Saint Margaret of Louvain, also known as known as Margaretula, Margaret la Fière, Margaret van Leuven, Margaret van Löwen, Margarita Lovania, Fiere Margriet.
Death of Margaretha of Louvain by Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen
She was a maid born in 1207 to a poor family at Louvain, Brabant, Belgium. When a teenager, Margaret worked as a maid at the Sint Joris, an inn in Louvain owned by her uncle Aubert. Aubert and his wife sold the inn, planning to each enter the religious life. Margaret herself wanted to become a Cistercian nun.
The body of the blessed Margaretha of Louvain laid out.
On their last night in the inn, thieves broke in and murdered the owners while Margaret was out. She came home as the killers were leaving, seeing what they had done. She ran and the thieves gave chase. They caught up with her along the banks of the Dyle River, where they murdered her by slitting her throat. They threw her corpse into the Dyle, but when a large fish pushed the body upstream and an angel hovered over the river, shining a light on the body, it was recovered and buried on the riverbank where she was killed. Miracles were reported at her gravesite, and her remains were then translated and reinterred in a chapel in the yard of Saint Peter’s Church in the centre of town, where many miracles occured.
In 1905, Pope Pius X confirmed her cultus. Her shrine was made of gilded copper and adorned with semi-precious stones and co-financed by gifts from parishioners and young maids who honor Marguerite la Fière as their patron saint.
The funeral procession of Blessed Margaretha of Louvain
Madonna della Montagna / Our Lady of the Mountain, Polsi di San Luca, Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy (1144) – 2 September :
In 1144, a boy found his calf kneeling before an unusual iron Cross, apparently just unearthed. The Madonna appeared, asking for the young herder to spread the news and for a Church to be built on the spot, half a mile high in the mountains.
In 1560, a chest was found floating in the sea. It was taken ashore and found to contain a stone Statue of the Madonna. When the chest was placed in a cart, the oxen suddenly took off for the mountain pass and nothing more was heard of the Statue until it turned up in the heart of Aspromonte, at the place where a calf had found a Cross and the Madonna had requested a Church. The Sanctuary there became a place of pilgrimage.
Every year, people from all over Calabria and Sicily would make the 24-hour walk, enlivened by hymns and ballads, along the rugged path to Polsi, where they would greet the Madonna with gunshots on their arrival on 2 September As pilgrims still do — though now they can travel by road or train as well — they would spend the night in one of the hostels near the Shrine. On 3 September, a wooden Madonna is carried in procession. The stone Statue is only taken from its place on the main Altar every 25 years or in special circumstances. Also known as the Mother of the Good Shepherd, the Madonna of the Mountain was crowned in 1881, 1931 and on 2 September 1981.
Bl Albert of Pontida St Antoninus of Pamiers St Antoninus of Syria
St Solomon le Clerq FSC (1745-1792) Martyr, Religious Brother of the De La Salle Brothers, Teacher.
St Theodota of Bithynia St Valentine of Strasbourg St William of Roeskilde — Marytrs of Nicomedia – 3 saints: Three Christians who were martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. No details about them but their names have survived – Concordius, Theodore and Zenone. They were martyrd in Nicomedia, Bithynia (in modern Turkey).
Martyrs of 2 September – 10 saints: A group of ten Christian martyrs; their names are on old martyrologies but we have lost all record of their lives and deaths. They were canonised. • Antoninus • Diomedes • Eutychian • Hesychius • Julian • Leonides • Menalippus • Pantagapes • Philadelphus • Philip
Holy Bishops of Rennes: Honors all the bishops of the Diocese of Rennes, France who have been recognized as saints and beati. They include : Saint Maximinus of Rennes Saint Modéran of Rennes Saint Rambert of Rennes Saint Riotisme of Rennes Saint Servius of Rennes Saint Synchronius of Rennes
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: • Blessed Baldomer Margenat Puigmitja • Blessed Fortunato Barrón Nanclares • Blessed Joan Franquesa Costa • Blessed José María Laguía Puerto • Blessed Lorenzo Insa Celma
Our Morning Offering – 2 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary”
The Suscipe of Venerable Sr Catherine McAuley (1778-1841)
My God, I am Yours for time and eternity. Teach me to cast myself entirely into the arms of Your loving Providence with a lively, unlimited confidence in Your compassionate, tender pity. Grant, O most merciful Redeemer, that whatever You ordain or permit, may be acceptable to me. Take from my heart all painful anxiety, let nothing sadden me but sin, nothing delight me but the hope of coming to the possession of You, my God and my all, in Your everlasting kingdom. Amen
One Minute Reflection – 2 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary” – Readings: Ps 36:30-31, Ps 36:1, Sir 31:8-11, Luke 19:12-26
You knew that I am a stern man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow. Why, then, did you not put my money in a bank, so that I on my return might have gotten it with interest?
