Posted in MARCH the month of ST JOSEPH, Meditations on ST JOSEPH, QUOTES on PURITY, St JOSEPH, The NATIVITY of JESUS

Thought for the Day – 11 March – St Joseph’s Second Joy: The Birth of Jesus

Thought for the Day – 11 March – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

“Short Meditations for March, St Joseph”
From “The Devout Year
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

11th Day – St Joseph’s Second Joy: The Birth of Jesus

+1. Although St Joseph knew, the time of Our Lady’s delivery was drawing near, yet the birth of Jesus came upon him as a joyful surprise.
He anticipated the lot of his Foster-Son.
He came to His own and His own received Him not.
The reward of Joseph’s purity, chastity, patience, submission, gentleness and sorrow, was the visible Presence of the Son of God, the privilege of being the first of all the sons of men, to behold Him.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God,” was literally fulfilled for the first time in the person of St Joseph.

+2. It was but fitting that the coming of Christ Jesus into the world should be surrounded by celestial wonders. A choir of Angels sang angelic melodies and a brightness, dazzling beyond the brightness of the sun, illumined the cave and settled around the new -born Infant and His Virgin Mother. St Joseph saw the Holy Child and the sight was Heaven begun on earth!
What was all the preceding sorrow compared with the unspeakable joy of that happy moment?

+3. Joseph was recalled to earthly things by hearing voices outside the cave and seeing a group of shepherds coming to adore the newborn King. It was not a dream then but a happy reality. God was really come to dwell among men and was born in that humble cave. What mattered it if it was bare and poor and rough? How much happier to be there, sitting on the hard cold ground, poor and despised of men, than to be lounging on perfumed couches, in the Palace of Herod! Where Jesus is, there is happiness!
What are outward things if we enjoy His Peace!

Posted in LENT, LENT- 2025

Quote/s of the Day – 11 March – Planting a Lenten Garden (Last minute Ideas)

Quote/s of the Day – 11 March – Tuesday of the 1st Week in Lent

Planting a Lenten Garden

Five Rows of Squash:

  1. Squash gossip
  2. Squash indifference
  3. Squash unkindness
  4. Squash temper
  5. Squash the idols of greed and lust

Six Rows of Peas:

  1. Prayer
  2. Penance
  3. Perseverance
  4. Purity
  5. Patience
  6. Politeness

Seven Heads of Lettuce:

  1. Let us be unselfish
  2. Let us be charitable
  3. Let us be obedient
  4. Let us be truthful
  5. Let us be gentle and kind
  6. Let us be repentant
  7. Let us be renewed

No garden is complete without Turnips:

  1. Turn up for Daily Mass
  2. Turn up for Special Devotions and The Rosary
  3. Turn up for Daily Morning and Night Prayer

Conclude with Thyme:

Thyme with God, thyme for fasting, thyme for generosity and care of the poor, the sick, the suffering.

Water daily with patience
Feed with love
The Beloved Saviour will provide the growth.

Posted in QUOTES on MYSTERIES of our FAITH, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS, The PASSION, The SACRED PASSION - Meditations for LENT

Lenten Meditations – 11 March –The Institution of the Blessed Eucharist

Lenten Meditations – 11 March – With Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900) Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“The Sacred Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
“Short Meditations for Lent”
From “The Devout Year”
By Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

Tuesday of the 1st Week in Lent
The Institution of the Blessed Eucharist

Read St Luke xxii:19-20

[19] And taking bread, He gave thanks and broke it and gave to them, saying: This is My Body which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me. [20] In like manner, the chalice too, after He had supped, saying: This is the chalice, the new testament in My Blood which shall be shed for you. [Luke 22:19-20]

+1. St Paul tells us with pointed emphasis, it was on the very night in which He was betrayed that Our Lord instituted the Mystery of mysteries, the Sacrament of His Love. It was worthy of His Divine generosity to choose the occasion when He was to be outraged, insulted, betrayed, scourged and Crucified, to create this wondrous Sacrament of Love. To forgive, is always generous but what shall we say of the generosity of One, Who not only forgives the most horrible insults and cruelty but chooses, the very day on which He is to suffer them, for giving to His enemies, a gift compared with which all other gifts are small and insignificant – a gift ,
too which is none other than Himself!?

