Thought for the Day – 13 December – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
The Desire for Perfection
“Make and keep yourselves holy,” God commands us, “because, I Am Holy.” (Lev 11:44; 19:2). “You are to be perfect,” adds Jesus Christs, “even as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48).
We are obliged, therefore, to make every possible effort, to advance in holiness. Sad experience teaches us, however, that it is very dfifficult to reach the level of sanctity to which we are called by God and, that it is impossible to achieve the absolute perfection which God alone possesses. Why then, does God place before us such an inacessible goal? Simply because, although He knows that we cannot attain the perfect holiness which is to be found in our heavenly Father, He wants us to desire it with all our hearts and to do our best to approach as near to it as we can.
This desire for sanctity should dominate all our actions. It may be impossible for us to achieve Christian perfection completely but, we should always strive towards it. All our actions and affections should form a ladder which will enable us to climb nearer to this ideal. If the desire for perfection dominates our entire lives, it will one day dominate and brighten the supreme moment of death. If we lack this desire, we shall fall into a state of tepidity and of indifference to spiritual realities which will inevitably end in sin.”
Quote/s of the Day – 13 December – Feast of St Lucy, Virgin Martyr – 2 Corinthians 10:17-18, 11:1-2; Matthew 13:44-52 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.”
Matthew 13:44
“For the man who loves God, it is sufficient to please the One he loves and, there is no greater recompense to be sought, than the loving itself. For love is from God, by the very fact that God Himself is love. The good and chaste soul is so happy to be filled with Him that it desires to take delight in nothing else. For what the Lord says is very true: ‘Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.’”
St Pope Leo the Great (400-461) ather and Doctor of the Church
I Will Love Thee, Lord By St Thomas of Villanova (1488-1555)
I will love Thee, Lord, in every way and without setting limits to my love. Thou set no limits to what Thou hast done for me; Thou hast not measured Thy gifts. I will not measure my love. I will love Thee, Lord, with all my strength, with all my powers, as much as I am able. Amen
“Amongst all loves, God’s is so to be preferred that we must always stand prepared in mind to forsake them all for that alone. ”
(Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 7)
“The love of God is the end, the perfection and the excellence, of the universe. ”
(Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 1)
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor of the Church
In Thy Divine Heart By St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) Visionary of the Sacred Heart
Lord Jesus, let my heart never rest until it finds Thee, Who are its source, its love and its happiness. By the wound in Thy Heart pardon the sins I have committed, whether out of weakness, or out of evil desires. Place my weak heart in Thy own Divine Heart, continually under Thy protection and guidance, so that I may persevere in doing good and in fleeing evil, until my last breath. Amen
One Minute Reflection – 13 December – Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent, Within the Octave of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God – Feast of St Lucy, Virgin Martyr – 2 Corinthians 10:17-18, 11:1-2; Matthew 13:44-52 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.” – Matthew 13:44
REFLECTION – “For the man who loves God, it is sufficient to please the One he loves and, there is no greater recompense to be sought, than the loving itself. For love is from God, by the very fact, that God Himself is love. The good and chaste soul is so happy to be filled with Him that it desires to take delight in nothing else. For what the Lord says is very true: – ‘Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.’
What is a man’s treasure but the heaping up of profits and the fruit of his toil? For whatever a man sows, this too will he reap and each man’s gain, matches his toil and where delight and enjoyment are found, there the heart’s desire is attached. Now there are many kinds of wealth and a variety of grounds for rejoicing – every man’s treasure is that which he desires. If it is based on earthly ambitions, its acquisition makes men not blessed but wretched!
But those who enjoy the things that are above and eternal, rather than earthly and perishable, possess an incorruptible, hidden store, of which the Prophet speaks: ‘Our treasure and salvation have come, wisdom and instruction and piety, from the Lord: these are the treasures of justice.’ Through these, with the help of God’s grace, even earthly possessions are transformed into heavenly blessings. It is a fact that many people use the wealth, which is either rightfully left to them or otherwise acquired, as a tool of devotion. By distributing what might be superfluous to support the poor, they are amassing imperishable riches, so that what they have discreetly given, cannot be subject to loss. They have properly placed those riches, where their heart is, – it is a most blessed thing, to work to increase such riches, rather than to fear that they may pass away.” – St Pope Leo the Great (400-461) Bishop of Rome and Great Western Father and Doctor of the Church (An excerpt from Sermon 92).
