For whom the Lord loves he reproves,
he chastises the one he favours………….Proverbs 3:12
REFLECTION – “When you are scorned by others and lashed by God, do not despair.
God lashes us in this life to shield us from the eternal lash in the next.”………..St Peter Damian
PRAYER – Infinitely just God, help me to accept Your corrections and turn them to my benefit. Let me never despair about my weaknesses but entrust myself to Your goodness and mercy. Help me Lord! St Peter Damian, pray for us, amen.
(Excerpt 2 from the Universal Prayer attributed to Pope Clement XI)
I pray to You, Lord, enlighten my understanding, strengthen my will, make clean my heart, make holy my inward being. Give me sorrow for my past sins and let me not fall into temptation. Help me to rise above my natural weaknesses, let me grow stronger in all that is good and true. Grant me, O good and loving God, to love You as You deserve, to turn away from all that is self-centred. Let me seek Your Kingdom above all, let me live as a pilgrim in this world, give me right respect for all who have claim on me. Give me a tender care for any who depend on me. Let me cherish my friends and let me forgive my enemies from my heart. Grant me all this, my heavenly Father for I give You all of myself through Christ our Lord, amen.
Saint of the Day – 21 February – St Peter Damian (c 1007-1072) Bishop, Confessor, Benedictine Monk, Cardinal, Theologian, Reformer, Writer, Teacher, Preacher, Poet and Doctor of the Church. Also known as – Petrus Damianus; Italian: Pietro or Pier Damiani was a reforming Benedictine Monk and Cardinal in the circle of Pope Leo IX. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Saint Francis of Assisi. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1828 by Patronages – Spiritual warfare, Church Reformers and of Faenza, Italy.
Peter was born in Ravenna, Italy, around 1007, the youngest of a large noble but poor family. Orphaned early, he was at first adopted by an elder brother, who ill-treated and underfed him while employing him as a swineherd. After some years, another brother, Damianus, who was Archpriest at Ravenna, had pity on him and took him away to be educated. Adding his brother’s name to his own, Peter made such rapid progress in his studies of Theology and Canon Law, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza and finally at the University of Parma, that when about twenty-five years old he was already a famous teacher at Parma and Ravenna. As well as a good grounding in the field of law, he acquired a refined expertise in the art of writing the ars scribendi and, thanks to his knowledge of the great Latin classics, became “one of the most accomplished Latinists of his time, one of the greatest writers of medieval Latin” (J. Leclercq, Pierre Damien, ermite et homme d’Église, Rome, 1960, p. 172).
About 1035, however, he gave up his secular calling and, avoiding the compromised luxury of Cluniac Monasteries, entered the isolated hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio. Both as a Novice and as a Monk, his fervour was remarkable but led him to such extremes of self-mortification in penance that his health was affected and he developed severe insomnia. On his recovery, he was appointed to lecture to his fellow Monks. Then, at the request of St Guy of Pomposa (Guido d’Arezzo) and other heads of neighbouring Monasteries, for two or three years he lectured to their brethren too and (about 1042) wrote the Vita of St. Romuald for the monks of Pietrapertosa. Soon after his return to Fonte Avellan, he was appointed Economus (manager or administrator) of the house by the Prior, who designated him as his successor. In 1043 he became Prior of Fonte Avellana and remained so until his death in February 1072.
Subject-hermitages were founded at San Severino, Gamogna, Acerreta, Murciana, San Salvatore, Sitria and Ocri. A zealot for monastic and clerical reform, he introduced a more-severe discipline, including the practice of flagellation (“the disciplina”), into the house, which, under his rule, quickly attained celebrity and became a model for other foundations, even the great abbey of Monte Cassino. There was much opposition outside his own circle to such extreme forms of penitence, but Peter’s persistent advocacy ensured its acceptance, to such an extent that he was obliged later to moderate the imprudent zeal of some of his own hermits. Another innovation was that of the daily siesta, to make up for the fatigue of the night office. During his tenure of the priorate a cloister was built, silver chalices and a silver processional cross were purchased, and many books were added to the library.
Reformer Although living in the seclusion of the cloister, Peter Damian closely watched the fortunes of the Church and like his friend Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII, he strove for reforms in a deplorable time. When Benedict IX resigned the pontificate into the hands of the archpriest John Gratian (Gregory VI) in 1045, Peter hailed the change with joy and wrote to the new pope, urging him to deal with the scandals of the church in Italy, singling out the wicked bishops of Pesaro, of Città di Castello and of Fano. Extending the area of his activities, he entered into communication with the Emperor Henry III. He was present in Rome when Clement II crowned Henry III and his consort Agnes and he also attended a synod held at the Lateran in the first days of 1047, in which decrees were passed against simony. After this he returned to his hermitage.
Pope Benedict XVI described him as “one of the most significant figures of the 11th century … a lover of solitude and at the same time a fearless man of the Church, committed personally to the task of reform.”
Philosophy Peter often condemned philosophy. He claimed that the first grammarian was the Devil, who taught Adam to decline deus in the plural. He argued that monks should not have to study philosophy, because Jesus did not choose philosophers as disciples and so philosophy is not necessary for salvation. But the idea (later attributed to Thomas Aquinas) that philosophy should serve theology as a servant serves her mistress originated with him.
