1, The prophecy of Simeon 2. The Flight to Egypt 3. Loss of Child Jesus for 3 days 4. Meeting Jesus carrying His Cross 5. The Crucifixion of Jesus 6. The Pieta – receiving Jesus’ Body 7. The Burial of Jesus
During this month of September, we are drawn into the spiritual Martyrdom which the Blessed Mother experienced during the physical Martyrdom of Jesus. The evils of sin are manifest but conquered through intense suffering. The Blessed Mother’s tears of anguish reflect God’s washing away of sin.
We see this theme of joy followed by affliction mirrored in the liturgical calendar in two September Feasts – the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on 14 September and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on 15 September. Happy the heart of the blessed Virgin Mary! She, without dying, earned the treasure of Martyrdom beneath the Cross of our Lord for her anguish.
The name of Our Lady of Sorrows centres on the extraordinary and bittersweet suffering the Blessed Mother experienced during Christ’s Passion. As seen in the artwork above, her agony is composed of “The Seven Dolors,” that pierced the Heart of Mary. Dürer’s portrayal of each event encompasses the central figure of Christ’s sorrowful Mother.
Bid me bear, O Mother Blest, On my heart, the wounds imprest, Suffered by the Crucified!
An Indulgence of 50 days each time. Plenary Indulgence once a month under the usual conditions.
Joshua (‘God is salvation’) – also known Joshua the Prophet, Joshua, son of Nun, Giosuè, Hosea, Hoshea, Jehoshua, Jesus, Josua, Josue, Josuë, Jozua, Jozuë, Osee, Yehoshu’a, Yehoshúa, Yeshua – was Moses’ assistant and later succeeded him as the leader of the Israelites.
Joshua was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a militia group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim. He later accompanied Moses when he ascended Mount Sinai to commune with God, and he was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites’ celebrations around the Golden Calf. Joshua was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses to scout out the land of Canaan.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two who had confidence in God and would recommended a direct attack. Because of their faith and trust they were exempt from the condemnation of their generation to death in the wilderness outside the Promised Land. The book of Joshua recounts his victories at Jericho, Ai, and other places.
Just before he died at the age of 110, he convened the elders and chiefs of the Israelites and exhorted them to have no fellowship with the native population, because it could lead them to be unfaithful to God.
No man shall be able to resist you all the days of thy life: as I have been with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Collection of all the Feasts of Our Lady, celebrated at Louvain – 1 September:
The Abbot Orsini writes that “A feast is kept in honour of the Blessed Virgin, called the Collection of all the Feasts of Our Lady.”
Louvain refers to Leuven, the capital of the Province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. There was once a Chapel called Our Lady of Louvain, which had stood near the Church tower of a separate Church dedicated to Saint Peter. The Chapel owed its origin to an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary that was given by a group of Monks from Abbey Park as a sign of brotherhood in 1132. According to tradition, the wooden statue, which depicted the Blessed Virgin seated with the Divine Child in her lap, was a gift from heaven deposited on the earth by heavenly Angels. The image excited a lively religious fervour upon its reception and there are numerous miracles credited to pious devotion to the image of Our Lady of Louvain.
Over 350 years later, as the Chapel of Our Lady of Louvain was built on land that was needed for the construction of the new and larger Church of Saint Peter, it was necessary to demolish the Chapel. In a letter dated 28 March 1496, Bishop John Horne of Liege, authorised the transfer of materials from the Chapel of Our Lady of Louvain to the new Basilica of Saint Peter The old Chapel was demolished two years later in 1498 and the Statue of the Virgin was placed on a special Altar in the collegiate Church of Saint Peter. Every year, on the eve of the first Sunday in September, the miraculous image of Our Lady of Louvain had been carried in procession by the canons and members of the local council while bells tolled and musicians accompanied the image singing the Salve Regina.
Sometime later, the Statue became known by the title of Notre-Dame-sous-la-Tour. The original Church of Saint Peter was made entirely of wood and completed in about 986. It burned to the ground in 1176. It was rebuilt in Romanesque style with two west towers, and that image is still used as the ancient seal for the City. The Church was then enlarged in 1425 in the Brabantine Gothic style. The Church of Saint Peter was heavily damaged in both world wars but most importantly, the original Statue of Our Lady of Louvain was completely destroyed in 1944 by allied bombing during World War II and it is now only a replica that is on display at the Church.
Abigail the Matriarch
St Abdon the Judge St Aegidius St Agia St Anea St Arcanus St Arealdo of Brescia Bl Colomba of Mount Brancastello St Constantius the Bishop St Donatus of Sentianum St Felix of Sentianum
St Ibzan the Judge St Jane Soderini St Joshua the Patriarch Bl Juliana of Collalto St Laetus of Dax
St Lupus of Sens (Died 623) Bishop of Sens – France, Confessor, Monk, Missionary.
