Our Lady and the Three Dresses

Many centuries ago, three young nuns lived together in a convent. Day after day, they took their meals together, they went to chapel together, and they prayed and sang together.
One day, their priest-confessor advised them that, as a preparation for the feast of the purification of Mary, they should recite the whole Rosary every day for forty days. The three nuns obediently complied.
On the night before that holy feast day, the Heavenly Mother appeared to the three nuns as they gathered in the choir. To the first of these three sisters she handed a rich garment, embroidered with gold. Holy Mary thanked her and blessed her.
She then handed to the second nun a much simpler garment, and also thanked her. Noticing the difference in the two garments, the second sister asked, "Oh Lady, why have you brought my sister a richer garment?" Mary Most Holy lovingly replied, "Because she has clothed me more richly with her prayers than you have done."
Mary then approached the third nun with a canvas garment. Being an observant young lady, this sister at once asked pardon for the half-hearted way in which she had prayed her rosaries.
A full year had passed when all three fervently prepared for the same feast, each saying her Rosary with great devotion. On the evening preceding the festival, Mary appeared to them in glory, and said to them: "Be prepared, for tomorrow you shall come to paradise."
The following morning dawned, full of promise. Each nun wondered if this would be her last day in this vale of tears. When evening came, would they retire to their modest cells once more, or did Holy Mary have something else in store for them?
The sisters related to their confessor what had occurred, and received communion in the morning. At the hour of compline (evening prayers) they saw again the most holy Virgin, who came to take them with her. Amid the songs of angels, one after the other sweetly expired.
From the Glories of Mary, by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

Suffering? Why?

Admire
the goodness of the Creator,
Who causes the one to suffer
in order to free the other.

St. Lydwine of Schiedam

St. Thorfinn of Hamar

Some saints only come to light after their death. St. Thorfinn is one of these.

A Norwegian bishop, he lived the last years of his life at the Cistercian Monastery of Ter Doerst in Flanders, Belgium.

In this Flemish monastery the foreign bishop remained hidden and unknown until some fifty years after his death. It was in the course of some building operations within the monastery that his tomb was opened and his remains were found to exude a strong and sweet perfume.

Ruins of the Cathedral of Hamar, Norway

On inquiry, a monk by the name of Walter, remembered the exiled bishop as a person who had a quiet, kind, yet strong presence. He was then asked to write his recollections of him.

Still, little is known of St. Thorfinn except that he was Bishop of Hamar in Norway and had been outlawed, along with two other bishops, by King Eric of Norway over a dispute regarding rights granted to the clergy by the previous king.

After numerous hardships, including shipwreck, the holy bishop had made his way to the Abbey of Ter Doerst in Belgium.  St. Thorfinn died on Janurary 8, 1285.

Real love?

Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it.
It does penance for the sins of others, but
it is not broadminded about sin.
Real love involves real hatred:
whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and
the urge to drive the sellers from the temples
has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

St. Raymond of Peñafort

Raymond of Peñafort was born in 1175 in Spain and was a relative of the king of Aragon.

By the age of twenty he was already a teacher of philosophy, and in his early thirties earned a doctorate in both Canon and Civil Law. At forty-one he joined the Dominican Order and was later called to Rome to be confessor to Pope Gregory IX.

At the Pontiff’s instance Raymond compiled all the laws and decrees of the popes and the Church Councils. For this work he is known as the patron of canon lawyers.

At the age of sixty, he was appointed Archbishop of Tarragona, but resigned within two years after becoming ill. He was thunderstruck when he was elected the third Superior General of the Dominicans. As such, he visited all the Dominicans on foot and reorganized their constitutions.

With King James of Aragon and St. Peter Nolasco he founded the Order of Our Lady of Ransom dedicated to rescuing Christian prisoners from their Muslim captors.

St. Raymond is often pictured sailing over water using his cloak as a sail. When accompanying King James to the island of Majorca, the latter, despite his qualities, was giving scandal. At the saint’s rebuke, the king promised to send the woman away but did not follow through on his word. On hearing of the saint’s threat to leave the island, the king forbade every captain in Majorca to grant him passage.
Laying his cloak upon the waves and holding one end of it over a staff, the saint prayed, made the sign of the cross, stepped onto his cloak and sailed for six hours back to the Spanish mainland – which fact converted the king.

St. Raymond was known as a great devotee of Our Lady, an ascetic, contemplative, lawyer, preacher, opposer of heresies and apostle to Muslims.

He died in 1275 at the age of one hundred.

Today is First Saturday

The Five First Saturdays devotion is one of the principal points of the Fatima message. It centers on the urgent need for mankind to offer reparation and expiate for the many injuries that the Immaculate Heart of Mary suffers from the hands of both impious and indifferent men.

History
During the third apparition on July 13, 1917, Our Lady revealed that she would come to ask for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart and for the Communion of Reparation of the Five First Saturdays. Consequently, she asked for the devotion in 1925 and the consecration in 1929.
While staying at the House of the Dorothean Sister in Pontevedra, Portugal, Sister Lucia received a vision on December 10, 1925 where the Blessed Mother appeared alongside a Boy who stood over a luminous cloud. Our Lady rested one hand on the Boy’s shoulder while she held on the other hand a heart pierced with thorns around it.
Sister Lucia heard the Boy say, "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother which is covered with thorns with which ingrate men pierce it at every moment with no one to make an act of reparation to pull them out."
Our Lady expressed her request in the following words,
"See, my daughter, My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ingrates pierce me at every moment with blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, make sure to console me and announce that all those who for five months, on the first Saturdays, go to confession, receive Communion, say five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for 15 minutes meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the purpose of making reparation to Me, I promise to assist them at the hour of death with all the graces necessary for the salvation of their souls."
A few days afterward, Sister Lucia detailed this vision in a letter addressed to Monsignor Manuel Pereira Lopes, her confessor when she resided in the Asylum of Vilar in the city of Oporto, Portugal.

 Read here: Our Lady Kept Her Promise!

Why Five Saturdays?     
Sister Lucia’s confessor questioned her about the reason for the five Saturdays asking why not seven or nine. She answered him in a letter dated June 12, 1930. In it she related about a vision she had of Our Lord while staying in the convent chapel part of the night of the twenty-ninth to the thirtieth of the month of May, 1930. The reasons Our Lord gave were as follows:
The five first Saturdays correspond to the five kinds of offenses and blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. They are:
  a.    Blasphemies against the Immaculate Conception
  b.    Blasphemies against her virginity
  c.    Blasphemies against her divine maternity, at the same time the refusal to accept her as the Mother of all men
  d.    Instilling , indifference, scorn and even hatred towards this Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children
  e.    Direct insults against Her sacred images
Let us keep the above reasons firmly in our minds. Devotions have intentions attached to them and knowing them adds merit and weight to the practice.