Papal envoy and Cardinal During his illness the pope died, and Frédéric, abbot of Monte Cassino, was elected pope as Stephen IX. In the autumn of 1057, Stephen IX determined to make Damian a cardinal. For a long time Damian resisted the offer, for he was more at ease as an itinerant hermit-preacher than a reformer from within the Curia but was finally forced to accept and was consecrated Cardinal Bishop of Ostia on 30 November 1057. In addition he was appointed administrator of the Diocese of Gubbio. The new cardinal was impressed with the great responsibilities of his office and wrote a stirring letter to his brother-cardinals, exhorting them to shine by their example before all. Four months later Pope Stephen died at Florence and the Church was once more distracted by schism. Peter was vigorous in his opposition to the antipope Benedict X but force was on the side of the intruder and Damian retired temporarily to Fonte Avallana.
Milan About the end of the year 1059 Peter was sent as legate to Milan by Pope Nicholas II. So bad was the state of things at Milan, that benefices (a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services) were openly bought and sold and the clergy publicly married the women with whom they lived. The resistance of the clergy of Milan to the reform of Ariald the Deacon and Anselm, Bishop of Lucca rendered a contest so bitter that an appeal was made to the Holy See. Nicholas II sent Damian and the Bishop of Lucca as his legates. The party of the irregular clerics took alarm and raised the cry that Rome had no authority over Milan. Peter boldly confronted the rioters in the cathedral, he proved to them the authority of the Holy See with such effect that all parties submitted to his decision. He exacted first a solemn oath from the archbishop and all his clergy that for the future no preferment should be paid for; then, imposing a penance on all who had been guilty, he reinstated in their benefices all who undertook to live in celibacy. This prudent decision was attacked by some of the rigorists at Rome but was not reversed. Meanwhile, Peter was pleading in vain to be released from the cares of his office. Neither Nicholas II nor Hildebrand would consent to spare him.
Later career He rendered valuable assistance to Pope Alexander II in his struggle with the antipope, Honorius II. In July 1061 the pope died and once more a schism ensued. Peter Damian used all his powers to persuade the antipope Cadalous to withdraw but to no purpose. Finally Anno II, Archbishop of Cologne and acting regent in Germany, summoned a council at Augsburg at which a long argument by Peter Damian was read and greatly contributed to the decision in favour of Alexander II.
In 1063 the pope held a synod at Rome, at which Peter Damian was appointed legate to settle the dispute between the Abbey of Cluny and the Bishop of Mâcon. He proceeded to France, summoned a council at Chalon-sur-Saône, proved the justice of the contentions of Cluny, settled other questions at issue in the Church of France and returned in the autumn to Fonte Avellana. Having served the papacy as legate to France and to Florence, he was allowed to resign his bishopric in 1067. Early in 1072 or 1073 he was sent to Ravenna to reconcile its inhabitants to the Holy See, they having been excommunicated for supporting their archbishop in his adhesion to the schism of Cadalous. On his return thence he was seized with fever near Faenza. He lay ill for a week at the monastery of Santa Maria degl’Angeli, now Santa Maria Vecchia. On the night preceding the feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, he ordered the office of the feast to be recited and at the end of the Lauds he died. He was at once buried in the monastery church, lest others should claim his relics.
St Peter Damian (Optional Memorial)
—
St Avitus II of Clermont
Bl Caterina Dominici
Bl Claudio di Portaceli
St Daniel of Persia
Bl Eleanora
St Ercongotha
St Eustathius of Antioch
St Felix of Metz
St George of Amastris
St Germanus of Granfield
St Gundebert of Sens
Bl Noel Pinot
St Paterius of Brescia
St Pepin of Landen
St Peter Mavimenus
St Randoald of Granfield
St Robert Southwell
St Severian of Scythopolis
St Severus of Syrmium
Bl Thomas Pormort
St Valerius of San Pedro de Montes
St Verda of Persia
—
Martyrs of Sicily – 79 saints – Seventy-nine Christians martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. c.303 on Sicily
Martyrs of Hadrumetum – A group of 26 Christians martyred together by Vandals. We know little more than eight of their names – Alexander, Felix, Fortunatus, Saturninus, Secundinus, Servulus, Siricius and Verulus. c.434 at Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia)
Alexander
Felix
Fortunatus
Saturninus
Secundinus
Servulus
Siricius
Verulus
Martyrs Uchibori – Three Japanese laymen, all brothers, all sons of Paulus Uchibori Sakuemon, one a teenager, one only five years old, and all martyred for their faith in the persecutions in Japan. 21 February 1627 in Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan. Beatified 24 November 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Antonius
Balthasar
Ignatius
“Each of us must come to the evening of life. Each of us must enter on eternity. Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we will appear before the Lord of the vineyard and answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That, my dear brethren, you will have to undergo. … It will be the dread moment of expectation when your fate for eternity is in the balance and when you are about to be sent forth as the companion of either saints or devils, without possibility of change. There can be no change; there can be no reversal. As that judgment decides it, so it will be for ever and ever. Such is the particular judgment. … when we find ourselves by ourselves, one by one, in His presence and have brought before us most vividly all the thoughts, words and deeds of this past life. Who will be able to bear the sight of himself? And yet we shall be obliged steadily to confront ourselves and to see ourselves. In this life we shrink from knowing our real selves. We do not like to know how sinful we are. We love those who prophecy smooth things to us and we are angry with those who tell us of our faults. But on that day, not one fault only but all the secret, as well as evident, defects of our character will be clearly brought out. We shall see what we feared to see here and much more. And then, when the full sight of ourselves comes to us, who will not wish that he had known more of himself here, rather than leaving it for the inevitable day to reveal it all to him! …………………….We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”– (Blessed Card. John Henry Newman)
Lenten Preparation Novena
DAY ONE
Lord, during this Lenten Season,
nourish me with Your Word of life
and make me one
with You in love and prayer.