St Lythan St Nivard of Rheims St Priscus St Regulus St Sixtus of Rheims St Terentian St Verena St Victorious St Vincent of Xaintes — Exiles of Campania Twelve Holy Brothers: Martyrs of the South – A group of Martyrs who died c 303 at various places in southern Italy. In 760 their relics were brought together and enshrined in Benevento, Italy as a group. • Saint Arontius of Potenza • Saint Donatus of Sentianum • Saint Felix of Sentianum • Saint Felix of Venosa • Saint Fortunatus of Potenza • Saint Honoratus of Potenza • Saint Januarius of Venosa • Saint Repositus of Velleianum • Saint Sabinian of Potenza • Saint Sator of Velleianum • Saint Septiminus of Venosa • Saint Vitalis of Velleianum One tradition describes Saint Boniface of Hadrumetum and Saint Thecla of Hadrumetum as their parents.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War: Martyred Hospitallers of Saint John of God – (12 beati) • Blessed Alejandro Cobos Celada • Blessed Alfonso Sebastiá Viñals • Blessed Amparo Carbonell Muñoz • Blessed Antonio Villanueva Igual • Blessed Carmen Moreno Benítez • Blessed Crescencio Lasheras Aizcorbe • Blessed Enrique López y López • Blessed Francesc Trullen Gilisbarts • Blessed Guillermo Rubio Alonso • Blessed Isidro Gil Arano • Blessed Joaquim Pallerola Feu • Blessed Joaquín Ruiz Cascales • Blessed José Franco Gómez • Blessed José Prats Sanjuán • Blessed Josep Samsó y Elias • Blessed Manuel Mateo Calvo • Blessed Mariano Niño Pérez • Blessed Maximiano Fierro Pérez • Blessed Miquel Roca Huguet • Blessed Nicolás Aramendía García • Blessed Pedro Rivera • Blessed Pio Ruiz De La Torre
Our Morning Offering – 1 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary”
As we enter the Month of our Sorrowful Mother, let us unite ourselves to her and offer her our meagre consolation.
What Can I Say? By St Anselm (1033-1109) Magnificent Doctor Marian Doctor
My most merciful Lady, what can I say about the fountains that flowed from your most pure eyes when you saw your only Son before you, bound, beaten and suffering? What do I know of the flood that drenched your matchless face, when you beheld your Son, your Lord and your God, stretched on the Cross without guilt, when the flesh of your flesh was cruelly butchered by wicked men? How can I judge, what sobs, troubled your most pure breast, when you heard, “Woman, behold your son,” and the disciple, “Behold, your Mother,” when you received as a son the disciple in place of the Master, the servant for the Lord? Amen
One Minute Reflection – 1 September – “Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary” – Readings: Ps 83:10-11, Ps 83:2-3, Gal 5:16-24, Matt 6:24-33
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: No man serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Matt 6:24-33
REFLECTION – To want to place one’s hope and trust in passing things is to want to set one’s foundations in running water! Everything passes, God abides. To be attached to what is transitory is to cut oneself off from what endures. For who, carried away by the angry whirling of a rapid, can stand firm in that roiling flood? So if you want to avoid being carried away by the current then flee from all that flows away. Otherwise, the object of our love will make us end up doing exactly what we wanted to avoid. Whoever attaches himself to transitory things will surely be dragged along to wherever the things he is clinging to are drifting.
So the first thing we must do is to keep ourselves from loving material goods; the second is not to put our trust in such of those goods as are entrusted for our use and not our enjoyment. The soul who is attached to goods that only pass away very soon loses its own stability. The current of this present life carries off whoever it bears, and it is a foolish delusion, for whoever this current carries, to try to stand upright in it.
St Gregory the Great
PRAYER – God our Father, Your rule is a rule of love, Your providence is full of mercy for Your people. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Word made flesh and His sorrowful Mother, grant the spirit of wisdom and understanding in Your Word, Your Son Jesus Christ. Grant that by the healing Word our repentant hearts may know our way to our eternal home and strive to attain eternal joy there with You. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
And as for clothing, why are you anxious? Consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which flourishes today but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, O you of little faith!
Matt 6:24-33
Let us place our trust in the Providence of God. Let us cut off all those anxieties which serve only to torture our minds uselessly, since, whether we make ourselves uneasy or not, it is God alone who sends us all these things, and who may increase them until He sees they disturb us less.
St John Chrysostom
Why fear? says St Augustine: you have a GOD for a protector and His Providence for a guide. What! says the holy doctor, you fear to perish under the guidance of God, and under the protection of His Providence? Times ergo ne pereas? Is it that you know not that a single hair can fall off without His approval? Cujus capillus non peribit. Ah! if He takes so much care of things that are of little or no consequence, how safe ought we not to feel when we know with what care He watches a soul which is so precious to Him?
La Pere Croiset (17th century)
He not only is their guide and protector, but He showers down His graces and even makes use of His angels to help them. He warns them, by secret inspirations, what they should do and what they should not do, so that one would say that God is solely occupied in caring for His creatures.
La Pere Croiset
Happy, indeed, is she to whom it is given to share this sacred banquet, to cling with all her heart to Him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts admire unceasingly, whose love inflames our love, whose contemplation is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our joy, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance brings a gentle light, whose fragrance will revive the dead, whose glorious vision will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem;
St Clare of Assisi
I determined to do the little that was in me – namely, to follow the evangelical counsels as perfectly as I could, and to see that these few nuns who are here shod do the same, confiding in the great goodness of God, Who never fails to help those who resolve to forsake everything for His sake.
