Thought for the Day – 30 October – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
“Month of the Holy Rosary” “Prayer to Mary, Our Mother”
“There is a story told of a devout man who was wavering before the onslaught of temptation and was accustomed to kneel before a statue of Our Lady and say this simple prayer: “Show yourself a mother to me.” When the same man had fallen into sin and, although full of remorse, had not succeeded in reforming, he went one day to Mary’s Altar and pitifully repeated his usual prayer. Immediately, he heard a gentle voice replying – “Show that you are my son.”
If we wish Our Lady to be a mother to us, we must also show her that we are her children. Earthly mothers are delighted to think that their offspring take after them. In the same way, Mary wishes to see, a reflection of her own sanctity in our thoughts, desires and actions. All this demands sacrifice, of course. It demands hard work, fervent prayer and constant watchfulness over ourselves. If we do all that we can and never lose courage, God will not refuse us His help and our good Mother, will not, fail to intercede for us!”
Quote/s of the Day – 30 October – Making our way to Life
“A person who wishes to become the Lord’s disciple must repudiate a human obligation, however honourable it may appear, if it slows us, ever so slightly, in giving the wholehearted obedience we owe to God.”
St Basil the Great (329-379)
O Lord, You have given us Your word for a light to shine upon our path, grant us so to meditate on that word and follow its teaching, that we may find in it, the light that shines more and more until the perfect day. Amen
St Jerome (343-420) “The Man of the Bible” Father and Doctor of the Church
“Rest is in Him alone. Man knows no peace in the world but he has no disturbance when he is with God.”
St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) Mellifluous Doctor
“We must make our way towards eternity, never regarding what men think of us, or of our actions, studying only to please God.”
St Francis Borgia (1510-1572)
“Christ first of all, Christ in the centre of the heart, in the centre of history and of the cosmos. Humanity needs Christ intensely because, He is our “measure.” There is no realm, that cannot be touched by His strength; there is no evil, that cannot find remedy in Him, there is no problem, that cannot be solved in Him. Either Christ or nothing!”
St John Leonardi (1541-1609)
“Only one thing is necessary: Jesus Christ! Think unceasingly of Him. ”
St John Gabriel Perboyre CM (1802-1840) Martyr for Christ
“Our vocation, yours and mine, is not to go harvesting in the fields of ripe corn, Jesus does not say to us; “Lower your eyes, look at the fields and go and reap them,” our mission is still loftier. Here are Jesus’ words: “Lift up your eyes and see….” See how in My Heaven there are places empty, it is for you to fill them! … each one of you is my Moses praying on the mountain (Ex 17:8f), ask Me for labourers and I shall send them, I await only a prayer, a sigh from your heart!”
“Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven. the only one goal of our labours.”
St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (1873 – 1897) Doctor of the Church
“We must always be ready. Let our faith be lively and active and our minds turned towards God, Who is waiting for us. There is no need to be afraid. He is good and merciful. He desires our salvation. This is a wonderfully consoling thought. God desires my salvation! Let us surrender ourselves to Him, therefore, as if we had to die this very moment!”
One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. – Luke 14:14
REFLECTION – “The world’s eternal and invisible Creator, preparing to save humankind, which for long ages had been hindered by it’s subjection to the heavy law of death, deigned “in these last days” (Heb 1:2) to become man (…) that in His mercy He might redeem those, who in justice He condemned. And so as to show the depth of His love for us, He not only became a man but a poor and humble man so that, by drawing near to us in His poverty, He might make us sharers in His riches (2 Cor 8:9). So poor did He become for our sake, that He had nowhere to lay His head: “Foxes have dens and the birds of the air have their nest but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20).
This is the reason why He agreed to go and dine wherever He was invited, not out of an excessive enjoyment in eating but, so that He could teach the way of salvation and stimulate faith. There He would fill the guests with light by His miracles and the servants, who were kept busy inside and were not free to go with Him, would hear the words of salvation. Indeed, He despised no-one and none were considered unworthy of His love because “he has mercy on all; he hates nothing of what he has made and takes care of them all” (Wsd 11:24).
So that He might carry out this work of salvation the Lord entered the house of an eminent Pharisee on the sabbath. The scribes and Pharisees watched Him with the intention of calling Him to account, so that if He were to cure the man with dropsy they could accuse Him of breaking the Law and, if He did not, they could accuse Him of blasphemy or inability (…) By the pure light of His word of truth, they were to see the darkness of their deceit vanish away. … Blessed Guerric of Igny O.Cist (c 1080-1157) – Cistercian Abbot (Liturgical sermons).
PRAYER – Almighty, ever-living God, shed the light of Your glory on the peoples who are living in the shadow of death, as You did long ago, when our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of Justice, came among us from on high. As He taught us the way to life may we keep the precepts and finally reach our everlasting home. May the Mother of Jesus, our Lord and our always loving and merciful Mother, keep us forever in her prayers. With Jesus our Lord and our God, with the Holy Spirit, one God with You now and for all eternity, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 30 October – “Month of the Holy Rosary” – Friday of the Thirtieth week in Ordinary Time
An October Prayer
Mother, at thy feet is kneeling One who loves thee–it’s thy child Who has sighed so oft’ to see thee, Bless me, Mother, Mother mild. And when storms are raging round me, And when tempests hover near, In thy own sweet arms enfold me, Shield me, Mother, Mother dear. Mother, when my Saviour calls me From this world of sin and strife, Clasp me upon thy spotless bosom, Let me bid farewell to life. Plead for me when Jesus judges, Answer for me when He asks How I’ve spent so many moments, How performed so many tasks. Tell Him I was weak and feeble, Yes, that I so often strayed From the thorny path of virtue To the one with roses laid. Yet, O Mother, tell my Jesus That I loved Him fond and true And, O Mother, dearest Mother, Tell Him I belong to you. Then He’ll place me (yes, I feel it) Close to thee, O Mother dear, Then I’ll praise and bless and thank thee Thru eternity’s long years. Amen
Saint of the Day – 30 October – Saint Germanus of Capua (Died c 541) Bishop of Capua, Italy, Confessor, Papal Legate. St Germanus was a close friend of St Benedict of Nursia. The Roman Matyrology states: St Germanus, Bishop and Confessor, a man of great sanctity, whose soul, at the hour of death, was seen by St Benedict taken to heaven by angels.
