Saints Cyril and Methodius

Ss Cyril & Methodius.jpgO Cyril Methodius, glorious teachers, with brilliance you taught
the Moravians to bless God in their own words, by translating the law of the
Lord from Greek into Slavonic. You taught His righteousness. Therefore, the
Slav peoples now give glory to God in joy.


Who can proclaim the wonders of the
Lord, which Cyril and Methodius did to his glory? They overcame the poison of the Saracens. They tore apart the heavy nets. Their language closed the mouths of the corrupt
Khazars with the faith of the Lord. They made sweet the bitter waters and
delighted the good people that had sat in darkness.

Stichera at the Praises,
Tone 8

Saint Maron

In honor of the 1600th anniverssary of the death of Saint Maron, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI blessed and unveiled a new statue of the saint at the Vatican basilica of Saint Peter’s.
For the past year, Maronites and others around the world have been observing a jubliee year called by His Beatitude, Patriarch Nasralla Peter Sfeir. In a letter to the Maronite Church around the world he said, in part, 
Our Church was not built after a name of a See or Apostle, but rather took its identity from the radiance of a man and a monastery: the Maronite Church, a Church of asceticism and adoration attached from the beginning to a solitary man, not a man of rank or a Church leader.
The faith lived out by the hermit Maron became the inner strength of a people’s history. As for the successive migrations from Syria (in the 5-10th centuries), the Maronites gave them one meaning, that is, giving up land, wealth and comfort in Syria moving toward a poor land where anxiety and austerity prevail, so they could preserve their faith and remain attached to their freedom … This event is not a simple historical fact among others …  it is the very beginning of a new history, the history of the Maronites.
The Jubilee Prayer

Lord, Jesus, You called Your chosen one, Saint Maron, to the monastic life, perfected him in divine virtues, and guided him along the difficult road to the heavenly kingdom.

During this jubilee year, commemorating 1600 years since the death of Your chosen one, Saint Maron, when he was called to the house of Your heavenly Father, we ask You, through his intercession, to immerse us in Your love that we may walk in Your path, heed Your commandments, and follow in his footsteps.
May his holy example resonate throughout our lives. With Your love, may we achieve that final distination reached by our father, Saint Maron, and carry Your Gospel throughout the world.
Through his intercession, may we attain the glory of the resurrection and everlasting life in You.
Glory and thanks are due to You, to Your blessed Father, and to Your living Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita

St Josephine Bakhita.jpg

Jesus left his throne in heaven,
Humbly coming as a slave,
Here his love and his obedience
Were the ransom that still saves:
Strong the song the Church now raises
For this humble virgin’s day,
Praising God that, through all struggles,
She was led to Christ, the Way.
As a child torn from her fam’ly,
Made a slave, great suff’ring bore,
And by those who took her childhood,
Named “Bakhita” everymore.
Brought to Italy and rescued
By Cannosian sisters there,
She found Christ and then was baptized,
Lived in service and in prayer.
As the virgins in the Gospel,
Josephine was filled with light,
Daily serving at her convent,
Greetings all with heaven’s sight;
Loving all with Jesus’ mercy,
Treating each as she would him–
Persevered through pain and sorrow,
Making life her off’ring-hymn.
Glory to the loving Father
Who has made us for his own;
Glory to the Son, who saves
And who lifts us to his throne;
Glory to the Holy Spirit,
Never-ending font of love!
With our saint, the “one most blessèd,”
We raise songs to God above!
J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2010, WLP
8787D; BEACH SPRING

A previous post on Saint Josephine

Saint Blase and the Blessing of Throats

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Lord, hear the prayers of Your martyr Blase. Give us the joy of Your peace in this life and help us to gain the happiness that will never end.

The Church has few exact details of the life of Saint Blase (also Blaise, Biago, Sveti Vlaho) but we have the experience of his popularity through the centuries in the churches of the East and West. What we know is that Blase was a physician, the Bishop of Sebaste, Armenia and martyr. The Roman Martyrology tells us that he was beheaded in 316.

More info on Saint Blase is found here and here.

The Blessing of Candles on the feast of St Blase can be found here.

The Blessing of Bread, Wine, Water and Fruit for the feast.

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From the Golden Legend again: 

And when this good widow, which by S. Blase had recovered her swine, heard thereof, she slew it, and the head and the feet with a little bread and a candle, she brought to S. Blase, and he thanked God and ate thereof, and he said to her that every year she should offer in his church a candle, and know thou that to thee and to all them that so shall do shall well happen to them, and so she did all her life, and she had much great prosperity.

Even after imprisonment, he refused to worship the prince’s gods, and for punishment his flesh torn by wool combs. He was finally beheaded, martyred along with seven women and two children.

Today, due to the cure of the boy’s throat when the boy was choking, Saint Blase is patron against diseases or any other trouble of the throat.

The priest will bless two candles in honor of Saint Blase.