Luke 19:12-26
REFLECTION – O beloved Truth, O calmest equity of my God, how shall I dare to appear in your presence, bowed down as I am beneath the load of my iniquity, the crushing weight of all my negligence? I have not been faithful, nor have I traded with the talent you entrusted me, the priceless treasure of Christian faith and the spiritual life. I ought to have committed your money to the bankers of your charity so that I might draw abundant interest of perfection from it and so give you back what belongs to you with interest. And not only have I spent your precious talent, my time, but I have wasted it, squandered it utterly away. Where shall I go? Who shall I turn to? “From your presence, where shall I flee?”.
O Truth, you have justice and equity as your inseparable judges. Woe to me if, when I come before you, I lack an advocate to plead my cause. O Love, come forward on my behalf; answer for me; sue for my pardon. If you plead my cause, I know I still have hope of life.
I know what I will do: “The cup of salvation I will take up”. I will lay it upon the empty scale of Truth's balance. So I shall supply all that is lacking and outweigh all my sins. That cup will raise up again all my ruins; with that cup I shall worthily overbalance all my unworthiness.
O beloved Truth, I could not, dare not stand before you without my Jesus; but with him, my Jesus, I will come with joy and gladness. Then sit on your judgement seat, O Truth...: “I fear no evil”.
St Gertrude of Helfta
PRAYER – Lord, my God, You chose us from the foundations of the world to be Your children. We pray that our courage may not fail us as we strive to live in obedience to Your commandments and by our lives spread Your holy Word. We ask too for courage, as we are attacked from all sides, in our struggle home to You. Grant that through the prayers of our Sorrowful Mother, we may fight unto death for Your love and the glory of Your Kingdom. Through our Lord, Jesus, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.
And having summoned ten of his servants, he gave them ten gold pieces and said to them, ‘Trade till I come.’
Luke 19:12-26
Paul told them that each of them would receive his reward in proportion to his labour. This ought to make you realise that your happiness in heaven will be greater than what will be enjoyed by those who have worked only for their own salvation.
St John Baptist de La Salle
What a consolation for those who have procured the salvation of souls: to see in heaven a great number whom they have helped to obtain the advantage of enjoying so great a happiness! This will happen to those who have instructed many people about the truths of religion, as an angels said to the Prophet Daniel: Those who instruct many people in Christian justice will shine like stars throughout eternity.
St John Baptist de La Salle
What an honour, and how glorious it is to be in the service of so great, so good a Master! The condition of the least of His servants is incomparably greater than that of the kings of the earth, for their greatness and prosperity finish with their lives, but the servants of God finish with their lives the pains and trials they have had to suffer in His service, and after that they find an eternal happiness and immortal crowns awaiting them.
Henrie Marie Boudon (16th Century)
It is true that all men esteem and love to be great, but they do not think wherein true greatness is. They deem it a great honour to be in the service of royalty, they pay heavy sums to be deemed the head of a firm, but they take but little pains to be a servant of God, and, what is more grievous, they often blush at the idea of fulfilling the duties of His service.
Henrie Marie Boudon
Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross. Many love Him as long as they encounter no hardship; many praise and bless Him as long as they receive some comfort from Him. But if Jesus hides Himself and leaves them for a while, they fall either into complaints or into deep dejection. Those, on the contrary, who love Him for His own sake and not for any comfort of their own, bless Him in all trial and anguish of heart as well as in the bliss of consolation. Even if He should never give them consolation, yet they would continue to praise Him and wish always to give Him thanks. What power there is in pure love for Jesus — love that is free from all self-interest and self-love!
