Thought for the Day – 16 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
Prayer and Our Lady
“O Mary, my Mother, obtain for me that spirit of prayer which will keep me always close to God. I know that sin can never conquer me if I remain united to God. I know if my heart is filled with the desire of Heavenly gifts, there will be no room in it for useless or sinful affections. I wish to follow your example and live a life of prayer and recollection. But, I am very weak and unstable. Please obtain for me the gift of constant and persevering prayer and grant that I may never lose it. Amen.”
Quote/s of the Day – 16 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – St Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11, Matthew1:1-16 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary and of her was born Jesus, Who is called Christ.”
Matthew 1:16
“O Mother blest! And chosen Shrine wherein the Architect Divine, Whose Hand contains the earth and sky vouchsafed in hidden guise to lie; Blest in the message Gabriel brought; blest in the work, the Spirit wrought; Most blest, to bring to human birth, the long desired of all the earth!”
St Venantius Fortunatus (c530 – c609) Bishop, Poet, Theologian, Father
“You are more to be valued than the entire creation, for from you alone the Creator received a share in the first-fruits of our humanity. His Flesh was made of your flesh, His Blood of your blood; God was nourished by your milk and your lips kissed the lips of God. … In His foreknowledge of your dignity, the God of all the world, has loved you and, in accordance with His love for you, He predestined you and called you into being ”
St John Damascene (675-749) Father and Doctor of the Church
“Our Lord is begotten virginally, from all eternity, in the bosom of His Heavenly Father. He shares in the One Divinity of His Eternal Father, without dividing it or fracturing the Divine Simplicity. He remains One same God with Him. The most holy Virgin produced her Son, Our Lord on earth, as He is produced by His Father eternally in Heaven that is, virginally. There is one important difference, however, she brought Him forth from her womb and not in her womb, for once He left it He will no more return there but His Heavenly Father begets Him from His bosom and in His bosom and He will remain there eternally!”
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor of the Church
One Minute Reflection – 16 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – St Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11 – Matthew1:1-16 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/
“And Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary and of her was born Jesus, Who is called Christ.” – Matthew 1:16
REFLECTION – “ It is of no avail to say that our Lord, the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was true and perfect Man, unless we believe that He is so in the way that the Gospel declares. For Matthew says: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” and follows the order of his human origin, so as to bring the lines of His ancestry down to Joseph, to whom the Lord’s Mother was espoused. Whereas Luke, going backwards step by step, traces His succession to the first of the human race, to show that the first Adam and the last Adam, were of the same nature (Lk 3:23).
No doubt, the Almighty Son of God, could have appeared for the purpose of teaching and justifying, in exactly the same way as He appeared, in the semblance of flesh, to the patriarchs and prophets, for instance, when He wrestled with Jacob (Gn 32:25) or engaged in a conversation with Abraham, not refusing His hospitality and even partaking of the food set before Him (Gn 18). But these appearances were indications of that Man Whose reality they manifested, assumed from the stock of those same ancestors.
But the fulfilment of the Mystery of our Redemption, ordained from all eternity, was not assisted by any images because, the Holy Ghost had not yet come down on the Virgin and, the power of the Most High, had not overshadowed her (Lk 1:35). Wisdom had not yet built herself a house within her undefiled body, so that the Word might there become flesh and, the Form of God and the Form of a Slave coming together in one person, the Creator of time, might be born in time and He Himself, through Whom all things were made, might be brought forth in the midst of all things. For, if the New Man had not been made in the likeness of sinful flesh and taken our old nature on Himself and, being consubstantial with the Father, had deigned to be consubstantial with His Mother also – yet, without sin – the whole human race would be held captive under the devil’s yoke and we should not be able to make use of the Conqueror’s victory because, it would have been won outside our nature!But it was from Christ’s marvellous sharing of our nature that the Mystery of regeneration shone upon us.” – St Leo the Great (400-461) Pope, Father and Doctor of the Church (Letter 31).