+2. What is the primary end of the institution of the Blessed Eucharist?
Our Lord Himself tells us in the words:
Do this in commemoration of Me.
It is for the sake of putting us in mind of His Sacred Passion that He gives Himself to us that we, His brethren, for whom He Died, may not forget Him. He Loved us so dearly, He still Loves us, so dearly – He cannot bear to be absent from our thoughts and, for this end, He created this means of representing His Passion to us, as long as the world should last.

+3. But the Blessed Eucharist is more than a commemoration of the Sacrifice on the Cross. It is the same Sacrifice continued, the same Priest, the same Victim, only the manner of offering changed. Christ is still slain each time Holy Mass is said; the Oblation on the Cross is an eternal Oblation for the sins of the whole world! [Hence, not an iota of the Holy Mass can ever be changed!]

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, FATHERS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on THE VOICE OF GOD, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 11 March – ‘… Who is Himself, the Word and the Message …’

One Minute Reflection – 11 March – “The Month of Saint Joseph” – Tuesday of the 1st Week in Lent – Ferial Day – Isaias 55:6-11 – Matthew 21:10-17 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

For just as from the heavens, the rain and snow come down and do not return there, until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats.” – Isaias 55:11

REFLECTION – “For the rain and the snow do not return to Heaven but accomplish in the earth, the Will of Him Who sends themSo the Word that He shall send through His Christ, Who is Himself, the Word and the Message, shall return to Him with great power.  For when He shall come and bring it, He shall come down like rain and snow and through Him ,all that is sown shall spring up and bear righteous fruit and the Word shall return to His Sender but not in vain shall His going have been but thus, shall He say, in the Presence of His Sender, “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me.” And this is the Voice through which, the dead shall live. And this is the Voice of God which shall sound from on high and raise up all the dead.” – St Aphraates “the Sage” (Died c 345) (Feast Day – 29 January) Abbot, Father of the Church [see note below] (Demonstrations 8).

PRAYER – Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who devoutly keep the sacred observances, year by year, may be pleasing to Thee, both in body and soul. Through 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 CARMELITES, DIVINE Mercy, Goodness, Patience, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES on REPARATION/EXPIATION, SACRED HEART PRAYERS

Our Morning Offering – 11 March – Morning Offering By St Thérèse

Our Morning Offering – 11 March – Tuesday of the 1st Week in Lent

Morning Offering
By St Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873 – 1897)

O my God!
I offer Thee all my actions of this day
for the intentions and for the glory
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart,
my every thought,
my simplest works,
by uniting them to It’s infinite merits
and I wish to make reparation for my sins,
by casting them into the furnace
of It’s Merciful Love.
O my God!
I ask Thee for myself
and for those whom I hold dear,
the grace to fulfil perfectly Thy Holy Will,
to accept for love of Thee,
the joys and sorrows of this passing life,
so that we may one day be united together
in Heaven for all Eternity.
Amen.

Posted in Uncategorized

Saint of the Day – 11 March – Saint Vigilius (Died c684) the 21st Bishop and Confessor of Auxerre

Saint of the Day – 11 March – Saint Vigilius (Died c684) the 21st Bishop and Confessor of Auxerre, France, Founder of a Monastery and a Hospital for the poor, Miracle-worker. He cared for his flock for 25 years with love and devotion. Vigilius was born probably in Auxerre or the nearby regions and died on 11 March by being murdered in a Forest of Compiègne near Soissons. Also known as – Vigil, Vigillis.

Vigilius was born of a noble family noted for its sanctity. As the Bishop of Auxerre, Vigilius built a Monastery on the outskirts of Auxerre, “Notre-Dame-la-d’Hors i.e. Outside the Walls” dedicated to the Mother of God. He endowed it richly. In the document of its foundation, it is recorded that the Monastery was later given to the Canons Regular of St Augustine and ultimately, to the Premonstratensians.

Beyond these few facts, not much is certain. Vigilius is credited with establishing a Hospital for the poor near the Monastery.

His death resembles that of St Leodegar of Autun; like Leodegar, Vigilius was murdered in a forest. An account by one Saussauis blames Ebroin for both murders.

