Thought for the Day – 1 August – The Memorial of (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church ST ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI – REACHING THE PEOPLE
With thanks to the C.Ss.R. Baltimore Province
St Alphonsus was a brilliant, articulate, pragmatic preacher. He knew how to reach ordinary people who had limited education and very real needs. They followed this gifted preacher from church to church and town to town to hear him preach the message of hope in Christ for all people.
Three great images, basic to the Christian faith, formed the heart of Alphonsus’ preaching and teaching — Jesus an infant in the crib, Jesus crucified on the Cross, and Jesus vibrantly alive and filled with love for all in the Eucharist. To this he added the image of Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. When other theologians were opposed to devotion to Mary, Alphonsus invoked her: “Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.”
Alphonsus appreciated how the poor and working class people expressed their realities through song. A gifted musician and composer, he wrote many popular hymns and taught them to the people in parish missions. His compositions continue to be sung around the world and have never lost their charm and popularity. Redemptorists today still follow the cue of their founder. Their message, announcing the abundance of God’s love, is enriched by the spiritual songs they sing in their community and with the people of God.
Alphonsus wrote for the people. Many turned to his spiritual writing, for he wrote in a way that was understandable to anyone with a basic education. On winter evenings in his time, the people in the villages often gathered around a fire in someone’s home. Someone read stories about the Gospels or the lives of the saints, things that nourished their faith and helped them to pray. Alphonsus’ works were frequent choices and they remain so still, his works are a fountain of holiness. Which of us has not, in our home poarishes all over the world, prayed his Stations of the Cross? They will always be one of the treasures of the Church. http://immaculateheartbalornock.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Stations-of-the-Cross-Booklet.pdf
The Holy Father’s Prayer Intention
for AUGUST 2018
Universal: The Treasure of Families
That any far-reaching decisions
of economists and politicians
may protect the family as one
of the treasures of humanity.
“The family is the foundation of co-existence and a remedy against social fragmentation. Children have a right to grow up in a family, with a father and a mother, capable of creating a suitable environment, for the child’s development and emotional maturity.”
Pope Francis, Humanum Conference, November 17, 2014
Pope Francis Prayer for the Family
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, in you we contemplate the splendour of true love, to you we turn with trust. Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that our families too may be places of communion and prayer, authentic schools of the Gospel and small domestic Churches. Holy Family of Nazareth, may families never again experience violence, rejection and division. May all who have been hurt or scandalised find ready comfort and healing. Holy Family of Nazareth, make us once more mindful of the sacredness and inviolability of the family, and its beauty in God’s plan. Jesus, true God and true man, graciously hear our prayer. Mary and Joseph, co-operators with God’s plan, pray for us. Amen!
(composed for the Synod on the Family and therefore, slightly adapted)
The history of the devotion to the Heart of Mary is connected on many points with that to the Heart of Jesus; nevertheless, it has its own history which, although very simple, is not devoid of interest. The attention of Christians was early attracted by the love and virtues of the Heart of Mary. The Gospel itself invited this attention with exquisite discretion and delicacy. What was first excited was compassion for the Virgin Mother. It was, so to speak, at the foot of the Cross that the Christian heart first made the acquaintance of the Heart of Mary. Simeon’s prophecy paved the way and furnished the devotion with one of its favourite formulae and most popular representations: the heart pierced with a sword. But Mary was not merely passive at the foot of the Cross; “she cooperated through charity”, as St Augustine says, “in the work of our redemption”.
Another Scriptural passage to help in bringing out the devotion was the twice-repeated saying of St Luke, that Mary kept all the sayings and doings of Jesus in her heart, that there she might ponder over them and live by them. Some of the Fathers also throw light upon the psychology of the Virgin, for instance, S. Ambrose, when in his commentary on St Luke, he holds Mary up as the ideal of virginity and St Ephrem, when he so poetically sings of the coming of the Magi and the welcome accorded them by the humble Mother.
In the New Testament Elizabeth proclaims Mary blessed because she has believed the words of the angel ,the Magnificat is an expression of her humility and in answering the woman of the people, who in order to exalt the Son proclaimed the Mother blessed, did not Jesus himself say: “Blessed rather are they that hear the word of God and keep it”, thus in a manner inviting us to seek in Mary that which had so endeared her to God and caused her to be selected as the Mother of Jesus? The Fathers understood His meaning and found in these words a new reason for praising Mary. St Leo says that through faith and love, she conceived her Son spiritually, even before receiving Him into her womb and St Augustine tells us, that she was more blessed in having borne Christ in her heart, than in having conceived Him in the flesh.
Daily Prayer for August for the Intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Most Blessed Mother,
heart of love, heart of mercy,
ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer.
As your children, we implore your intercession,
with Jesus your Son.
Receive with understanding and compassion,
the petitions we place before you today,
especially those so deep in our heart.
We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open
to those who ask for your prayer.
We trust to your gentle care and intercession,
those whom we love
and who are sick or lonely or hurting.
Help all of us, Holy Mother,
to bear our burdens in this life,
until we may share eternal life and peace
with God, our Father forever.
Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 1 August – The Memorial of St Alphonsus Liquori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
“Your God is ever beside you – indeed, He is even within you.”
“Know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, ‘Ask, and you shall receive,’ but He has revealed to His servants, that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace.”
“St Augustine and St Thomas define mortal sin to be a turning away from God: that is, the turning of one’s back upon God, leaving the Creator for the sake of the creature. What punishment would that subject deserve who, while his king was giving him a command, contemptuously turned his back upon him to go and transgress his orders? This is what the sinner does; and this is punished in hell with the pain of loss, that is, the loss of God, a punishment richly deserved by him who in this life turns his back upon his sovereign good.”
“Let us thank God for having called us to His holy faith. It is a great gift and the number of those, who thank God for it is small.”
“All others had a Redeemer Who delivered them from sin with which they were already defiled but that the most Blessed Virgin had a Redeemer Who, because He was her Son, preserved her from ever being defiled by it. “
“Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does, so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does. Furthermore, if we heaped together all the love that mothers have for their children, all the love of husbands and wives, all the love of all the angels and Saints for their clients, it could never equal Mary’s love for even a single soul.”
“Were you to ask, ‘what are the mans of overcoming temptations’, I would answer:
the first means is prayer; the second is prayer; the third is prayer and should you ask me a thousand times, I would repeat the same.”
“Without prayer, we have neither light nor strength, to advance in the way which leads to God.”
“He who prays most receives most.”
St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
One Minute Reflection – 1 August – The Memorial of St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
May the Lord…make you overflow with love for one another and for all.…1 Thessalonians 3:12
REFLECTION – “The means for attaining perfect love is to accomplish frequent acts of love. Fire is kindled by the wood that we cast into it and love is enkindled by acts of love.”….St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Loving Father, grant me the grace to strive after perfect love. Help me to bring forth frequent acts of love, to all and sundry, to each of my neighbours, so that I may grow in this greatest of virtues… St Alphonsus Liguori pray for us, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 1 August – The Memorial of (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
The One Thing Necessary By St Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) Doctor of the Church
0 my God, help me to remember
That time is short, eternity is long.
What good is all the greatness of this world at the hour of death?
To love You, my God
and save my soul is the one thing necessary.
Without You, there is no peace, no joy.
My God, I need fear nothing but sin.
For to lose You, my God, is to lose all.
0 my God, help me to remember –
That to gain all I must leave all,
That in loving You
I have all good things,
the infinite riches of Christ
and His Church,
the motherly protection of Mary,
peace beyond understanding,
joy unspeakable!
Eternal Father, Your Son has promised,
that whatever we ask in His Name will be given to us.
In His Name I pray:
give me a burning faith,
a joyful hope,
a holy love for Jesus Christ.
Give me the grace of perseverance
in doing Your will in all things.
Do with me what You will.
I repent of having offended You.
Grant, O Lord, that I may love You always
and never let me be separated from You.
O my God and my All,
make me a saint!
Amen
Saint of the Day – 1 August – St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori C.Ss.R. (1696-1787) – Doctor of the Church
St Alphonsus was born of noble parents, near Naples, in 1696. His spiritual training was entrusted to the Fathers of the Oratory in that city and from his boyhood Alphonsus was known as a most devout Brother of the Little Oratory. At the early age of sixteen he was made doctor in law and he threw himself into this career with ardour and success.
A mistake, by which he lost an important cause, showed him the vanity of human fame and determined him to labour only for the glory of God. He entered the priesthood, devoting himself to the most neglected souls and to carry on this work he founded later the missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, The Redemptorists.
At the age of sixty-six he became Bishop of St Agatha and undertook the reform of his diocese with the zeal of a Saint. He made a vow never to lose time and, though his life was spent in prayer and work, he composed a vast number of books, filled with such science, unction and wisdom that he has been declared one of the Doctors of the Church.
St Alphonsus wrote his first book at the age of forty-nine and in his eighty-third year had published about 100 volumes, when his director forbade him to write more. Very many of these books were written in the half-hours snatched from his labours as missionary, religious superior and Bishop, or in the midst of continual bodily and mental sufferings. With his left hand he would hold a piece of marble against his aching head while his right hand wrote.
Yet he counted no time wasted which was spent in charity. He did not refuse to hold a long correspondence with a simple soldier who asked his advice, or to play the harpsichord while he taught his novices to sing spiritual canticles. He lived in evil times, and met with many persecutions and disappointments.
For his last seven years he was prevented by constant sickness from offering the Adorable Sacrifice but he received Holy Communion daily and his love for Jesus Christ and his trust in Mary’s prayers sustained him to the end.
He died in 1787, in his ninety-first year.
For lots more details on St Alphonsus here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/saint-of-the-day-1-august-st-alphonsus-maria-de-liguori-c-ss-r-doctor-of-the-church/
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Portiuncula Indulgence: An indulgence which may be gained in any church so designated by the bishop, by all the faithful who after Confession and Holy Communion, visit such churches between noon of 1 August and midnight of 2 August, or on the Sunday following. The indulgence is toties quoties and is applicable to the souls in Purgatory.
