Day: April 18, 2025

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on COURAGE, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on SUFFERING, REDEMPTIVE Suffering, The PASSION

Thought for the Day – 18 April –The Crucifixion

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Thought for the Day – 18 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

The Crucifixion

“After a painful and exhausting journey, Jesus reaches Calvary, where He is to be Crucified.
Once again, He is stripped of His garments, which, by this time, have become glued to His swollen sores.
Then, He is stretched upon the wooden Cross, to which, one of the brutal executioners fastens His Hands and Feet, with blows from a hammer.
The sharp nails are driven through His flesh into the hard wood.
Jesus looks upwards and offers Himself in silence, as a Victim of Expiation, on behalf of His tormentors and of all of us.
His Mother Mary, is standing a few paces away in the company of the holy women and of the beloved Disciple.
The blows of the hammer pierce the maternal heart of the Blessed Virgin but,she remains silent also and prays.

When we have been afflicted by misfortune or sorrow and our hearts are racked with grief, how do we behave?
Have we the resignation, the trust in God and the spirit of prayer, which Jesus and Mary had on Calvary?
Let us remind ourselves, that we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ.
If Jesus our Head, has suffered, how much more, do miserable sinners like the rest of us deserve to suffer!?
Jesus wishes us to participate in the work of redemption by uniting our sufferings to His.
“I rejoice now,” says St Paul, “in the suffering I bear … and what is lacking of the suffering of Christ, I fill up in my flesh…” (Col 1:24).

Let us face adversity with courage, therefore and keep our eyes hopefully towards Heaven.
Let us remember, as St Paul also says, that even as we share in the sufferings of Christ, so we shall share in His triumph (Cf 2 Cor 1:7).
Jesus had to ascen Mount Calvary, before He could ascend to Heaven.
If we are to walk in His footsteps, we shall have to do the same!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, GOOD FRIDAY, HOLY WEEK, POETRY, PRAYERS on the CROSS of CHRIST, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, SEPTEMBER-The SEVEN SORROWS of MARY and The HOLY CROSS, STATIONS of the CROSS, The HOLY CROSS

Quote/s of the Day – 18 April – Good Friday – A bitter word, the Cross and bitter sight

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Quote/s of the Day – 18 April – Good Friday

GOOD FRIDAY
A Day of Deep Mourning,
Fasting and Abstinence!

“Look on thy God, Christ hidden in our flesh.
A bitter word, the Cross and bitter sight –
Hard rind without, to hold the Heart of Heaven.
Yet, sweet it is, for God upon that tree
Did offer His Life upon that rood –
My Life hung, that my Life might stand in God.
Christ, what am I to give Thee for my life?
Unless, take from Thy Hands, the cup they hold,
To cleanse me with the precious draught of death.
What shall I do? My body to be burned?
Make myself vile? The debt is not paid out yet.
Whate’er I do, it is but I and Thee
And still do I come short, still must Thou pay
My debts, O Christ, for debts Thyself had’st none!
What love may balance Thine? My Lord was found
In fashion like a slave that so His slave
Might find himself in fashion like his Lord.
Think you the bargain’s hard, to have exchanged
The transient for the eternal, to have sold
Earth to buy Heaven? More dearly God bought me!”

St Paulinus of Nola (c354-431)
Father of the Church

“O souls!
Seek a refuge, like pure doves,
in the shadow of the Crucifix.
There, mourn the Passion
of your Divine Spouse
and drawing from your hearts,
flames of love and rivers of tears,
make of them a precious balm
with which to anoint
the Wounds of your Saviour.”

St Paul of the Cross CP (1694-1775)

Posted in GOOD FRIDAY, JULY - The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, LENT- 2025, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, The PASSION, The SACRED PASSION - Meditations for LENT

Lenten Meditations – 18 April – The Descent from the Cross

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Lenten Meditations – 18 April – 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)

Good Friday
The Descent from the Cross

Read St Mark xv:38-46
(See below)

+I. No sooner is the sacrifice consummated and the last drop of the Precious Blood shed from Our Lord’s Sacred Heart, than all is changed.
That lifeless Body is now treated with the utmost respect and veneration. See how gently and carefully Joseph and Nicodemus wind linen bands around the Limbs and lower it to the ground reverently, adoring that Body which only a few hours before had been a laughing-stock and object of contempt. Henceforth, no more ignominy, no more contempt, no more ill-usage but the love and adoration of Saints and Angels for all eternity.

+2. Our Lady receives the Body of her Son.
What were her thoughts as she gazes into the Five Wounds and sees how, from Head to Foot, it is covered with gaping wounds, sores and bruises, battered out of all recognition by the cruelty of man!?
O Mother of Sorrows, great as an ocean, is thy sorrow! What must thy hatred of sin be, when thou seest what it has wrought in the Divine Beauty of thy spotless Son!
What a mixture of agonised compassion and mournful sorrow and hope and consolation and gratitude and triumph ant joy, fills thy sacred soul while thou lookest upon the Dead Body of thy Divine Son!