PRAYER – Hear us, O God our Saviour, that, as we rejoice on the feast of blessed Lucy, YThy Virgin and Martyr, so we may grow in love and devotion. 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 – 13 December – “The Month of the Divine Infancy and the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary”
O Purest of Creatures, Sweet Mother, Sweet Maid By Fr Frederick W Faber C.Orat. (1814-1863)
O Purest of creatures, sweet Mother, sweet maid, The one spotless womb wherein Jesus was laid! Dark night hath come down on us, Mother! and we Look out for thy shining, sweet Star of the Sea!
Deep night hath come down on this rough-spoken world, And the banners of darkness are boldly unfurled; And the tempest-tossed Church,— all her eyes are on thee; They look to thy shining, sweet Star of the Sea!
He gazed on thy soul, it was spotless and fair, For the empire of sin—it had never been there; None ever had owned thee, dear Mother but He. And He blest thy clear shining, sweet Star of the Sea!
Earth gave Him one lodging; t’was deep in thy breast, And God found a home where the sinner finds rest; His home and His hiding-place, both were in thee, He was won by thy shining, sweet Star of the Sea!
Saint of the Day – 13 December – Saint Ursicinus of Cahors (Died c595) Bishop, Monk, Royal Court Official and Adviser. Died in c595, og natural causes, after around 15 years as the Bishop of Cahors. Also known as – Urci, Urcisse, Urcsicinus, Ursicin, Ursicino.
Ursicinus was the Chancellor of Queen Ultragotha, the wife of Childebert I, King of Paris. He was chosen by Maurilius, then-Bishop of Cahors, to be his successor, making him the ninth Bishop of Cahors.
Cahors surrounding its Cathedral
The little information which has come to us about this Saint is reported by Saint Gregory of Tours in his “Historia Eccl. Francorum”, where he states that around the year 580, Maurilius, among the many Ecclesiastics who aspired to succeed him, chose Ursicinus, who was already a Secular and Spiritual Adviser to Queen Ultrogota, widow of King Childebert I.
Around 584, Innocent, Bishop of Rodez, accused Ursicinus of having usurped many Churches in his Diocese, so much so that the Bishop of Cahors had to defend himself in a Council meeting in Clermont, presided over by Bishop Sulpicius I, of Bouges. In that assembly, the accusations were judged false and Ursicinus was able to recover those Parishes usurped by the Bishop of Rodez and which had never belonged to his Diocese but had always been part of the Cahors See..
But then, Ursicinus was sentenced to a three-year penance at another Council. In fact, in the Autumn of 585, on the indication of King Gontranno, a Council was convened in Macon, where those Bishops who had welcomed the rebel Gondowald, a conspirator against the Merovingian dynasty, were discussed. Ursicinus publicly confessed to having committed this “crime” and the Bishop’s sentence of condemnation was explicit – he had to do penance for three years, abstaining from shaving his hair or beard, abstaining from wine and meat, not celebrating Mass, not ordaining Priests, nor consecrating Churches and not proceeding with any blessings.
Following this condemnation, the traces of Bishop Ursicinus are lost, but we do find him present at the Fourth Council of Auvergne in 590. After this citation we only know that his successor, Eusebius, was present at the Council of Paris in 614.
With regards to the cult of the sanctity of our Ursicinus – in a 14th Century Psalter, we find the first evidence of his cult and his feast which was celebrated on 13 December appears.
Many Churches in the Diocese were dedicated to him. Among these, one in Cahors, one in Tréjouls and one in Cantal. There are also two villages named after him, one in the canton of Puymirol and the other in that of Salvagnac. In the Diocese of Cahors the feast and remembrance of Saint Ursicinus, Bishop, is still celebrated today.
