Day: April 3, 2024

Posted in QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on OBEDIENCE, QUOTES on PATIENCE, QUOTES on POVERTY, QUOTES on VIRTUE, THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT - Fr Lorenzo Scupoli

Thought for the Day – 3 April– How to Avail Ourselves of Occasions for the Exercise of a Single Virtue

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 3 April– The Spiritual Combat (1589) – Dom Lorenzo Scupoli OSM (c1530-1610)

“None shall be crowned who has not fought well.” 2 Tim 2: 5

XXXIX: … How to Avail Ourselves of Occasions
for the Exercise of a Single Virtue

“We have already seen that it is more profitable to exercise ourselves, for a time, in a single virtue than in many at once and that, we should use, with this view, the occasions we meet with, however diverse they may be.
Now learn how to accomplish this, with tolerable success.

It may happen that in the same day, or even in the same hour, we are approved for something in which we have done well, or blamed on some other account; we may be harshly refused some favour we have asked, it maybe a mere trifle; we may be unjustly suspected; or, we may be called upon to endure some bodily pain, or some petty annoyance, such as a dish badly cooked; or some more heavy affliction and more difficult to be borne, may befall us, such as this wretched life is full of!

Although, in the variety of these or similar occurrences, we may perform various acts of virtue, yet, if we would keep to the rule laid down, we shall continue to exercise ourselves in acts wholly conformable to the virtue we have at the time in hand; as for example:

+++If, when these occasions present themselves, we are exercising ourselves in patience, we shall endure them all willingly and with a joyful heart.

+++If our exercise be of humility, we shall, in all these little crosses, acknowledge ourselves to be deserving of every possible ill.

+++If of obedience, we shall submit ourselves at once to the Almighty Hand of God, as well as, to all created things, whether rational or even inanimate which may have caused us these annoyances and this, to please Him because He has so willed it.

+++If of poverty, we shall be well content to be stripped and robbed of all earthly consolations, whether great or small.

+++If of charity, we shall produce acts of love towards our neighbour as the instrument of good to us and towards our Lord God, as the first and loving cause whence these annoyances proceed, or by Whom they are permitted for our spiritual exercise and improvement.

From what has been said of the various accidents which may befall us daily, we may also learn how, during a single trial of long duration, such as sickness or other like affliction, we may yet continue to produce acts of that virtue in which we are at the time exercising ourselves.

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

Posted in APRIL -MONTH of the RESURRECTION and the BLESSED SACAMENT, ART DEI, EASTER, St PETER!, The APOSTLES & EVANGELISTS, The RESURRECTION

Quote of the Day – 3 April – The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Greatest Easter Painting Ever Made!

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Quote/s of the Day – 3 April – “The Month of the Resurrection and the Blessed Sacrament” – Easter Wednesday

The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Easter Painting Ever Made!

“Look into Peter’s wide open eyes and John’s intense gaze.
Their eyes contain a mix of anxiousness and hope, the way a parent or grandparent’s eyes look at the news of an impending birth.
A new life is about to emerge but there is still uncertainty because it is a mystery beyond full human comprehension or control.
Peter and John’s faces capture the same sense of anticipation.
Burnand created a sparse, simple painting capturing two of the most important players in the greatest story ever told.
Meditate upon their faces, as Burnand intended you to do and through them, discover the empty tomb.”
(Elisabeth Ehrhard-Crises Magazine).

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, I BELIEVE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on the CHURCH, QUOTES on THE WORLD, St PETER!, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 3 April – ‘… We are caught like fish in the net of the faith and brought to shore.’

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 3 April – “The Month of the Resurrection and the Blessed Sacrament” – Easter Wednesday – Acts 3:13-15; 3:17-19, John 21:1-14 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“Simon Peter … drew the net to land …” – John 21:11

REFLECTION – “After catching such a large catch of fish, “Simon Peter went overboard and dragged the net ashore.” I believe that you, dear listeners, now perceive why it was Peter who brought the net to land. Our holy Church had been entrusted to him; it was to him individually that it was said: “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? Feed my sheep.” What was afterwards disclosed to him in words, was now indicated to him by an action.