Fill my heart with Your love
and keep me faithful to the Gospel of Christ.
Give me the grace to rise above my human weakness.
Give me new life by Your Sacraments, especially the Mass.
Father, our source of life,
I reach out with joy to grasp Your hand;
let me walk more readily in Your ways.
Guide me in Your gentle mercy,
for left to myself I cannot do Your Will.
Father of love, source of all blessings,
help me to pass from my old life of sin
to the new life of grace.
Help me to repent of my sins now and make reparation throughout
this Lenten season and each day thereafter.
United with your Son,
who makes His way to Calvary,
I offer You my intentions
(Mention your special intention)
Prepare me for the glory of Your Kingdom.
I ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever.
HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
Chapter 3
THE FIRST MEANS: REMOVING THE CAUSE
The First Means of avoiding Purgatory is manifestly to remove the cause
which sends us there, which is sin.
It may not be easy to refrain from all sin, even the smaller sins but
every ordinary Christian can, by the frequent use of the Sacraments, easily
abstain from mortal sin.
Secondly, we can all avoid deliberate and grave venial sin. It is an awful
thing to offend the good God deliberately. Deliberation intensifies
enormously the malice of sin and offends God much more than faults of
weakness, or sins committed when we are off our guard.
Lastly, we must use our best endeavours to break off bad habits. Habits,
like deliberation, add seriously to the malice of sin
A deliberate falsehood is very much worse than a hasty lie of excuse and a
lie resulting from the inveterate habit of lying is very much worse than a
casual lie.
A lady once told us how she had, when younger, the habit of constantly
speaking ill of her neighbours.
Having heard a sermon on the subject, she made a strong resolution never to
do so again and kept it.
That simple, strong resolution changed the whole trend of her life and
saved her from thousands of sins, and most surely from a long and painful
Purgatory.
Who cannot make a like resolution and keep it?
If a Christian avoids, as he easily can, these three classes of sin, viz.,
mortal sins, deliberate and grave venial sins and habits of sin, it will
be relatively easy for him to atone for faults of frailty, as we shall
presently see.
RESOLUTION
We would be well advised to pronounce with special emphasis and fervour,
every time we say the Our Father, the words:
“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”
These are the very words of God Himself and repeated frequently and
fervently will certainly obtain for us pardon of our sins.
You might think that if the Blessed Mother of God appears to you and speaks to you, you are a saint. But that is not necessarily true. What is true is that Mary chose to come to children who the year before had been visited by the Angel of Peace, children who had listened to the angel’s message and prayed the prayer the angel taught them. They responded to Mary in the same way and prayed the Rosary and offered sacrifices for sinners and for the conversion of the world. They were children who wanted to please God and that is why the Church has declared them Blessed.
Francisco and Jacinta died within a short time, as the Lady had said they would. They were beatified on May 13, 2000. At that time Lucia los Santos was a Carmelite nun in Portugal. Sister Lucia died February 13, 2005 at age 97. The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is visited by up to 20 million people a year and is the source of many conversions and miracles.
“We were burning in that light
which is God and we were not consumed.
What is God like?
It is impossible to say.
In fact we will never be able to tell people”
~~~~~ Blessed Francisco Marto of Fatima
“Speak ill of no one and avoid the company
of those who talk (bad) about their neighbours.”
~~~~~ Blessed Jacinta Marto of Fatima
“Father, … to you I offer praise; for what you have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children” ………….Mt 11: 25
REFLECTION – “Francisco bore without complaining the great sufferings caused by the illness from which he died. It all seemed to him so little to console Jesus: he died with a smile on his lips. Little Francisco had a great desire to atone for the offences of sinners by striving to be good and by offering his sacrifices and prayers.
The life of Jacinta, his younger sister by almost two years, was motivated by these same sentiments……………….In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fátima to ask men and women “to stop offending God, Our Lord, who is already very offended”. It is a mother’s sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason she asks the little shepherds: “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners; many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them”. …St Pope John Paul on the Beatification of the siblings, 13 May 2000
PRAYER – “Father, to You I offer praise, for what You have hidden from the learned and the clever you have revealed to the merest children”.
Father, to you I offer praise for all Your children, from the Virgin Mary, Your humble Servant, to the little shepherds, Francisco and Jacinta.
May the message of their lives live on for ever to light humanity’s way! Blessed Francisco and Jacinta, pray for us! Amen. (Prayer by St Pope John Paul)
O Most Holy Trinity,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
I adore Thee profoundly.
I offer Thee
the most precious Body, Blood, Soul
and Divinity of Jesus Christ
present in all the tabernacles of the world,
in reparation for the outrages,
sacrileges and indifferences
by which He is offended.
By the infinite merits of
the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and the Immaculate Heart of Mary
I beg the conversion of poor sinners.
