Wishing you all a most Blessed and Holy Easter! Alleluia!
Thank you for accompanying me on our Lenten journey with St Francis de Sales. I hope his words have been inspiring and helpful. Today we rejoice and continue with joy singing in our hearts through the Octave as we celebrate this great Feast! And, St Francis will not be leaving at all, he has hired a permanent abode here that we might visit him as often as we wish.
“Live joyfully! Our Lord is looking lovingly down upon you! ”
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor Caritas
My deepest gratitude to the benefactors of “Breathing Catholic.” 💘🤗 Your faithfulness and love are in my heart and my prayers. May the Risen Lord fill your hearts with His infinite love, may He protect your faith and your families.
Thought for the Day – 9 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Meaning of Easter
“How many Easters have we spent? Have they represented a constant improvement in our lives, or have we been static or even worse, become lukewarm, tepid and uncaring of our good Lord’s love of us and our own salvation? In the Hebrew tongue, Pasch means a passing or transit, specifically, it refers to the passing of the Lord. It will be a tragedy if Jesus passes us by without stopping! to rest with us in order to claim us as His own and to make us holy!
This Easter could be our last. The thought should be a warning for us. God’s goodness is infinite but, there is a limit to His grace and favours. We often impose this limit ourselves by the degree of our co-operation. Our eternal salvation depends largely upon ourselves! God does not grant His Mercy to unrepentant souls – think of that second thief on the cross next to Our Lord!”
Quote/s of the Day –9 April – Easter Sunday and “The Month of the Resurrection”
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is Risen and you are overthrown. Christ is Risen and the demons are fallen. Christ is Risen and the Angels rejoice. Christ is Risen and Life reigns. Christ is Risen and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being Risen from the dead, is become the First Fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.”
St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father & Doctor of the Church
“For Christ is our Salvation. For He is our Salvation, Who was wounded for us and fastened with nails to the Wood and taken down from the Wood and laid in the sepulchre. But He rose from the sepulchre and although His Wounds were healed, the Scars remained. For this He judged expedient for His Disciples that He should keep His Scars, to heal the wounds of their soul.”
St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of Grace
“All I want to know is Christ and the power flowing from His Resurrection!”
Our Lenten Journey with St Francis de Sales – 9 April – Easter Sunday, Alleluia, He is Truly Risen, Alleluia!
“Such is the case when one is without God … ” St Francis de Sales
EASTER SUNDAY! St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor Caritas
“Alas, how the faith of Jesus’ Apostles is shaken after His Crucifixion! Assembled in a room with closed doors, they are filled with fear. Then Jesus enters, stands in their midst and greets them: ‘Peace be with you.’ Showing them the signs and marks of the reconciliation of humanity with God, He says, ‘See My Hands and My Side.’ Why does He do this? To bolster their vacillating faith. Without the presence of our Saviour, they felt timid and lacked strength. Such is the case when one is without God. They were afraid. Like a ship tossed in a storm without a pilot, such was this poor boat. Our Lord appears to His disciples to bring relief to their fear.” – (Sermon of St Francis de Sales for Lent).
One Minute Reflection – 9 April – Easter Sunday, Alleluia, He is Truly Risen, Alleluia! and “The Month of the Resurrection” – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Mark 16:1-7 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“This is the day which the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice therein. ” – Psalm 117:24
REFLECTION – “Today, as yesterday, let our joy break out, my brethren. If night’s darkness has interrupted our rejoicing then the holy day is not complete… for the brightness shed by the joy of the Lord is eternal. Christ shone upon us yesterday and today His Light shines out again. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today” says the blessed Apostle Paul (Heb 13:8). Yes, Christ has become our Day. He was born today for us, as God His Father declares through the voice of David: “You are My Son; today I have become your Father” (Ps 2:7). What are we to say? That He did not once Father His Son but Himself engendered day and night…
Yes, Christ is our ‘Today’ – living splendour which never sets, He does not cease to set alight the world He sustains (cf. Heb 1,3) and this eternal refulgence seems but a day. “A thousand years in Your Sight are like a single day” exclaims the prophet (Ps 89:4). Yes, Christ is that single Day because God’s eternity is single. He is our Today – the past, once gone, does not pass Him by; the future, as yet unknown, holds no secrets for Him. Sovereign Light, He embraces all things, knows all things, at all times He is present and possesses them all. Before Him the past cannot dissolve, nor the future hide… This day is neither the one when He was born of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh, nor the one when He came forth from the mouth of God, His Father according to His Divinity but, it is the moment, when He was raised from the dead. “He raised up Jesus,” says the Apostle Paul, “as it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are My Son; this day I have begotten You” (Acts 13,33).
How truly He is our Day, when, springing up from hell’s thick darkness, He sets mankind alight. How truly He is our Day, this Man Whom the dark designs of His foes, could not blacken. No better Day than this, could have welcomed the Light – both day and life it has restored, to all the dead. Old age had laid men out in death; He has raised them up again, in the renewed vigour of His Today!” – St Maximus of Turin (?-c420) Bishop and Father of the Church (Sermon 36).
PRAYER – O God, Who, on this day, through Thine Only-begotten Son, hast conquered death and thrown open to us, the Gate of everlasting life, give effect by thine aid to our desires, which Thou dost anticipate and inspire. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).
