Day: September 20, 2025

Posted in AUGUSTINIANS OSA, LOVE of NEIGHBOUR, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on ALMS, QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on GOOD WORKS, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on MERCY

Thought for the Day – 20 September – Charitable Works

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Thought for the Day – 20 September – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Charitable Works

“When Jesus was asked, what was the first commandment, He replied: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than this” (Mk 12:30-31).
As St Augustine says, the love of God and the love of neighbour are two branches of the same tree, the tree of charity.
“If anyone says, ‘I love God’ and hates his brother,” St John warns us, “he is a liar” (1 Jn 4:20).

We must prove our love for God by showing charity towards our neighbour.
All men are our brothers in Jesus Christ, Who has redeemed us by His Precious Blood.
Our Lord has said that He will regard as done for Himself, anything which we do for the least of our brethren (Mt 25:10).

Like the Saints, we should see Jesus Himself living in the poor and the suffering.
The Saints gave Him everything they had, not only their possessions but also their toil and their love.

Think how much those missionaries do who leave everything in order to go to foreign lands and win souls for Christ.
Think of the charitable work of the sisters and nurses in the hospitals, asylums and orphanages.
What are we doing?”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in CATECHESIS, CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, GOD ALONE!, JESUIT SJ, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on SELF-DENIAL, QUOTES on the POOR, QUOTES on TRUST and complete CONFIDENCE in GOD, SELF-DISTRUST, St Francis de Sales, The KINGDOM of GOD / HEAVEN, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 20 September – Blessed are you who are poor

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Quote/s of the Day – 20 September – The Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist – Wisdom 5:16-20 – Luke 6:17-23 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the Kingdom of God.”

Luke 6:20

“Let him who is greatest among you,
become as the youngest
and he who is the leader,
as the servant.”

Luke 22:25

“No Christian should think of himself
as his own master
but each should rather so think and act,
as though given by God,
to be slave to his fellow brothers and sisters.”

St Basil the Great (329-379)
Father and Doctor of the Church

“Humility is the mother of many virtues
because, from it are born:
obedience, fear, reverence, patience,
modesty, meekness and peace.
He who is humble easily obeys everyone,
fears to offend anyone,
is at peace with everyone,
is kind to all!”

St Thomas of Villanova OSA (1488-1555)

“Be generous to the poor orphans
and those in need.
The man to whom our Lord
has been liberal
ought not to be stingy.
We shall one day find in Heaven,
as much rest and joy
as we ourselves have dispensed in this life.”

St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

“Humility is not just about self-mistrust
but about the entrusting of ourselves to God.
Distrusting ourselves and our own strength
produces trust in God
and from that trust,
generosity of soul is born.”

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of Charity

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the KING, CHRIST the WORD and WISDOM, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, FATHERS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE, The APOSTLES & EVANGELISTS, The BEATITUDES, The KINGDOM of GOD / HEAVEN, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 20 September – ‘ … What could be more wretched for God, than to take the form of a slave? …’

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One Minute Reflection – 20 September – “The Month of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Holy Cross” – Ember Saturday – The Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist – Wisdom 5:16-20 – Luke 6:17-23 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God.” –

REFLECTION – “As almost all men have a natural tendency to pride, the Lord begins the Beatitudes by casting aside the original sin of self-sufficiency and by counseling our imitation of Himself, Who is truly blessed, the genuinely voluntary Poor Man … so, we might become like Him, in a voluntary poverty which is according to our means, so as to share His blessedness, His happiness. “Have among you the same attitude which is also yours in Christ Jesus. Who, although He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave,” (Phil 2:5-7).

What could be more wretched for God, than to take the form of a slave? What lowlier for the King of the Universe, than to share our human nature? The King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Judge of the world, pays taxes to Caesar (1 Tim 6:17; Heb 12:23; Mk 12:17)! Creation’s Lord embraces this world, enters a cave, finds no place in an inn and takes refuge in a stable, in the company of irrational beasts. He, Who is pure and spotless, takes upon Himself, the stains of human nature and, after sharing all our poverty, goes as far as to experience our death. Consider the excessiveness of His voluntary poverty! Life tastes death; the Judge is dragged before the court; the Master of the lives of us all submits to a magistrate; the King of the Heavenly Powers does not escape the hands of torturers! This is the pattern, says the Apostle Paul, against which His humility is measured.” – St Gregory of Nyssa (c335-395) Bishop, Father of the Church, Brother of St Basil the Great (The Beatitudes 1).

PRAYER – Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God that the worshipful Feast of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist, St Matthew, on the eve whereof we now stand, may avail us, to the increase, both of godliness toward Thee and of health to our own souls. 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 CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, FATHERS of the Church, HYMNS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, The APOSTLES & EVANGELISTS

Our Morning Offering – 20 September – Exsultet Orbis! on the Vigil of St Matthew!

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Our Morning Offering – 20 September – “The Month of The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary and The Holy Cross” – The Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Exsultet Orbis!
Let the World Rejoice!
Unknown Author

Now let the earth with joy resound,
And Heaven the chant re-echo round;
Nor Heaven nor earth too high can raise
The great Apostles’ glorious praise.

O ye who, throned in glory dread,
Shall judge the living and the dead,
Lights of the world forever more!
To you the suppliant prayer we pour.

Ye close the Sacred Gates on high.
At your command apart they fly.
O loose for us the guilty chain
We strive to break and strive in vain.