Amen
Saint/s of the Day – 20 February – Blessed Francisco (11 June 1908 – 4 April 1919 died aged 10), his sister Jacinta Marto (11 March 1910 – 20 February 1920 died aged 9) and their cousin Lúcia Santos (1907–2005) were children from Aljustrel near Fátima, Portugal, who said they witnessed three apparitions of an angel in 1916 and several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Mary was given the title Our Lady of Fátima as a result and Fátima became a major centre of world Christian pilgrimage. Patrons of Bodily ills, captives, people ridiculed for their piety, prisoners, sick people, against sickness.
The youngest children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto, Francisco and Jacinta were typical of Portuguese village children of that time. They were illiterate but had a rich oral tradition. According to Lúcia’s memoirs, Francisco had a placid disposition, was somewhat musically inclined, and liked to be by himself to think. Jacinta was affectionate if a bit spoiled. She had a sweet singing voice and a gift for dancing. Following their experiences, their fundamental personalities remained the same. Francisco preferred to pray alone, saying that this would “console Jesus for the sins of the world”. Jacinta said she was deeply affected by a terrifying vision of Hell shown to the children at the third apparition and deeply convinced of the need to save sinners through penance and sacrifice as the Virgin had told the children to do. All three children but particularly Francisco and Jacinta, practised stringent self-mortifications to this end.
Baptisimal robe of Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto
Apparitions
The brother and sister, who tended to their families’ sheep with their cousin Lucia in the fields of Fatima, Portugal, are said to have witnessed several apparitions of an angel in 1916. Lucia later recorded the words of several prayers she said they learned from this angel. Lucia wrote in her memoirs that she and her cousins saw the first apparition of Mary on May 13, 1917. At the time of the apparition, Francisco was 9 years old and Jacinta was 7. During the first apparition, Mary is said to have asked the three children to say the Rosary and to make sacrifices, offering them for the conversion of sinners. She also asked them to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months.
Illness and death
The siblings were victims of the great 1918 influenza epidemic that swept through Europe that year. In October 1918, Mary appeared and said she would take them to heaven soon. Both lingered for many months, insisting on walking to church to make Eucharistic devotions and prostrating themselves to pray for hours, kneeling with their heads on the ground as they said the angel had instructed them to do. Francisco declined hospital treatment on April 3, 1919 and died at home the next day. Jacinta was moved from one hospital to another in an attempt to save her life, which she insisted was futile. She developed purulent pleurisy and endured an operation in which two of her ribs were removed. Because of the condition of her heart, she could not be fully anesthetized only local and later suffered terrible pain, which she said would help to convert many sinners. On February 19, 1920, Jacinta asked the hospital chaplain who heard her confession to bring her Holy Communion and administer Extreme Unction because she was going to die “the next night”. He told her that her condition was not that serious and that he would return the next day. The next day Jacinta was dead; she had died, as she had often said she would, alone. In 1920, shortly before her death at age nine, Jacinta Marto reportedly discussed the Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary with a then 12-year-old Lúcia Santos and said:
“When you are to say this, don’t go and hide. Tell everybody that God grants us graces through the Immaculate Heart of Mary; that people are to ask her for them; and that the Heart of Jesus wants the Immaculate Heart of Mary to be venerated at His side. Tell them also to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for peace, since God entrusted it to her.”
Jacinta and Francisco are both buried at the Our Lady of Fátima Basilica.
Burial Place of Francisco and Jacinta
Shrine of the siblings at Lourdes
Beatification
The cause for the siblings’ canonisation began in 1946. Exhumed in 1935 and again in 1951, Jacinta’s face was found incorrupt; Francisco’s had decomposed.
In 1937 Pope Pius XI decided that causes for minors should not be accepted as they could not fully understand heroic virtue or practice it repeatedly, both of which are essential for canonisation. For the next four decades, no sainthood processes for children were pursued. In 1979 the bishop of Leiria-Fatima asked all the world’s bishops to write to the Pope, petitioning him to make an exception for Francisco, who had died at age 10 and Jacinta, who had died at age 9. More than 300 bishops sent letters to the Pope, writing that “the children were known, admired and attracted people to the way of sanctity. Favours were received through their intercession.” The bishops also said that the children’s canonization was a pastoral necessity for the children and teenagers of the day. In 1979 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints convened a general assembly. Cardinals, bishops, theologians and other experts debated whether it was possible for children to display heroic virtue. Eventually, they decided that, like the very few children who have a genius for music or mathematics, “in some supernatural way, some children could be spiritual prodigies.” They were declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1989. On May 13, 2000, they were declared “blessed” in a decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Jacinta is the youngest non-martyred child ever to be beatified.
In her biography of Jacinta, Lúcia said that Jacinta had told her of having had many personal visions outside of the Marian visitations; one involved a pope who prayed alone in a room while people outside shouted ugly things and threw rocks through the window. At another time, Jacinta said she saw a pope who had gathered a huge number of people together to pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
When Pope John Paul II arrived in Fatima for the first time, in 1982, he said that he had come “because, on this exact date last year in St. Peter’s Square, in Rome, there was an attempt on the life of your Pope, which mysteriously coincided with the anniversary of the first vision at Fatima, that of 13 May 1917. The coincidence of these dates was so great that it seemed to be a special invitation for me to come here.”