St Teresa of Avila
He who has given us life will give us wherewith to sustain it. He who feeds the thief, will He not feed the innocent? And if He takes care of His enemies, what will He not do for His friends? You cannot place yourself into better hands than He who made you what you are. He who has been so good to you before you were what you are, can He leave you uncared for, now that you are what He would wish you to be?
Friends of the Cross, you are like crusaders united to fight against the world; not like Religious who retreat from the world lest they be overcome, but like brave and valiant warriors on the battle-field, who refuse to retreat or even yield an inch. Be brave and fight courageously.
You must be joined together in a close union of mind and heart, which is stronger and far more formidable to the world and to hell than are the armed forces of a great nation to its enemies. Evil spirits are united to destroy you; you must be united to crush them. The avaricious are united to make money and amass gold and silver; you must combine your efforts to acquire the eternal treasures hidden in the Cross. Pleasure- seekers unite to enjoy themselves; you must be united to suffer.
A. Greatness of Your Title
You call yourselves “Friends of the Cross.” What a glorious title! I must confess that I am charmed and captivated by it. It is brighter than the sun, higher than the heavens, more magnificent and resplendent than all the titles given to kings and emperors. It is the glorious title of Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
It is the genuine title of a Christian.
But, if I am captivated by its splendour, I am no less frightened by its responsibility, for it is a title that embraces difficult and inescapable obligations, summed up in the words of the Holy Spirit, “A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people set apart.”
A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God, from among thousands who live only according to their reason and senses, to be wholly divine, raised above mere reason and completely opposed to material things, living in the light of pure faith, and inspired by a deep love of the Cross.
A Friend of the Cross is an all-powerful king, a champion who triumphs over the devil, the world and the flesh in their three-fold concupiscence. He crushes the pride of Satan by his love of humiliations; he overcomes the greed of the world by his love of poverty; he retrains the sensuality of the flesh by his love of suffering.
A Friend of the Cross is one who is holy and set apart from the things that are visible, for his heart is raised above all that is transient and perishable, and his homeland is in heaven; he travels through this world like a visitor and a pilgrim, and, far from setting his heart on it, he looks on it with indifference and tramples it underfoot with contempt.
A Friend of the Cross is a glorious trophy gained by the crucified Christ on Calvary, in union with his holy Mother. He is a Benoni or Benjamin, a child of sorrow and of the right hand, conceived in the suffering heart of Jesus, born from his pierced side, and baptised in his blood. True to his origin, his life embraces the cross, and death to the world, the flesh, and sin, so as to live here below a life hidden with Christ in God.
In short, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Christ, so that he can truly say, “I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.”
My dear Friends of the Cross, do you live in accordance with the noble title you bear? Or, at least, have you a real desire and a sincere determination to do so with the help of God’s grace, under the shelter of Christ’s Cross and of our Lady of Sorrows? Are you taking the means necessary for this? Are you walking along the true way of life, which is the narrow and stony way of Calvary? Or are you, without perhaps realizing it, on the wide road of the world which leads to perdition? Are you aware that there is a highway which is to all appearances a straight and safe road, but which really leads to eternal death?
Do you clearly distinguish the voice of God and his grace from that of the world and of human nature? Do you listen to the voice of God, our heavenly Father, pronouncing his three- fold malediction on all who follow the desires of the world: “Woe, woe, woe to all the people on earth;” the Father who stretches out his arms to you in loving appeal, “Come out, my chosen people,” dear friends of my Son’s Cross, away from worldlings, who have been cursed by myself, rejected by my Son, and condemned by my Holy Spirit? Beware of following their counsels, of sitting in their company, or even lingering on the road they take. Hasten away from the infamous Babylon. Listen only to the voice of my beloved Son and follow only him, whom I have given you to be your way, your truth, your life, and your model. “Listen to him.”
Do you listen to the voice of Jesus who, burdened with his Cross, calls out to you, “Come after me; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; be brave; I have conquered the world.”
Our Lady of the Founders – The Relic of the Girdle of Our Lady, Constantinople (5th Century) – 31 August:
St Aidan of Lindisfarne (Died 651) Apostle of Northumbria, Bishop, Monk, Missionary, Abbot, Ascetic.
St Raymond Nonnatus O.deM. (1204-1240) Religious Priest, Confessor, Cardinal, Friar of the Mercedarian Order. Beatified on 5 November 1625 by Pope Urban VIII and Canonised in 1657 by Pope Alexander VII. Raymond was delivered by Caesarean operation when his mother died during childbirth – hence the name: non natus = not born.
St Ammi of Caesarea St Aristides the Philosopher St Barbolenus of Bobbio St Bonajuncia OSM Confessor St Caesidius St Cuthburga of Wimborne St Cwenburgh of Wimborne
St Theodotus and St Rufina of Caesarea were husband and wife, martyrs in the persecutions of Aurelian, and parents of Saint Mamas. Born to patrician families in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, they were devout Christians. When the persecutions of Christians began, Alexander, the magistrate of the city of Gangra, summoned them to trail because they refused to obey the imperial decree requiring all citizens to worship the pagan gods. Those who disobeyed would be tortured and put to death.