Mirabilia attended Vigilius’s death and returned his body to Auxerre and as it passed a prison in Sens, chains fell from all the prisoners and they were freed. The chains were then attached to Vigilius’s coffin for all to see. His Episcopate had lasted for 25 years and five months. His remains, kept in a silver reliquary, were scattered by the Calvinists (1567) but, in 1589, the Relics were recovered and enshrined anew.

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

Tuesday of the First Week in Lent, Nossa Senhora das Florestas / Our Lady of the Forests, Portugal (12th Century), Day Two of the St Joseph Novena and the Saints for 11 March

Tuesday in the 1st WEEK OF LENT – FERIAL DAY

Nossa Senhora das Florestas / Our Lady of the Forests, Porto, Portugal (12th Century) – 11 March:
HERE:

https://anastpaul.com/2021/03/11/our-lady-of-the-forests-porto-portugal-12th-century-and-memorials-of-the-saints-11-march/

NOVENA for the INTERCESSION of ST JOSEPH
DAY TWO

Click Link: DAY TWO

St Aengus the Culdee
St Alberta of Agen
St Amunia

St Aurea of San Millán (1043-1070) Spanish Nun and Anchorite, Ascetic, Visionary, Miracle-worker.
Her Devoted Life:

https://anastpaul.com/2023/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-st-aurea-of-san-millan-1043-1070-spanish-nun-and-anchorite/

St Benedict Crispus (Died 725) Archbishop of Milan from c 685 until his death. A poem written about ten years after his death, De laudibus Mediolani- In Praise of Milan, praises him and remembers his veneration by the entire land and informs us that he was buried in the Basilica of Saint Ambrose.
A Life of Zeal and Virtue:

https://anastpaul.com/2020/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-saint-benedict-crispus-of-milan-died-725/

St Candidus the Martyr
St Constantine II
St Constantine of Carthage

St Eulogius of Córdoba (Died 857) Priest and Martyr, Writer, Poet, Theologian, Teacher.
His Life and Death:

https://anastpaul.com/2019/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-st-eulogius-died-857-priest-and-martyr/

St Firmian the Abbot
St Firmin of Amiens
St Firmus the Martyr
St Gorgonius the Martyr
St Heraclius of Carthage + Martyr

Blessed John Baptist Righi of Fabriano OFM (1469–1539) Priest, Confessor, Friar of the Friars Minor, Ascetic, Ecstatic, renowned Preacher, Peace-maker, Hermit. Blessed John was Beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1903. His body is incorrupt.
About Blessed John:

https://anastpaul.com/2022/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-blessed-john-baptist-righi-of-fabriano-ofm-1469-1539/

St Peter the Spaniard
St Pionius
St Piperion the Martyr
St Rosina of Wenglingen

St Sophronius  (c550-c638) Bishop of Jerusalem from 634 until his death, Father of the Church. Bishop of Jerusalem from 634 until his death, Father of the Church. Before rising to the primacy of the See of Jerusalem, he was a Monk, Theologian and Philosopher, who was the chief protagonist for orthodox teaching in the doctrinal controversy on the essential nature of Jesus. He was a well-travelled and honoured Teacher of Rhetoric, living for several years in Alexandria, Egypt near St John the Almoner. Ecclesiastical and Liturgical Writer, Poet and exercised an extensive correspondence, some of which has survived and some of which we still use within the Liturgy. He is also renowned in history for his peace negotiations with the invading Saracens, thus ensuring a level of protection to the City’s Christians Born in Damascus, Syria in the 6th Century and died in c638; sources disagree on cause and location. I use St Sophronius Commentaries whenever I are able on this Site.
A Most Important Saint:

https://anastpaul.com/2024/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-saint-sophronius-of-jerusalem-c550-c638-bishop-father-of-the-church/

St Thalus the Martyr
St Trophimus the Martyr
St Vigilius (Died c684) Bishop and Confessor of Auxerre
St Vincent of Leon

St Vindician of Cambrai (c632-c 712) Bishop of Arras-Cambrai, Belgium. He was a spiritual follower of Saint Eligius (588- 660) (Saint Eloi).
His Holy Life:

https://anastpaul.com/2021/03/11/saint-of-the-day-11-march-saint-vindician-of-cambrai-c-632-c-712-bishop/

St Zosimus of Carthage + Martyr

Martyrs of Antioch: A group of Christians Martyred together by Emperor Maximian Galerius. Martyred in c 300 in Antioch, Syria.