Sister Lúcia, when questioned about the Third Secret, said that the three of them had been very sad about the suffering of a Pope and that Jacinta kept saying: Coitadinho do Santo Padre, tenho muita pena dos pecadores! (“Poor Holy Father, I feel a lot of pity for the sinners!”) Another miracle was found to have been attributed to their intercession and the process that investigated the miracle was validated on 8 February 2013. Reports indicate the canonisation could occur on the centenary of the apparitions in 2017, together with Lúcia.
St Amata of Assisi
St Bolcan of Derken
St Colgan
St Eleutherius of Tournai
St Eucherius of Orleans
St Falco of Maastricht
Bl Francisco Marto
Bl Jacinta Marto
St Leo of Catania
St Nemesius of Cyprus
St Pothamius of Cyprus
St Serapion of Alexandria
St Silvanus of Emesa
St Stanislawa Rodzinska
St Valerius of Courserans
St Wulfric of Haselbury
St Zenobius of Antioch
—
Martyrs of Tyre
Nilus
Peleus
Tyrannio
HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
Chapter 2
HOW CAN WE AVOID PURGATORY?
The reason why we have to pass through Purgatory after death is that we
have committed sins and have not made satisfaction for them. Every
individual sin must be expiated–in this life or the next! Not even the
slightest shadow of sin or evil can enter the all-holy presence of God.
The graver, the more frequent the sins, the longer will be the period of
expiation and the more intense the pain.
It is not God’s fault, nor God’s wish, that we go to Purgatory! The fault
is all our own.
We have sinned and have not made satisfaction.
Even after our sin, God, in His infinite goodness, places at our disposal
many easy and efficacious means by which we may considerably lessen our
term of expiation, or even entirely cancel it.
Most Christians, with incomprehensible rashness, neglect these means and so
have to pay their debts in the dreadful prison house of Purgatory.
We will briefly enumerate some of the principal means by which we can avoid
Purgatory-or at least lessen its severity and duration.
Disaster does not always have to be the ruin of everything and very terrible blows of bad fortune can lead to great blessings. St Conrad of Piacenza’s bad fortune made him reflect on his own way of life. A man was almost executed through his neglect and he realised that God deserved better, in fact God deserved the very best of him. The rest is the story of a man who made way for the Holy Spirit, who cleared the path for His entry and thus found his joy in God and became a delightful friend to all, a conduit of love and miracles. It is a lesson to be pondered.
Conversion has two elements for its completion.
First, we need to rid ourselves of the things that hinder gospel living. That includes not only “stuff” but also habits, attitudes, mindsets, lifestyles etc. that hinder hearing and living the Gospel.
Secondly, conversion calls us to commit our lives to Jesus and His gospel call.
It calls for practising charity, having hope, learning how to love all people.
If we only clean out our lives, we create a vacuum into which all sorts of things can enter (cf. Luke 11:24-26).
Our inner housecleaning ordinarily should open a path for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.
~ Lester Bach OFM Cap, Seeking a Gospel Life
Today’s Saint of the Day, St Conrad of Piacenza is a perfect example of making the path! St Conrad Pray for us!
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain…….1 Cor 15:58
REFLECTION – “Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in His sight is what you are
and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received…but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”…………St Francis of Assisi
PRAYER – God of mercy, teach me to live as You have ordained. Help me to follow Your commandments with courage and steadfast devotion. As St Conrad learnt courage through adversity, help me too to use the events of my life, both good and bad, to give only my best to all I meet. St Conrad of Piacenza, pray for us, amen.
Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
grant us in our misery the grace to do for You alone
what we know You want us to do
and always to desire what pleases You.
Thus, inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened
and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit,
may we be able to follow in the footprints of
Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, by Your grace alone, may we make our way to You,
Most High, Who live and rule in perfect Trinity and simple Unity
and are glorified God all-powerful forever and ever.
Amen.
Saint of the Day – 19 February – ST CONRAD OF PIACENZA T.O.S.F – (1290-1351) –
Franciscan tertiary, pilgrim and hermit – Patron of cure of hernias, Cities and Diocese of Noto and Calendasco, Sicily
Born to one of the most noble and wealthy families in the town of Piacenza in Northen Italy, Conrad grew up in a lifestyle marked by privilege and leisure. Among his family and peers, however, he was also noted for deep faith in the Lord, and led a virtuous and God-fearing life. Having married quite young, both he and his wife were recognized for their piety and charity.
The Church of Calendasco with the castle where St. Conrad was born in the background (left)
As was common in noble families at that time, Saint Conrad spent much of his time hunting. During one such outing, he ordered his attendants to scatter some brush and light it on fire in attempts to smoke out some game hiding there. Without warning, a great wind arose, and mercilessly spread the fire beyond that planned, causing severe damage to neighbours’ homes and land. Authorities mistakenly arrested a mendicant friar living in the area and the man was tried and sentenced to death.
Both Conrad and his wife, seeing the injustice and unable to stand their role in it, agreed to confess. As the friar was being led to execution, Saint Conrad made a public confession of the crime. He sold all his possessions, giving them away to those who had lost property. Now desitute, he and his wife separated, Saint Conrad entering a monastery of the Franciscan Order and his wife entering the Orde of Poor Clares.
Saint Conrad spent the remainder of his life in Rome, and then in Sicily, living a life of repentance, penance and austerity. As news of his piety and holiness spread, he received many visitors which forced him to relocate numerous times, preferring the solitude of penitence. He fled to the valley of Noto, Italy, where he lived as a hermit for 36 years. During his hermitude, he lived a life of extreme austerity, sleeping on the bare ground with a stone for pillow and with dry bread and raw herbs for food.