Feast Saint Peter in Chains: The feast was originally kept in Rome, Italy to commemorate the dedication of the Church of Saint Peter on the Esquiline Hill built by Eudoxia Licinia in 442 and rebuilt by Adrian I in the 8th century. When the chains which Saint Peter had worn in prison and from which he was freed by angelic intervention were later venerated there, the feast received its present name.
The date when these chains were brought from Jerusalem is disputed; some claim they were brought in 116 by travellers sent in search of them by Saint Balbina and her father Saint Quirinus, while others think Saint Eudoxia brought them in 439. St Pope Leo the Great united them to the chains with which Saint Peter had been fettered in the Mamertine Prison, forming a chain about two yards long which is preserved in a bronze safe and guarded by a special confraternity.
Patronage
• diocese of Annecy, France
• Donnas, Italy
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St Adela Mardosewicz
Bl Aleksy Sobaszek
St Alexander of Perga
St Almedha
St Arcadius
St Attius of Perga
St Buono
St Brogan
St Charity
St Ethelwold of Winchester
St Exuperius of Bayeux
St Faith
St Faustus
St Felix of Gerona
St Friard
Bl Gerhard Hirschfelder
Bl Giovanni Bufalari
St Hope
St Jadwiga Karolina Zak
St Jonatus
St Justin of Paris
St Kenneth of Wales
St Leontius of Perga
St Maur
St Nemesius of Lisieux
Bl Orlando of Vallombrosa
St Peregrinus of Modena
Bl Pierre-Lucien Claverie – Martyr
St Rioch
Bl Rudolph
St Secundel
St Secundus of Palestrina
St Sophia
St Verus of Vienne
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Holy Maccabees: Jewish dynasty which began with the rebellion of Mathathias and his five sons against the Syrian king, Antiochus IV (168 BC) and ruled the fortunes of Israel until the advent of Herod the Great. Syrian attempts to force Greek paganism on the Jews, the profanation of the Temple at Jerusalem and the massacre which followed, brought the nation to arms under Mathathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib. At the death of Mathathias, Judas Machabeus, his third son, drove the Syrians and Hellenists out of Jerusalem, rededicated the Temple and began an offensive and defensive alliance with the Romans. Before the treaty was concluded, however, Judas, with 800 men, risked battle at Laisa with an overwhelming army of Syrians under Bacchides, and was slain. He was succeeded in command by his youngest brother, Jonathan (161 BC). Jonathan defeated Bacchides, revenged the death of his brother and made peace with Alexander who had usurped the throne of Demetrius, the successor to Antiochus. A period of peace followed in which Jonathan ruled as high priest in Jerusalem but Tryphon, who was plotting for the throne of Asia, treacherously captured him at ptolemais and later put him to death. The captaincy of the armies of Israel then fell to Simon, the second son of Mathathias. Under him the land of Juda flourished exceedingly. He obtained the complete independence of the country and a grateful people bestowed upon him the hereditary kingship of the nation. His rule marked five years of uninterrupted peace. He was treacherously slain by his son-in-law, Ptolemy, about the year 135 BC After Simon the race of the Machabees quickly degenerated. In 63 BC the Romans thought it necessary to interfere in the fratricidal war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. With this interference and the advent of Herod the Great the sceptre passed forever from the land of Juda. The story of the Machabees is written in the two books of the Old Testament which bear that name.
Saints Faith, Hope and Charity: The daughters of Saint Sophia. While still children, they were tortured and martyred for their faith in the persecutions of Hadrian. They were scourged, thrown into a fire, and then beheaded.
Martyrs of Nowogrodek – 11 beati: A group of eleven Holy Family of Nazareth nuns who were murdered by the Nazi Gestapo in exchange for 120 condemned citizens of Nowogrodek, Belarus who were scheduled for revenge killings. They are –
• Adela Mardosewicz
• Anna Kukolowicz
• Eleonora Aniela Józwik
• Eugenia Mackiewicz
• Helena Cierpka
• Jadwiga Karolina Zak
• Józefa Chrobot
• Julia Rapiej
• Leokadia Matuszewska
• Paulina Borowik
• Weronika Narmontowicz
They were machine-gunned by firing squad on 1 August 1943 by the Gestapo about three miles outside Novogrudok (Nowogródek), Hrodzyenskaya voblasts’, in Nazi occupied Belarus and buried on the site of the execution in a common grave. One of their surviving sisters, Maria Malgorzata Banas, located the grave on 19 March 1945 and tended to it until her death in 1966. Their relics have since been re-interred in a common sarcophagus in the chapel of the Novograd Farny Church (the Church of the Transfiguration, also known as Biala Fara or the White Church). They were Beatified on
5 March 2000 by St Pope John Paul II in Rome, Italy.
Martyrs of Philadelphia – 6 saints
Martyrs of Vietnam
Benado Vo Van Due
Ðaminh Nguyen Van Hanh
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War
Benito Iñiguez de Heredia Alzola
Francesc de Paula Soteras Culla
Joan Bonavida Dellá
José de Miguel Arahal
Justino Alarcón Vera
Sebastià Tarragó Cabré
Vicente Montserrat Millán
Nicholas de la Torre Merino
AnaStpaul 
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