Because the Church’s preacher was to part us from the waves of this world, it was surely necessary that Peter bring the net full of fish to land. He dragged the fish to the firm ground of the shore because, by his preaching, he revealed to the faithful the stability of our eternal home. He accomplished this by his words and by his letters and, he accomplishes it daily, by his miraculous signs. As often as he serves us from the uproar of earthly affairs, what occurs, is that we are caught like fish in the net of the faith and brought to shore.” – St Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) Father and Doctor of the Church (Homilies on the Gospel No 24).

PRAYER – O God, Who dost every year fill us with holy gladness through the rising of the Lord, mercifully grant that these Feast-days which we are now keeping here in time, may be to us, a means whereby, in the end, we may worthily attain unto those pleasures which are at Thy Right Hand, for evermore.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).

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, EASTER, FATHERS of the Church, HYMNS, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 3 April – “Alleluia!” Now We Cry!

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Our Morning Offering – 3 April – “The Month of the Resurrection and the Blessed Sacrament” – Easter Wednesday

“Alleluia!” Now We Cry!
(Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain)
By St John Damascene (675-749)
Father & Doctor of the Church
Trans. John Mason Neale

Come, you faithful, raise the strain
of triumphant gladness!
God has brought His Israel
into joy from sadness,
loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke
Jacob’s sons and daughters,
led them with unmoistened foot
through the Red Sea waters.

See the spring of souls today;
Christ has burst His prison,
and from three days’ sleep in death
as a Sun hath risen;
all the winter of our sins,
long and dark, is flying
from His Light, to Whom we give
laud and praise undying.

Now the queen of seasons, bright
with the day of splendour,
with the Royal Feast of Feasts,
comes its joy to render;
comes to gladden faithful hearts
which with true affection
welcome in unwearied strains
Jesus’ Resurrection!

For today among His own
Christ appeared, bestowing
blessed peace which evermore
passes human knowing.
Neither could the gates of death,
nor the tomb’s dark portal,
nor the watchers, nor the seal,
hold Him as a mortal.

“Alleluia!” Now we cry
to our King immortal,
Who, triumphant, burst the bars
of the tomb’s dark portal.
Come, you faithful, raise the strain
of triumphant gladness!
God has brought His Israel
into joy from sadness!

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 3 April – Saint Nicetas of Medicion (c760-824) Abbot

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Saint of the Day – 3 April – Saint Nicetas of Medicion (c760-824) Abbot of Medicion Abbey in Bithynia (in modern Turkey). Born in c760 in Bithynian, Caesarea and died in 824 of natural causes in Constantinople. Also known as –
Nicetas of Constantinople, Nicetas the Confessor, Niketas… Nikita… His name is of Greek origin and means “victorious.”

The Roman Martyrology reads: “In the Monastery of Medicion, in the East, the Abbot, St Nicetas, who suffered much for the worship of holy images, in the time of Leo the Armenian.”

Nicetaswas only eight days old when he lost his mother. His father dedicated him to God and, at the age of twelve, he was already the Lector of the Bishop of Caesarea of ​​Bithynia. As a teenager, he entered the Medicion Monastery, on Mount Olympus in Bithynia.

His life of rigour and humility, led his fellow Monks to choose him as their Abbot.. During the persecutions of the Sacred Images, at the time of Emperor Leo V the Armenian, he allowed himself to commune with heretics, after having been exhausted by harsh imprisonment. Repentant, he fled to a secluded place. But to publicly demonstrate his repentance of heart, at the request of Theodore the Studite, he returned to Constantinople. For this action he was arrested and interned at the prison at Cape Akritas, he was locked up there for six years in a dungeon, without light and fed on a little mouldy bread and stale water.