Numerous miracles have been attributed to him while he lived and subsequently at his tomb in Noto, Italy. Holy legend records, for example, that when the Bishop of Syracuse visited him, the he asked Saint Conrad if he had anything to offer guests. Conrad said he would check in his cell and returned moments later carrying newly baked bread and cakes, which the bishop accepted as a miracle. Saint Conrad was also reported to have traveled surrounded by a cloud of fluttering birds, keeping him company.
Conrad is especially invoked for the cure of hernia. This comes from miracles attributed to him. He was visited at his hermitage by a former friend and companion in arms, Antonio da Stessa, from Daverio. His friend was suffering from the pain of a hernia he had developed. Seeing the pain his old comrade was suffering, Conrad was moved to pity and prayed for him. Stessa was immediately cured of the hernia. The same outcome was accomplished for a local tailor, who suffered severely from several hernias.
The miracle for which Conrad is best known is the “Miracle of the Bread”. This developed during the aforementioned famine which afflicted Sicily as a result of a severe outbreak of the bubonic plague on the island during 1348-49. During that catastrophe, anyone who approached the hermit for help was given a loaf of bread, still warm, which, it was said, he had received from the angels.
Conrad died while praying before a crucifix in 1350, surrounded by a bright light, in the presence of his confessor, who was unaware for some time of his death because of his position.
Shortly after Conrad’s death, his demonstrably holy life and the large number of miracles attributed to him led the leadership of the city to request that the Bishop of Syracuse, to which diocese Noto belonged, begin the process for his canonization. When the waiting period required by Church law expired in 1485, this process was opened by Bishop Dalmazio Gabriele, O.P., who had himself witnessed the Miracle of the Bread. As part of the process, Conrad’s body was exhumed for examination and was found to be incorrupt, and placed in a silver urn for the veneration of the public.
Pope Leo X beatified Conrad on 12 July 1515 and permitted the town of Noto to celebrate his feast day. On 30 October 1544, Pope Paul III extended permission to the whole island. On 2 June 1625, he was canonised by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, who was the Duke of Parma and Piacenza in a solemn ceremony at the cathedral of Piacenza, where it was declared an obligatory feast. On 12 September of that same year, permission was granted to the Franciscan Order by Pope Urban VIII for a distinct text for the Divine Office and Mass to be used for his feast; today it is celebrated solely by the Third Order of St. Francis to which he belonged. In Vietnam there is a popular devotion to Conrad.
On his feast day, the Parish Church of San Corrado in Noto commemorates him by the distribution of blessed bread.
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (2017)
—
Bl Alvarez of Cordova
St Auxibius
St Baoithin
St Barbatus of Benevento
St Beatus
St Belina
St Boniface of Lausanne
St Conon of Alexandria
St Conrad of Piacenza
Bl Elizabeth of Mantua
St Gabinus
St George of Lodeve
Bl Józef Zaplata
St Lucia Yi Zhenmei
St Mansuetus of Milan
St Odran
St Proclus of Bisignano
St Quodvultdeus
St Valerius of Antibes
St Zambdas of Jerusalem
—
Martyrs of Palestine
Martyrs in North Africa
Julian the Martyr
Marcellus of North Africa
Publius of North Africa
HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
Chapter 1
CAN WE AVOID PURGATORY? YES.
Many think that it is practically impossible for the ordinary Christian to
avoid Purgatory. Go there we all must–so they say.
They laughingly remark: “It will be well for us if we ever get there” Alas!
When too late they will recognise how terribly rash their words were. As a
consequence of such fatalistic ideas, many make no serious effort to avoid
Purgatory, or even to lessen the term they may have to pass there. Thank
God all do not hold such gloomy views.
WE SHALL STRIVE IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES TO SHOW
a) How all can notably shorten their period of expiation in Purgatory; b)
And how they may even avoid Purgatory altogether. These pages are well
worth reading and re-reading. The fact is that a great number of souls go
to Purgatory and remain there for long years simply because they had never
been told how they could have avoided it.
The means we suggest are easy, practical and within the reach of all.
Moreover, far from being irksome, the use of these means will only serve to
make our lives on this earth holier and happier and will take away the
exaggerated fear of death which terrifies so many.
We ask you, Dear Reader, to put this little booklet into the hands of all
your friends. You cannot do them a greater service.
Faithful to the promises he made as a Dominican, to preach the Gospel after having contemplated it in prayer, Fra Angelico put his creativity at the disposal of the Lord. With brush and paint in hand, he used his talents to transmit to all people the sublimity and the redemptive strength of the divine mysteries.
Between 1425 and 1447, Fra Angelico carried out his activity for the Dominican convents and other ecclesiastical institutes at Fiesole, Florence (most especially at the convent of San Marco), Cortona and Orvieto. The fame of his genius merited him the esteem of the Sovereign Pontiffs Eugenio IV and Nicolas V, who contracted him for the task of frescoing several rooms in the Vatican Palace (1445-49).
Fra Angelico died on February 18, 1455, in the convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome and was buried in the adjoining Basilica, where his body was covered by a simple slab on which was carved his portrait. With a personality that was uncomplicated and clear, Brother Giovanni had lived a poor and humble life, refusing honours and positions.
