Saints: January 2009 Archives

Saint John Bosco, full of confidence I turn to you, asking you to intercede for me. Help me to lead a good and happy life. May I always be a help to others, avoid sin and die a happy death. Bring down the blessings of God special graces which I now ask...I trust in His love and mercy to grant what He knows is best for me.

Saint John Bosco, send us good and holy priests and religious and grant perseverance to those who are preparing to offer their lives to God. Amen.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

"Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."

Lord, may Saint Angela commend us to Your mercy; may her charity and wisdom help us to be faithful to Your teaching and to follow it in our lives.

A brief bio and a Wiki article

The Company of Saint Ursula in the United States

I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase, Alleluia.

O thou great Doctor, Paul, we here beseech of thee Lead thou our spirits up to heavenly mystery,

Till ends the partial knowledge that to us is given, While here below, and we receive the fuller light in heaven.

May everlasting honor, power and glory be, And jubilation, to the Holy Trinity, The One God, ever ruling all things mightily, Throughout all endless ages of eternity. Amen.

O God, Who has taught the whole world by the preaching of the blessed Paul the Apostle; we beseech Thee, that we, who this day celebrate his conversion, may by his example advance unto Thee.

On this day 50 years ago (1959), Blessed Pope John XXIII, at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls, announced the Second Vatican Council.

O God, Who did will that blessed Francis, Thy Confessor and Bishop, should become all things unto all men for the salvation of their souls, mercifully grant that being filled with the sweetness of Thy love, we may, through the guidance of his counsels and the aid of his merits attain the aid the joys of everlasting life.

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) born in Thorens, Savoy, in France, was a brilliant student and lawyer. At an early age he was nominated Bishop of Geneva and later he vigorsly fought Calvinism. Together with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal he founded the Order of the Visitation. A classic book on the spiritual life is de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life. He died in Lyons and was canonized in 1665. In 1877, Pope Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him Doctor of the Church. Pius XI declared him patron of journalists and other writers.

Agnes beatæ virginis
natalis est, quo spiritum
cælo refudit debitum
pio sacrata sanguine.

Matura martyrio fuit
matura nondum nuptiis;
prodire quis nuptum putet,
sic læta vultu ducitur.

Aras nefandi numinis
adolere tædis cogitur;
respondet: «Haud tales faces
sumpsere Christi virgines.

Hic ignis exstinguit fidem,
hæc flamma lumen eripit;
hic, hic ferite, ut profluo
cruore restinguam focos».

Percussa quam pompam tulit!
Nam veste se totam tegens,
terram genu flexo petit
lapsu verecundo cadens.

Iesu, tibi sit gloria,
qui natus es de Virgine,
cum Patre et almo Spiritu,in sempiterna sæcula.

(Saint Ambrose)

Almighty and eternal God, Who did choose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, mercifully grant, that we who celebrate the solemnity of blessed Agnes, Thy Virgin and Martyr, may experience her intercession with Thee.

Church has remembered Saint Anges, who died in 305, since 354 in the sacred Liturgy, poetry and art. This ancient feast retains a custom of blessing of the wool of two lambs brought to the pope from the Trappist Abbey of Tre Fontane. The wool from the lambs is given to the nuns to weave the pallia. The pallia spend some time at the relics of Saint Peter below the main altar of Saint Peter's Basilica showing a special unity between the Pontiff and the archbishop. The pallium is a white woolen band embroidered with six black crosses worn over the shoulders and has two hanging pieces, front and back. Since the 9th century, the pallium has wider use and is worn by the pope and by metropolitan archbishops symbolizing authority and expresses the special bond of unity between the archbishop and the Roman Pontiff. Pallia are given, upon request from by the metropolitan archbishops on the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Paul by the pope. The pallium is worn by the archbishop in his diocese and when necessary, in the other diocese in the Metropolitanate and is generally worn only for significant ecclesial events like the blessing of Chrism, ordinations, consecration of altars and not for daily and Sunday Mass.

