Saints – Page 78

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

O God, Who did make blessed Cyril, Thy Confessor and
Bishop, the invincible champion of the divine motherhood of he most Blessed
Virgin Mary; grant through his intercession, that we who believe her to be
truly the Mother of God, may be saved through her maternal intercession.

Saint Cyril’s (of the 5th cent.) importance for us even today deals with matter of Christology: Who is Jesus Christ and why is He important? As patriarch of Alexandria, Egypt, he was known as a competent theologian and orator. At the Council of Ephesus he defended the humanity and divinity as a unity of Jesus Christ against those who taught otherwise. What today’s opening prayer emphasizes more is Cyril’s defense of Mary being the mother of Word made flesh, contradicting the infamous heretic Nestorius.

Two essential facts of orthodox Christian faith taught by Saint Cyril: that Jesus was begotten by God the Father before all ages; and that Jesus was also begotten in the flesh of the Virgin Mary.

Saint Josemaría Escrivá

God our Father, you chose Saint Josemaría to proclaim the universal call sanctity and apostolate in the Church. By his example and prayers grant that in faithfully carrying out our daily work in the Spirit of Christ, we may be formed in the likeness of your Son, and together with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, serve the work of redemption with an ardent love.

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Elizabeth the wife of Zachary gave birth to a great man, John the Baptist,

the Precursor of the Lord.

O
God, Who has made this day honorable to us by the birth of blessed John, pour
forth upon Thy people the grace of spiritual joys, and direct the souls of all
Thy faithful into the way of eternal salvation.

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

The holy martyrs shed their blood upon the ground for the sake of Christ and have obtained an eternal recompense.

Lord God, You brought the faith of Your saints to perfection in martyrdom. Mercifully grant that by our communion with Saints John and Thomas we may bear witness in our lives to the faith we profess.

A prayer of St Thomas More to remember:

Give me the grace to long for Your holy sacraments, and
especially to rejoice in the presence of Your body, sweet Savior Christ, in the
holy sacrament of the altar. Amen.

Seized by Christ, Saint Padre Pio leads the way for renewal, Pope said

As part of the inaugural observances for the Year of the
Priest, Pope Benedict made a pilgrimage to and celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Graces at San Giovanni Rotondo, resting place of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. In the days following the feast of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and with devotion to Our Lady in mind, the Pope recalled that the fruit of Padre Pio’s close bond with the Sacred Heart of Christ and His mother, Mary, inspired him to found the House for the Relief of Suffering: “All his life and his apostolate took place under the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin and by the power of her intercession. Even the House for the Relief of Suffering he considered to be the work of Mary, ‘Health of the sick.'”

Born Francisco Forgione, at the age 23 the obscure Capuchin Franciscan friar was said to have received the gift of the sacred stigmata. On Saint Pio‘s hands and side the wounds were similar to the stigmata, or the wounds of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, according to Christian belief. The Pope proposed to us another model for priests by giving the example of this friar from Pietrelcina: “A simple man of humble origins, ‘seized by Christ‘ (Phil 3:12) … to make of him an elected instrument of the perennial power of his Cross: the power of love for souls, forgiveness and reconciliation, spiritual fatherhood, effective solidarity with the suffering. The stigmata, that marked his body, closely united him to the Crucified and Risen Christ.”

Relating today’s gospel with the life of Saint Pio, His
Holiness also said to the gathered faithful:

The solemn gesture of calming the stormy sea is clearly a
sign of the lordship of Christ over the negative powers and it induces us to think of His divinity: “Who is He – ask the disciples in wonder -that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41). Their faith is not yet steadfast, it is taking shape, is a mixture of fear and trust; rather Jesus trusting abandonment to the Father is full and pure. This is why He sleeps during the storm, completely safe in the arms of God – but there will come a time when Jesus will feel anxiety and fear: When His time comes, He shall feel upon himself the whole weight of the sins of humanity, as a massive swell that is about to fall upon Him. Oh yes, that shall be a terrible storm, not a cosmic one, but a spiritual one. It will be Evil’s last, extreme assault against the Son of God…. In that hour, Jesus was on the one hand entirely One with the Father, fully given over to him – on the other, as in solidarity with sinners, He was
separated and He felt abandoned.

Remaining united to Jesus, [Padre Pio] always had his sights on the depths of the human drama, and this was why he offered his many sufferings, why he was able to spend himself in the care for and relief of the
sick – a privileged sign of God’s mercy, of his kingdom which is coming, indeed, which is already in the world, a sign of the victory of love and life over sin and death. Guide souls and relieving suffering: thus we can sum up the mission of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: as the servant of God, Pope Paul VI said of him.”