The virtue and the profound religious spirit which characterized the life of this artist and Dominican is reflected in his spirituality, his purity and the luminosity of his art. Even before his official recognition as a blessed of the Church, he had been given by the faithful the title “Beato Angelico.” In a moving ceremony on October 18, 1984, Pope John Paul II, on his knees in front of Fra Angelico’s tomb, proclaimed him solemnly to be the universal patron of all artists.
The Incarnation was one of Fra Angelico’s favourite themes and he painted over 25 variations of it. His painted meditations, so needed at the time of the early Renaissance, are still necessary today. God became man to bring us closer to Himself by way of all things human. He makes all things new by fashioning them into possible vehicles of grace for us, so that by visible realities and concrete concepts, we can arrive at an understanding and a love of higher, invisible realities, all leading to God Himself. Without art our lives would be much depleted. L et us pray for artists today, especially those who can lift our hearts and minds to God that the Lord may come to them and guide their hands.
Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar said Angelico’s art embodies the motto of the Dominican Order contemplata aliis tradere, that is,
“communicating to others the contemplated mysteries”.
Another writer expressed a similar judgment: fece teologia dipingendo la bellezza, che mostrò la luce del Risorto nelle creature da lui redente: “he did theology by painting the beauty that shows the light of the Risen Christ in creatures”.
Author of the Lives of the Artists – Vasari – wrote of Fra Angelico that “it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety.”
Well done you are an industrious
and reliable servant…… Come share
your master’s joy…………Matthew 25:21
REFLECTION – “In God’s house we must try to
accept whatever job he gives us:
cook, kitchen boy, waiter, stable boy or baker.
For we know that our reward depends not
on the job itself but on the faithfulness
with which we serve God.”……..Pope John Paul I
Fra Angelico’s painting was the fruit of the great harmony between a holy life and the creative power with which he had been endowed………St John Paul
PRAYER – O God, in Your providence You inspired blessed Fra Angelico to portray the beauty and sweetness of heaven. By his prayers and the example of his virtues, grant that we may manifest this splendour to our brothers and sisters. Blessed Angelico, pray for us! Through Christ our Lord, amen.
Excerpt from the ‘Universal Prayer’ – attributed to Pope Clement XI
Lord, I believe in You: increase my faith.
I trust in You: strengthen my trust.
I love You: let me love You more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.
I worship You as my first beginning,
I long for You as my last end,
I praise You as my constant helper,
And call on You as my loving protector.
Guide me by Your wisdom,
Correct me with Your justice,
Comfort me with Your mercy,
Protect me with Your power.
I offer You, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on You;
My words: to have You for their theme;
My actions: to reflect my love for You;
My sufferings: to be endured for Your greater glory.
Saint of the Day – 18 February – Blessed FRA ANGELICO O.P. (1395-1455 aged 59) – Patron of Artists.
Fra Angelico was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having “a rare and perfect talent”.
He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole) and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called il Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One); the common English name Fra Angelico means the “Angelic friar”.
In 1982 Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of “Blessed” official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—”Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, surnamed ‘the Angelic’ “.
Fra Angelico is probably better known as an artist than as a holy man. He was already called “Beato” while he was still alive. Pope John Paul II gave this a new reality when he beatified him in 1982. Patrick Duffy tells his story.
Early life Born Guido di Pietro at Vicchio, 25 kms north-east of Florence, also the birth place of Giotto, in his childhood he was known as Guido da Vicchio or Guido di Pietro. He may have been already a painter before he and his brother Benedetto joined the Dominicans at Fiesole.
At Fiesole 1418-35 After his novitiate at Cortona he went to live at the Dominican convent at Fiesole. As a young friar, he worked at illuminating missals and manuscripts. He became known to his companions as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole but later more popularly – even within his own lifetime in Italy – he was called Il Beato Angelico.
San Marco, Florence (1436-45) In 1436 Fra Angelico was one of a number of the monks from Fiesole who moved into the newly-built monastery of San Marco in Florence. This not only put him in the centre of artistic activity but also engaged the patronage of the wealthy and powerful Cosimo de’ Medici, who often came there himself when he wanted to retreat from the world.
According to his biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), it was at Cosimo’s urging that Fra Angelico undertook the task of decorating the monastery, including the magnificent Chapter House fresco, the often-reproduced Annunciation, the Maesta with Saints Cosmas and Damian, Saint Mark and Saint John, Saint Lawrence and three Dominicans, Saint Dominic, Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Peter Martyr.
The Vatican and Orvieto, 1445–1449 In 1445 Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47), who knew the artist’s work in Florence, summoned Angelico to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament at St Peter’s but this was destroyed a century later when Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese 1534-49) wanted to make room for the great staircase of the Vatican Palace. Vasari says that at this time Eugenius offered Fra Angelico the archbishopric of Florence, but that he refused it, recommending another friar for the position.
In 1447 when the papal court moved to the comparative cool of Orvieto Fra Angelico worked with his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, on the vault of the chapel of the Madonna of St Brizio in the cathedral.
In 1449 back at the Vatican, he designed the famous fresco scenes from the lives of St. Laurence and St. Stephen for the walls of the Chapel of Nicholas V. From 1449 until 1452, Fra Angelico was back at San Marco in Florence, where he was prior for three years.
The Transfiguration shows the directness, simplicity and restrained palette typical of these frescoes. Located in a monk’s cell at the Convent San’ Marco, its apparent purpose is to encourage private devotion.