Modifications to the Five First Saturdays Devotion to facilitate its observation
The original request of Our Lady asks one to confess and receive Communion on five consecutive first Saturdays; to say five decades of the Rosary; to meditate during 15 minutes on the mysteries of the Rosary for the purpose of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in reparation for the sins of men.
In subsequent private visions and apparitions however, Sister Lucia presented to Our Lord the difficulties that devotees encountered in fulfilling some conditions. With loving condescension and solicitude, Our Lord deigned to relax the rules to make this devotion easy to observe:

• Confession may be done on other days other than the First Saturdays so long as one receives Our Lord worthily and has the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
• Even if one forgets to make the intention, it may be done on the next confession, taking advantage of the first occasion to go to confession.
• Sister Lucia also clarified that it is not necessary to meditate on ALL mysteries of the Rosary on each First Saturdays. One or several suffice.

With much latitude granted by Our Lord Himself, there is no reason for the faithful to hesitate or delay this pious practice in the spirit of reparation which the Immaculate Heart of Mary urgently asks.

This devotion is so necessary in our days
The culture of vice and sin remains unabated even as one reads this. Abortion, blasphemy, drug abuse, pornography, divorce and bad marriages, religious indifference, the advances of the homosexual agenda and others are just some of society’s many plagues that cut deeply into the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
We must console Our Lady amidst all these insults and injuries to her and her Divine Son. She asks for reparation, she pleads for our prayers, she hopes for our amendment of life. Let us listen to her maternal pleas and atone for the ingratitude of men.
The First Five Saturdays devotion stimulates the spirit of reparation; it instills a tender love for the Holy Sacraments of Confession and the Blessed Eucharist. It nurtures a holy affection for the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Rosary. Above all, it is an excellent means to maintain one in the state of grace while immersed in the daily spiritual battles and prosaic existence in the neo-pagan world that we live in.
Let us not delay in observing this devotion for it too gives us hope for eternal salvation.

---

REFERENCE:
Solimeo, Luiz Sergio, Fatima, A Message More Urgent than Ever 
(Spring Grove, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property-TFP, 2008.)

  

No jealousy

We ought to be pleased to hear
that others are advancing in the service of God, especially
if they are our relations or friends; and
we ought to rejoice that
they share in whatever spiritual good we may have ourselves.

St. Philip Neri

St. André Bessette

André Bessette was born in 1845 in the province of Quebec, Canada, the eighth of ten children. An orphan at twelve, he was taken in by an aunt and uncle. Set to various trades, he was unable to hold a job for very long because of his frail health. For thirteen years he worked at various occupations: shoemaker, baker, blacksmith, and once at a factory in the United States during the Civil War.

From an early age he exhibited signs of a deep spirituality with a marked devotion to Saint Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.

Though he had little education, at twenty-five he applied to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, an order of educators. After a year’s novitiate his frail health again came between him and permanent admittance, but at Bishop Bourget’s urging, he was received and assigned the humble post of porter at Notre Dame College, Montreal. Later, he would say, “When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door, and I remained forty years.”

In his small room near the entrance he spent much of the nights on his knees. As he kindly received people, listened to their life’s woes and heard of their physical complaints, he began to lightly rub sick persons with oil from a lamp burning in the college chapel before a statue of St. Joseph. Word of healings began to spread. “I do not heal,” he said simply, “St. Joseph heals”. A gentle man, he became enraged when people ascribed healings to him.

As the influx of pilgrims to Brother André’s door grew, he was allowed to build a chapel on Mount Royal with money he raised. There he continued his ministry. His reputation grew and soon he was known as the “Miracle Worker of Mount Royal”.

In 1924 construction for St. Joseph’s Oratory began on the side of the mountain near Brother André’s chapel. This shrine, the largest church outside of Rome was funded by Brother André’s supporters around the world.

Brother André died in 1937 at the age of ninety-one. He was beatified in 1982 and canonized in 2010. Pope Benedict XVI said of St. André that he “lived the beatitude of the pure of heart.”

Go ahead, scandalize the Pharisees

We must not stop doing good
even if it scandalizes the Pharisees.

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Prayer to the Immaculate Conception

Allow me to praise Thee, O most holy Virgin Mary, with my personal commitment and sacrifice.
Allow me to live, work, suffer, be consumed and die for Thee, just for Thee.
Allow me to bring the whole world to Thee.
Allow me to contribute to your ever-greater exaltation, to Thine greatest possible exaltation.
Allow me to give Thee such glory that no one else has ever given up to now.
Allow others to surpass me in zeal for Thine exaltation and me to surpass them, so that by means of such noble rivalry, your glory may increase ever more profoundly, ever more rapidly, ever more intensely as He Who has exalted Thee so indescribably, above all other beings Himself desires.   Amen
By Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe

How to know who someone is

The things that we love
tell us what we are.

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. John Neumann

John Nepomucene Neumann was born on March 28, 1811 in Prachatitz, in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic. He received the sacrament of Baptism the same day.

He entered the seminary in 1831 and was ready to be ordained in 1835 when the bishop temporarily suspended ordinations due to an excess of priests in the country. As a seminarian, John had been deeply inspired by the accounts of the missionaries among the German immigrants in North America, particularly by those of Father Barraga, who later became the first Bishop of Marquette. At the invitation of Bishop John DuBois of the diocese of New York, young Neumann sailed to the New World where he was ordained in what is now the old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

Until the age of twenty-nine, the young priest dedicated himself to missionary work in New York. At this time, with the permission of Bishop DuBois, he joined the Redemptorist Order becoming its first member to profess religious vows in America.

In 1852 Fr. John Neumann was consecrated the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia. His ease with languages, of which he would come to know as many as eight, endeared him to the many immigrants arriving in the city. He not only tended to immigrants in his native German, but speaking fluent Italian as well, he personally ministered to Italian newcomers in his private chapel, and went on to establish the first ethnic church for Italians in the country. For the Irish, he studied enough Gaelic to be able to hear the confessions of those who spoke no English, an act of charity which the Irish government officially recognized by a posthumous award.

Gifted with great organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities. He was the first bishop in the country to organize a diocesan school system, and during his tenure increased the schools in his diocese from one to one hundred. His apostolic endeavors encompassed every facet of spiritual need: schools, catechesis, and apologetics, in short, all that involved the spiritual guidance of souls, their sacramental nourishment and their zealous defense against error. He instituted the first Forty Hours devotion throughout his vast diocese, from whence it was taken up by others, spreading beyond the confines of the American continent. Intensely devoted to the Virgin Mother of God, the “little bishop”, as he was sometimes affectionately referred to, was called upon for a singular privilege in her honor. On December 8, 1854 when Pope Pius IX read the declaration defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, John Neumann held the book from which the pope read. Thus, his 5' 2" frame became the podium upon which rested the illustrious document describing the future patroness of the United States: the Immaculate Conception.

His efforts to expand Catholicism in America were not without opposition. On at least two occasions he wrote to Rome asking to be relieved of his bishopric but Blessed Pius IX insisted that he continue. And, like the Divine Master he so faithfully served, he persevered “until all [his] strength was exhausted, until the insupportable weight of the wood [of the cross] hurled [him] to the ground”. While running errands on January 5, 1860, Bishop John Neumann collapsed and died in the streets of Philadelphia from a stroke. He was forty-eight.