At one point in his address the Benedict spoke to the
Franciscan friars and those connected with the spiritual groups linked to Saint Pio and anyone else, the Pope affirmed: “The risks of activism and secularization are always present, so my visit was also meant to confirm fidelity to the mission inherited from your beloved Father. Many of you, religious and laity, are so taken by the full duties required by the service to pilgrims, or the sick in the hospital, you run the risk of neglecting the real need: to listen to Christ to do the will of God. When you see that you are close to running this risk, look to Padre Pio: In his example, his sufferings, and invoke his intercession, because it obtains from the Lord the light and strength that you need to continue his mission soaked by love for God and fraternal charity.”

Following Mass, the Holy Father led the faithful in the Angelus prayer (the great prayer recalling the Incarnation) calling to mind Padre Pio’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Benedict remarked, “To the intercession of Our Lady and St Pio of Pietrelcina I would like to entrust the Special Year for Priests, which I opened last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it be a privileged opportunity to highlight the value of the mission and holiness of priests to serve the Church and humanity in the third millennium!”

Watch the video clip

Another video explaining more of Padre Pio’s life

Read the papal homily

Read the papal address to priests and youth

Saint Romuald

The Lord led the just in right paths. And showed him the kingdom of God.

We beseech Thee, O Lord, may the intercession of the blessed Abbot Romuald obtain for us Thy favor; grant us to receive through his patronage that which we are unable to acquire by our own merits.

The brief bio of the founder of the Camaldolese monks.

Saint Barnabas

O God, Who does gladden us by the merits and intercession of blessed Barnabas, Thy Apostle; mercifully grant that we who implore Thy blessings through him, may obtain them by the gift of Thy grace.

Saint Ephrem

O God, Who has willed to enlighten Thy Church by the wondrous learning and excellent merits of the life of blessed Ephrem, Thy Confessor and Doctor: we humbly beseech Thee that by his intercession Thou may defend it by Thine everlasting power against the snares of error and wickedness.

Saint Norbert of Xanten

With the Church we pray:

O God, Who did raise up blessed Norbert, Thy Confessor and Bishop, to be an illustrious preacher of Thy word, and through him did render Thy Church fruitful with a new offspring; grant we beseech Thee, that helped by his merits we may practice by Thy grace what he taught both by word and deed.

2009 is the 875th anniversary of the death of Saint Norbert of Xanten, the founder of the 12th century Order of Premontre (the Norbertines).

The Pope, on behalf of the Church, wishes “to give thanks to the Lord for the many gifts He has bestowed through the extraordinary evangelical witness and exemplary zeal of your Holy Founder, the Holy Father hopes that this happy occasion will inspire a renewed fidelity to the model of the first Christian community gathered around the Eucharist and persevering in prayer with Mary, the mother of Jesus. May each monastery of the Order experience an increase in faithful dedication to the Church, austerity of life, missionary zeal, and the spirit of hospitality so that each monastery will become even more a house of prayer and a school of faith.”

Saint Boniface

With the Church we pray:

O God, Who by the zeal of blessed Boniface, Thy Martyr and Bishop, did vouchsafe to call a multitude of people to the knowledge of Thy Name; mercifully grant that we who celebrate his festival may also enjoy his protection.

From a Letter by Saint Boniface

In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course. The ancient Father showed us how we should carry out this duty: Clement, Cornelius and many others in the city of Rome, Cyprian at Carthage, Athanasius at Alexandria. They all lived under emperors who were pagans; they all steered Christ’s ship -or rather his most dear spouse, the church. This they did by teaching and defending her, by their labors and sufferings, even to the shedding of blood.

I am terrified when I think of all this. “Fear and trembling came upon me and the darkness” of my sins “almost covered me.” I would gladly give up the task of guiding the church which I have accepted if I could find such an action warranted by the example of the Father or by Holy Scripture. Since this is the case, and since the truth can be assaulted but never defeated or falsified, with our tired mind let us turn to the words of Solomon: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own prudence. Think on him in all your ways, and he will guide your steps.” In another place he says: “The name of the Lord is an impregnable tower. The just man seeks refuge in it and he will be saved.”

Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial. Let us wait upon God’s strengthening aid and say to him: “O Lord, you have been our refuge in all generations.” Let us trust in him who has placed this burden upon us. What we ourselves cannot bear let us bear with the help of Christ. For he is all-powerful and he tells us: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Let us continue to fight on the day of the Lord. “The days of anguish and of tribulation” have overtaken us; if God so wills, “let us die for the holy laws of our fathers,” so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.

Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to the poor, to people of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as Saint Gregory writes in his Book of Pastoral Instruction.