saint – Page 17

Prophet Malachi, saint

Commemoratio
sancti Malachiae, prophetae, qui, post transmigrationem Babylone diem magnum
Domini eiusque adventum in templum nuntiavit semperque et ubique mundam
oblationem nomini eius offerendam. (Roman Martyrology)

The commemoration of
Saint Malachi, the prophet, who, after the Babylonian Exile, announced the
great Day of the Lord, his coming into the Temple, and that an immaculate
offering be made to His Name, always and everywhere.

Saint Hilary Poitiers

Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we may rightly
understand and truthfully profess the divinity of your Son, which the Bishop
Saint Hilary taught with such constancy.

Saint Theodosius the Great

Planted in the courts of your Lord, you blossomed
beautifully with virtue, and increased your children in the desert, showering them
with streams of your tears, O chief shepherd of the divine flock of God. Therefore,
we cry to you: “Rejoice, Father Theodosius.” Kondakion – Tone 8

From the hagiography:

Saint
Theodosius the Great lived during the fifth-sixth centuries, and was the
founder of cenobitic monasticism. At the monastery St Theodosius built a home
for taking in strangers, separate infirmaries for monks and laymen, and also a
shelter for the dying. Seeing that people from various lands gathered at the
Lavra, the saint arranged for services in the various languages: Greek,
Georgian and Armenian. All gathered to receive the Holy Mysteries in the large
church, where divine services were chanted in Greek.

St Theodosius accomplished
many healings and other miracles during his life, coming to the aid of the
needy. Through his prayers he once destroyed the locusts devastating the fields
in Palestine. Also by his intercession, soldiers were saved from death, and he
also saved those perishing in shipwrecks and those lost in the desert. Once,
the saint gave orders to strike the semandron (a piece of wood hit with a
mallet), so that the brethren would gather at prayer. He told them, “The
wrath of God draws near the East.” After several days it became known that
a strong earthquake had destroyed the city of Antioch at the very hour when the
saint had summoned the brethren to prayer.

Before his death, St Theodosius
summoned to him three beloved bishops and revealed to them that he would soon
depart to the Lord. After three days, he died at the age of 105. The saint’s
body was buried with reverence in the cave in which he lived at the beginning
of his ascetic deeds.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Watchful with the eyes of thy soul

and a vigilant
shepherd for the world,

with wisdom and thy fervent intercession thou didst drive
off heretics like wolves,/keeping thy flock unharmed.

Kondakion – Tone 1

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

But we lack
courage to keep a continual watch over nature, and therefore, year after year,
with our thousand graces, multiplied resolutions, and fair promises, we run
around in a circle of misery and imperfections. After a long time in the
service of God, we come nearly to the point from whence we set out, and perhaps
with even less ardor for penance and mortification than when we began our
consecration to him.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Divine Office, Office of
Readings

There are very few American women who have had an impact on civil and religious society because today’s saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, with the work of education and hospitals and other institutions of culture that her order, the Sisters of Charity, did for all of us.

Ask Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton to intercede for us right now to help us to make Jesus known through acts of charity and mercy.

Saint Thomas Becket

O God our redeemer, the Church was [is] strengthened by the blood of Thy martyr Saint Thomas Becket: so bind us, in life and in death, to the sacrifice of Christ, that our lives being broken and offered with his, we may carry his death and proclaim his resurrection in the world.

King Saint David, prophet

Today is the feast of King David, the revered Old Testament king and prophet. The Orthodox Church remembers King David on December 26th. The Latin Church, however, does not typically commemorate David as a saint on the universal calendar but he is listed in the Roman Martyrology (2005). It is the Eastern Church that recalls and commemorates more seriously King David in the Liturgy than the Latin Liturgy does. In any event, the Roman Martyrology says:

Commemoratio sancti David, regis et prophetae, qu, filius Iesse Bethlehemitae, gratiam invenit ante Deum et oleo sancto a Samuele propheta unctus est, ut populum Israel regeret; in civitatem Ierusalem Arcam foederis Domini transtulit ac Dominus ipse mox ei iuravit semen eius in aeternum mansurum esse, eo quod ex ipso Iesus Christus secundum carnem nasciturus esset.

The translation:

The commemoration of Holy David, king and prophet, who, the son of Jesse of Bethlehem, found favor before God was anointed with holy oil by the prophet Samuel, so that he might rule the people of Israel; he brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant into the city of Jerusalem and the Lord vowed to him that his seed would endure forever; thus from it Jesus should be born according to the flesh.

We should recall what the Catechism says, “the shepherd who prays for his people and prays in their name” (2579), pointing to the figure of David at an OT figure of Jesus.

More on King Saint David can be found here.

Saint John, Apostle & Evangelist

This is John who reclined on the Lord’s breast at the Supper. O blessed Apostle, to whom were revealed heavenly secrets! (Magnificat antiphon)

The Roman Martyrology speaks of John in this way: “Sixty-eight years after the passion and death of His Lord, he died at a ripe old age. He was buried near Ephesus.” He was the lone of the 12 Apostles to die of natural causes, though he did suffer for Christ.

Perhaps no other of the Twelve than John has anyone been so close, so well-attuned to the Lord’s life, love and mission. To John was given the responsibility to mind Mary, the Mother of Jesus and thus to guide the Church in her in abiding in the Lord. It is not lost on us that the symbol of Saint John the Evangelist is the eagle who scales the heights and keenly aware of all things. In John’s case, he so sharply looks into reality and sees with profound depth the meaning of things.

About Saint John’s self-giving sacrifice we read:

Continue reading Saint John, Apostle & Evangelist

Holy Youths Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael

The Byzantine Church honors many Old Testament prophets and holy people that the Church in the West recognizes but does not commemorate in the sacred Liturgy, though the Roman Martyrology noted the holy youths yesterday. I actually think we ought to honor the OT figures as saints in our Liturgy, but greater minds will have to make that decision. Being faithful to the Divine Office you’ll recall that we pray the Canticle of the Three Youths (Daniel 3:57-88; 56) at Lauds at Sunday I. The pertinent section of the canticle follows:

O Israel, bless the Lord. Priests of the Lord, bless the
Lord; Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord. Spirits and souls of the just,
bless the Lord; Holy men of humble heart, bless the Lord. Hananiah, Azariah,
Mishael (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego), bless the Lord; Praise and exalt him above all forever. Let us bless
the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; Let us praise and exalt God above
all forever. Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven; Praiseworthy and
glorious forever.

Saint Lucy, martyr

In your patience, O Lucy, you
possessed your soul; you have hated the things of this world, O bride of
Christ, and so received glory among the angels; you vanquished the adversary, O
martyr, with your own blood.

(Magnificat Antiphon, First Vespers of St. Lucy)

Today is a good day to remember in prayer before Saint Lucy the people of Sicily, those who live with blindness, diseases of the eye, salesmen and for my friend and seminarian Ken Dagliere on his birthday.