He was beatified by Pope Paul VI on October 13, 1963 and canonized by the same pope on June 19, 1977. His remains rest in the church of St. Peter the Apostle in Philadelphia where they are venerated by countless devotees.

The accidents of life

The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but
let us not despair.
God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other.
The more we are united to Him by love,
the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

The Marvelous Story of Our Lady of the Pillar

Did you know that the first church dedicated to the Blessed Mother was built while she still lived?

Indeed! Here’s the marvelous story.

Venerable Maria of Agreda who was shown the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary in detail, writes in her Mystical City of God that St. James, brother of St. John, whom Our Lord called “Sons of Thunder”, had a special devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Becoming the apostle of what today is Spain, Saint James was having a hard time evangelizing the northern region of Zaragoza. One night, as he prayed asking help for his plight, he suddenly beheld a great light in the midst of which he saw Our Lady surrounded by a multitude of angels.
The interesting thing is that Mary was still living in Jerusalem at the time. But as queen of the Church, she was given to see all that concerned her Son’s work, and being shown the prayer of her devotee, had obtained from Jesus to help him in a special way.
On learning of their lady’s wishes, the angels in her retinue promptly built a throne of luminous clouds on which they sat their queen, and swiftly carried her across the Mediterranean, serenading her all the way.
So now, the Blessed Mother consoled her son James, and assured him help for his endeavors. She asked him to build a shrine on the spot she appeared, and as a token of her help to the region, left a marble column or pillar topped by a small statue of herself holding her Infant Son.
By the pillar, she left an angel to ensure the safety of the holy image until the end of time.  According to ancient Spanish tradition, this apparition occurred on January 2nd, 40AD.  Her Feast day is celebrated on October 12th.
St. James indeed built the first shrine on that hallowed spot, around which grew the present-day Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar of Zaragoza.
Not long after, St. James was recalled to Jerusalem where he was the first apostle to suffer martyrdom. As he prepared to endure death by beheading, Our Lady and her angels again were visibly present to him fortifying and consoling him.
Returned to Spain, St. James’ body rests in Compostela, a place of famous pilgrimages.
This author was able to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Zaragossa and touch the heavenly pillar. One of the marvels concerning this pillar is that it plunges into the earth, so that none have ever been able to find its end. I was also told that the statue never gathers dust.
As to the angel that was left on guard at the spot, he must be still on watch. As one peruses the architectural marvels of the football-field-sized building, head tilting ever upwards, eyes come to a dead halt at what looks like…bombs…hanging from the ceiling?
On alarmed inquiry, one is told that, O yes, these hit the basilica during Spain’s civil war but never detonated…
But no worries, they are defused now.
 By Andrea F. Phillips

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is America’s first beatified and canonized saint. The second child of a socially prominent New York City family, she was born on August 28, 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage she was linked to the most illustrious families of New York.

She lost her mother and sister early in life, and her father, Dr. Richard Bayley remarried. From both her mother and step-mother, staunch Episcopalians, Elizabeth learned a love of Scripture and the value of prayer. From her father, a great humanitarian, she learned to serve others.

On January 25, 1794 the nineteen-year-old belle of New York married a handsome, wealthy business man, William Magee Seton. The couple had five children before his finances faltered and international political upheaval and tragic business losses combined to lead to William Seton’s bankruptcy. Plagued by tuberculosis for most of their married life, in the fall of 1803, William, accompanied by his wife and eldest daughter, sought some relief for his illness in the warmer climate of Italy, where he had business friends. Quarantined for a month by the Italian port authorities, who feared he had yellow fever, William Seton died of tuberculosis on December 27 leaving Elizabeth a penniless widow at the age of thirty.

While staying with her husband’s business partner’s family in Italy, Elizabeth was introduced to the Catholic Faith and closely observed the Filicchi family’s religious practices within the intimacy of their family home. She was especially attracted to the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the fact that the apostolic succession could be traced back to the apostles and to Christ. Imperceptibly drawn to all that she witnessed first hand, she here began a process of conversion that ultimately led to her being received into the Catholic Church by the pastor of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in New York City on March 14, 1805.

At the invitation of the Bishop of Baltimore and to support her children, she opened a school that, from the very beginning, followed the lines of a religious establishment. Following some difficult years of trials and struggles, in 1809 Elizabeth moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland where she founded the first religious order for women in America, the Sisters of Charity. From this time on, she was to become known as "Mother Seton".

The many letters of Mother Seton reveal her progress in the spiritual life. She suffered great trials: sickness, the death of two daughters, misunderstandings, and the heartache of a wayward son, but persevered through it all advancing from ordinary virtue to heroic sanctity.

Mother Seton died on January 4, 1821, by which day her congregation numbered twenty communities across America.  Cardinal Gibbons, successor to her nephew Archbishop James R. Bayley of Baltimore, introduced her cause in 1907. She was canonized in 1975.

The Most Holy Name of Jesus

The Apostle St. Paul was probably the first promoter of the name of Jesus, when he called it “a name which is above all names (Philippians 2:9).

Several saints honored the Holy Name of Jesus, but the devotion became widespread in the fifteenth century through St. Bernardine of Siena who, when preaching, held in his hand a plaque with the logo “IHS” surrounded by rays. The monogram is taken from the first three letters of the Greek spelling of the name of Jesus: IHSOYS. It is also customary though not historical to interpret “IHS” as Iesu Hominum Salvator, Jesus Savior of Mankind.

St. Bernardine worked countless miracles by blessing people with this logo as the visible manifestation of his faith and recommended that it be placed above the entrance of cities and homes; hence this symbol’s prevalence throughout Europe. The great preacher is also responsible for introducing the name of Jesus into the Hail Mary: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Persons who had prominent roles in the history of salvation received their names from God. These names have a direct connection with whom they are and what their mission is. Thus, Adam means “man of the earth”; Eve means “mother of the living”; Peter means “rock”.

At the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel conveyed God’s express will concerning the name which the divine Son of the Virgin Mary was to bear: “You shall call His name Jesus’ – in Aramaic, Yeshua (Matthew 1:21).

To St. Joseph, the angel not only spoke the name of Jesus but explained its meaning: “…for He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus is also meant to impress upon us Christians the dignity of the Holy Name, this name before which, “every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10).

Several Popes have attached indulgences to the mere pronunciation of the name of Jesus. Pope Benedict XIII granted an indulgence of 50 days as often as the name of Jesus is pronounced devoutly, and a plenary indulgence at the time of death provided the name of Jesus is piously invoked at least in thought. Pope St. Pius X attached a 300 days indulgence to the pious pronunciation of the names of Jesus and Mary.