+3. The day on which Jesus died, is indeed well named, Good Friday.
It is the day when Jesus consummated His victory over sin and death.
While we mourn over His sufferings and our sins which caused them, we must also rejoice exceedingly, at the thought of Satan conquered and Heaven opened and millions of sinners cleansed from sin, in His Most Precious Blood!

St Mark 15:38-46
[38] And the veil of the temple was rent in two, from the top to the bottom. [39] And the centurion who stood near Him, seeing that crying out in this manner, He had given up the ghost, said: Indeed this man was the Son of God. [40] And there were also women looking on afar off, among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joseph and Salome, [41] who also, when He was in Galilee followed Him and ministered to Him and many other women who came up to Jerusalem, with Him. [42] And when evening was now come (because it was the Pasch-eve, that is, the day before the sabbath).[43] Joseph of Arimathea, a noble counsellor, who was also himself looking for the Kingdom of God, came and went in boldly to Pilate and begged the Body of Jesus. [44] But Pilate wondered that he should be already dead. And sending for the centurion, he asked him if he were already dead. [45] And when he had understood it by the centurion, he gave the Body to Joseph.
[46] And Joseph buying fine linen and taking Him down, wrapped Him in the fine linen and laid Him in a sepulchre which was hewed out of a rock. And he rolled a stone to the door of the sepulchre. [Mark 15:38-46]

Posted in CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, FATHERS of the Church, GOOD FRIDAY, HOLY WEEK, MATER DOLOROSA - Mother of SORROWS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, SEPTEMBER-The SEVEN SORROWS of MARY and The HOLY CROSS, STATIONS of the CROSS, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION, The SECOND COMING, The SEVEN LAST WORDS of CHRIST, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 18 April – There they crucified Him – John 19:18

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One Minute Reflection – 18 April – Good Friday – The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St John 18:1-40.19:1-42 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“There they crucified Him and with Him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. ” – John 19:18

REFLECTION – “Truly, you are a hidden God!” (Is 45:15).   Why hidden?   Because He had neither form nor beauty, yet power was in His Hands.   It was there His fortitude was hidden.

Was He not hidden when He submitted His Hands to brutes and His Palms received the nails?   The print of the nails gleamed on His Hands and His innocent Side received the wound.   They shackled His Feet in fetters, the iron pierced His soles and His Feet were fastened to the tree.   These wounds did God suffer on our behalf, at the hands of His own people, in His own home.   O how marvellous are His Wounds by which the wounds of the world were healed!   How victorious His Wounds, by which He slew death and stung hell! … Therefore, O Church, O dove, You have coverts in the rock and a hollow in the wall in which to rest (cf. Sg 2:14). …

And what will you do … when He comes in the clouds with great power and majesty? (cf Mt 24:30)   He will come down with Heaven and earth ablaze and by the terror of His coming, He will dissolve the elements.   When He has come, the Sign of the Cross will be seen in the sky and the beloved One will show the scars of His Wounds and the prints of the nails, by which He was transfixed in His own home!” … St Amadeus of Lausanne (1108-1159) – Cistercian Monk, Bishop

PRAYER – Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils, past, present and to come and by the intercession of the blessed and glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul and of all the Saints, mercifully grant peace in our days, that through the assistance of Thy mercy we may be always free from sin and secure from all disturbance. 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.
Faithful Cross! above all other, One and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thy peer may be.
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee. (Antiphons).

Posted in FATHERS of the Church, GOOD FRIDAY, HOLY WEEK, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS for SEASONS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, PRAYERS on the CROSS of CHRIST, PRECIOUS BLOOD PRAYERS, The HOLY CROSS, The MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD, The PASSION, The SEVEN PASSION Feasts

Our Morning Offering – 18 April – A Prayer of the Passion

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Our Morning Offering – 18 April – Good Friday

A Prayer of the Passion
By St Melito of Sardis (Died 180)
Bishop of Sardis, Apologist, Father

Lord Jesus Christ,
Thou were bound as a ram,
Thou were shorn like a lamb,
Thou were led to the slaughter like a sheep,
Thou bore the wood of the Cross on Thy shoulders,
Thou were led up the hill of Calvary,
Thou were displayed naked on the Cross,
Thou were nailed to the bitter Cross by three spikes,
Thou delivered Thy last Seven Words from the Cross
Thou died on the Cross, with a shout of victory,
Thou were buried in noble Joseph’s rock-hewn tomb,
By Thy boundless suffering on our behalf,
fix our eyes unceasingly on Thy broken Body
and the Blood which poured
from Thine Hands, Feet and Side.
By the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
which each day renews Thy Sacrifice
of the Cross on our Altars,
apply the merits of the Cross to all humanity
and, especially to those, who worship it daily
and who offer themselves back to Thee,
our great High Priest
and perpetual Intercessor,
before the Eternal Throne of God.
Thou livest and reigns,
throughout all the ages of ages.
Amen

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 18 April – St Perfectus (Died 850) Priest and Martyr

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Saint of the Day – 18 April – St Perfectus (Died 850) Priest and Martyr of Córdoba in Spain. His Martyrdom was recorded by Saint Eulogius in the Memoriale Sanctorum. Also known as – Parfait, Perfecto, Perfect.