Since Theodotus was a noble, and Alexander could not torture or murder him because of that, so he sent him to the governor Faustus in Caesarea of Cappadocia. Faustus, who was notoriously ruthless, threw Theodotus into prison. Though pregnant, Rufina followed her husband into gaol. Fearing that he would not be able to withstand torture and would apostatise, Theodotus asked God to take his soul, a prayer which was granted. As a result of sorrow and the privations she experienced in prison, Saint Rufina gave birth prematurely. She prayed that God would permit her to follow her husband in death, and that He would also protect her child. Her prayer was also granted and Saint Mamas was raised by a pious woman named Ammia.
The prison, indeed, is the devil’s house as well, wherein he keeps his family. But you have come within its walls for the very purpose of trampling the wicked one under foot in his chosen abode.
Our Morning Offering – 31 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” On this the last day of this Marian Month, let us consecrate ourselves to her. Immaculate Heart and attempt, to constantly attone, for the endless acts of violence and blasphemy, committed against Jesus, our Lord and our God and His blessed Mother.
Act of Consecration and Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth and tender Mother of men, in accordance with thy ardent wish made known at Fatima, I consecrate to thee, myself, my brethren, my country and the whole human race. Reign over us and teach us how to make the Heart of Jesus reign and triumph in us and around us, as It has reigned and triumphed in thee. We wish to atone for the many crimes committed against Jesus and thee. We wish to call down upon our country and the whole world, the peace of God in justice and charity. We promise to imitate thy virtues, by the practice of a Christian life without regard to human respect. We resolve to receive Holy Communion on the first Saturday of every month and to offer thee five decades of the Rosary on this day, together with our sacrifices in the spirit of reparation and penance. Amen.
One Minute Reflection – 31 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary” – St Raymond Nonnatus 1204-1240) Priest, Confessor, Cardinal, Friar of the Mercedarian Order. – Readings: Ps 36:30-31, Ps 36:1, Sir 31:8-11, Luke 12:35-40
You also must be ready, because at an hour that you do not expect, the Son of Man is coming.
Luke 12:35-40
REFLECTION –It is so that our spirit may be detached from its fantasies that the Word invites us to shake off this heavy sleep from the eyes of our souls, so that we may not slide away from the true reality by clinging to what lacks substance. That is why he sets before us an image of vigilance when he says: “Let your loins be girt and your lamps lit”. The meaning of these symbols is clear enough. Someone who is girded with temperance lives in the light of a pure conscience because filial trust enlightens his life like a lamp. Lit up by the truth, that person’s soul is detached from the sleep of illusion because no empty dreams are leading it astray. As the Word says: if we do this we shall enter into a life like that of the angels.
Indeed, these are they who wait for the Lord at his return from the wedding and who are seated by the heavenly gates with watchful eyes so that the King of Glory might once more pass through when he returns from the marriage feast and enters again into the beatitude above the heavens. “Coming forth like the groom from his bridal chamber”, he united to himself like a virgin the nature we had prostituted to idols, once he had restored its virginal integrity through sacramental regeneration. The nuptials having now been accomplished, since the Church has been espoused by the Word and brought into the chamber of his mysteries, the angels awaited the return of the King of Glory to the blessedness that matches his nature.
St Gregory of Nyssa
PRAYER – O God, Who made blessed Raymund, Thy Confessor, famous for delivering Thy faithful from the captivity of the infidels, grant us, by his intercession that, having been released from the bonds of our sins, we may with free minds, do what is pleasing to Thee. 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
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.
Luke 12:35-40
So, then, all these things, care of funeral, bestowal in sepulture, pomp of obsequies, are more for comfort of the living, than for help to the dead. If it at all profit the ungodly to have costly sepulture, it shall harm the godly to have vile sepulture or none. Right handsome obsequies in sight of men did that rich man who was clad in purple receive of the crowd of his housefolk; but far more handsome did that poor man who was full of sores obtain of the ministry of Angels; who bore him not out into a marble tomb, but into Abraham’s bosom on high.
St Augustine
Learn, beloved, the wickedness of the men of that time, how they spoil houses and fields, and take even justice from the just; for when these things come to pass, you may know that it is the end. For this reason are you instructed in the wisdom of the prophet, and the revelation that is to be in those days. And all the prophets, as we have already said, have clearly signified the things that are to come to pass in the last times, just as they also have declared things of old.
Psuedo-Hippolytus
But we who hope for the Son of God are persecuted and trodden down by those unbelievers. For the wings of the vessels are the churches; and the sea is the world, in which the Church is set, like a ship tossed in the deep, but not destroyed; for she has with her the skilled Pilot, Christ. And she bears in her midst also the trophy (which is erected) over death; for she carries with her the cross of the Lord. For her prow is the east, and her stern is the west, and her hold is the south, and her tillers are the two Testaments; and the ropes that stretch around her are the love of Christ, which binds the Church; and the net which she bears with her is the layer of the regeneration which renews the believing, whence too are these glories.
Hippolytus
The first event that will follow upon the end of the world is the general resurrection of the dead. All men, whoever they may be, and whenever and wherever they have lived, not excepting infants whose existence has been but one brief moment, will rise again. However long ago the body of a man may have crumbled into dust, whatever changes it may have passed through, every portion and every particle will unite to form again the same body which was his during his lifetime.