PRAYER – O God, Who, willed St Joachim to be the father of Thy Son’s Mother; grant, we beseech Thee that we may ever enjoy the spiritual help of him whose feast we celebrate. 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 – 16 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Feast of St Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Hymn to St Joachim, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary From the Liturgical Year, 1907
O Joachim, Father of the Sovereign Maiden, who in all purity gave birth to God, present to the Lord, our petitions and our chaste desires.
Thou knowest, by what angry waves we are here tossed, whom the cruel sea of this world wearies so, Thou knowest how many battles Satan and the flesh, prepare for us.
Now that thou art united , to the holy companies in Heaven, or rather art placed at their head, thou canst do all if thou wilt; for rightly, neither Jesus, thy Grandson, nor Mary, thy daughter, can deny thee aught.
Obtain by thy prayer that our Blessed God may give us pardon and peace that united with thee, we may sweetly sing canticles to Him. Amen
Saint of the Day – 16 August – Saint Serena (4th Century) Wife of Emperor Diocletian and, therefore, the Empress of the Roman Empire and a clandestine Christian.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Rome, St Serena, who had been the wife of the Emperor Diocletian.”
In the Acts of Saint Marcellus and Saint Susanna, whom we celebrated on 11 August, Empress Serena intervened to defend Christians from persecution. For this reason, tradition holds that Serena was repudiated and some sources say she was later Martyred by her husband.
In fact, Lactantius (Lucius Cecilius, 3rd-4th Century), a Latin Christian writer who lived at the time and Court of Diocletian, states in his “De Mortibus Persecutorem” that his wife and daughter were called Prisca and Valeria and that they were forced to perform pagan rites.
While the abovementioned “Acts” speak of an Empress named Serena, wife of Diocletian, who intervened to defend Christians from the persecution unleashed by her husband, the tenth and most violent.
Her intervention evidently helped bring the persecution to an end because in 305 Diocletian abdicated and retired to Split. Probably from antiquity, she was, therefore, considered a saintly figure to be venerated as a Saint and some sources regard her as a Martyr.
Blessed Angelo Agostini Mazzinghi O.Carm. (1385-1438) was an Italian Priest and a professed member of the Carmelite Order. He was a noted Preacher, Prior and Reformer, Teacher of theology and was known for his pious devotion to the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Carmelite Rule of Life and to the profession of the Gospel. Holy Angelus: https://anastpaul.com/2019/08/16/saint-of-the-day-16-august-blessed-angelo-agostini-mazzinghi-o-carm-1385-1438/
St Arsacius of Nicomedia St Frambaldo Bl Iacobus Bunzo Gengoro Bl Jean-Baptiste Menestrel Bl John of Saint Martha
Blessed Laurence Loricatus (Died 1243) Hermit, Pilgrim, Penitent, previously a Soldier. Laurence served as a Solider as a young man. After accidentally killing a man, perhaps in the course of duty, he was so overcome with remorse that he dedicated himself to a life of penance. The image below by Fra Angelico depicts St Benedict finding a new disciple in his ‘cave.’ His Life of Penitance: https://anastpaul.com/2024/08/16/saint-of-the-day-16-august-blessed-laurence-loricatus-died-1243-hermit-pilgrim-penitent/
Bl Magdalena Kiyota Bokusai Bl Maria Gengoro Bl Ralph de la Futaye St Serena (4th Century) Bl Simon Kiyota Bokusai
St Ugolina (c1239-c1300) Hermit, Penitent, Spiritual advisor. The very strange story that of this Blessed Ugolina who shut herself in a hermitage, representing herself as a man and remained there for forty-seven years! The aim of her subterfuge was to escape the aims of her father, who wished her to marry. In order not to reveal her secret, she called herself Ugo without revealing her identity to anyone. for nearly fifty years Her Holy Life: https://anastpaul.com/2021/08/16/saint-of-the-day-16-august-saint-ugolina-of-vercelli-c-1239-c-1300/
Martyrs of Palestine – 33 Saints: Thirty-three Christians Martyred in Palestine; they are commemorated in old martyrologies but the date and exact location have been lost.
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