Our Morning Offering – 9 April – Easter Sunday, Alleluia, He is Truly Risen, Alleluia! and “The Month of the Resurrection”
O Filii et Filiae Ye Sons and Daughters of the Lord By Jean Tisserand OFM (Died 1497) (The original Hymn comprises the nine stanzas below). Trans. Fr Edward Caswell C.Orat. (1814-1878)
Ye sons and daughters of the Lord, The King of Heaven, the King adored, From death this day Himself restored. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
On Sunday morn at break of day The holy women went their way, To see the tomb where Jesus lay. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
An Angel clad in white they see, Who sat,and spake unto the three: “Your Lord hath gone to Galilee.” Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
That night the’ Apostle met in fear, But Christ didst in the midst appear: “My peace,” He saith, “be on thee!” Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
But Thomas, when of this he heard, Was doubtful of his brethren’s word; Wherefore, again there came the Lord. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
“Behold My side, O Thomas, see; My hands, My feet, I show to thee; Not faithless but believing be.” Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
When Thomas say that wounded side, The truth no longer he denied, “Thou art my Lord and God,” he cried. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
Oh, blest are they who have not seen Their Lord and yet believe in Him; Eternal life awaiteth them. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!
On this Most Holy Day of days, To God your hearts and voices raise In laud and jubilee and praise. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia Amen!
Saint of the Day – 9 April – Saint Waltrude of Mons (c612-686) Married, Mother, Widow, later a Nun. Born at Cousolre in northern France in c612 as Waldetrude and died on 9 April 686 of natural causes. Patronages – of Hainault, Belgium and of Mons, Belgium. Also known as – Waldetrude, Valdetrudis, Vaudru, Vautrude, Waldeltrude, Waldetrude, Waldetrudis, Waltrudis, Waudru.
The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Mons, in Hainault, blessed Waltrude, renowned for holiness of life and miracles.”
Waltrude was the daughter to the Princess St Bertille, elder sister to St Aldegondes and wife to Madelgaire, Count of Hainault and one of the principal Lords of King Dagobert’s Court. After bearing him two sons and two daughters, she induced him to embrace the monastic state at Haumont, taking the name of Vincent. He is honoured in Flanders among the Saints on the 20 September and called St.Vincent of Soignies.
For two years longer, she remained in the world, devoting herself entirely to exercises of piety, under the direction of the holy Abbot Saint Guislain. Being by that time disengaged from the encumbrances of the world,in 656, she received the Religious Veil at the hands of St.Aubert, Bishop of Cambray and lived in a little cell, adjoining to which was a Chapel in a solitary place called Castriloc, now Mons. Many other ladies resorting to her, she formed a Religious Community, which became a rich royal chapter of canonesses.
The Canonesses’ habit
From her reputation and from this community arose the City of Mons, now the Capital of Hainault. While her sister Aldegondes governed her great Monastery at Maubeuge, Waltrude sanctified herself in her little cell by holy poverty, meekness, patience, continual fasting and prayer. She suffered much from the slanders of men and from severe interior trials and temptations but God, after some years, recompensed her fidelity with a holy peace and great spiritual consolations.
On the 9 April, 686, she went to receive the crown promised by God to those who serve Him. Her Relics are esteemed the most precious treasure of the great Church which bears her name in Mons. She is titular Patroness of Mons and all of the district of Hainault.
By the life of St Waltrude, we should learn to despise the unjust censures of the world. It persecutes, by its calumnies, those by whose lives, its false maxims are condemned. But, it can only hurt a counterfeit virtue, as the fire consumes only the dross but renders true gold brighter and more pure. Solid virtue is not only tried by humiliations but, gains the greatest advantage and improvement, by making a good use of them.
The Shrine of Saint Waltrude is kept in the Saint Waltrude Collegiate Church in Mons. Each year, as part of the Ducasse de Mons Festival, the Shrine, which is within a gilded cart, is drawn by horses through the City streets.
Both her parents – Walbert and Bertille and her sister (Aldegund) were Canonised. Her four children were also declared Saints, (Landericus, Dentelin, Aldetrude, and Madelberte) and so was her husband, Madelgaire.
St Brogan St Casilda of Toledo St Concessus the Martyr St Demetrius the Martyr St Dotto St Eupsychius of Cappadocia St Gaucherius St Hedda the Abbot St Heliodorus of Mesopotamia St Hilary the Martyr
Blessed Ubaldo Adimari OSM (c 1245-1315) Priest and Servite Friar, Soldier, Politician, Penitent, miracle-worker, spiritul student and later assistant of St Philip Benezi (1233-1285) (one of the Seven Holy Founders of the Order of the Servants of Mary – the Servites). He was Beatified on 3 April 1821 by Pope Pius VII. Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2021/04/09/saint-of-the-day-9-april-blessed-ubaldo-adimari-osm-c-1245-1315/
St Waltrude of Mons (c612-686) Married Mother, later a Nun
Martyrs of Croyland – 9 Saints: A group of Benedictine Monks Martyred by pagan Danes – Agamund, Askega, Egdred, Elfgete, Grimkeld, Sabinus, Swethin, Theodore and Ulric. Croyland Abbey, England.
Martyrs of Masyla: Massylitan Martyrs Group of Christians Martyred in Masyla in northwest Africa.
Martyrs of Pannonia: Seven Virgin-Martyrs in Sirmium, Pannonia (modern Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia).
Martyrs of Thorney Abbey – 3+ Saints: A group of Hermits, hermitesses and monks who lived in or around Thorney Abbey who were Martyred together during raids by pagan Danes. We know little more than the names of three – Tancred, Torthred and Tova. 869 by raiders at Thorney Abbey, Cambridgeshire, England.
AnaStpaul 
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