Fr Martin von Cochem
Consider this solemn truth, O Christian, for it concerns thee closely. As certainly as thou now livest, so certainly wilt thou one day rise again from the grave.
Justice of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary
Mercy and justice resemble two sisters, inseparable and holding each other by the hand. Wherever mercy is, there also is justice; where justice goes, mercy follows. Hence King David sang to God: “Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord.”
We have studied how divine mercy reigns and triumphs in the gentle Heart of Mary; we shall now contemplate divine justice establishing therein the throne of its glory. “In this perfect Heart,” says Richard of St. Lawrence, “mercy and justice gave each other the kiss of peace.”
In God there are two kinds of justice: the first, is distributive; the second, vindictive justice. “Distributive justice,” says St. Dionysius, “gives to each one what belongs to him, according to his rank and merit. It allots and dispenses to each thing the proportion, beauty, arrangement, good order and all other things proper to it within the bounds and limits that are just and equitable.” The chief characteristic of vindictive justice is infinite hatred of sin and a desire to destroy it in the souls of men, thereby delivering them from its cruel tyranny.
Now these two types of justice have ever held sovereign sway in the most just Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the first place, she always rendered to God and to all God’s creatures, in a most faithful and perfect manner, what she owed to them. To God, she accorded adoration, fear, dependence, gratitude, honor, glory, praise, love and the sacrifice of all she possessed and of her very self. She observed all the Mosaic laws very devotedly and with exact obedience. She exercised respect, veneration and humility towards her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, towards the persons who had charge of her while she dwelt in the Temple of Jerusalem, and towards St. Joseph, her most worthy spouse. She punctually obeyed even the edicts of Emperor Augustus, though he was a pagan idolator. She held her own self in very low esteem and in great contempt, knowing she was a creature drawn from nothing and a daughter of Adam, who would have come under the curse common to all his children, if God had not preserved her from it. In a word, she faithfully practised the words of the Holy Ghost even before they were spoken by St. Paul: “Render therefore to all men their dues. Tribute, to whom tribute is due; custom, to whom custom: fear, to whom fear: honor, to whom honor. Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” This last is a debt which no one can ever finish paying.
In the second place, divine justice had so completely filled her Heart with such an unfathomable hatred for sin that this holy Virgin was always ready to undergo the sufferings of as many hells as God’s omnipotence could create rather than commit the least venial sin.
What is still more admirable, however, is that, having the same Heart and mind as the Eternal Father, according to the inspired words: “He who is joined to the Lord, is ‘one spirit,” Our Lady united her will to His concerning the Passion of her Son, and gave her consent to the painful death of her dearly Beloved so that He might destroy sin. This sacrifice demonstrates a hatred of sin greater than suffering the torments of all imaginable hells to cooperate in its destruction; for it cannot be doubted that if Our Lady had given her choice, she would have preferred all such sufferings for herself rather than see the treatment inflicted on her beloved Son at the time of His cruel and ignominious Passion.
If the Holy Heart of Mary is filled with such terrible hatred of sin that she consented to the cruel death of her beloved Son, because she saw Him loaded with the sins of men; if she readily sacrificed Him to divine justice in order to crush the mortal enemy of God and men, who can doubt that she still hates the infernal monster wherever she finds it? She hates sin to the point of sometimes uniting herself to divine vengeance in order to destroy it in souls, especially in those souls who are their own enemies to the extent of supporting evil and opposing its destruction.
They force their sweet Mother, as it were, to relinquish the tenderness of her maternal love and to participate in the severity of divine justice in order to punish the obduracy of a rebellious soul hardened in malice. O most holy Virgin, since thou hast but one Heart and one spirit with thy divine Son and since thou hast no other sentiments save His, thou dost love what He loves and thou dost hate what He hates. Hence, as Christ has an infinite hatred for sin, thou also dost hate it beyond all thought and words. Thy hatred for the infernal monster is equal to the love thou hast for God.
O Blessed Mother, thy love of thy Heart for God is infinitely greater than that of all the hearts of the angels and saints. Consequently, there is in thy Heart more hatred against God’s enemy, sin, than in the hearts of all heaven’s citizens. Make us sharers, O Mary, in this love and hatred so that we may love our Creator and Saviour as thou hast loved Him, and that we may hate sin as thou hast hated it.
St Rose of Lima OP (1586-1617) Virgin and Penitent, Mystic, Visionary, Stigmatist (invisible), Apostle of the Poor. Also known as “St Rose of Saint Mary” – her Religious name.
St Adauctus AND St Felix of Rome (Died c303) St Agilus St Arsenius the Hermit St Boniface of Hadrumetum St Bononius of Lucedio Bl Bronislava of Poland Bl Edward Shelley Bl Ero di Armenteira Bl Eustáquio van Lieshout St Fantinus of San Mercurius
Saint Fiacre (Died 670) Priest, Abbot, Monk, Hermit, Apostle of charity, gardener.
St Gaudentia of Rome
Blessed Giovanni Giovenale Ancina CO (1545–1604) Bishop of Saluzzo, member of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Scholar, Musician and Composer, renowned Preacher Doctor of Medicine. Commonly known as Blessed Juvenal Ancina.
St Pammachius (c340 – 410) Senator, Monk, Apostle of Charity, friend of St Jerome and he was praised by St Augustine.