St. Geneviève of Paris

Born about the year 422 in Nanterre, a small village outside of Paris, Geneviève was the daughter of respectable townsfolk. At the age of seven, she was singled out from a crowd of her fellow inhabitants by St. Germain of Auxerre who foretold to her parents their child’s future sanctity. The missionary prelate was on his way to Britain with St. Lupus of Troyes, commissioned by the bishops of Gaul to combat the heresy of Pelagian there. Before his departure, Geneviève renewed her consecration in his presence, received his blessing, and was given a medal engraved with a cross in remembrance of her dedication to Christ.
On the death of her parents she went to Paris, and lived with her godmother. She devoted herself to works of charity and practiced severe fasting and physical austerities. She continued these mortifications for over thirty years until her superiors compelled her to diminish them. Many of her neighbors accused Geneviève of being an impostor and a hypocrite. Her numerous visions and prophecies were treated as frauds and deceits. Driven by their envy and jealousy, her enemies eventually conspired to drown her. It was only through the intervention of St. Germain of Auxerre himself that their animosity was finally overcome. The bishop of the city appointed her to look after the welfare of the virgins dedicated to God, and by her instruction and example she led them to a high degree of sanctity.
In 451 as Attila and his Huns swept through Gaul, pillaging and destroying all in their path, the inhabitants of Paris prepared to flee. Geneviève prevailed upon them to place their trust in God and urged them to avert the scourge by prayer and penance, assuring them of the protection of Heaven. The advancing barbarian hordes inexplicably changed the course of their advance and headed towards Orléans, leaving Paris untouched. From henceforth, she was looked upon as the mother of the city of Paris and her prayers and intercession were universally sought in every malady and affliction.
Some years later, the city was again besieged and the people suffered greatly from sickness and famine. Geneviève was indefatigable in seeking relief for their needs, even calming a furious storm by her prayers when it threatened to overwhelm and sink the vessels loaded with provisions for the starving population. Through her influence, the new king and his successors displayed unwonted clemency towards the citizens. They regarded her with great veneration and respect and frequently pardoned malefactors and released prisoners, through her intercession. When King Clovis ascended the throne, he converted to Christianity and was baptized on Christmas Day, 496. He made Paris his capital and established an abbey dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul on the south bank of the Seine.
Geneviève died in the year 512 and when the church was completed, her body was placed in a solid stone tomb and interred there. The numerous miracles wrought at her tomb, caused the name of Sainte-Geneviève to be given to it. Kings, princes, and people enriched it with their gifts. This heroine who twice saved the capital of France by her courage and constancy is regarded as the Patroness of Paris. Her feast is kept on January 3.

Deadly poison

The most deadly poison of our time is
INDIFFERENCE.
And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits.
Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

Three things God requires

These three things God requires of all the Baptized:
right faith in the heart,
truth on the tongue,
temperance in the body.

St. Gregory Nazianzen

Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

On January 2, the Church honors Sts. Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, two friends who were pillars of orthodoxy during a period of chaos and confusion, namely the time in which the Church faced the far-reaching heresy of Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ – an ordeal the Church has never forgotten. These two friends steered the barc of St. Peter safely through the dangerous and stormy seas of heresy.
St. Basil was born in Caesarea in Cappadocia - today, southeastern Turkey - in 329 A.D. of a family of saints. His grandfather died a martyr in the Roman persecution, and his grandmother, mother, sister and two brothers are all canonized saints.

Basil was becoming famous as a teacher when he decided to leave the world. He lived for a while as a hermit then founded what was probably the first monastery in Asia Minor. His monastic principles have influenced Eastern monasticism to this day. He was a gifted orator, and his writings place him among the great teachers of the Church.

In 370 he was made Bishop of Caesarea. He opposed the Emperor Valens when the latter pressured him to remain silent and admit heretics to Holy Communion. In the end, the Emperor backed down. When the great St. Athanasius died, the mantle of defender of the faith against Arianism fell to Basil. He was misunderstood, misinterpreted, accused of ambition and heresy. Seventy-two years after his death, the Council of Chalcedon called him “the great Basil, minister of grace who has expounded the truth to the whole earth.” He died on January 1, 379.

St. Gregory Nazianzen was born in 330 and received baptism at the age of thirty. For a while he joined St. Basil as a hermit, and was later ordained to the priesthood. Consecrated Bishop of Constantinople in 381, he presided over the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople which defined the Nicene Creed, and which is recited every Sunday throughout the Catholic Church.

With St. Basil, he valiantly opposed Arianism and rebuilt the Faith in Constantinople at the cost of much personal persecution. He is famous for his sermons on the Holy Trinity. St. Gregory’s last days were spent in austerity and solitude. He died on January 25, in the year 389 or 390.

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is an ancient feast first celebrated in the East before it was in the West. By the 7th century this feast was already celebrated in Rome. In the 13th and 14th centuries the feast of the Circumcision of Christ replaced the Marian feast and was expanded to the whole Roman Catholic Church when, in 1570, Pope St. Pius V promulgated the Roman Missal.

In 1974 Pope Paul VI removed the feast of the Circumcision of Christ from the liturgical calendar, and replaced it with the feast of the “Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.”

The title of “Mary Mother of God”, in Greek “Theotokus”, was defended and defined by the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. against the heresy of Nestorius.

Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, refuted the title of “Theotokus” claiming that Christ had two loosely united natures, and therefore, Mary was only the mother of the human part of Him.

Catholic Theologians rejected this claim, and defined that Christ indeed has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature definitely united in one divine person, and since Christ’s two natures form one single person, Mary is the mother of the whole person of Christ.

Therefore, Mary can be properly called “Mother of God”, not in the sense that she came before God or is the source of God, but in the sense that the Person that she bore in her womb is indeed true God and true man.

Why are so few willing?

Our love for Jesus is truly great when we do not feel
its sweetness. It then becomes a martyrdom …
When, on the contrary, we begin to seek ourselves, true love dies away.
Unfortunately, many serve Jesus when He consoles them, but
few are willing to keep Him company when He is asleep.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

A bad state

Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state;
but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves,
a really good beginning will have been made.

St. Peter of Alcantara

Pope St. Sylvester I

Little is historically known about Pope Sylvester, though legend adds a few anecdotes.

It is known that his father was a Roman by name of Rufinus. He succeeded Pope Miltiades in 314 and reigned for twenty-one years.

With Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity was finally granted freedom. Legend has it, that having contracted leprosy, Emperor Constantine was healed after receiving baptism at the hand of St. Sylvester, and that afterwards, he made many gifts to the Church.

In any case, with the Edict of Milan, things certainly became easier for the Church. It was during the reign of St. Sylvester that several great basilicas were built by Constantine: The Lateran, Santa Croce, St. Peter in the Vatican, and several cemetery churches over the graves of the martyrs. No doubt, St. Sylvester was involved in the construction of these churches.

St. Sylvester also contributed to the development of the Roman liturgy, and it was during his reign that the first martyrology was drawn up. Sylvester also established a Roman school of singing, and built a church over the Catacomb of St. Priscilla.

Pope Sylvester took part in the Council of Nicaea at which the heresy of Arianism was condemned. He also sent legates to the First Ecumenical Council.

St. Sylvester died possibly on December 31 or was buried on that day of the year 335. At first buried in the church of St. Priscilla, his relics now rest in the church of English Catholics in Rome.

Satisfy your longings

You have everything when you have within you the One who made all things,
the only One who can satisfy the longings of your spirit.