The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Córdoba, St Perfect, Priest and Martyr, killed by the Moors for inveighing against the followers of Mohammed.”

Martyrs of Córdoba, St Perfectus on the left

Perfectus was born in Córdoba when the area was under the control of the Moors. Perfectus was a Monk and Ordained Priest. He served at the Basilica of St Acisclus in Córdoba. Christians weregenerally tolerated in the area but not uniformly.

Perfectus, like all his colleagues, he knew that he was risking his life by trying to convert Muslims. He was, therefore, wary when two Muslims approached him in the street and asked him what he thought of Mohammad and Jesus because, they said, “we only want to educate ourselves.”

At first, he refrained from responding, so as not to provoke them but they insisted. Perfectus set about proving to them that Mahammad was a false prophet and that only Jesus was the Saviour. They wished Saint Perfectus good morning, let him go home in peace but then, a few days later, they denounced him to friends. Brought before the Arab tribunal, he was sentenced to death. Once again and publicly, he spoke out about his thoughts on Mohammad and the Quran.

Perfectus was found guilty of blasphemy by the Islamic Court and was executed. The Vita says that Perfectus’ final words were to bless Christ and condemn Mohammed.

He was beheaded on 18 April 850. Perfectus’ Martyrdom was one of the first in a period of Muslim persecution of the Christians in Córdoba which began in 850 and continued intermittently until 960.

His cult spread to France, since the Canons of the Paris Cathedral sang a solemn Mass in his honour for a long time every 18 April.

Posted in GOOD FRIDAY, INCORRUPTIBLES, MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

GOOD FRIDAY – FAST and ABSTINENCE, Tre Ore (The Three Hours Devotion), Basilica della Santa Casa / The Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto erected (1586) – 18 April

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GOOD FRIDAY – FAST and ABSTINENCE

Tre Ore (The Three Hours Devotion)
The Three Hours’ Agony on Good Friday from Noon until 3 o’clock to commemorate the three hours of Christ’s Hanging on the Cross.
It includes sermons on the Seven Last Words from the Cross and usually occurs between Noon and 3PM, the latter being the time when Jesus Died on the Cross and the time the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion begins.
In 1815, Pope Pius VII decreed a Plenary Indulgence to those who practice this devotion on Good Friday.

It is a fine tradition to keep silent
from Noon to 3:00 PM today.

Basilica della Santa Casa / The Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto erected (1586) – 18 April:
HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/04/18/third-sunday-of-easter-2021-basilica-della-santa-casa-the-basilica-of-our-lady-of-loreto-erected-1586-and-memorials-of-the-saints-18-april/

St Agia of Hainault
St Anthia of Illyria
St Antusa of Constantinople
Saint Apollonius the Apologist Martyr

St Athanasia of Aegina

Blessed Barbara Aurillot / Marie of the Incarnation O.Carm (1566-1618) Widow, Lay Carmelite Sister, Apostle of Charity, Mystic. Barbara is considered the Foundress of the French branch of Carmel. She was known for receiving visions and ecstasies and for supernatural gifts.
Her Vita:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/04/18/saint-of-the-day-18-april-blessed-barbara-aurillot-marie-of-the-incarnation-ocd-1566-1618-widow/

St Bitheus
St Calocerus of Brescia
St Cogitosus
St Corebus
St Eleuterius of Illyria
St Elpidius of Melitene
St Eusebius of Fano

St Galdinus della Sala (c1096-1176) Cardinal Bishop of Milan from 1166 until his death in 1176.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Milan, St Galdini, Cardinal and Bishop of the City, who, at the conclusion of a discourse against heretics, gave up his soul to God.”
Blessed St Galldinus:
https://anastpaul.com/2024/04/18/saint-of-the-day-18-april-saint-galdinus-della-sala-of-milan-c1096-1176-cardinal-archbishop/

St Gebuinus of Lyons
St Genocus
St Hermogenes of Melitene

Blessed Idesbald O.Cist (c1095-1167) Cistercian Priest and Abbot of Ten Duinen Abbey, Our Lady of the Dunes.
The Roman Martyrology states: “In Bruges in Flanders, in today’s Belgium, Blessed Idesbald, Abbot, who, soon became a widower and exercised for another thirty years, duties in the palace of the Counts, entered the Monastery of Dune at a mature age, which he held holy, as the third Abbot for twelve years.” His Body is Incorrupt.
His Life of Grace:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/04/18/saint-of-the-day-18-april-blessed-idesbald-of-dunes-o-cist-c-1095-1167/

Blessed James Oldo OFM (1364-1404) Priest and Friar of the Friars Minor, widower, Apostle of Charity, Preacher, painter, musician. His body is incorrupt. Beatified on 26 March 1934 by Pope Pius XI.
Holy Blessed James:
https://anastpaul.com/2019/04/18/saint-of-the-day-18-april-blessed-james-oldo-ofs-1364-1404/

St Laserian of Leighlin
St Perfectus (Died 850) Priest and Martyr of Córdoba
St Pusicio
St Ursmar of Lobbes
St Wigbert of Augsburg