Saint Brigid of Ireland


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O holy Brigid, you became sublime through your humility, and flew on the wings of your longing for God. When you arrived in the eternal City and appeared before your Divine Spouse, wearing the crown of virginity, you kept your promise to remember those who have recourse to you. You shower grace upon the world, and multiply miracles. Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls. (Troparian, tone 1)


Lord, you
inspired in Saint Brigid such whole-hearted dedication to your work that she is
known as Mary of the Gael; through her intercession bless our country; may we
follow the example of her life and be united with her and the Virgin Mary in
your presence.


More on Saint Brigid here.

Formerly ex-communicated saints

Much is made of canonization of Saint Mary MacKillop with her sordid past of being an ex-communicated Catholic.
Whether by ex-communicated we mean official ecclesiastical punishment or a punishment imposed by a religious superior. One’s being cut off from the Christian community sacramentally is strikingly painful but sometimes a needed medicine for the cure of some spiritual sickness typically demonstrated in an act of disobedience to the Church’s authority based on intellectual separation from some dogma or doctrine of the Church. You’ll see this with matters pertaining to abortion and certain healthcare matters. One simple example is that the medicine of excommunication is automatically imposed by the act itself for threatening the life of the pope. For more information see Book VI of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, canons 1364-99 outline
Some good examples of saints who were once excommunicated and then restored to communication in the Church are:
Saint Cyprian
Saint Hippolytus of Rome
Saint Joan of Arc
Saint Gerard Majella – by St Alphonsus Liguori
Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop – by the bishop in Australia
Saint Theodore Guerin by her bishop

Saint Joan of Arc


St Joan of Arc c1450_1500.jpg

Saint Joan of Arc is a confusing figure for some these days. I think she’s abused by the feminists who dash-off with her story for their own agenda which runs contrary to the authentic Christian woman, Joan. If you miss the fact of Joan’s rootedness in Christ and the Church, then you miss the point of her life and work. The synthesis of the Pope’s teaching is given here. The full texts follows below.


Our catechesis
today deals with Saint Joan of Arc, one of the outstanding women of the later
Middle Ages. Raised in a religious family, Joan enjoyed mystical experiences
from an early age. At a time of crisis in the Church and of war in her native
France, she felt God’s call to a life of prayer and virginity, and to personal
engagement in the liberation of her compatriots.
At the age of seventeen, Joan
began her mission among the French military forces; she sought to negotiate a
just Christian peace between the English and French, took an active part in the
siege of Orleans and witnessed the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims.
Captured by her enemies the next year, she was tried by an ecclesiastical court
and burnt at the stake as a heretic; she died invoking the name of Jesus. Her
unjust condemnation was overturned twenty-five years later. At the heart of
Saint Joan’s spirituality was an unfailing love for Christ and, in Christ, for
the Church and for her neighbour. May the prayers and example of Saint Joan of
Arc inspire many lay men and women to devote themselves to public life in the
service of God’s Kingdom, and encourage all of us to live to the fullest our
lofty calling in Christ.

Saint Francis de Sales

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The Church’s liturgical memorial for Saint Francis de Sales is a testimony to what can be done with a man of intelligence, humility, zeal for souls and love by God for the salvation of souls. De Sales is known as the modern Thomas à Kempis because of his book, Introduction to the Devout Life. He’s also credited in assisting Saint Jane Frances de Chantal in founding the Order of the Visitation in 1610. Francis showed fatherly concern for the poor and refused ecclesiastical honors, e.g., the cardinal’s hat, in favor of living as simple a life as possible as a bishop. The Church declared Saint Francis de Sales a Doctor of the Church.

The Church prays at the Liturgy:

O God, who for the salvation of souls willed that the bishop Saint Francis de Sales become all thing to all, grant that, following his example, we may always display the gentleness of Your charity in the service of our neighbor.

From Pius Parsch’s The Church’s Year of Grace

How Francis developed a gentle and amiable disposition is a story in itself; he was not born a saint. By nature his temperament was choleric, fiery; little was needed to throw him into a state of violent anger. It took years before he mastered his impatience, his unruly temper.

Even after he became bishop, there were slips, as for instance, when someone rang a bell before he had finished preaching. The important point, of course, is that by constant perseverance he did in time attain perfect self-mastery. Wherein lies a lesson.

+++

Today, please remember my Mother, Lynda, at the Altar. She’s having her left knee replaced. May Saint Francis de Sales, pray for her and the medical professionals.

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Saint Agnes

Let us keep the feast of blessed Agnes, and recall the kind of suffering she endured: in the full flower of her youth she died, and found life. She chose to love the Author of life alone; in the full flower of her youth she died, and found life. (the responsory)

The Church gives us a young woman martyr of the early 4th century. She is thought to be about 12 or 13 (records are sketchy) Agnes was martyred under the Emperor Diocletian.