St Pelagius the Hermit St Peter of Trevi Bl Richard Flower Bl Richard Leigh Bl Richard Martin St Rumon of Tavistock St Sylvanus the Hermit St Thecla of Hadrumetum St Theodosius of Oria
Martyrs of Colonia Suffetulana – 60 Saints: A group of 60 Christians Martyred for destroying a statue of Hermes. They were Martyred in Colonia Suffetulana, Africa.
Blessed Margaret Ward, known as the Pearl of Tyburn, a martyr during the reign of Elizabeth I. Margaret was born a gentlewoman in Congleton, Cheshire, in Northwest England, in 1550. Later she travelled to London and went to work in the home of a woman of distinction called Whitall.
Whilst in London she assisted a priest called William Watson, who was imprisoned in the Bridewell prison. Ward befriended the gaoler’s wife, took food to Watson, and smuggled in rope to help Watson escape. She arranged for two Catholic watermen to meet Watson on the Thames below the prison walls; even though he broke his arm and leg during his escape, he was picked up by the watermen, “who rowed him to a safe hiding place”. The rope was traced back to Ward. She was arrested, charged, and tried for “aiding a traitor to escape” and was tortured by being hung by her wrists and beaten for eight days.
Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward
Blessed Robert Southwell said Ward “was flogged and hung up by the wrists, the tips of her toes only touching the ground, for so long a time that she was crippled and paralyzed, but these sufferings greatly strengthened the glorious martyr for her last struggle”. Blessed John Roche was arrested and tried with Ward. They were offered release if they asked for the queen’s pardon and agreed to “conform to the established Church”, but they refused and were hanged at Tyburn on 30 August 1588. Ward and Roche were beatified in a large group in 1929.
Possibly such a woman could not have been slain unless she herself had willed it, because she was feared by the impure spirit.
Our Morning Offering – 30 August – St Rose of Lima OP (1586-1617) Virgin
Virginis Proles Anonymous Latin, 8th Century Trans. Fr Edward Caswall C.Orat. (1814-1878)
O Thou Thy Mother’s Maker, hail! Hail, Virgin-born! to Thee; Hear us, who on this day record Thy Virgin’s memory.
Oh, through her prayers our sins forgive, All good and gracious King ! So purified in heart may we Thy praise eternal sing.
All glory to the Father be; Praise to His only Son; With Thee, who dost from both proceed. While endless ages run.
This Hymn is used for Matins in the Common of Virgins in the Extraordinary form of the Roman Breviary. Verses 1, 4 and 5 above, are used for a Virgin who is not a Martyr.
One Minute Reflection – 30 August – St Rose of Lima OP (1586-1617) Virgin – Readings: Ps 83:10-11, Ps 83:2-3, Gal 5:16-24, Matt 6:24-33
Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing?
Matt 6:24-33
REFLECTION – If spiritual things hold first place in our lives, material needs will cause us no concern, for God in his goodness will give them to us in abundance. On the other hand, if we devote ourselves entirely to earthly pursuits and neglect our spiritual life, concern for what this life has to offer will lead us to neglect our souls. I urge you, therefore, let us not overturn the established order. We know that our Master is good, so let us commit everything to him and not be taken up with the cares of this life. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things even before you ask him”.
Jesus wishes us, then, to be free from every anxiety regarding temporal affairs, and to have all possible leisure for the things of the Spirit. He says: "Your part is to seek spiritual blessings, and I myself will provide amply for your material needs. Look at the birds in the sky. They neither sow nor reap nor gather crops into barns, and yet your Father feeds them." In other words, "If I take such care of irrational birds as to supply them with all they need without plowing or sowing, I will take much greater care of you who are endowed with reason, if only you make up your minds to put spiritual things before temporal ones. If I made these creatures for your sake, as well as the whole of creation, and if I take such care of them, of what great care will I not deem you worthy - you for whom I created all of this?"
St John Chrysostom (Baptismal catechesis, no.8)
PRAYER – Almighty God, Giver of all good things, Who willed that blessed Rose, imbued in early life with the dew of heavenly grace, should bloom among the Indians with the beauty of virginity and patience, grant unto us, Thy servants that, following the fragrance of her sweetness, we may be found worthy to become a sweet savour of Christ. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 30 August – St Rose of Lima OP (1586-1617) Virgin
“Apart from the cross there is no other ‘ladder’ by which we might get to Heaven.”
“Without the struggle of afflictions, it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.”
“If only we would learn how great it is to possess divine grace and how many riches it has within itself, how many joys and delights. We would devote all our concern, to winning for ourselves pains and afflictions, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace.”
“We must not fail to help our neighbours, because in them we serve Jesus.”
Meekness, Patience and Clemency of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary
God’s meekness, patience and clemency are three divine perfections which are joined with mercy to form one and the same perfection, although their effects are different.
Mercy regards the misery of creatures in general, to relieve and to deliver them from its fetters. The first and greatest of miseries, the source of all wretchedness is sin. When man is so unhappy as to offend God mortally, he at once becomes the object of God’s wrath which would crush him the very instant he consents to sin, as he infinitely deserves to be. But divine meekness prevents the destruction and arrests the torrent of God’s just anger, ready to pour upon the sinner. If man perseveres in his crime, he deserves to be cast upon divine vengeance, but divine patience interposes and persuades God to suffer the sinner and await his repentance with admirable goodness. These are the effects of divine meekness and patience. God’s clemency is manifested by remitting entirely or in part the punishment due to sin.
