Day: December 12, 2020

Posted in ADVENT REFLECTIONS, DECEMBER - The DIVINE INFANCY and The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on HOPE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, THEOLOGICAL

Thought for the Day – 12 December – The Theological Virtues of Our Lady

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Thought for the Day – 12 December – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

The Theological Virtues of Our Lady

“The three theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, shone like constellations throughout the life of Mary.
“Blessed is she who has believed” (Lk 1:45), St Elizabeth said of her.
Mary’s life was one long act of faith and of love.
She lived continuously in the presence of God, being united to Him by lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity.
Her spirit of constant prayer was the result of her intense practice of these theological virtues.
When the Archangel Gabriel came down from Heaven, to bring her the tidings of her divine motherhood, he found her absorbed in prayer.
When St Elizabeth praised and called her the Mother of her Lord, Mary, from the depths of her faith, attributed everything to God and glorified Him in her Magnificat.
When the baby Jesus was born in the cave of Bethlehem, she adored Him with faith, hope and love, as her God and future Saviour.
When she realised that Herod was searching for her Son to put Him to death, she placed her confidence in Him.
She fled with Him into Egypt and brought Him back later, to their land, always with the same faith, hope and love.
Her faith and hope were not weakened by the loss of Jesus in Jerusalem, only her mother’s love was disturbed, on this occasion.
When it seemed in that hidden life of Nazareth, that Jesus was leading a life of pointless silence, her faith and hope in Him, did not fade, while her love grew greater from day to day.
In the triumphs and sorrows of His public life, she continued to practice, to an extraordinary degree, these three virtues – on the road to Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, at the removal of Our Lord’s body from the Cross, at the tomb, at the glorious Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost.
At last, when she was alone in this world without Jesus, these three virtues seemed to burn more brightly in her soul.
She thought only of Jesus, hoped in Jesus alone and loved Jesus alone.
Then Jesus rewarded the lively faith, expectant hope and flaming charity of His Mother, for on her assumption into Heaven, these three virtues shared in her triumph and coronation.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in ADVENT QUOTES, DECEMBER - The DIVINE INFANCY and The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, Hail MARY!, MARIAN QUOTES, MOTHER of GOD, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on SACRED SCRIPTURE, The ANNUNCIATION, The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, The INCARNATION, The MOST HOLY REDEEMER, Our SAVIOUR, The NATIVITY of JESUS, The REDEMPTION, The RESURRECTION

Quote/s of the Day – 12 December – Is she not our mother?

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Quote/s of the Day – 12 December – “Month of the Immaculate Conception” – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Readings: Zechariah 2:14-17, Judith 13:18, 19, Luke 1:26-38.

“And if any man
will not receive His birth from a virgin,
how shall he receive His resurrection
from the dead?
For it is nothing wonderful
and astonishing and extraordinary,
if one who was not born,
rose from the dead – nay indeed,
we cannot speak of a resurrection of him
who came unto being without birth.
For one who is unborn and immortal
and has not undergone birth,
will also not undergo death.
For He, who took not the beginning of man,
how could He receive His end?”

St Irenaeus (130-202)
Martyr, Theologian, Father

“What shall we say, brethren?
Is she not our mother?
Certainly, brethren, she is in truth our mother.
Through her we are born,
not to the world but to God.”

“Scripture says, ‘Praise the Lord in his saints’.
If the Lord is to be praised in those saints
through whom He performs
mighty works and miracles,
how much more should He be praised in HER,
in whom He fashioned Himself,
He who is wonderful beyond all wonder.”

St Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167)
From his sermons – Sermon 20

Posted in ADVENT QUOTES, DECEMBER - The DIVINE INFANCY and The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARIAN TITLES, MOTHER of GOD, QUOTES of the SAINTS, SAINT of the DAY, The ANNUNCIATION, The WORD

Advent Reflection – 12 December – ‘… The mediator and the ladder … ‘

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Advent Reflection – 12 December – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Readings: Zechariah 2:14-17, Judith 13:18, 19, Luke 1:26-38.

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus.” – Luke 1:30-31

REFLECTION – “Most blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb ” For all ages will call you blessed, as you said (Lk 1:48). The daughters of Jerusalem, that is to say, the Church, saw you and proclaimed your happiness … For you are the royal throne near which the angels stood contemplating their Master and Creator, who was seated on it (Dan 7:9). You have become the spiritual Eden, more sacred and more divine than the former one. The earthly Adam lived in the former; in you, lives the Lord who came from heaven (1 Cor 15:47). Noah’s ark was a prefiguration of you; it saved the seed of the second creation, for you gave birth to Christ, the world’s salvation, who submerged sin and pacified the floods.