St. Anthony of Padua

St. Egwin of Worcester

Egwin of Worcester was of a noble family, possibly a descendant of the Mercian kings.

Devoted to God since his youth, he succeeded to the see of Worcester in 662. Though a good bishop, protector of orphans and widows, and a fair judge, he incurred the animosity of people who resisted his insistent teaching on marital morality and clerical celibacy.

The resentment of some found its way to his ecclesiastical superiors, and Egwin undertook a pilgrimage to Rome to place his case before the Pope. One account relates that on crossing the Alps with a few companions, there was no water. Parched, those who did not appreciate his sanctity, mockingly suggested that he ask for water, like Moses. But others, who knew him well, reverently beseeched him to, indeed, pray for water. As Egwin prostrated himself in prayer, a stream of crystalline water issued forth from a rock.

On his return to England, Egwin founded the famous abbey of Evesham under the patronage of Mary Most Holy.

Around 709, he again journeyed to Rome, this time in the company of Kings Cenred of Mercia, and Offa of the East Saxons, and received many privileges for his monastery from Pope Constantine. In the tenth century Evesham became one of the great Benedictine abbeys of Medieval England.

St. Egwin died on December 30, 717 and was buried at the monastery he had founded.

10 Tips for Better New Year's Resolutions

1. Be honest. Know yourself. What is your strongest virtue? What is your worst vice? Therefore, tailor your resolution so it strengthens your good side and fights your bad one. A one-size fits all resolution is useless. 

2. Be specific. Don't use generalities. They don't work. For example, if you need to be more humble, just saying "I am going to be more humble," is useless. You need to zero in on one situation where you need to practice humility and resolve to improve in that one situation.

3. Be simple. Don't make it complicated. Focus on something you can see and measure easily and that does not overwhelm you each time you try to obtain it. Otherwise, you will become distracted and your energy will be dispersed and misdirected.

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4. Be reasonable. Don't try to do too much at once. You won't become a saint in one day. Remember: you have one MAJOR point upon which is hinged your entire fidelity to God and His Holy Laws. This is a called your primordial light. Find out and work on improving it. Everything else will improve if you improve on that one major point.

5. Be consistent. It's far better to do something small everyday to improve on that one key point in your soul than to make a big resolution that you cannot keep for more than a week or two. Slow and steady wins the race!

6. Be humble. Recognize that you cannot do any good action which has value in the supernatural order without God's grace and the intercessory help of the Blessed Mother. Beg God's grace through Our Lady's intercession constantly in all your thoughts, desires and actions.

7. Be disinterested. Remember that God wants us to defend His rights and interests, and to share His thoughts and ways. And therefore, to focus on things, happening and events that are very close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary that are not necessarily linked to our own personal interests.
 

 

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8. Write it down. It's important to write down your resolution so you can refer back to it often during the year. Also, by writing it down, you will be able to review it when the year is over, and to evaluate your progress since the time the resolution was made.

9. Public expressions of faith. Don't hide your faith. That's just what the devil wants. He knows when you express your faith publicly, others see you and are encouraged to follow your good example. Say grace openly and proudly before meals in a restaurant so people can see. You'll be surprised with the good reactions you will get.

10. Devotion to Our Lady. Have more devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Devotion to the Mother of God is a panacea. Saint Louis de Montfort said that devotion to Holy Mary is the easiest, safest, fastest, most secure, and surest path to Jesus and to our own salvation. If you can do nothing else, resolve to say the Rosary everyday. Saint Louis de Montfort wrote:

"If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins 'you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory.' Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if-- and mark well what I say-- if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins."

Pure, radiant, and useful

Mary is a most pure star, a most radiant star, and a most useful star.
She is a most pure star by living most purely;
a most radiant star by bringing forth Eternal Light;
a most useful star by directing us to the shores of our true home country.

St. Bonaventure

St. Thomas Becket

Also known as St. Thomas of Canterbury, he was born in London on December 21 about the year 1118. His parents had come from Normandy and settled in England some years previously. His early education at Merton Abbey was followed by further studies in Paris. He initially employed himself in secretarial work, first with Sir Richer de l’Aigle and then with his kinsman, Osbert Huitdeniers, who was “Justiciar” of London. About the year 1141, he entered the service of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and so won his master’s favor that he became the most trusted of all his clerks.

Theobald recognized his capacity and made use of him in many delicate negotiations. After studying civil and canon law at Bologna and Auxerre, the Archbishop ordained Thomas a deacon in 1154 and bestowed on him several preferments, the most important of which was the Archdeaconry of Canterbury.

When Henry II came to the throne upon the death of King Stephen, he took “Thomas of London”, as Becket was then most commonly called, for his chancellor, and in that office Thomas at the age of thirty-six became one of the most powerful subjects in Henry’s dominions. Although twelve years his junior, the sovereign “had but one heart and one mind” with his chancellor. Both had the prosperity of the kingdom deeply at heart and in many matters they saw eye to eye. The king’s imperial views and love of splendor were quite to the taste of his minister. When Thomas went to France in 1158 to negotiate a marriage treaty, he traveled with such pomp that the people said: “If this be only the chancellor what must be the glory of the king himself?”

Thomas took a leading role in most operations, be they civil or military. Deacon though he was, he unhorsed knights like the best of them and lead the most daring attacks in person. But although, as men then reported, “he put off the archdeacon”, in this and other ways, he was very far from assuming the licentious manners of those around him. No word was ever breathed against his personal purity. Foul conduct or foul speech, lying or unchastity were hateful to him, and on occasion he punished them severely.

He seems at all times to have had clear principles with regard to the claims of the Church, and even during this period of his chancellorship he more than once risked Henry’s grievous displeasure. But to the very limits of what his conscience permitted, Thomas identified himself with his master’s interests.

Archbishop Theobald died in 1161, and in the course of the next year Henry seems to have decided that it would be good policy to prepare the way for further schemes of reform by securing the advancement of his chancellor to the primacy. From the first Thomas drew back in alarm. “I know your plans for the Church,” he said, “you will assert claims which I, if I were archbishop, must needs oppose.” But Henry would not be denied, and Thomas at the instance of Cardinal Henry of Pisa, who urged it upon him as a service to religion, yielded in spite of his misgivings. He was ordained priest on Saturday in Whit Week and consecrated bishop the next day, Sunday, 3 June, 1162.

A great change took place in the saint’s way of life after his consecration as archbishop. Even as chancellor he had practiced secret austerities, but now in view of the struggle he clearly saw before him he gave himself to fastings and disciplines, hair shirts, protracted vigils, and constant prayers. Before the end of the year 1162 he stripped himself of all signs of the lavish display which he had previously affected. On August 10 he went barefoot to receive the envoy who brought him the pallium from Rome. Contrary to the king’s wish he resigned the chancellorship. Whereupon Henry seems to have required him to surrender certain ecclesiastical preferments which he still retained, notably the archdeaconry, and when this was not done at once showed bitter displeasure. Other misunderstandings soon followed. The archbishop, having, as he believed, the king’s express permission, set about to reclaim alienated estates belonging to his see, a procedure which again gave offence. Still more serious was the open resistance which he made to the king’s proposal that a voluntary offering to the sheriffs should be paid into the royal treasury.The saint’s protest seems to have been successful, but the relations with the king only grew more strained.

