Day: August 8, 2026

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 8 August – Saint Hormisdas of Persia

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St Hormisdas of Persia (or Hormizd) was the son of a governor and a Persian martyr who died in the fifth century. At the time Christians were being persecuted by the Persian kings, and the tortures and method of murder inflicted upon them ws so cruel and horrible that according to sources from the period, it was difficult to even put it into words. Even worse than threat of pain, the Persian kings offered barbarism in one hand, and offers of power in the other. Despite this dual onslaught against weak human nature, the most terrible possible, many Christians stood fast to the Faith.

Babylon

High status and power were taken from Hormisdas because of his strict allegiance to Christianity. From a nobleman, he was stripped of everything, including most of his clothes, and made to take care of the royal camels.

In answer to the king’s demand that he renounce Christ, Hormisdas refused, saying that such a denial would offend God, and that a man willing to violate the supreme law of the sovereign Lord of all could not be trusted to remain faithful even to his earthly king. He added that if treason against an earthly sovereign is punishable by death, “what must it be to renounce the God and ruler of the universe?”

After a long time suffering humiliation, the king pitied the saint, gave Hormisdas a tunic and offered him clemency if he would “renounce the Carpenter’s Son.” In response, Hormisdas stripped off the tunic, asking the emperor how he could have believed it would persuade him to abandon the law of God. He was executed in the year 420 by Bahram V.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES

Santa Maria della Querce / Our Lady of the Oak, Lucignano, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy (1417) and Memorials of the Saints – 8 August

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Santa Maria della Querce / Our Lady of the Oak, Lucignano, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy (1417) – 8 August, Third Saturday of September:

In 1417 Feliciano Batone painted a fresco of the Pietà on a wayside Shrine beneath a great oak . Fifty years later, there was a surge in devotion to the Madonna of the Oak after the story circulated that on 8 August 1467, a man from Siena, running from his enemies, stopped there to pray to Mary, who made him invisible to his pursuers.

A small wooden Chapel was built to protect the image and Consecrated that year. Located on a hill northeast of the old City centre, beyond the Medici Fortress and the cemetery, the present Church was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1558 and Consecrated in 1617.

On the third Sunday of September, near the feast of the Sorrowful Mother on S15 September, Lucignano celebrates St. Mary of the Oak with religious services, food, games and fireworks.

St Aemilian of Cyzicus
St Altman of Passau (c 1020 – 1091) Bishop

Ven Antonio/Margil of Jesus OFM (1657-1726)

St Cyriacus/Cyriac the Martyr (Died c 303) Deacon, Miracle-worker. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

St Eleutherius of Constantinople
St Ellidius
St Famianus of Compostela
St Gedeon of Besancon
St Hormisdas of Persia
Bl John Felton

Bl John Fingley
St Largus
St Leobald of Fleury
St Leonidas of Constantinople
St Marinus of Anzarba

St Mummolus of Fleury
St Myron the Wonder Worker
St Paulus Ge Tingzhu
St Rathard of Diessen
St Severus of Vienne
St Sigrada
St Smaragdus
St Ternatius of Besançon
St Ultan of Crayke
Bl William of Castellammare di Stabia
Bl Wlodzimierz Laskowski
—
Martyrs of Albano – 4 saints: Four Christians who were martyred together, and about we today know little more than their names – Carpóforo, Secondo, Severiano and Vittorino. They were martyred in Albano, Italy – their remains are interred in the San Senator cemetery, on the Appian Way, 15 miles from Rome, Italy.

Martyrs of Rome – 5 saints: Five Christians martyred together; we know nothing else about them but the names – Ciriaco, Crescenziano, Giuliana, Memmia and Smaragdus. They were martyred at the 7 mile marker, on the Via Ostia, Rome, Italy.

Martyred in the Spanish Civil War – Martyrs of El Saler – 5 beati: Five nuns, all members of the Sisters of the Pious Schools, all teachers, and all martyred together in the Spanish Civil War.
• Antonia Riba Mestres
• Maria Baldillou Bullit
• María Luisa Girón Romera
• Nazaria Gómez Lezaun
• Pascuala Gallén Martí
They were martyred on 8 August 1936 in El Saler, Valencia, Spain.

Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
Bl Cruz Laplana Laguna
Bl Fernando Español Berdie
Bl Leoncio López Ramos
Bl Manuel Aranda Espejo
Bl Mariano Pina Turón
Bl Pedro Álvarez Pérez

Posted in Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 8 August – Omnipotentia Patris

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 8 August – Sunday of the Holy Trinity

Omnipotentia Patris

O Omnipotence of the Father,
help my frailty
and save me from the depths of misery.

O Wisdom of the Son,
direct all my thoughts,
my words and my deeds.

O Love of the Holy Spirit,
be the source of all the actions of my mind,
that they may always be conformed
to God’s good pleasure.
Amen

Posted in ONE Minute REFLECTION

One Minute Reflection – 8 August – “Ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks”

Posted on by AnaStpaul

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, Let your loins be girt about and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their master’s return from the wedding; so that when he comes and knocks, they may straight-way open to him.

Luke 12:35-40

REFLECTION – God, the Word, stirs up the lazy and arouses the sleeper. For indeed, someone who comes knocking at the door is always wanting to come in. But it depends on us if he does not always enter or always remain. May your door be open to him who comes; open your soul, enlarge your spiritual capacities, that you may discover the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace and sweetness of grace. Expand your heart; run to meet the sun of that eternal light that “enlightens everyone”. It is certain that this true light shines for all, but if anyone shuts their windows then they themselves shut themselves off from this eternal light.

So even Christ remains outside if you shut the door of your soul. It is true that he could enter but he doesn't want to use force, he doesn't put those who refuse under pressure. Descended from the Virgin, born from her womb, he shines throughout the universe to give light to all. Those who long to receive the light that shines with an everlasting brightness open up to him. No night comes to intervene. Indeed, the sun we see each day gives way to night's darkness; but the Sun of justice knows no setting for Wisdom is not overcome by evil.

Saint Ambrose (12th Sermon on Psalm 118)

PRAYER – Almighty, ever-living God, in Your Word, You shed the light of Your glory on the peoples who are living in the shadow of death. By Your Word, You teach us all things and ‘draw’ us in the way of hope and love. For Your Word is Truth and Your Word became flesh and filled our world with the Sun of Justice, Your Son, He who is the Sun and the Truth. May our steps be guided by His Mother, Our Blessed Lady, as we follow in the footsteps of Your Word and be a protection in our trials by the Bread of Life. Through Christ, our Lord Jesus, with You in union with the Holy Spirit, now and forever, amen.

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 8 August – You also must be ready

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 8 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – Readings: Ps 36:30-31, Ps 36:1, Sir 31:8-11, Luke 12:35-40

Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, and will make them recline at table, and will come and serve them. And if he comes in the second watch, and if in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!

Luke 12:35-40

Finally, to die of the plague is not a dreadful death. St. Roch and St. Francis Xavier died of it. But what makes death bad is sin. Ah, this horrible sin which tears and devours at this dread moment! Alas, no matter where the poor, unfortunate sinner looks, he sees only sin and neglected graces! If he lifts his eyes to Heaven, he sees only an angry God, armed with all the fury of His justice, Who is ready to punish him. If he turns his gaze downwards, he sees only Hell and its furies already opening its gates to receive him. Alas! This poor sinner did not want to recognise the justice of God during his life on earth; at this moment, not only does he see it, but he feels it already pressing down upon him. 

St John Vianney

“There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.”

Isa. xlviii. 22.

“Great is the peace that they have who love Thy law.”

Ps. cxix.

Hast thou the soul of a hog? Ah, wretched one, perhaps thou art like a beast, so that thou canst be satisfied with eating, with drinking, with sensual pleasures?

St Bernard of Clairvaux

If the riches of this world could satisfy a man, the rich and those who govern, would be fully happy; but experience teaches us the contrary. Solomon observes the same thing, even he who asserts that he never denied his senses one thing. But not withstanding, what does he say? “Vanity of vanities; …. all is vanity.”

St Alphonsus Liguori

Wherefore when the time of discretion is come, the soul can, by her free will, make choice either of good or evil, according as it pleases her will; and so great is this liberty that man has, and so strong has this liberty been made by virtue of this glorious Blood, that no demon or creature can constrain him to one smallest fault without his free consent. He has been redeemed from slavery, and made free in order that he might govern his own sensuality, and obtain the end for which he was created. Oh, miserable man, who delights to remain in the mud like a brute, and does not learn this great benefit which he has received from Me! A benefit so great, that the poor wretched creature full of such ignorance could receive no greater.