All-powerful and eternal God, your wonders shine forth in the merits of your blessed martyr Meinrad. We beg you that, as you crowned him with the glory of suffering for your name, so now we might be aided by his prayers in obtaining your mercy.

The Archabbey of Saint Meinrad in sourthern Indiana continues the tradition of their heavenly.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)

Lord God, help us to imitate the virtues of Blessed Basil Moreau, especially his trust in Divine Providence, his confidence in the Cross as our only hope, and his zeal for making God known, loved, and served.

Blessed Basil Moreau is an example on how to "promot[e] hope in the Cross of Christ...[showing us]...a radical identification to Christ, and to cultivate in our own lives union of hearts and zeal for the mission."

Commemorative booklet of the beatification of Blessed Basil Anthony Moreau

A recent biography: Basil Moreau: Founder of Holy Cross

God, who allowed Blessed Anthony the Abbot to serve You with a marvelous life in the desert, grant by his intercession that, denying ourselves, we may constantly love You above all things.

More on Abbot Saint Anthony

All-powerful God, as Saint Hilary defended the divinity of Christ Your Son, give us a deeper understanding of this mystery and help us to profess it in all truth.

Saint Hilary of Poitiers (315-368) was a leading defender of the Church against the Arian heresy. He wrote twelve books about the Holy Trinity as well as commentaries on St. Matthew's Gospel and the Psalms. Known as the Doctor of the Divinity of Christ and in 1851 named a Doctor of the Church.

O Mother Bourgeoys, you, whose compassionate power is ever increasing, show us your way of Truth, Faith and Holiness.

Make us humble enough to abandon ourselves to the Will of God, generous enough to find in the Cross the joy of the Loving Giver.

May your fidelity to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament lead us ever nearer to this source of light and peace. May your spirit of openness help us to be concerned for our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

Finally, may Our Lady of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, bring us to this unity of eternal grace to which God has called you for all eternity. Amen.

A Vatican biography and another view of the Canadian saint's life.

God our Father, Saint Gregory, your bishop, praised you by the splendor of his life and teaching. In your kindness, as we forget what is past and reach out to what is before us, help us to attain that vocation to which we are called.

Saint Gregory Nyssa converted to Christianity in his early twenties and at the urging of his brother, Saint Basil, he was ordained bishop of Nyssa. He is the author of many theological works but he's also known to be a mystic and a humanist. His final work, the Life of Moses, is mystical reflection on the life of Moses, Israel's great leader and prophet.

Saint Gregory understood his life --indeed all of life-- as unending progress of discovering what God is doing in us and how sin is refusal to keep on growing in this discovery, for "the one thing truly worthwhile is becoming God's friend."

Some of Saint Gregory's famous sayings are the following:

"So we say to God: Give us bread. Not delicacies or riches, nor magnificent purple robes, golden ornaments, and precious stones, or silver dishes. Nor do we ask Him for landed estates, or military commands, or political leadership. We pray neither for herds of horses and oxen or other cattle in great numbers, nor for a host of slaves. We do not say, give us a prominent position in assemblies or monuments and statues raised to us, nor silken robes and musicians at meals, nor any other thing by which the soul is estranged from the thought of God and higher things; no--but only bread! . . .

"But you go on business to the Indies and venture out upon strange seas; you go on a voyage every year only to bring back flavourings for your food, without realizing that . . . [it] is above all a good conscience which makes the bread tasty because it is eaten in justice. . .

"'Give Thou bread'--that is to say, let me have food through just labor. For, if God is justice, anyone who procures food for themselves through covetousness cannot have his bread from God. You are the master of your prayer if your abundance does not come from another's property and is not the result of somebody else's tears; if no one is hungry or distressed because you are fully satisfied. For the bread of God is, above all, the fruit of justice."

For more about Saint Gregory, a Cappadocian, read this article.