Soon after this the great matter of dispute was reached in the resistance made by Thomas to the king’s officials when they attempted to assert jurisdiction over criminous clerks. The saint himself had no wish to be lenient with criminous clerks. It was with him simply a question of principle. St. Thomas seems all along to have suspected Henry of a design to strike at the independence of what the king regarded as a too powerful Church. With this view Henry summoned the bishops at Westminster (1 October, 1163) to sanction certain as yet unspecified articles, one of the known objects of which was to bring clerics guilty of crimes under the jurisdiction of the secular courts. The other bishops, as the demand was still in the vague, showed a willingness to submit, though with the condition “saving our order”, upon which St. Thomas inflexibly insisted. The king’s resentment was thereupon manifested by requiring the archbishop to surrender certain castles he had hitherto retained, and by other acts of unfriendliness. In deference to what he believed to be the pope’s wish, the archbishop in December consented to make some concessions by giving a personal and private undertaking to the king to obey his customs “loyally and in good faith”. But when Henry shortly afterwards at Clarendon sought to draw the saint on to a formal and public acceptance of the “Constitutions of Clarendon”, under which name the sixteen articles, the avitæ consuetudines as finally drafted, have been commonly known, St. Thomas, though at first yielding somewhat to the solicitations of the other bishops, in the end took up an attitude of uncompromising resistance.

Then followed a period of unworthy and vindictive persecution. When opposing a claim made against him by John the Marshal, Thomas upon a frivolous pretext was found guilty of contempt of court. For this he was sentenced to pay £500; other demands for large sums of money followed, and finally, though a complete release of all claims against him as chancellor had been given on his becoming archbishop, he was required to render an account of nearly all the moneys which had passed through his hands in his discharge of the office. Eventually a sum of nearly £30,000 was demanded of him. His fellow bishops summoned by Henry to a council at Northampton, implored him to throw himself unreservedly upon the king’s mercy, but St. Thomas, instead of yielding, solemnly warned them and threatened them. Then, after celebrating Mass, he took his archiepiscopal cross into his own hand and presented himself thus in the royal council chamber. The king demanded that sentence should be passed upon him, but in the confusion and discussion which ensued the saint with uplifted cross made his way through the mob of angry courtiers. He fled away secretly that night (October 13, 1164) sailed in disguise from Sandwich (November 2), and after being cordially welcomed by Louis VII of France, he threw himself at the feet of Pope Alexander III, then at Sens, on November 23. The pope, who had given a cold reception to certain episcopal envoys sent by Henry, welcomed the saint very kindly, and refused to accept his resignation of his see. On November 30, Thomas went to take up his residence at the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny in Burgundy, though he was compelled to leave this refuge a year later, as Henry, after confiscating the archbishop’s property and banishing all the Becket kinsfolk, threatened to wreak his vengeance on the whole Cistercian Order if they continued to harbor him.
The negotiations between Henry, the pope, and the archbishop dragged on for the next four years without the position being sensibly changed. Although the saint remained firm in his resistance to the principle of the Constitutions of Clarendon, he was willing to make any concessions that could be reasonably asked of him, and on January 6, 1169, when the kings of England and France were in conference at Montmirail, he threw himself at Henry’s feet, but as he still refused to accept the obnoxious customs, Henry repulsed him. At last in 1170 some sort of reconciliation was patched up. The question of the customs was not mentioned and Henry professed himself willing to be guided by the archbishop’s council as to amends due to the See of Canterbury for the recent violation of its rights in the crowning of Henry’s son by the Archbishop of York. On December 1, 1170, St. Thomas had brought with him, as well as over the restoration by the de Broc family of the archbishop’s castle at Saltwood. How far Henry was directly responsible for the tragedy which soon after occurred on December 20 is not quite clear. Four knights who came from France demanded the absolution of the bishops. St. Thomas would not comply. They left for a space, but came back at Vesper time with a band of armed men. To their angry question, “Where is the traitor?” the saint boldly replied, “Here I am, no traitor, but archbishop and priest of God.” They tried to drag him from the church, but were unable, and in the end they slew him where he stood, scattering his brains on the pavement. His faithful companion, Edward Grim, who bore his cross, was wounded in the struggle.

A tremendous reaction of feeling followed this deed of blood. In an extraordinary brief space of time devotion to the martyred archbishop had spread all through Europe. The pope promulgated the bull of canonization, little more than two years after the martyrdom, February 21, 1173. On July 12, 1174, Henry II did public penance, and was scourged at the archbishop’s tomb. An immense number of miracles were worked, and for the rest of the Middle Ages the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury was one of the wealthiest and most famous in Europe.

In 1220, St. Thomas Becket’s remains were relocated from this first tomb to a shrine, where it stood until it was destroyed in 1538, by orders of Henry VIII. The king also destroyed St. Thomas Becket’s bones and ordered that all mention of his name be obliterated. The pavement where the shrine stood is today marked by a lit candle.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

When the Magi arrived in Judea seeking the newborn “king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:1-2), King Herod was worried. After ascertaining in Scriptures that Bethlehem was the likely birthplace of the Child, he met with the Wise Men. The crafty king bid them go to Bethlehem and bring him back details so he could also adore the new king.

But God Who sees into the hearts of men, warned the three Magi in a dream not to return by way of King Herod. Far from wishing to adore Christ Jesus, the tetrarch wished to destroy Him.

Realizing that he had been found out, Herod raged and ordered all little boys, two years of age and under, to be slaughtered in Bethlehem and its surroundings, hoping thus, to also destroy the Child Jesus.

But warned in time by an angel, St. Joseph had gathered the mother and child and fled to Egypt. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the Prophet Jeremiah: “A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation and great mourning, Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” (Matt.2:17-18).

The Church considers those slaughtered babes, the first martyrs, since they shed their blood because of Christ. The Church officially honors their martyrdom on December 28. Several churches in Rome and throughout Europe claim to house their relics.

Daily He comes down from His royal throne

… day after day He humbles Himself,
as when He came down from His royal throne into the Virgin’s womb.
Day by day He comes to us personally in this lowly form.
Daily He comes down from the bosom of His Father, onto the altar, into
the hands of the priest.

St. Francis of Assisi

It burns

I would wield the sword, I would be a Priest,
an Apostle, a Martyr, a Doctor of the Church,
I would fain accomplish the most heroic deeds
— the spirit of the Crusader burns within me,
and I would gladly die on the battlefield in defense of the Church

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

St. John the Evangelist

John was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels, the brothers are often called “the sons of Zebedee”. Our Lord also called them “Boanerges” or “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17).  The fact that John is usually mentioned after James seems to indicate that he was younger than his brother.

Originally, John fished with his father and brother in the lake of Genezareth.  He was probably among the disciples of John the Baptist, when the Lord attached him to His apostolic college.