St Ursicinus Church in Cahors which was built in around the 7th Century
St Lucy (of Syracuse) – St Lucy/Lucia of Syracuse (c283-304) Virgin and Martyr Patron of the blind, eye disorders, martyrs, Perugia, Italy, Malta; epidemics; salesmen, Syracuse, Italy, throat infections, writers, against fire, against poverty, against spiritual blindness, peasants, penitent prostitutes, poor people, sick children, authors, cutlers, farmers, glass blowers, glass makers, glaziers, labourers, lawyer, maid servants, notaries, ophthalmologists, opticians, porters, printers, saddler, sailors, salesmen, seamstresses, stained glass workers, tailors, upholsterers, weavers and 10 further towns and cities. St Lucy’s Life and Death: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/saint-of-the-day-13-december-st-lucy-c-283-304/
Prayer to St Lucy
O St Lucy, you preferred to let your eyes be torn out instead of denying the faith and defiling your soul and God, through an extraordinary miracle, replaced them with another pair of sound and perfect eyes to reward your virtue and faith, appointing you as the protector against eye diseases. I come to you for you to protect my eyesight and to heal the illness in my eyes.
O St Lucy, preserve the light of my eyes so that I may see the beauties of creation, the glow of the sun, the colour of the flowers and the smile of children.
Preserve also the eyes of my soul, the faith, through which I can know my God, understand His teachings, recognise His love for me and never miss the road that leads me to where you, St Lucy, can be found in the company of the angels and saints. St Lucy, protect my eyes and preserve my faith.
St Lucy, “Bringer of Light” Pray for those with eye ailments, Pray for us all!
Merciful God, I come to You to ask Your aid that my life may always give You praise. I ask through the intercession of St Odilia and all your holy people to be a beacon of Your Light to all I meet. Give me holiness of soul and body and bring me into Your divine Light. May I obtain these favours, as well as my special prayer, St Odilia, pray for my eyes and the eyes of my faith. Through the merits of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, Who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
St Antiochus of Sulci
Blessed Antonio Grassi Cong. Orat. (1592 – 1671) Priest of the Oratorians of St Philip Neri, Confessor, Tertiary of the Order of St Francis, Spiritual advisor, Counsellor, Mediator, Miracle Worker, Apostle of the poor and the sick. He was Beatified on 30 September 1900 by Pope Leo XIII. Blessed Antonio’s biography: https://anastpaul.com/2018/12/13/saint-of-the-day-13-december-blessed-antonio-grassi-cong-orat-1592-1671/
St Aristone St Arsenius of Latro St Aubert of Arras Bl Bartholomew of Tuscany St Edburgh of Lyminge St Einhildis of Hohenburg Bl Elizabeth Rose St Jodocus
Blessed Giovanni Marinoni CR (1490-1562) Priest of the Theatines of St Cajetan (1480-1547) (The Congregation of the Clerics Regular of the Divine Providence), renowned Preacher and spiritual director. Patron of Preachers. He was Beatified on 5 December 1764, by a Bull of Pope Clement XIII, who also granted an Office in his honour, to his Order, to be celebrated on 13 December. Biography: https://anastpaul.com/2019/12/13/saint-of-the-day-blessed-giovanni-marinoni-cr-1490-1562/
St Martino de Pomar St Roswinda St Tassio of Bavaria St Ursicinus of Cahors (Died c595) Bishop St Wifred
Blessed Mercedarian Knights – 7 Beati: A group of Mercedarian Knights who fought the enemies of the Catholic faith in the first Century of the Order. Blessed Bernardo de Podio Blessed Giacomo de Copons Blessed Giovanni de Bruquera Blessed Guglielmo de Sa Blessed Pietro Boguer Blessed Pietro Ricart Blessed Raimondo de Frexa
Martyrs of Sebaste – 5 Saints: A group of Christians Martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. We know little more than their names – Auxentius, Eustratius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes. They were martyred in c 302 at Sebaste, Armenia (in modern Turkey) and their relics are enshrined at the church of Saint Apollinaris in Rome, Italy.
AnaStpaul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.