Daily Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Thou has destroyed the power of death and given the hope of eternal life, for body and soul. Thou granted Thy Mother a special place in Thy glory and did not allow decay to touch her body. As we rejoice in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, grant us renewed confidence in the victory of life over death. Amen.
Day 3: O Mother, Assumed into Heaven because thou shared in all the mysteries of our Redemption here below, Jesus has crowned thee with glory. With thy most glorious and powerful intercession, help us O loving Mother and present to Jesus our request. ………………………………… (Mention your request) O Queen assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen
Thought for the Day – 8 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Eucharistic Life
“The Eucharist in our spiritual life could be compared to the sun in the physical life of the world. The sun gives light, heat and life. We can imagine what a terrible thing it would be if the sun set one evening and never rose again! Darkness would envelop the earth once more as at the beginning of creation. The cold would become relentless and life would be gradually extinguished everywhere. Men could, for sometime, depend on their reserves of artificial light to illuminate their creeping agony but, life would slowly decline, until it ended in death for everything and for everybody. Such would be the spiritual life without Jesus, especially without Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist, Who lives amongst us as our only true Friend, Who hears, helps and nourishes us.
He is the sun of our souls, the source of our enlightenment, fervour and consolation. Are we weary and discouraged beneath the weight of our daily cross and of our sins? Let us go to Jesus and He will help us to carry our cross. He will wash away our sins and give us the supernatural strength, never to sin again.
Let us unite ourselves to Jesus, by frequent Communion, by a daily visit to Him in the Tabernacle and, by making a spiritual communion whenever we cannot receive Him in the Blessed Eucharist. Let us make fervent aspirations, whenever we find our cross too heavy for us or when we are strongly tempted.
Many people go on long pilgrimages to famous Sanctuaries, such as Lourdes, Fatima and the Holy Places of Palestine. These are certainly worthwhile but, we should not forget that the greatest sanctuary of all is close at hand. It is in every Church which contains Jesus in the Tabernacle. Here, we have Jesus Himself, really present and anxious to listen to us and to help us. The Saints could find no greater joy on earth than to to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. We are all called to be saints!”
Quote/s of the Day – 8 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Readings: First Kings 19: 4-8; Psalm 34: 2-9 (9a); Ephesians 4: 30 – 5: 2; John 6: 41-51
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
John 6:51
“I am the bread of life”
John 6:35
“For His body, has been given to you under the appearance of bread and His blood, under the appearance of wine, so that, when you have partaken of the body and blood of Christ, you might be one body and one blood with Him. So shall we become Christ-bearers [“Christophers”]. His body and blood are diffused through all our members – see, then, how we become participants in the divine nature!”
St Cyril of Jerusalem (313-350) Bishop of Jerusalem, Father & Doctor of the Church
“But the bread of Moses was not perfect, it was only given to the Israelites. Because He wanted to show, that His gift is superior to that of Moses and the call to the nations still more perfect, our Lord said: “If anyone eats this bread he shall live forever,” for the bread from God “has come down from heaven” and is given to the whole world (Jn 6:51).”
St Ephrem (306-373) Father & Doctor of the Church
“God has exercised His condescension towards our weakness and placed all His life-force into the elements of bread and wine, which are thus endowed with the spirit of His own life. So believe in it without hesitation, for our Lord Himself has clearly said: “This is my body” and “This is my blood.”
St Cyril of Alexandria (380-444) Father & Doctor of the Church
One Minute Reflection – 8 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Readings: First Kings 19: 4-8; Psalm 34: 2-9 (9a); Ephesians 4: 30 – 5: 2; John 6: 41-51
“The bread that I will give, is my flesh for the life of the world.” – John 6:51
REFLECTION – “They are wholly mistaken who reject God’s plan for His creation, deny the salvation of the flesh and scoff at the idea of its regeneration, asserting that it cannot put on an imperishable nature. If the flesh is not saved, then the Lord did not redeem us with His Blood, the Chalice of the Eucharist is not a share in His Blood and the Bread which we break is not a share in His Body (1Cor 10,16). For… the human substance, which the Word of God truly became, redeems us with His Blood…
Since we are His members (1Cor 6,15) and are nourished by His creation… He declared, that the Chalice of His creation is His own Blood, from which He augments our own blood and He affirmed, that the Bread of His creation is His own Body from which He gives growth to our being.
So, when the mixed chalice and the baked loaf receive the word of God and when the Eucharistic elements become the Body and Blood of Christ, which brings growth and sustenance to our bodily frame, how can it be maintained that our flesh is incapable of receiving God’s gift of eternal life?
For our flesh feeds on the Lord’s Body and Blood and is His member. So Saint Paul writes: “We are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones” (Eph 5,30; Gn 2,23). He is not speaking about some spiritual and invisible man…: he is speaking of the anatomy of a real man, consisting of flesh, nerves and bones. It is this that is nourished by His Chalice, the Chalice of His Blood and gains growth from the Bread which is His Body… In the same way, our bodies are nourished by the after being buried in the earth and… rise again in due season, when the word of God confers resurrection upon them “for the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2,11).” – St Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) Bishop, Theologian and Martyr Against the heresies, V, 2, 2
PRAYER – Almighty, ever-living God, in Your Word, You shed the light of Your glory on the peoples who are living in the shadow of death. By Your Word, You teach us all things and ‘draw’ us in the way of hope and love. For Your Word is Truth and Your Word became flesh and filled our world with the Sun of Justice, Your Son, He who is the Sun and the Truth. May our steps be guided by His Mother, Our Blessed Lady, as we follow in the footsteps of Your Word and be a protection in our trials by the Bread of Life. Through Christ, our Lord Jesus, with You in union with the Holy Spirit, now and forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 8 August – Saint Altman of Passau (c 1020 – 1091) Bishop, Monastic Founder, Reformer and an important representative of the Gregorian reforms, Apostolic Vicar and Papal Legate of Germany, a devoted servant of the poor and sick. Born in c 1020 at Paderborn, Westphalia, Germany and died on 8 August 1091 at Zeiselmauer, Gottweig, Austria of natural causes. Also known as – Altmann, Altmanno.