John is mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures, in Acts 1:13 as second after Peter. He seems to hold a prominent position among the apostles. Peter, James and he were the only witnesses to the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:37), of the Transfiguration (Matt.17:1), and of the Agony in the Garden (Matt.26:37). At the Last Supper, he was the one that leaned his head on the Lord’s chest. According to pious tradition and private revelation, he was the first recipient of the devotion to Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart.

Of all the apostles, John was the only one that was not married, and a virgin.

At the foot of the cross, he was the only one of the apostles standing with Mary Most Holy, and it was to him that the dying Savior entrusted His beloved Mother’s keeping and protection.

After the Lord’s death, John seems to have labored with the other apostles for several years in Palestine until the persecution of Herod Agrippa led to the scattering of the apostles throughout the Roman Empire. John went to Asia Minor, including to Ephesus, where a pious tradition holds that he took the Blessed Mother to live.

One of the four evangelists, St. John is the author of the fourth and last Gospel. He wrote the Apocalypse on the Island of Patmos and was the only apostle not to suffer martyrdom but to die of natural causes around the age of 100.

The Holy Family in Egypt

People were talking...

A mysterious star had appeared, shepherds spoke of an angel in the night, and of a royal babe in a manger, kings from the East had come, and gone, and now Holy Simeon and Anna rejoiced at having seen the promised of the Lord, and God’s salvation.
On his throne, King Herod seethed with envy, and squirmed with anxiety lest a Child take his crown. And his evil mind conceived one of the most heinous crimes in history, the murder of all male children ages two and under, just so he could be sure one Child died.
Warned by an angel, the young family left in the dead of night. Once more Saint Joseph led the donkey that had brought Blessed Mary to Bethlehem. But now, the happy beast carried the Creator of the Universe as well.
Into 180 miles of wilderness went Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus to face frightful perils and hazards. And it was the time of year when the desert is frigid by night. At times, all the Holy Family had in the way of shelter was the side of a hill, with Joseph’s cloak propped on his staff for a bit of respite against the cold.

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The holy travelers also suffered hunger. One day, having run out of their meager provisions, they had nothing to eat all day.  And God allowed the weather to try them further, so that the wind and rain picked up in fury. And though Mary held the Child close, little Jesus felt the inclemency of the weather and shed tears and shivered like any baby would. And He also already offered His Father all these trials for our salvation.

Finally, after much suffering, the Virgin Mother lifted her heart in prayer, asking nothing for herself but for her God in the flesh. And using her power as queen of the universe, commanded the elements to no longer afflict their Creator. And, immediately the storm abated.

In return, the Child God rejoiced at His mother’s solicitude, and ordered the angels to shelter them from the weather. The angels immediately built a resplendent dome over the travelers, so that now they travelled as if in the plushest RV.

The angels also brought them delicious bread, sweet fruit and a fortifying drink, so that they were amply consoled for all their suffering and labor.

And so, the Holy Family came into Egypt. And then another marvel happened.

The Egyptians were much given to idolatry, and superstitions, and built temples and statues to idols in which demons took up residence. As the holy threesome travelled through the towns of Egypt, the Infant God raised his eyes and small hands to His Heavenly Father, and begged Him for the salvation of the inhabitants held captive by Satan.

Immediately making use of His sovereign power, He drove the demons from the idols and temples, hurling them into the infernal abyss. To which the idols and temples, one after another crashed to the ground leaving the air lighter and the atmosphere freer. The people of Egypt were astounded, though they ignored the source of these blessings.

One demon dwelt in a great tree, which the people worshipped. Once this demon was ousted, the tree, as if in deep gratitude, bowed to the ground before the Holy Family.

And so Jesus, Mary and Joseph took up their abode near the city of Heliopolis, today in the North/East of Cairo, and there did much good for several years until the Angel again appeared and told them it was safe to return home.

(Based on the private revelations of Venerable Maria of Agreda)

Joy which I cannot make others comprehend

To withdraw from creatures and repose with Jesus in the Tabernacle
is my delight; there I can hide myself and seek rest.
There I find a life which I cannot describe,

a joy which I cannot make others comprehend,

  a peace such as is found only under the
hospitable roof of our best Friend.

St. Ignatius Loyola

St. Stephen Martyr

Stephen was a Jew, possibly of the Hellenist Dispersion who, therefore, spoke Greek.

His election and that of six other men as deacons is related in the Acts of the Apostles: “And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Acts 6:5)

Stephen spoke with such wisdom and fire that his listeners could not resist his words. Thus a plot was begun in certain synagogues against him. At first, they tried to debate with the young deacon but could not withstand his inspired logic. Wanting to silence him by any means, they then conspired to put him to death.

Brought before the Sanhedrim, he delivered a marvelous defense of the New Order established by Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Order (recorded at length in the Acts of the Apostles),and finished with the stinging words: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” (Acts 7:51-54)

The whole assembly raged at Stephen, but he, full of the Holy Ghost, looked up and saw our Savior standing at the right hand of God the Father, and exclaimed: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” (Acts 7: 55)

At which words those assembled loudly protested, and stopping their ears, fell upon him and seized him. Dragging the deacon outside the city, they stoned him. Standing by, watching, was a man named Saul, and those hurling the stones laid their cloaks at his feet for safe keeping.
As the martyr felt himself dying under the awful blows, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling on his knees he cried out, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:58-59). After which he fell asleep in the Lord.

St. Stephen is the first to have shed his blood for the Name of Christ Jesus.

Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ

On December 25 the Church celebrates the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity made man, Who taking flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit, was  born nine months later in a stable in Bethlehem as predicted in the Scriptures: "And Thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity" (Micah, 5:2). The Gospels of St. Luke and St. Mathew cover the marvelous story. St. Luke writes of Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem for the census of Caesar Augustus and Jesus being born there and laid in a manger.  He tells of the appearance of an angel to shepherds nearby announcing the birth of the Child as the awaited Savior, Christ the Lord, and how these same shepherds found Him in the humble stable just as the angel had foretold.

In the account of St. Matthew, wise men follow a mysterious star to Bethlehem and lay gifts at the feet of the Divine Child. He also recounts the massacre, ordered by the envious Herod, of all little boys two years old and under, and the flight of the holy family into Egypt to save the Child Jesus. They later settle in Nazareth.

Though there are records of the feast of the Nativity of Jesus being celebrated as early as the third century in Egypt, the celebration of this feast did not spread throughout the Christian world until the middle of the fourth century. It was at first celebrated along with the feast of Epiphany on January 6, the feast of the arrival of the Wise Men or Magi. Little by little, Christmas became its own feast. Many of the early Church Fathers regarded December 25 as the actual date of Christ’s birth.

Historically and traditionally, Christmas is deemed one of the greatest Christian feasts along with the solemn, grateful remembrance of the Lord’s death on Good Friday, and the joyful celebration of His Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In all Christian countries, Christmas gives rise to a multitude of cultural expressions of colorful, sparkling joy, in remembrance and thanksgiving for this most charming of divine gifts, a God made a babe for our salvation. Countless songs, and ballads through the ages sing of this Gift of gifts, and people, in turn, have recourse to gift giving as a visible overflow of their gratitude and joy – or so it should be.