Now these three divine perfections live and reign in the Heart of the Mother of Mercy, communicating their own divine inclinations most excellently. After the Heart of God Himself there never was and never shall be a heart so full of meekness, patience and clemency as the noble Heart of Mary.
While she dwelt on earth, she beheld the world filled with idols and idolators. With the exception of a very small number, men generally were armed against God, trying, if possible, to dethrone Him, to put Him under their feet and annihilate Him. They would set His enemy in His place and sought to procure for the usurper the adoration and honor which belong to God alone. As the Most Blessed Virgin Mary loved God with a love so great that we cannot describe it, she experienced an indescribably great sorrow at the sight of the crimes committed against His Divine Majesty.
But who can appreciate her greater grief over the atrocious torments inflicted on her beloved Son by the perfidy of the Chosen People? She knew Him to be Innocence and Sanctity incarnate; yet she saw Him persecuted and tormented as though He were the greatest of criminals. Now what did she do, the Mother of Sorrows, as she beheld her treasure, her most innocent Lamb torn, flayed and slain? She loved Him with a peerless love. Did she cry out against His pitiless Murderers? Did she lament of the wrong and injustice wreaked upon Him? Did she implore the Eternal Father’s justice? No. She remained silent; not a word was heard from her lips; only her stifled sighs, her tears alone were seen. Her most gentle Heart fought against the entry of any sense of injury or movement of impatience, or aversion or bitterness towards her cruel tormentors. Her Heart abounded with meekness, patience and clemency, so that she imitated her son, Jesus, and sought to excuse the men who with such distorted rage were killing Him, repeating in her Heart the words He uttered with His lips: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” She offered for their salvation the very Blood they shed, the sufferings they inflicted upon Him, the cruel death they perpetrated. She was prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice herself together with her Son, to obtain mercy for those wicked men.
Nor is that all. The glorious Virgin now reigning in heaven can see much more clearly the numberless multitude and frightful enormity of the sins committed against God. She sees this earth of ours which should be a paradise since the God of Heaven honored it with His presence and made it His dwelling place; yet it is filled with sinners and enemies of God, who blaspheme and dishonor Him without ceasing, even more than the devils and the damned in hell.
Our Lady knows that her Son, the Son of God, came into the world to save all men; that salvation cost Him infinite labor, ignominies, tears and blood to deliver mankind from the bondage of the devil and hell, and reconcile them to His Father. And yet she sees men turning their back on God, denying and forsaking Him, to side with Satan and cast themselves headlong into hell. She sees innumerable atheists and blasphemers making every effort to exterminate the Holy Church founded by her Jesus Christ through the shedding of the last drop of His Blood, and to render His sacred name despicable, abominable and odious to the entire’ world: “They have set me an abomination to themselves.”
Our heavenly Mother perceives all these crimes and all the wickedness most clearly, and her inconceivably great love for God and for her Son is wounded beyond anything we can imagine, even though she is glorious and incapable of suffering. She is Queen of Heaven and earth, and God has given her sovereign power over all created things; therefore she would not lack the power, if such were her will, to avenge most justly the many atrocious insults offered by men to their God and Saviour. But far from doing this, she permits herself to be induced by her very patient and gentle Heart to use the power of her merits and intercession in order to halt the just fury of divine vengeance, and to arrest the torrent of God’s wrath ready to burst on the hapless heads of sinners. She obtains from His divine Majesty that He punish them not as enemies but as children, not like a severe judge but as a merciful father, not to exterminate them but to correct and convert them.
True the Blessed Virgin Mary does not entertain the same sentiments for all sinners, nor does she treat them all alike. She distinguishes between those in Hell, whom she knows to be irreconcilable enemies of God, and those on earth, whom she considers still capable of being reconciled to His divine Majesty. Hence her Heart is filled with very great and just indignation towards the wretched creatures in hell, for she is most perfectly united to God, and therefore shares in all His adorable inclinations. She loves what God loves and hates what He hates, approves what He approves, and condemns what He condemns. As the damned will forever be the object of God’s wrath: “They shall be called the people with whom the Lord is angry forever,” so shall they forever be the object of the anger of God’s Mother. Her love and charity for God and the friends of God are greater than the ardor of all angels and saints together, so also is her hatred of God’s irreconcilable enemies greater than that of all the denizens of heaven.
But towards sinners who are still in this world, which is a place of mercy where our all-bountiful Mother has established the throne and empire of her mercy and clemency, her Heart is so filled with sweetness and benignity that the venerable and holy Abbot Blosius declares: “The world does not hold any sinner so detestable that this pious Virgin should not be disposed to open to him the arms of her clemency and her most merciful Heart. Provided he seek her assistance, she will always have the power and the will to reconcile him to her Son.” Blosius says further: “As long as the time of grace endures, this merciful Mother cannot avert her eyes from miserable sinners who invoke her with a sincere desire of conversion. With the Heart of a Mother and a sister, she continually offers up her prayers to God on behalf of men, and takes special care of their salvation. No one who shall invoke this Mother of grace with devotion and perseverance, can possibly perish forever.”