Thomas a Kempis
He, therefore, is a fool indeed, who despises so great a good, and chooses rather to receive in this life, the earnest money of Hell, walking by the lower road with great toil, and without any refreshment or advantage.
Letter to the Friends of the Cross by St Louis de Montfort
The Two Companies
My dear brothers and sisters, there are two companies that appear before you each day: the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.
Our dear Saviour’s company is on the right, climbing up a narrow road, made all the narrower by the world’s immorality. Our Master leads the way, barefooted, crowned with thorns, covered with blood, and laden with a heavy cross. Those who follow him, though most valiant, are only a handful, either because his quiet voice is not heard amid the tumult of the world, or because people lack the courage to follow him in his poverty, sufferings, humiliations and other crosses which his servants must carry all the days of their life.
On the left hand is the company of the world or of the devil. This is far more numerous, more imposing and more illustrious, at least in appearance. Most of the fashionable people run to join it, all crowded together, although the road is wide and is continually being made wider than ever by the crowds that pour along it like a torrent. It is strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver.
On the right, the little groups which follow Jesus speak about sorrow and penance, prayer and indifference to worldly things. They continually encourage one another saying, “Now is the time to suffer and to mourn, to pray and do penance, to live in retirement and poverty, to humble and mortify ourselves; for those who do not possess the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of the cross, do not belong to him.
Those who belong to Christ have crucified all self-indulgent passions and desires. We must be true images of Christ or be eternally lost. “Have confidence,” they say to each other. If God is on our side, within us and before us, who can be against us? He who is within us is stronger than the one who is in the world. The servant is not greater than his master. This slight and temporary distress we suffer will bring us a tremendous and everlasting glory. The number of those who will be saved is not as great as some people imagine. It is only the brave and the daring who take heaven by storm, where only those are crowned who strive to live according to the law of the Gospel and not according to the maxims of the world. Let us fight with all our strength, let us run with all speed, that we may attain our goal and win the crown.
Such are some of the heavenly counsels with which the Friends of the Cross inspire each other.
Those who follow the world, on the contrary, urge each other to continue in their evil ways without scruple, calling to one another day after day, “Let us eat and drink, sing and dance, and enjoy ourselves. God is good; he has not made us to damn us. He does not forbid us to amuse ourselves. We shall not be damned for so little. We are not to be scrupulous. ‘No, you will not die’.”
Dear brothers and sisters, remember that our loving Saviour has his eyes on you at this moment, and he says to each one of you individually, “See how almost everyone deserts me on the royal road of the Cross. Pagans in their blindness ridicule my Cross as foolishness; obstinate Jews are repelled by it as by an object of horror; heretics pull it down and break it to pieces as something contemptible. “Even my own people – and I say this with tears in my eyes and grief in my heart – my own children whom I have brought up and instructed in my ways, my members whom I have quickened with my own Spirit, have turned their backs on me and forsaken me by becoming enemies of my Cross. ‘Will you also go away?’ Will you also desert me by running away from my Cross like the worldlings, who thus become so many antichrists? Will you also follow the world; despise the poverty of my Cross in order to seek after wealth; shun the sufferings of my Cross to look for enjoyment; avoid the humiliations of my Cross in order to chase after the honours of the world? ‘There are many who pretend they are friends of mine and protest that they love me, but in their hearts they hate me. I have many friends of my table, but very few of my Cross.’ (Imit. II, 11, 1).”
At this loving appeal of Jesus, let us rise above our human nature; let us not be seduced by our senses, as Eve was; but keep our eyes fixed on Jesus crucified, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection (Heb 12.2). Let us keep ourselves apart from the evil practices of the world; let us show our love for Jesus in the best way, that is, through all kinds of crosses. Reflect well on these remarkable words of our Saviour, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16.24; Lk 9.23).
AnaStpaul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.