Altman was born between 1013 and 1020 in Westphalia to a family of the greater nobility of Saxony. He was educated at the Cathedral School at Paderborn, of which he later became director. He was also a Prebendary in Aachen between 1056 and 1065, Court Chaplain to Emperor Henry III and a Canon in Goslar.
In 1065 he succeeded Egilbert as Bishop of Passau , thus becoming the 22nd Bishop of the Diocese and began reforms of the Clergy. As Bishop he was renowned for his care of the poor, his vigour in the reformation of almost degenerate Monasteries and the building of new ones. He founded St Nicholas’ Abbey in Passau in 1070 as a Monastery of the Canons Regular and Göttweig Abbey in Lower Austria in 1083, later converted into a Benedictine Monastery in 1094.
In 1074 he announced the reforms of Pope Gregory VII, whom he supported in the subsequent Investiture. Altman was the most zealous promoter of the Church reform in the German lands . In 1076, along with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Gebhard von Helfenstein (who had consecrated Altman as a Bishop), he did not take part in the Synod of Worms and supported the counter-king Rudolf of Swabia. He was expelled from Passau by Emperor Henry IV, who laid the City to waste in 1077/1078. The princely rights over the Town of Passau were lost, the King lent them to the Burggrave Ulrich, whom he had employed. These were to be returned to the Bishops only after the death of the Burggrave in 1099.
Altman took part in the Synod in1079 and 1080 in Rome, was appointed Papal Legate and Apostolic Vicar for Germany and was able to win the Margrave Leopold II of Austria to the Papal party. In 1085 the Emperor deposed him as Bishop of Passau, after which he spent most of his time in the territory of the Austrian Margrave, where he assisted the poor of the area, reformed the existing Monasteries of St Florian, Kremsmünster Abbey, Melk and St Pölten Abbey, improved the Parish Church organisational and administrative systems and had stone Churches built at all of them. His influence on the government of the Margraviate was at times so powerful, that he was called the “leader” of Margrave Leopold II.
He died in Zeiselmauer in Lower Austria and was buried in the Monastery of Göttweig Abbey. He is venerated as a saint, although no official canonization has ever taken place. His feast day is 8 August.
The Vita of Altman of Passau was written by an anonymous Monk of Göttweig some fifty years after the Bishop’s death.
Shrine and Religuary of St Altman at Göttweig Abbey
Santa Maria della Querce / Our Lady of the Oak, Lucignano, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy (1417) – 8 August, Third Saturday of September:
In 1417 Feliciano Batone painted a fresco of the Pietà on a wayside Shrine beneath a great oak . Fifty years later, there was a surge in devotion to the Madonna of the Oak after the story circulated that on 8 August 1467, a man from Siena, running from his enemies, stopped there to pray to Mary, who made him invisible to his pursuers.
A small wooden Chapel was built to protect the image and Consecrated that year. Located on a hill northeast of the old City centre, beyond the Medici Fortress and the cemetery, the present Church was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1558 and Consecrated in 1617.
On the third Sunday of September, near the feast of the Sorrowful Mother on S15 September, Lucignano celebrates St. Mary of the Oak with religious services, food, games and fireworks.
St Aemilian of Cyzicus St Altman of Passau (c 1020 – 1091) Bishop
St Mummolus of Fleury St Myron the Wonder Worker St Paulus Ge Tingzhu St Rathard of Diessen St Severus of Vienne St Sigrada St Smaragdus St Ternatius of Besançon St Ultan of Crayke Bl William of Castellammare di Stabia Bl Wlodzimierz Laskowski — Martyrs of Albano – 4 saints: Four Christians who were martyred together, and about we today know little more than their names – Carpóforo, Secondo, Severiano and Vittorino. They were martyred in Albano, Italy – their remains are interred in the San Senator cemetery, on the Appian Way, 15 miles from Rome, Italy.
Martyrs of Rome – 5 saints: Five Christians martyred together; we know nothing else about them but the names – Ciriaco, Crescenziano, Giuliana, Memmia and Smaragdus. They were martyred at the 7 mile marker, on the Via Ostia, Rome, Italy.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War – Martyrs of El Saler – 5 beati: Five nuns, all members of the Sisters of the Pious Schools, all teachers, and all martyred together in the Spanish Civil War. • Antonia Riba Mestres • Maria Baldillou Bullit • María Luisa Girón Romera • Nazaria Gómez Lezaun • Pascuala Gallén Martí They were martyred on 8 August 1936 in El Saler, Valencia, Spain.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: Bl Cruz Laplana Laguna Bl Fernando Español Berdie Bl Leoncio López Ramos Bl Manuel Aranda Espejo Bl Mariano Pina Turón Bl Pedro Álvarez Pérez
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