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Thought for the Day – 8 August – Mary’s Heart, The Sun

Posted on by AnaStpaul

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart, The Sun

The sun is the second symbolic picture which God, the Creator of heaven and earth, has deigned to give us of the Immaculate Heart of the Queen ~ of heaven and earth. God did not create the natural sun, our wonderful luminary, merely to enlighten our material world; He made it also to be a representation of the excellent perfections which shine in the luminous Heart of the world’s Sovereign Lady.

We should remember that the infinite power of God has divided this great universe into three different states or orders, namely the state of nature, the state of grace and the state of glory. His divine wisdom has nevertheless established such a perfect bond, relationship and resemblance among these three states and among the beings existing in these orders that whatever is in the order of nature is an image-of the things belonging to the order of grace, and whatever belongs to the order of nature and grace is a figure of what is to be seen in the state of glory.

Hence, the sun, which is truly the heart of the visible world, and the most beautiful and glowing gem of nature, gives us, in spite of its dazzling light, only a very faint shadow of our heavenly Sun, the Heart of the Mother of God.

Sacred Scripture calls the sun an admirable vessel, the work of the Sovereign Lord. “An admirable instrument, the work of the Most High. Great is the Lord that made him,” But we can say of the most excellent Heart of the Mother of God that it is an incomparable masterpiece of God’s almighty hand. It is a compendium of all the marvels He has worked in pure creatures, and will be the eternal object of the admiration and delight of angels and men. Great indeed is He who made it, because His divine magnificence appears in her admirable Heart more clearly than in all the other wonderful things of nature, grace and glory.

Mary’s Heart is surrounded, filled, penetrated by light, and her light is incomparably more brilliant and radiant than all the lights of the celestial spaces. It is all light, and after God, it is the first source of the lights which shine in the firmament of the Church. “I made that in the heavens there should rise light that never faileth.”

Yes, hers is indeed the heart of the entire world, the heart of Heaven and earth, the heart of the Church Militant, Suffering and Triumphant, since the Holy Spirit bids us sing: Vitam datam per Virginem, gentes redemptae plaudite. “All ye nations, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, rejoice, sing the praises of your Redeemer and His glorious Mother! You were condemned to eternal death, and the Son of Mary has made you free; the Mother of Jesus has restored life to you, even eternal life, by giving you her Son, who is Life essential and the source of all life.”

The solar sun has been in perpetual motion since its creation in space, and it travels so rapidly that mathematicians calculate its speed to be over one million leagues an hour. Similarly, the holy Heart of Mary, from the moment of her Immaculate Conception, has been completely kept in motion by love for God and charity towards mankind. As long as Mary, the admirable Sun of Light and Purity, was on earth, she sped or rather flew with such celerity on the path of sanctity that the speed of our material sun is simply a shadow and a figure by comparison. For this holy Sun, Mary’s immaculate Heart, progressed incomparably farther in the mystical and supernatural way of the world of grace than the material sun which revolves around our visible world.

St. Germanus of Constantinople calls the Heart of Mary the happiness of the entire world. Commune mundi gaudium. And St. John Damascene says that it is an ocean of inexhaustible delight: Gaudii pelagus inexhaustum.

“Take away the sun that enlightens our material world,” says St. Bernard, “what will become of day or light? Take away Mary, the Star of the Sea, or take away the Heart of Mary, the true Sun of the Christian World, and what would be left? Without Mary’s radiance, nothing is left but enveloping darkness, the shadow of death and the frightful night of the grave.”

Posted in AUGUST - The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Novena to Our Lady of the Assumption – Day Three – 8 August

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Novena to Our Lady of the Assumption

DAY THREE

Daily Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
Thou has destroyed the power of death
and given the hope of eternal life,
for body and soul.
Thou granted Thy Mother
a special place in Thy glory
and did not allow decay to touch her body.
As we rejoice in the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
grant us renewed confidence
in the victory of life over death.
Amen.

Day 3:
O Mother, Assumed into Heaven
because thou shared in all the mysteries
of our Redemption here below,
Jesus has crowned thee with glory.
With thy most glorious and powerful intercession,
help us O loving Mother
and present to Jesus our request.
…………………………………
(Mention your request)
O Queen assumed into Heaven, pray for us.
Amen