He was finally released on the death of the Emperor but he did not want to reclaim the management of his Monastery and retired to a small estate on the Golden Horn, facing Constantinople. After a few months, he died, exhausted by the suffering and his own austerities. His remains were brought back to his Monastery of Medicion

Several medieval lives of Nicetas exist. The most important of these is the life by Theosterictus, who states that he was a disciple of St Nicetas.

Posted in franciscan OFM, INCORRUPTIBLES, SAINT of the DAY

Easter Wednesday and the Saints for 3 April

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Easter Wednesday

St Attala of Taormina

St Benedict of Palermo OFM (1526-1589) Lay Friar of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, Confessor, spiritual counsellor, Apostle of the poor and needy, graced with the gift of healing the sick.
St Benedict’s gifts for prayer, his love for the Blessed Virgin and the Infant Jesus and the wisdom displayed in his guidance of souls, earned him, a reputation for holiness, throughout Sicily.   Following the example of St Francis, Benedict kept seven 40-day fasts throughout the year. He also slept only a few hours each night.
His body is incorrupt.
Kind and Holy Benedict:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/04/03/saint-of-the-day-3-april-st-benedict-of-palermo-ofm-1526-1589-lay-friar/

St Benatius of Kilcooley
St Benignus of Tomi

St Burgundofara / more commonly known as Fara (c595-c 643) Virgin, Nun, Abbess, Founder of the famous Evoriacum Monastery, near Paris in France, which after her death was renamed in her honour, Faremoutiers Abbey (Fara’s Monastery). She is celebrated on 7 December in France.
Her Life:
https://anastpaul.com/2022/12/07/saint-of-the-day-7-december-st-burgundofara-c-595-c-643-virgin/

St Chrestus
St Comman
St Evagrius of Tomi

Blessed Gandulphus of Binasco OFM (c1200-1260)Priest, Friar of the First Order of St Francis. He was a renowned Preacher mainly in Sicily, Hermit, Miracle-worker . He was one of those who entered the Order while the Seraphic Father was still alive and the life he led was one of great self-abnegation. He was Beatified on 10 March 1881 by Pope Leo XIII.
Biography:
https://anastpaul.com/2022/04/03/saint-of-the-day-3-april-blessed-gandulphus-of-binasco-ofm-c-1200-1260/

St John I of Naples

Blessed John of Penna OFM (c 1193-1271) Priest, Friar of the First Order of St Francis and became a Franciscan during St Francis’ lifetime. Founder of the Order in France, Mystic and gifted with the charism of prophecy. He was Beatified on 20 December 1806 by Pope Pius VII.
His Life:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/04/03/saint-of-the-day-3-april-blessed-john-of-penna-ofm-c-1193-1271/

St Nicetas of Medicion (c760-824) Abbot
St Papo

St Richard of Chichester (1197-1253) Bishop, Teacher, Reformer, Apostle of charity, Writer, Miracle Worker.
Biography:
https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/04/03/saint-of-the-day-3-april-st-richard-of-chichester-1197-1253/`

St Urbicius of Clermont

Martyrs of Greece – 4 Saints: A group of young Christian men who protested to City authorities that gifts to temples of pagan gods should be used to feed the poor during a regional famine. When the officials refused, the group went to local temples, broke up the idols and fixtures and gave the gold and silver bits to the poor to use to buy food. The group was imprisoned and executed. The only other thing we know about these Martyrs are the names – Bythonius, Elpideforus, Dius and Galycus. They Died in the 3rd Century at an unknown location in Greece.

Martyrs of Tomi (Romania) – 9 Saints who were Martyred together. We know nothing else about them but the names – Arestus, Benignus, Chrestus, Evagrius, Papo, Patricius, Rufus, Sinnidia and Zosimus. They Died at Tomi, Scythia (modern Constanta, Romania).