, as you do, that they may worthily and successfully cooperate with the invisible guardians of those who are in their care. 

O angels of the clergy, who have the eternal gospel to preach to those who abide on earth, present their words, their actions, and their intentions to God, and purify them in that fire of love which consumes you. Angels of those who are destined to follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth, obtain for  them the true spirit of their holy state, particularly the spirit of silence, recollection, and prayer, is that in life and death, they may be worthy to be united to their heavenly Spouse. 

O angels of all those who, throughout the world, are deprived of religious instruction, open for them, some source of salvation, raise up someone to break for them the Bread of the Word;  and you, O guardian angels of poor sinners, charitable guides of those unhappy mortals, whose perseverance in sin would embitter even your unutterable joys were you not established in the peace of God, O join us, we ardently beseech you, in imploring their conversion. Angels of all those who at this moment, struggle in the agonies of death, strengthen, encourage, and defend them against the attacks of their infernal enemy.

O faithful guides! holy spirits! Ardent adorers of the divinity! Guardian angels of all creatures! Protect us all; teach us to love, to pray, to combat on earth, and rather obtain for us an instant death, than permit us to commit one mortal sin. Amen.

ST. PIUS OF PIETRELCINA (PADRE PIO), PRIEST

Born May 25, 1887 at Pietrelcina, Benevento, Italy to a southern Italian farm family as Francesco Forgione, the son of Grazio. He was a shepherd, and at age 15 he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin friars in Morcone, taking the name Pio and joined the order at age 19. He suffered several health problems, and at one point his family thought he had tuberculosis. He was ordained at age 22 on August 10, 1910.

While praying before a cross, he received the stigmata on September 20, 1918, the first priest ever to be so blessed. As word spread, especially after American soldiers brought home stories of Padre Pio following WWII, the priest himself became a point of pilgrimage for both the pious and the curious. He would hear confessions by the hour, reportedly able to read the consciences of those who held back. Reportedly, he was able to bilocate, levitate, and heal by touch. He bore both physical sufferings and continual scrutiny, entrusting himself to Our Lady of Grace—“my little Blessed Mother”, as he called her. In 1956 he founded the House for the Relief of Suffering, a hospital that serves 60,000 a year. In the 1920’s he started a series of prayer groups that continue today with over 400,000 members worldwide. He died September 23, 1968 in San Giovanni Rotondo, Foggia, Italy of natural causes.

His canonization miracle involved the cure of Matteo Pio Colella, age 7, the son of a doctor who worked in the House for Relief of Suffering. On the night of June 20, 2000, Matteo was admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital with meningitis. By morning, doctors had lost hope for him as nine of the boy’s internal organs had ceased to give signs of life. That night, during a prayer vigil attended by Matteo’s mother and some Capuchin friars of Padre Pio’s monastery, the child’s condition improved suddenly. When he awoke from the coma, Matteo said that he had seen an elderly man with a white beard and a long, brown habit, who said to him: “Don’t worry, you will soon be cured.” The miracle was approved by the Congregation and Pope Saint John Paul II on December 20, 2001.

ST. LINUS, POPE, MARTYR

The successor of Saint Peter in the Apostolic See ruled the Church for about nine years. He was martyred, and was buried next to the Prince of the Apostles in 78.

ST. THECLA, VIRGIN, MARTYR

St. Thecla was converted by Saint Paul. Under the Emperor Nero vain attempts were made to compass her death by fire, by serpents, by wild beasts. After a life of solitary retirement, she died at the age of 90.

The Grace to Persevere

May the grace of the divine Spirit always triumph in your heart and give you more and more courage to face calmly and cheerfully the war waged by your enemies. What else can we desire than God’s Will? What other wish can a soul have when it is consecrated to Him? What else do you desire, then, if not that God’s plan may be fulfilled in you? Take courage, therefore, and go forward on the path of divine love, with the firm conviction that the more fully your own will becomes united and conformed to God’s Will, the more you will advance towards perfection.

Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield and that in Paradise we shall receive the crown of victory; that this is a testing-ground and the prize will be awarded up above; that we are now in a land of exile, while our true homeland is Heaven to which we must continually aspire. Let us live, then, with a lively Faith, a firm Hope and an ardent Love, with eyes fixed on Heaven and the keenest desire, as long as we are travellers, to dwell one day in Heaven whenever this is pleasing to God. Let us keep our thoughts, I say, continually fixed on Heaven, our true homeland of which this earth is merely an image….

May the motives of Faith and the comfort of Christian Hope offer you continual support in all this. If you act in this way the heavenly Father will alleviate your trial with the balm of His goodness and mercy. The holy and beneficent angel of faith, moreover, counsels and urges us to have recourse by insistent humble prayer to this goodness and mercy of the heavenly Father in the firm hope that we shall be heard. In this we are basing our trust on the promise made to us by the divine Master: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you… anything you ask for from the Father He will grant in My name. Yes, serene in our faith and tranquil in soul let us pray and continue to pray, because intense and fervent prayer pierces the heavens and is backed up by a divine guarantee.

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina († 1968), also known as Padre Pio, was an Italian Capuchin priest who during his lifetime had a vast reputation for sanctity. [From Letters, Volume II: Correspondence with Raffaelina Cerase, Noblewoman (1914-1915), Mary F. Ingoldsby, Tr. ©]

DAILY MEDITATION 

St. Linus was the immediate successor of St. Peter in the See of Rome, as St. Irenaenus, St. Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Optatus, St. Austin, and others assure us. Tertullian  says that St.  Clement was appointed by Saint Peter to be his successor; but either he declined that dignity till St. Linus and St. Cletus had preceded him in it, or he was at first only vicar of Saint Peter, to govern under him the Gentile converts, whilst that apostle presided over the whole Church, yet so as to be chiefly taken up in instructing the Jewish converts, and in preaching abroad. St. Linus, succeeding Saint Peter after his martyrdom, sat twelve years, and is named among the martyrs in the Canon of the Roman Mass, which is certainly older in this part than the sacramentary of Gelasius, and of the greatest authority in this point. It is not indeed impossible that he might be called a martyr on account of his sufferings for the Faith, without dying by the sword.  St. Linus was buried on the Vatican hill, near the tomb of Saint Peter. This saint distinguished himself among the illustrious disciples of the apostles, who were formed upon their model to perfect virtue, and filled with the Holy Spirit of the gospel. How little are we acquainted with this spirit of fervour, charity, meekness, patience, and sincere humility; without which it is in vain that we bear the honourable name of Christians, and are a reproach and scandal to so sacred a profession!

Catholic Encyclopedia [1912] – classic multi – volume reference on “the constitution, the doctrine, discipline, and history of the Catholic Church.“

“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