Sickness and health your voice obey,
At your command they go or stay.
From sin’s disease our souls restore;
In good confirm us more and more.

So when the world is at its end.
And Christ to Judgment shall descend,
May we be called, those joys to see
Prepared from all eternity.

Praise to the Father, with the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One;
As ever was in ages past
And so shall be while ages last.
Amen

(Roman Breviary for the Common of Apostles)
An Office Hymn that was traditionally prescribed for Vespers and Lauds on the Feasts of Apostles and Evangelists outside Easter time. The Hymn is found as early as the 10th Century in a Hymnal of Moissac Abbey.

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 20 September – Blessed Thomas Johnson O.Cart. (Died 1537) Priest Martyr

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Saint of the Day – 20 September – Blessed Thomas Johnson O.Cart. (Died 1537) Priest Martyr, English Carthusian Monk of the Charterhouse in London. Unknown birthdate but died by being starved to death at Newgate Prison, London. Blessed Thomas holds the dubious title of being “the last of the Charterhouse Martyrs to die.”

The Carthusian Priest Thomas Johnson, like his fellow Monks at the London Charterhouse, was a victim of Henry VIII’s persecution after the schism from Rome.

In London, Thomas Johnson was involved in the terrible events as we know from the lives of the other Charterhouse Martyrs which saw the Carthusian Monks first arrested on 20 May 1537 and then slowly left to die in freezing conditions, in hunger, in immense suffering and abuse in the infamous, fearsome and horrible Newgate Prison.

Of the ten of his incarcerated brothers, Thomas Johnson was the one who survived the longest; in fact, all the the others, exhausted by privations, died between June and August 1537 i.e. lasting for between weeks to 2 months.

It is speculated that, in addition to probably having a stronger constitution, capable of longer enduring the oppression imposed by the jailers, Thomas Johnson was kept alive longer in the hope of obtaining his acceptance of the Act of Supremacy. However, all was in vain, as the ‘final victim’ ascended to Heaven on 20 September 1537, cexactly 4 months after his arrest, onsumed by hunger and thirst, remaining faithful to the principles of his faith, despite having been severely tested by having outlived his beloved brothers.

All the Carthusian Martyrs were Beatified by Pope Leo XIII on 9 December 1886. Their memory is commemorated in London, each on the day of their death and also together on 4 May as the Carthusian Martyrs of London.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

EMBER Saturday – Fast and Abstinence, Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, Notre-Dame-au-Pied-d’Argent / Our Lady with the Silver Foot) (1284), St Eustachius, Wife and Sons – Martyrs (Died c 188) and the Saints for 20 September

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EMBER Saturday – Fast and Abstinence
https://anastpaul.com/2020/12/16/today-is-an-ember-day-did-you-remember/

The Vigil of St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

Notre-Dame-au-Pied-d’Argent / Our Lady with the Silver Foot), Toul, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France (1284) – 20 September:
HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/09/20/notre-dame-au-pied-dargent-our-lady-with-the-silver-foot-toul-meurthe-et-moselle-lorraine-france-1284-and-memorials-of-the-saints-20-september/

St Eustachius, Wife and Sons – Martyrs (Died c 188) St Eustachius is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Patronages – against fire, difficult situations, fire prevention, firefighters, hunters, hunting, huntsmen, Madrid, torture victims, trappers.
The Biography of this family of Martyrs:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/20/saint-of-the-day-20-september-st-eustachius-wife-and-sons-martyrs-died-c-188/

St Pope Agapetus I (c489-536) Bishop of Rome Papal Reign from 13 May 535 – 22 April 536. He might have been related to St Gregory the Great who Reigned from 590 until his death in 604.
This Holy Pope:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/09/20/saint-of-the-day-20-september-st-pope-agapetus-i-c489-536/


St Candida of Carthage

St Clicerius (Died c438) Bishop and Confessor of Milan.
About this Holy Shepherd:
https://anastpaul.com/2024/09/20/saint-of-the-day-20-september-saint-clicerius-of-milan-died-c438-bishop-and-confessor/

St Dionysius
St Dorimedonte of Synnada
St Eusebia of Marseilles
St Evilasius of Cyzicum
St Fausta of Cyzicum
St Priscus

St Susanna (Died 362) Virgin, Martyr, Deaconess and Abbess. Susanna spent many years as a ‘Monk and then ‘Abbot’ when she disguised herself as a man called John. After detection, she was rescued by the local Bishop, Ordained as a Deaconess and settled as Abbess in a Convent for women.
Her Life and Death:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/09/20/saint-of-the-day-20-september-saint-susanna-of-eleutheropolis-died-362-virgin-martyr/

Blessed Thomas Johnson O.Cart. (Died 1537) Priest Martyr

Martyrs of Constantinople – 3 Saints: A Priest and two Bishops who were imprisoned, tortured and Martyred for the defence of icons in the iconoclast persecutions of Emperor Leo the Isaurian. – Andrea, Asiano and Hypatius. They were Martyred in 735 in Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey) and their bodies were thrown to the dogs.

Martyrs of Pergen – 6 Saints: A group of lay people Martyred in the persecutions of Emperor Elagabalus. The names that have come down to us are Dionysius, Dioscorus, Philippa, Privatus, Socrates and Theodore. They were crucified c 220 at Pergen, Pamphylia, Asia Minor (in modern Turkey).