Saint Denis and Companions

As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:
through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments,
tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness,
the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the
weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and
dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet
are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as
punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet
making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Father, you
sent Saint Denis and his companions to preach your glory to the nations, and you
gave them the strength to be steadfast in their sufferings for Christ. Grant
that we may learn from their example to reject the power and wealth of this
world and to brace all earthly trials.

Let us pray for France, the Church’s eldest daughter and for the Archdiocese of Paris as it commemorates the martyrdom of Saint Denis and his companions. We all know that Catholicism is bit sclerotic in France at the moment and Saint Denis’ intercession would be helpful in rectifying the situation.