It was you whom the burning bush described ahead of time, whom the tablets depicted, on which God wrote (Ex 31:18), which the ark of the covenant told about; it is you whom the golden urn, the candelabra … and Aaron’s staff that blossomed (Num 17:23) clearly prefigured. … I almost left out Jacob’s ladder. Just as Jacob saw heaven united with the earth by means of the two ends of the ladder and the angels descending and ascending on it and as the one who is really the strong and invincible one engaged in a symbolic struggle with him, thus you yourself became the mediator and ladder by which God came down to us and took upon Himself the weakness of our substance, embracing it and closely uniting it to Himself.” – St John Damascene (675-749) Monk, Theologian, Father and Doctor of the Church – 1st Sermon on the Dormition

PRAYER – Lord Jesus Christ my Lord, help me to become a devoted client of Your holy Mother Mary. Through Your grace, may I receive the spiritual strength she has promised to all her clients. May I, in simplicity, like St Juan Diego, become her vessel to share Your Light, throughout my world. Our Lady of Guadalupe Pray for us! Jesus Christ, our Lord, one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for all ages, amen.

Posted in ADVENT QUOTES, ADVENT REFLECTIONS, DECEMBER - The DIVINE INFANCY and The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN PRAYERS, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN REFLECTIONS, MARIAN TITLES, MOTHER of GOD, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Our Morning Offering – 12 December – Mary Immaculate! By St John Damascene

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 12 December – “Month of the Immaculate Conception” – Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Readings: Zechariah 2:14-17, Judith 13:18, 19, Luke 1:26-38.

Mary Immaculate!
By St John Damascene (675-749)
Father and Doctor of the Church

Today, the root of Jesse has produced its shoot,
she will bring forth a Divine flower for the world.
Today, the Creator of all things,
God the Word,
composes a new book:
a book issuing from the heart of His Father
and written by the Holy Spirit,
who is the tongue to God.

O daughter of King David and Mother of God,
the universal King.
O Divine and living object
whose beauty has charmed God the Creator;
your whole soul is completely open
to God’s action and attentive to God alone.

All your desires are centred
only on what merits to be sought
and is worthy of love.
You harbour anger only for sin and its author.
You will have a life superior to nature,
but not for your own sake.
For it has not been created for you
but has been entirely consecrated to God,
who has introduced you into the world
to help bring about our salvation
in fulfillment of His plan,
the Incarnation of His Son
and the Divinisation of the human race.

Your heart will find nourishment in the words of God,
like the tree planted near the living waters of the Spirit,
like the tree of life
that has yielded its fruit in due time,
the incarnate God who is the life of all things.

Your ears will be ever attentive to the Divine words
and the sounds of the harp of the Spirit,
through whom the Word has come to take on our flesh.
Your nostrils will inhale the fragrance of the Bridegroom,
the Divine fragrance with which He scented His humanity.

Your lips will savour the words of God
and will rejoice in their Divine sweetness.
Your most pure heart,
free from all stain,
will ever see the God of all purity
and will experience ardent desire for Him.

Your womb will be the abode
of the one whom no place can contain.
Your milk will provide nourishment for God,
in the little Infant Jesus.
Your hands will carry God
and your knees will serve
as a throne for Him
that is more noble
than the throne of the Cherubim.

Your feet, led by the light of the Divine Law,
will follow Him along an undeviating course
and guide you to the possession of the Beloved.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit,
the city of the living God,
made joyous by abundant flowers,
the sacred flowers of Divine grace.
You are all-beautiful
and very close to God,
above the Cherubim
and higher than the Seraphim,
right near God Himself!

Image Excerpt

O daughter of King David
and Mother of God,
the universal King.
O Divine and living object
whose beauty has charmed God the Creator;
your whole soul is completely open
to God’s action and attentive to God alone.
… Your womb will be the abode
of the one whom no place can contain.
Your milk will provide nourishment for God,
in the little Infant Jesus.
Your hands will carry God
and your knees will serve
as a throne for Him
that is more noble
than the throne of the Cherubim.
… You are the temple of the Holy Spirit,
the city of the living God,
made joyous by abundant flowers,
the sacred flowers of Divine grace.
You are all-beautiful
and very close to God,
above the Cherubim
and higher than the Seraphim,
right near God Himself!
Amen