Death and influence In 1455 Fra Angelico died while staying at a Dominican Convent in Rome, perhaps working on Pope Nicholas’ Chapel. His tomb can be seen in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in the centre of Rome. And this is his epitaph:
When singing my praise, do not say I was another Apelles.
But say that, in the name of Christ, I gave all I had to the poor.
Part of my work remains on earth and part is in heaven.
The city that bore me, Giovanni, is the flower of Tuscany.
St Angilbert of Centula
St Colman of Lindisfarne
St Constance of Vercelli
St Esuperia of Vercelli
St Ethelina
Bl Fra Angelico
St Gertrude Caterina Comensoli
St Helladius of Toledo
St Ioannes Chen Xianheng
St Ioannes Zhang Tianshen
St Jean-François-Régis Clet
St Jean-Pierre Néel
Bl Jerzy Kaszyra
Bl John Pibush – one of the Martyrs of Douai
St Leo of Patera
St Martinus Wu Xuesheng
Bl Matthew Malaventino
St Paregorius of Patara
St Sadoth of Seleucia
St Simeon
St Tarasius of Constantinople
St Theotonius
Bl William Harrington
—
Martyrs in North Africa – 7 saints
Martyrs of Rome – 5 saints
HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. Let us begin with the Foreword. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
FOREWORD
Our Lord came on earth expressly to give us a perfect Redemption. He gave
us a Law of Love, a Religion in every way to suit our human hearts,
destined to make us holy and happy. His Commandments, counsels and promises
all breathe peace, joy, mercy and love.
The idea that nearly all of us shall, notwithstanding, have to pass a
period more or less long in the excruciating fires of Purgatory after death
seems to be at variance with this all-merciful and all-loving plan of our
Divine Lord.
It is true that we are weak and fall many times and that God’s justice is
rigorous and exacting but it is equally certain that God’s mercy and love
are above all His works.
It is no less certain that Our Lord has given us abundant grace and
strength to save us from sin and many (and most efficacious) means of
satisfying for any sins that we may have committed. This last fact seems to
be almost entirely overlooked, or imperfectly understood by the majority of
Catholics.
Of course, those who go on deliberately sinning and who make no effort to
correct their faults and refuse to use the many wonderful means God offers
them for satisfying for sin, condemn themselves to Purgatory.
The object of this little book is to show how we can avoid Purgatory by
using the means God has so generously offered us, and, secondly, to show
that the use of these means is within the reach of every ordinary
Christian.
The careful perusal of these pages will be a source of much benefit and
consolation to all who read them.
The author offers them to the loving Heart of Jesus and asks Him to bless
them.
Since criminals and people with evil purposes often band together for their common interests, good people often have to do the same. Faced with the immorality and blood feuds of thirteenth century Florence, the Seven Holy Founders banded together for their own spiritual good and succeeded in founding a whole new religious order. Good companions are on of the most powerful helps toward a holy life, for all of us are faced in a new and urgent way with the challenge to make our lives decisively centred in Christ. In this new day, we often find those ‘good companions’ online, let us too band together and live a holy life amidst the dangers around us!
“Mary means enlightener, because She brought forth the Light of the world. In the Syriac tongue, Mary signifies Lady.”
~~~~~ St Isidore of Seville
“Let me say something concerning this name also, which is interpreted to mean Star of the sea, and admirably suits the Virgin Mother.”
~~~~~ St Bernard
“Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary’s maternal intercession.”
~~~~~St Thomas Aquinas
“God the Father gathered all the waters together
and called them the seas or maria [Latin, seas].
He gathered all His grace together
and called it Mary or Maria . . .
This immense treasury is none other than Mary
whom the Saints call the ‘treasury of the Lord.’
From Her fullness all men are made rich.”
~~~~~ St Louis de Montfort
“This most holy, sweet and worthy name was ’eminently fitted to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin. For Mary means a bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted Lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men She is the Star of the sea; to the Angels She is illuminatrix, and to all creatures She is Lady .”
~~~~~St Bonaventure
“When you find yourself tossed by the raging storms on this great sea of life, far from land, keep your eyes fixed on this Star to avoid disaster. When the winds of temptation or the rocks of tribulation threaten, look up to the Star, call upon Mary!”
~~~~~ St Bernard
O children, listen to me; instruction and wisdom do not reject!…………Proverbs 8:32-33
REFLECTION – “Let Mary never be far from your lips
and from your heart.
Following her, you will never lose your way.
Praying to her, you will never sink into despair.
Contemplating her, you will never go wrong.”
……St Bernardine of Siena
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, grant me the grace to have Mary as my constant intercessor. Allow me to reach out to her as my mother, to lead me to her Son, for she is Your beloved Daughter, who carried Your Son to us in order that we might see our way and be able to reach our home in heaven. Holy Founders of the Servites, pray for us all that we may be blessed by the intercession and protection of Mary our Mother and please pray for us all, amen.
In 1445 Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47), who knew the artist’s work in Florence, summoned Angelico to Rome to paint the frescoes of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament at St Peter’s but this was destroyed a century later when Pope Paul III (Alessandro Farnese 1534-49) wanted to make room for the great staircase of the Vatican Palace. Vasari says that at this time Eugenius offered Fra Angelico the archbishopric of Florence, but that he refused it, recommending another friar for the position.
AnaStpaul 
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