Day: January 9, 2022

Posted in DIVINE Mercy, Goodness, Patience, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on DEATH, QUOTES on FEAR, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on JUSTICE, QUOTES on SIN, QUOTES on SUFFERING

Thought for the Day – 9 January – Death

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Thought for the Day – 9 January – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Death

“Death, like suffering, is the result of sin: “Through sin death” (Rom 5:12).
But, it is more than a punishment for sin.
It is also a liberation for the just who, like St Francis of Assisi, look upon death as the good sister, who will come one day to set them free and unite them with Christ in everlasting happiness.
“Desiring to depart and to be with Christ …” (Phil 1:33).

Death is certainly a fearful thing.
It is the violent separation of the soul from the body.
The mere thought makes us tremble, for our eternal happiness, or misery, depends on this moment.
But, if we lead good Christian lives, if we strive with the help of divine grace to avoid sin and to do what is good, death is no longer terrible.
Death is now reward.
It is the paradise which awaits us.
Even in the mystery of death, the Justice of God is interwoven with His Mercy.
As He punishes us in order to correct us, so, He makes us die, in order to bestow on us, the joys of Heaven.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/01/08/thought-for-the-day-8-january-death/

Posted in MODESTY, OCTOBER - The HOLY ROSARY and The HOLY ANGELS, PAPAL ENCYLICALS, PAPAL MESSAGES, QUOTES on MODESTY, QUOTES on MOTHERHOOD, QUOTES on the FAMILY, ROSARY QUOTES, The HOLY ROSARY/ROSARY CRUSADE

Quote/s of the Day – 9 January – The Family

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Quote/s of the Day – 9 January – Sunday withi the Octave of Epiphany and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

“ … The family is not made for society;
rather, it is society, which is made for the family.”

“Christian mothers,
if only you knew the future of distress and peril,
of shame ill-restrained,
that you prepare for your sons and daughters
in imprudently accustoming them,
to live hardly clothed
and in making them lose the sense of modesty,
you should be ashamed of yourselves!
and of the harm done the little ones
whom heaven entrusted to your care,
to be reared in Christian dignity and culture.”

“Below the knee,
halfway down the arm
and two finger widths
below the collarbone.”

“Since God has given the family its existence,
its dignity, its social function,
it must answer to God for them.
Its rights and its privileges are inalienable …
It has the duty,
primarily, before God
and secondarily, before society,
to defend, to vindicate
and to promote effectively,
these rights and these privileges,
not only for its own good
but, for the glory of God
and the welfare of the community.”

“There is no surer means
of calling down God’s blessing
upon the family,
than the daily recitation
of the Rosary.”

Ven Servant of God Pope Pius XII (1876-1958)

Posted in AUGUSTINIANS OSA, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, ONE Minute REFLECTION, The HOLY FAMILY, THE HOLY FAMILY - FAMILIAE SANCTAE, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 9 January – ‘ … So, taking Christ’s genealogy from Joseph …’ – St Augustine

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One Minute Reflection – 9 January – Sunday withi the Octave of Epiphany and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Readings: Colossians 3:12-17, Luke 2:42-52

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them” – Luke 2:51

REFLECTION – “In saying to Joseph – “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife” (Mt 1:20), the Angel was not mistaken. … The address as “wife” was neither empty nor false, for this Virgin was the happiness of her husband, in a way, that was all the more perfect and admirable, in that she became a mother without the participation of that husband, fecund, without him but faithful to him. It was because of that genuine marriage, that they both merited to be called “the parents of Christ” – not only she as “His Mother” but also he, as “his father,” insofar as he was husband of Christ’s Mother, father and husband spiritually, not according to the flesh. Both of them – he only by the spirit, she even in the flesh – are parents of His Humility, not of His Nobility, parents of His Weakness, not of his Divinity. Look in the Gospel, which cannot lie – His Mother said to Him: “Son, why have you done this to us? See how your father and I, have been searching for you anxiously.”

As for Him, wanting to show that He also had a Father, besides them, who had conceived Him without a mother, answered them: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” And so, that no-one should think that in speaking thus, He was denying His parents, the Evangelist added: “He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject to them.” … Now why did He subject Himself to those who were so inferior to His Divine Nature? Because, “humbling himself, he took on the nature of a slave” (Phil 2:7), according to which, they were His parents. If they had not been united by a true marriage, even without carnal intercourse, they could not both have been the parents of that nature of a servant.

So, taking Christ’s genealogy from Joseph – a husband in chastity, he was father in the same way. … Are you saying that he did not conceive Jesus through the operation of nature? Well then, what the Holy Spirit operated, He did for them both. For Joseph was “a just man,” Matthew tells us (1:19). Both husband and wife were just. The Holy Spirit dwelt within their mutual justice and gave each of them, a Son!” – St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of Grace (Marriage and concupiscence 1,11; Sermon 51)

PRAYER – God, our Father, in the Holy Family of Nazareth, You have given us the true model of a Christian home. Grant, that by following Jesus, Mary and Joseph in their love for each other and in the example of their family life, we may come to Your home of peace and joy. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God, now and forever, amen.