How foolish it is

Our Lord could have ordered the angels to embellish the
            Holy Grotto with the most delicate silks, the most aromatic
            perfumes, and the most celestial symphonies. He could have
            enjoyed every legitimate material delight from the first
            moment of His human life.

               Instead, He chose the very opposite. His delicate body lay
            not on soft silk, but on coarse straw. His crib was a feeding
            trough which, however diligently scoured by Our Lady, did not
            exude the sweet smells of exquisite perfumes. Born at midnight
            in the middle of winter, the Holy Infant trembled in the cold
            night air, warmed only by the breath of beasts. His cradle song
            was the lowing of cows.

               Thus, Our Lord Jesus Christ showed us how foolish it is
            to make this world’s delights the end of our lives. To the
            contrary, Christ taught us to disdain them for the glory of
            God and the good of souls, in the measure that they distract
            and even deviate us from our ultimate end — the eternal
            delight of unending life with Him.

                                            Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

In Search of Christmas

One Christmas night, Our Lord, denying Himself the comfort of visiting those households where He knows He is loved, came down into the midst of a modern city to see what sinners were doing.
Christmas!... Christmas!... Joy was universal.
Everyone was celebrating. Christ encountered a policeman completely engrossed in directing traffic in a busy plaza.
Christ stepped up to him and asked, “What does this holiday of Christmas mean?”
The policeman eyed Him: “Where do you come from?”
“From Bethlehem.”
“Where?”
“Bethlehem.”
“Oh? Wherever that is. Anyway, don’t you know that Christmas is a holiday for kids? It’s a holiday for everybody. On Christmas, everybody is somebody’s kid!”
“What is the origin of this holiday?”
“Look, you ask too many questions. Can’t you see I’m very busy? If you want to know more, go ask the chief.”



Christmas!... Christmas!...
Every store glittered with worldly displays. Really, what was behind it?
Christ paused by a restaurant advertising “Christmas Party — $50.00.”  Ladies and gentlemen in elegant evening attire were entering the place.
He stepped inside.
Tables, covered with white linen and lighted with red and green candles, were arranged in rows. Bottles of champagne, with gilded foil about their necks, nestled in ice-filled silver pails.
A woman, turning around and seeing Our Lord, gestured indignantly at one of the waiters: “What is this? You let panhandlers in here?”
The waiter, a young man of twenty or so, rushed over to Him. “What are you doing in here?” he demanded. “Begging is permitted only out on the sidewalk!”
Christ studied the young man. “If only you knew what it is that I am ‘begging’ for...”
But He was already being shoved out into the street — as the woman playing the piano sang, “Peace on earth and mercy mild.” Not even the Roman soldiers had been so hasty.
Outside, Christ allowed Himself to be swept along by the throng that flowed like a river between the stores and markets. He saw toys, and more toys, everywhere, and a few Santa Clauses, but rarely a manger scene.
Our Lord then caught sight of a married couple carrying a few small, precious bundles. They seemed to be good, middle-class, peace-loving souls, hurrying somewhere to celebrate Christmas.
Christ followed them, invisible to their eyes. They entered their home and climbed the staircase to their apartment, where others had already gathered. He watched as they opened bottles, served pastries, and then as they ate and drank.
“Imagine,” said one, “just for a change of pace, I went to Midnight Mass!”
“Oh?” said another,” barely considering the remark, “And how was it?”
“Well, it wasn’t as pleasant as a good concert, but quite amusing nevertheless. Saw a number of friends there...”
The apartment had neither a crucifix nor a manger scene. Christ could not long endure the senseless conversation, so He turned away and slowly descended the staircase.
A short distance down the road, Our Lord found Himself near the playground of a large school. Above the gate a prominent sign proclaimed, “Christmas Party for the Children of District 10.”
Ah, children, little children! Our Lord went in. There were hundreds of children inside, receiving toys, candy, and books. As they noisily ran and tumbled about, important looking women hurried under the gaze of a headmistress.  Again, neither a manger scene nor a crucifix could be seen, and nobody mentioned the name of the Child Jesus.
As Christ stood there, a feeling of isolation grew in His heart. He was a trespasser. Finally, He approached a young boy whose arms overflowed with toys. The boy reminded Him of His little friends of bygone days in Bethlehem.
“Do you love the Child Jesus who has given you so many nice toys?”
The boy stared at Him with a puzzled air: “Child Jesus?”
“Don’t you know Him?”
“No...”
The headmistress, as if sensing some danger afoot, rushed over.  “What did this Man say to you?” she frantically asked the boy. Upon learning what Our Lord had asked and what Name He had dared mention, her eyes glared with annoyance.  “Be so kind as to leave... At once!”

 

Christ again walked through the streets, no longer entering any of the places He passed. He wandered as His mother had in Bethlehem, on a night like this and on the same date so long ago. He roamed through the endless streets, passing innumerable places where His creatures celebrated Christmas without knowing its true meaning. He hesitated to return to Heaven with such observations, for they would sadden the saints.
Weary, He came to the edge of a neglected suburb. A white building ablaze with tiny lights caught His eye. Approaching and looking through one of the windows, He saw His own image prominently displayed on the wall. His eyes brightened, as if reflecting the hundreds of lights outside, when He noticed that in one corner of the room was a simple, but attractively arranged, manger scene.
Just then the door opened and a boy came out, a boy like those who not infrequently come under the care of a parish. The boy stopped abruptly at the sight of the golden-haired man shivering in the darkness. Icy gusts blew around them.
“Sir, you could freeze out here! You need to get out of the cold.”
“I am quite cold,” answered Our Lord.
“Come in, then. We have a good fire going.”
And so Our Lord entered.  Near the fireplace, a group of children were closely gathered around a young priest. As the fire crackled and filled the room with its warmth and light, the priest told the children about the infinite grandeur hidden within the little figure of the Child Jesus in the manger. He stopped his tale the moment Our Lord entered the room.
“Come in! Oh, you look cold! Warm yourself here.”
The children promptly offered the newcomer a place close to the fire.

“Have you had anything to eat? Joseph, go ask your mother to prepare something hot for this gentleman.”
Christ’s gaze slowly passed over all of them, one by one, as if He were memorizing every little face. Above all, He gazed at the young priest.
“Are you alone, my friend?” asked the priest kindly.
“Yes.”
Seized by soul-stirring curiosity, all eyes turned inquisitively upon the stranger, waiting.
Christ did not speak. Very slowly, regally, Jesus’ hand moved. He extended it over their heads, reaching beyond the humble cottages of that neighborhood and encompassing that immense city whose miseries He had witnessed close up. In a tone of voice that none of those present would ever forget, He exclaimed: “Misereor super turbas” – I have pity upon these people!
Then, slowly, before their astonished eyes He disappeared.
“It was Jesus!” cried one of the boys.
The young priest nodded solemnly. “Yes... it must have been...”

---

By Pierre L'Ermite
Illustrations by A.F.Phillips