Lord our God, friend of the lowly, You gave your servant, Brother André, a great devotion to Saint Joseph and a special commitment to the poor and afflicted. Through his intercession help us to follow his example of prayer and love and so come to share with him in Your glory.

Blessed André Bessette (1845-1937), born near Quebec, was professed brother in the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He did the humble work in his religious house for over forty years. He was known to have had a great devotion to Saint Joseph and therefore he was entrusting the intentions of the poor and sick to him. He built the shrine which grew into the great basilica known as Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Canada.

Lord God, You blessed Elizabeth Seton with gifts of grace as wife and mother, educator and foundress, so that she might spend her life in service to Your people. Through her example and prayers may we learn to express our love for You in love for others.

At the Mass which Pope Paul VI declared Seton a saint he said:

 Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with spiritual joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she marvelously sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints. This is the title which, in his original foreword to the excellent work of Father Dirvin, the late Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, attributed to her as primary and characteristic: "Elizabeth Ann Seton was wholly American"! Rejoice, we say to the great nation of the United States of America. Rejoice for your glorious daughter. Be proud of her. And know how to preserve her fruitful heritage. This most beautiful figure of a holy woman presents to the world and to history the affirmation of new and authentic riches that are yours: that religious spirituality which your temporal prosperity seemed to obscure and almost make impossible. Your land too, America, is indeed worthy of receiving into its fertile ground the seed of evangelical holiness. And here is a splendid proof-among many others-of this fact.

May you always be able to cultivate the genuine fruitfulness of evangelical holiness, and ever experience how-far from stunting the flourishing development of your economic, cultural and civic vitality -it will be in its own way the unfailing safeguard of that vitality. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was born, brought up and educated in New York in the Episcopalian Communion. To this Church goes the merit of having awakened and fostered the religious sense and Christian sentiment which in the young Elizabeth were naturally predisposed to the most spontaneous and lively manifestations. We willingly recognize this merit, and, knowing well how much it cost Elizabeth to pass over to the Catholic Church, we admire her courage for adhering to the religious truth and divine reality which were manifested to her therein. And we are likewise pleased to see that from this same adherence to the Catholic Church she experienced great peace and security, and found it natural to preserve all the good things which her membership in the fervent Episcopalian community had taught her, in so many beautiful expressions, especially of religious piety, and that she was always faithful in her esteem and affection for those from whom her Catholic profession had sadly separated her.

·         Born in New York City, August 28, 1774

·         Married William Magee Seton, January 25, 1794; mother of 5 children; William died in Pisa, December 27, 1803

·         Received into the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday, March 14, 1805, by Father Matthew O'Brien in St. Peter's Church, Barclay Street, NY

·         Formation of the new community in 1808, first Religious Congregation of women in the USA

·         Died at Emmitsburg, Maryland, January 4, 1821

·         Canonized on September 14, 1975 by Pope Paul VI

Her devotion to the Eucharist, sacred Scripture, especially the 23rd Psalm, and the Blessed Virgin Mary are hallmarks of Seton's spiritual life. Following the example of Saints Vincent de Paul and Louis de Marillac hers was an apostolic spirituality.

God our Father, You inspired the Church with the example and teaching of Your saints Basil and Gregory. In humility may we come to know Your truth and put it into action with faith and love.

Just three -of many-- things about being a Christian according to Saint Basil the Great:

The Christian ought to be so minded as becomes his heavenly calling, and his life and conversation ought to be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.

The Christian ought to regard all the things that are given him for his use, not as his to hold as his own or to lay up; and, giving careful heed to all things as the Lord's, not to overlook any of the things that are being thrown aside and disregarded, should this be the case.

Every one ought, as far as he is able, to conciliate one who has ground of complaint against him. No one ought to cherish a grudge against the sinner who repents, but heartily to forgive him. He who says that he has repented of a sin ought not only to be pricked with compunction for his sin, but also to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.

Pope Benedict's 2007 catechesis on Saint Basil part I and part II.