Posted in Holy Family PRAYERS, HYMNS, Our MORNING Offering, PAPAL PRAYERS, POETRY, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, The HOLY FAMILY, THE HOLY FAMILY - FAMILIAE SANCTAE

Our Morning Offering – 9 January – O House of Nazareth The Blest

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Our Morning Offering – 9 January – Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany and the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

O Gente Felix
O House of Nazareth The Blest
By Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903)

O house of Nazareth the blest,
Fair hostess of the Lord,
The Church was nurtured at thy breast
And shared thy scanty hoard.

In all the spreading lands of earth.
The wandering sun may see
No dearer spot, no ampler worth
Than erst was found in thee!

We know thy humble tenement
Was heaven’s hermitage:
Celestial heralds came and went
In endless embassage.

There, whatsoever Joseph asks
Christ hastens to fulfil;
While Mary loves the household tasks
That wait her joyous will.

There, Joseph toileth at her side
Her joys and griefs to share,
With thousand ties knit to his bride,
Of love and work and prayer.

Yet how their bosoms constant burn
And deeper ardours prove
In love of Christ, whose eyes return
Tokens of mutual love.

O then, in all the homes of earth,
Be Love the bond of life:
May it enthrone at every hearth
The peace that husheth strife.

All praise to thee, O Jesus,
Who parents dost obey;
Praise to the sovereign Father
And Paraclete for aye.
Amen.

Posted in Against EPIDEMICS, AUGUSTINIANS OSA, Of the SICK, the INFIRM, All ILLNESS, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 9 January – Blessed Julia of Certaldo OSA(1319-1367)

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Saint of the Day – 9 January – Blessed Julia of CertaldoOSA (1319-1367) Laywoman, Third Order Augustinian, Recluse, Ascetic, Mystic living a life of prayer and penance. Born in 1319 at Certaldo, Italy as Giulia and died on 9 January 1367 of natural causes. Patronages – of the City and Diocese of Certaldo, Augustinian tertiaries, Against the plague/epidemics. all sickness, ailments. Also known as – Giulia della Rena da Certaldo, Julia della Rena.

The Roman Martyrology states of her today: “In Certaldo in Tuscany, Blessed Giulia della Rena, of the Third Order of Saint Augustine, who lived alone for God in a narrow cell next to the Church.“

Julia was born in Tuscany, near Certaldo, in 1319, of a family of noble origin. After being orphaned at a young age, she entered the service of the Tinolfi family in nearby Florence, There, having come into contact with the Augustinians and their spirituality, she took on the habit of the secular Third Order Augustinians when she was not yet twenty. She was professed in 1388 at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

But the tumult in Florence caused her to return home to Certaldo where she rescued a child from a burning building. This act of charity and heroism brought her unwanted fame and attention. Julia, feeling drawn to a more radical and austere vocation, decided to take refuge in a small room attached to the Augustinian Church of Sts Michael and James. She had little in her small cell save for a two little windows and a Crucifix. The windows opened, one into the Church to attend the sacred mysteries, the other towards the outside, to receive the food that popular piety would send her.

Julia would never leave her little “hermitage.” She lived there, segregated from the world for thirty years, following the long path of asceticism and mysticism to the end. Penance and prayer filled her day, as she sought daily to unite herself to Christ and to do penance and mortification, for all the sins of the world.

The people of Certaldo and the surrounding area, were devoted to this holy woman and took it upon themselves to assist her material existence with victuals and whatever she needed. The popular tradition tells, that even the children ran to her aid in large numbers, bringing her something to eat and that Julia, grateful and smiling, reciprocated with beautiful fresh flowers in any season of the year, even when the ground was covered with snow!

Nothing more is known about Julia, except that she was greatly revered by her fellow citizens for the life of piety she lived . It was as if she “belonged” to them as family.

Julia died around the year 1367. Her cult developed immediately after her passing, since the dedication of an Altar in the same Church where she had lived and where her body had been interred dates to 1372. Since 1506, the Certaldese Municipality contributed to the feast in honour of the Blessed, whose intercessory protection was attributed, several times, for the liberation from contagions diseases and the plague.

His mortal remains are venerated in Certaldo in the Church of Sts James and Philip, which once belonged to the Augustinians and where her Feast is celebrated with great honour each year, as the Patron of the region.

Her cult from time immemorial, was confirmed by Pope Pius VII on 18 May 1819 raising her to the Altars as Blessed Julia of Certaldo and inserting her name in the Roman Martyrology.