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 12 December – Saint Vicelinus of Oldenburg (1086-1154)

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Saint of the Day – 12 December – Saint Vicelinus of Oldenburg (1086-1154) Bishop, Missionary, “the Apostle of Holstei,” zealous Preacher and as Bishop, he concentrated on education of his Priests and the spiritual growth of his Diocese as well as the needs of the poor, founder of numerous monasteries. Born in 1086 in the castle at Hemelin on the Weser, Lower Saxony, Germany and died on 12 December 1154 at Neumunster, Lorraine, France of natural causes. Also known as – Apostle of Obodriten, of the Wends, Vicelinus, Vincelin, Vizelin, Wissel, Witzel, Wizelin.

St Vicelinus distributes food to the needy. Oil painting by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, 1812

Vicelinus was born in Hemelin around 1086. He was orphaned at an early age and thereafter, raised by his uncle Ludolf, a Priest in a neighbouring village. He left to join the Cathedral school at Paderborn, where he soon surpassed his companions and assisted in the management of the Cathedral school.

Vicelinus was called to Bremen to act as teacher and principal of the school and was offered a canonry by Archbishop Frederick of the Archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen. In 1122 he may have gone to Laon to complete his studies under St Abelard. In 1126, Vicelinus decided to travel to Madgeburg, in order to see St Norbert, who at that time was the Archbishop. He hoped that St Norbert would ordain him a Priest and he could begin missionary work among the Slavs. For one reason or another this plan failed and so Vicelinus returned to Bremen, where Bishop Albero Ordained him. Hamburg-Bremen’s Archbishop Adalbero sent him among the Polabian Slavs and in the fall of 1126 Henry, Prince of the Obotrites, gave him a Church in Liubice, near the site of the later Lübeck. At the death of Henry (22 March 1127) Vicelinus returned to Bremen and was appointed Parish Priest at Wippenthorp. This gave him an opportunity to work among the Wagrians and neighbouring Obotrites.

Vicelinus’s preaching gathered crowds of eager listeners and many Priests aided him in founding a new monastery in 1127 known as Neumünster. The monastery followed the Rule of St Augustine and was liberally endowed by the Archbishop. Wars among the tribes in 1137 caused the missionaries to abandon their labours for two years. Vicelinus sent two Priests to Liubice but with little success. In 1134 he founded a second monastery at Segeberg.

Some years later Vicelinus established a monastery at Hogersdorf. Archbishop Hartwig I made him Bishop of Starigard (or today’s Oldenburg) in 1149. There he did much for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his Diocese. In 1152 he was struck by paralysis and lingered amid much suffering for two years before dying in Neumünster.

In 1330 the Augustine canon-law college moved to Bordesholm and St Vicelinus relics were transferred there too in 1332 and his body was buried before the main altar.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Memorials of the Saints – 12 December

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Feast) The First Apparition was on 12 December 1531.
All about Our Lady of Guadalupe:

https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/12/12/saint-of-the-day-the-feast-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe-12-december/

AND:

https://anastpaul.com/2018/12/12/feast-of-our-lady-of-guadalupe-12-december/

St Abra
St Agatha of Wimborne
Bl Bartholomew Buonpedoni
St Pope Callistus II
St Colman of Clonard
St Columba of Terryglass
Bl Conrad of Offida
St Corentius of Quimper
St Cormac
St Cury
St Donatus the Martyr
St Edburga of Thanet
St Finnian of Clonard (470–549) “Tutor of the Saints of Ireland”
About St Finnian:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/12/saint-of-the-day-12-december-saint-finnian-of-clonard-470-549-tutor-of-the-saints-of-ireland/
St Gregory of Terracina
St Hermogenes
Bl Ida of Nivelles

Bl Ludwik Bartosik
Bl Martin Sanz
St Simon Phan Ðac Hòa
St Spyridon of Cyprus
St Synesius
St Vicelinus of Oldenburg (1086-1154) Bishop

Martyrs of Alexandria – (6 saints): A group of six Christians martyred for their faith during the persecutions of Decius. We know little more than five of their names – Alexander, Ammonaria, Dionysia, Epimachus and Mercuria. They were burned to death c 250 in Alexandria, Egypt.

Martyrs of Trier – (4 saints): A group of six Christians martyred for their faith during the persecutions of Decius. We know little more than five of their names – Alexander, Ammonaria, Dionysia, Epimachus and Mercuria. They were burned to death c 250 in Alexandria, Egypt.