Of Germanus’s life before he was Bishop, nothing is known with certainty. The only source to provide information about this period is a hagiography penned in the ninth century. It records his father’s name as Amantius and his mother’s as Juliana. He was born in Capua in the 470s. After his father’s death, he sold his inheritance with his mother’s blessing in order to devote himself to the ascetic life. When on the death of Bishop Alexander the Capuans elected him their Bishop, Germanus at first refused the honour before being persuaded to accept.
shortly after his election, he was made a member of the legation sent by Pope Hormisdas to the court of the Emperor Justin I in Constantinople, the purpose of which was to negotiate an end to the Acacian schism between the western and eastern churches. The legation consisted of Germanus, the Alexandrian Deacon Dioscorus, a Bishop named John, a Roman Deacon named Felix, a Roman Priest named Blandus and a notary named Peter. They gathered in Rome between January and March 519. In both the Liber pontificalis and the letters of Pope Hormisdas, Germanus is always named first, indicating that he was the leader of the group.
Although the two previous missions had yielded no results, that of 519 took place in propitious circumstances. It had the support of the Ostrogothic king Theoderic and of the new Emperor and Patriarch in Constantinople, Justin I and John of Cappadocia. In a letter to Justin’s nephew, Count Justinian, Pope Hormisdas specifies that the members of his legation were selected for their “quality.”
Tjhis image is from the Ghent Altarpiece – “Popes and Bishops”
Germanus’s itinerary on his legation is known primarily from various letters. They crossed the Adriatic to Vlorë, then passed through Ohrid on their way to Thessaloniki, where Germanus celebrated Holy Mass. They were met by Justinian ten miles outside of Constantinople. According to a letter from Germanus to Hormisdas dated 22 April 519, the population of the city received them with cheering. They met the Emperor and separately the Senate on the Monday of Holy Week (24–31 March). On Thursday, they met with the Eemperor, Senate and Patriarch together in the Palace to present the libellus Hormisdae, the document entrusted to them by the Pope outlining his conditions for the healing of the schism. The conditions were accepted. Germanus and his colleagues remained in the east for another year securing the acceptance of the Patriarchs outside of Constantinople. On 9 July 520, the Emperor wrote to Pope Hormisdas to commend his legates. The Liber pontificalis credits Germanus with deftly handling the controversy, the calculation of the date of Easter and the reintegration of Bishops deposed by the Emperor Anastasius I.
Little is known of Germanus’s life in his own Diocese after the end of his successful mission to the east. According to the tenth-century Chronicon Salernitanum, Germanus changed the dedication of the Basilica of Capua, from the Apostles, to Saints Stephen and Agatha, after depositing there some of their relics that he had obtained as a reward, from the Emperor himself. According to his eighth- or ninth-century biography, Bishop Sabinus of Canosa was an acquaintance of Germanus. Both went on papal missions to fight monophysitism in the eastern churches, Sabinus in 536. Sabinus was also close to Benedict of Nursia. Pope Gregory the Great in his Dialogues mentions how Benedict, praying atop Monte Cassino, had a vision of the soul of Germanus in the form of a ball of fire being carried to heaven by angels. He later learned that this vision coincided with Germanus’s death.
The death of Germanus can be placed in early 541 because of an inscription which gives the start of his successor Victor’s pontificate in that year. After his death, Germanus was venerated as a saint in southern Italy throughout the early Middle Ages. In his Dialogues, Gregory the Great prays to Germanus to intercede on behalf of the soul of a Deacon, named Paschasius in Purgatory. The image below shows St Germanus and Paschasius meet in the afterlife (upper left corner), from De balneis Puteolanis by Peter of Eboli (twelfth century).
When Count Lando I of Capua relocated the city of Capua in 849, Germanus’s body was moved with it. In late 873, following a campaign against the Arabs harassing Capua, the Emperor Louis II of Italy took some of Germanus’s relics to Monte Cassino. The village at the foot of the hill, ancient Casinum, became known as San Germano. The Empress Engelberga took another part of his relics to endow the Monastery of San Sisto that she founded in Piacenza in 874. Since the Vita sancti Germani episcopi Capuani (Life of Saint Germanus) mentions neither of these transfers, it was probably finished before 873
St Arilda St Asterius of Amasea Blessed Benvenuta Bojani OP (1254-1292) Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2019/10/30/saint-of-the-day-30-october-blessed-benvenuta-bojani-op-1254-1292/ St Egelnoth the Good St Eutropia of North Africa St Gerard of Potenza St Germanus of Capua (Died c 541) Bishop St Herbert of Tours Bl Jean-Michel Langevin Bl John Slade St Lucanus of Lagny St Marcellus the Centurion St Marcian of Syracuse St Maximus of Cumae St Nanterius of Saint-Mihiel Bl Oleksa Zarytsky (1912-1963) Martyr Bl Raymond of Cardona St Saturninus of Cagliari St Serapion of Antioch St Talarica of Scotland Bl Terrence Albert O’Brien St Theonestus of Philippi St Zenobia of Aegea St Zenobius of Aegea — Martyrs in Africa: A group of 100 to 200 Christians murdered in the early persecutions, and about whom we know nothing except that they died for their faith.
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