To celebrate the Bicentennial of the death of Blessed Julia, on 9 January 2019, the Bishop, Monsignor Andrea Migliavacca, launched a year of devotion to the protector of Certaldo, with a solemn Procession and Holy Mass to pay homage to Blessed Julia, Supported by the Municipality of Certaldo, a full year of exhibitionsm devotions and events began.

During the celebration, the new silver Reliquary, made for the occasion thanks to the gift of silver by the people of Certaldo and the new banner of the Opera Beata Giulia Apostolate was inaugurated and blessed. In addition, a votive lamp was lit, which burnt next to the Altar of the Blessed Julia, for the whole of 2019.

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN TITLES, MARTYRS, MIRACLES, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY FAMILY, THE HOLY FAMILY - FAMILIAE SANCTAE

Feast of the Holy Family, Feast of the Black Nazarene, Our Lady of Mercy of Absam/Our Lady of Clemency (Austria) (1797), Madonna della Lettera / Our Lady of the Letter (Messina, Sicily, Italy) (1693) and Memorials of the Saints – 9 January

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Sunday within the Octave of Epiphany

Feast of the Holy Family:
https://anastpaul.com/2017/12/31/31-december-feast-of-the-holy-family-and-the-seventh-day-of-the-octave/
AND:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/12/30/feast-of-the-holy-family-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph-30-decembe/
AND:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/29/feast-of-the-holy-family-of-jesus-mary-and-joseph-fifth-day-of-the-christmas-octave/

Feast of the Black Nazarene, 9 January:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/01/09/feast-of-the-black-nazarene-our-lady-of-mercy-of-absam-our-lady-of-clemency-austria-and-memorials-of-the-saints-9-january/

Our Lady of Mercy of Absam/Our Lady of Clemency (Austria) (1797) – 9 January:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/01/09/feast-of-the-black-nazarene-our-lady-of-mercy-of-absam-our-lady-of-clemency-austria-and-memorials-of-the-saints-9-january/

Madonna della Lettera / Our Lady of the Letter (Messina, Sicily, Italy) (1693) – 9 January and 3 June:
This wonderful Marian Title:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/06/03/the-solemnity-of-corpus-christi-madonna-della-lettera-our-lady-of-the-letter-messina-sicily-italy-1693-and-memorials-of-the-saints-3-june/

St Adrian of Canterbury (c 635-710) He was a Monk, Abbot, a brilliant Scholastic and Thelogian, Teacher, Administrator and Adviser.
About St Adrian:
https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/01/09/saint-of-the-day-9-january-st-adrian-of-canterbury-c-635-710/

Blessed Alix le Clerc/Teresa of Jesus CND (1576-1622) Founder of the Canonesses of St Augustine of the Congregation of Our Lady, a religious Order founded to provide education to girls, especially those living in poverty.
Her Story:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/01/09/saint-of-the-day-9-january-blessed-alix-le-clerc-teresa-of-jesus-cnd-1576-1622/

St Agatha Yi
Bl Antony Fatati
St Brithwald of Canterbury
St Eustratius of Olympus
Bl Franciscus Yi Bo-Hyeon
St Honorius of Buzancais
Bl Józef Pawlowski

Blessed Julia of Certaldo OSA (1319-1367) Recluse, Laywoman, Third Order Augustinian

Sts Julian and Basilissa (died c 304) Martyrs. Julian and Basilissa were husband and wife.
Biography:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/01/09/saints-of-the-day-sts-julian-and-basilissa-died-c-304-martyrs/

Bl Kazimierz Grelewski
St Marcellinus of Ancona
St Marciana
Bl Martinus In Eon-min
St Maurontius
St Nearchus
St Paschasia of Dijon

St Peter of Sebaste (c 340-c 391) Bishop of Sebaste in Lesser Armenia. Member of the glorious family of Saints – He was the younger brother of Basil of the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, the famous Christian Hermit Naucratius and Macrina the Younger and a close friend of Gregory of Nazianzen, all Saints. Of course, Basil and Gregory of Nazianzen are both Doctors too.
About St Peter:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/01/09/saint-of-the-day-9-january-st-peter-of-sebaste-c-340-c-391-bishop/

St Philip Berruyer
St Polyeucte
St Teresa Kim
St Waningus of Fécamp (Died c 688) Monk, Abbot

Martyrs of Africa – 21 Saints: A group of 21 Christians murdered together for their faith in the persecutions of Decius. The only details to survive are 14 of their names – Artaxes, Epictetus, Felicitas, Felix, Fortunatus, Jucundus, Pictus, Quietus, Quinctus, Rusticus, Secundus, Sillus, Vincent and Vitalis. They were Martyred in c 250.
Martyrs of Antioch – 6 saints: A group of Christians Martyred together during the persecutions of Diocletian – Anastasius, Anthony, Basilissa, Celsus, Julian and Marcionilla.