Pope Benedict XVI blesses lambs to mark the feast of Saint Agnes at the VaticanMore often than not our remembrance of Agnes focuses less on her virginity and martyrdom —the supreme gesture of witness to the Lord– and more on the fact that wool is given to the Pope. Sad but true. Agnes’ witness to a life of virginity, possessing without possession, of a complete love for God. On this feast a tradition reaching back centuries lambs are raised by the Trappist monks of Tre Fountane in Rome bring to the Pope the wool that will be made into the pallia by the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of Saint Cecelia (in Trastevere). The pallium is a white band of wool with six embroidered black crosses (the Pope’s pallium is slightly different with red crosses and wider). The pallium is worn by the metropolitan archbishop for significant ecclesial events, i.e., Masses of Ordination, consecration of churches, altars, bishops, and on certain feast days. Unfortunately, the pallium is worn too often and without proper distinction of festivity and ecclesial communion with the Pope. The Servant of God Pope Paul VI issued a 1978 document, Inter Eximia, limiting the use of the pallium to the pope and metropolitan archbishops. In 1984, John Paul determined the date of the conferral of the pallia.

Before given to the new metropolitan archbishops on June 29th, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the pallia rest for short time on the tomb of Saint Peter (the Confessio). You will recall that Saint Agnes is one of the seven women commemorated in the Roman Canon (the BVM would be the 8th).

When the Pope was invested with the pallium on April 25, 2005 by the cardinal proto-deacon Jorge Cardina Medina Estévez, it was prayed: Praise the Lord, who chose you as herdsman of the whole church and embraces you with the white stole of your office. May you act under its briliance for many years of your earthly life and enter his celestial realm vested in the stole of immortality once He calls you.

A poetic work worth noting for the feast is John Keats’ poem “The Eve of St. Agnes.” Written in 1819, this is an extensive poem with great literary accomplishment but of questionable understanding of Agnes’ witness. Keats was no doubt captivated by the life and martyrdom of Agnes, who wouldn’t be? Her brief life and dramatic death is very intriguing and it captivates  the intellect.

The striking figure that the young Agnes was encouraged Roman Christians to build a the Church of Saint Agnes outside the Walls (i.e., outside the City) over the tomb of Agnes. It is the titular church of Camillo Ruini, the former Vicar of Rome.

Saint Agnes is the patron saint for chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims and virgins.

Nevertheless, one can’t move away from the feast day without reading Saint Ambrose’s treatise On Virgins given in the Office of Readings:

Detail of St Agnes, Fra AngelicoToday is the birthday of a virgin; let us imitate her purity. It is the birthday of a martyr; let us offer ourselves in sacrifice. It is the birthday of Saint Agnes, who is said to have suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve. The cruelty that did not spare her youth shows all the more clearly the power of faith in finding one so young to bear it witness.

There was little or no room in that small body for a wound. Though she could scarcely receive the blow, she could rise superior to it. Girls of her age cannot bear even their parents’ frowns and, pricked by a needle, weep as for a serious wound. Yet she shows no fear of the blood-stained hands of her executioners. She stands undaunted by heavy, clanking chains. She offers her whole body to be put to the sword by fierce soldiers. She is too young to know of death, yet is ready to face it. Dragged against her will to the altars, she stretches out her hands to the Lord in the midst of the flames, making the triumphant sign of Christ the victor on the altars of sacrilege. She puts her neck and hands in iron chains, but no chain can hold fast her tiny limbs.

A new kind of martyrdom! Too young to be punished, yet old enough for a martyr’s crown; unfitted for the contest, yet effortless in victory, she shows herself a master in valour despite the handicap of youth. As a bride she would not be hastening to join her husband with the same joy she shows as a virgin on her way to punishment, crowned not with flowers but with holiness of life, adorned not with braided hair but with Christ himself.

In the midst of tears, she sheds no tears herself. The crowds marvel at her recklessness in throwing away her life untasted, as if she had already lived life to the full. All are amazed that one not yet of legal age can give her testimony to God. So she succeeds in convincing others of her testimony about God, though her testimony in human affairs could not yet be accepted. What is beyond the power of nature, they argue, must come from its creator.

What menaces there were from the executioner, to frighten her; what promises made, to win her over; what influential people desired her in marriage! She answered: “To hope that any other will please me does wrong to my Spouse. I will be his who first chose me for himself. Executioner, why do you delay? If eyes that I do not want can desire this body, then let it perish.” She stood still, she prayed, she offered her neck.

You could see fear in the eyes of the executioner, as if he were the one condemned; his right hand trembled, his face grew pale as he saw the girl’s peril, while she had no fear for herself. One victim, but a twin martyrdom, to modesty and to religion; Agnes preserved her virginity, and gained a martyr’s crown.

Almighty, ever-living God, you choose what is weak in the world to shame what is strong. Grant that, as we celebrate the martyrdom of Saint Agnes, we may follow her example of steadfastness in faith.

Saint Henry


St Henrik.jpg




Almighty God, your
servant Henry of Uppsala brought the light of the gospel to the people of
Finland and confirmed his preaching by martyrdom: Shine, we pray, in our
hearts, that we, also, in our generation may show forth your praise, who called
us out of darkness into your marvelous light.