“O sweetest and most holy Virgin, look down with the eyes of thy mercy on all the afflictions and all the afflicted that fill the earth. Behold the many poor people, the many widows and orphans, the sick troubled with so many diseases, the captives and prisoners, the thousands who are cursed and persecuted by the malice of men, the defenceless persons oppressed by the strong and the mighty, the seafarers and pilgrims struggling against perils on sea and land, the missionaries exposed to countless dangers in their task of saving endangered souls. Look down upon the number of afflicted minds, of anguished hearts, of souls tormented by manifold temptations, and of souls suffering the frightful penalties of Purgatory. But above all, have pity on the countless souls that are in the state of sin and perdition and are groaning under the tyranny and the bondage of hell.
“Finally, O gentlest of Virgins, take pity on the great number of wretches who people the universe, whose innumerable miseries are so many voices crying to thee: O Mother of Mercy, comforter of the afflicted, refuge of sinners, open the eyes of thy clemency to see our desolation, the ears of thy bounty to hear our supplications. “To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears,’ Yes, Eve’s miserable children, banished from the house of their heavenly Father, groaning and weeping in this valley of tears, have recourse to thine incomparable benignity. Hear our sighs and our cries; behold our weeping and our tears. “Turn then, O gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.’
Blessed Bronislava of Poland, also known as Bronislava Odrowaz, Bronislava of Cracow, Bronislawa. She was a cousin of Saint Hyacinth and Blessed Czeslaw. The daughter of Count Stanislaus and Countess Anna of Prandata-Odrowaz, she was born at the castle of Kamien in Upper Silesia, Poland, in 1203, becoming at age sixteen a Premonstratensian nun at a convent founded by her maternal grandfather. Saint Hyacinth himself introduced her to this community of the Norbertines.
She was deeply devoted to the Holy Cross. After her profession in 1223, Christ Crucified appeared to her and said, “Bronislava, as my Cross has been your cross, so my glory will be your glory.” When the Tartars invaded Krakow in 1241, Bronislava, holding the cross in her hand, encouraged her sisters with the words, “Do not be afraid, the cross will save us.” She then knocked on the wall with her crucifix, at which a corridor opened before them and they all escaped into a nearby forest. Some of the Sisters joined another surviving convent, while Bronislava and a few others built huts on the ruins of their former home. They ministered to the poor, sick, and homeless of the surrounding countryside. The local population considered her their patroness on whom they could count when they needed protection.
The Norbertine rule was rigorous. They lived in cells that had dirt floors and no stoves; they suffered intensely from cold and frost, following a vow of extreme poverty and had no contact with the outside world. After 15 years of solitary, austere religious life, Bronislava accepted the burden of becoming a Superior. Later she became a hermitess on the hill of Sikornik. When Saint Hyacinth died, she received a vision of him ascending to heaven holding the hand of the Blessed Virgin.
Bronislava died on August 29, 1259, two years after her beloved cousin. Both of them had been devoted to the holy Mother of God and to her Rosary in its earliest form. Her body was taken to the convent church and she was invoked as a saint. Her relics were placed in a precious reliquary and were carried in solemn procession each year on the anniversary of her death. In 1707 she was designated a patroness of Krakow and Poland, of orphans, young people, a happy death and of the prevention of disease.
She was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI on 23 August 1839, after being attributed for protecting Zwierzyniec from cholera in 1835. The efforts of the Polish bishops toward the canonization of Bronislava in 1947 by Pope Pius XII were thwarted by 40 years of Communist rule.
St Adelphus St Adausia of Rome St Alberic of Bagno de Romagna St Basilia of Sirmium Bl Bronislava St Candida of Rome St Edwold the Hermit St Euthymius of Perugia St Maximian of Vercelli St Medericus St Nicaeus of Antioch St Paul of Antioch St Repositus of Velleianum Bl Richard Herst St Sabina of Troyes St Sator of Velleianum St Sebbe of Essex St Velleicus St Victor of La Chambon St Vitalis of Velleianum
One Minute Reflection –29 August – The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist – Reading: Ps 118:46-47, Ps 91:2, Jer 1:17-19, Mark 6:17-29
For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man.
Mark 6:17-29
REFLECTION – Among all the holy and blessed ones, I do not know which to prefer of all the claims to glory of John the Baptist, whose feast we celebrate today : his miraculous birth or his even more miraculous death. His birth carried a prophecy with it, his death, the truth; his birth announced the Savior’s coming, his death condemned Herod’s incestuous relationship. This holy saint was worthy in God’s eyes of not departing from it in the same way as others do in this world: he left the body he had received from the Lord while he was confessing him. In all things John fulfilled God’s will since his life, like his death, corresponded to God’s designs.
Even while still in his mother's womb he celebrated the Lord's coming with joyful movements since he was unable to do so by word. Elizabeth said to blessed Mary: “When the voice of your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy”. John, then, rejoiced before his birth, and even before his eyes could see what the world looks like, his spirit already recognised who is its Lord. I think that this is the meaning of the prophet's words: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before were born I had consecrated you”. So let us not be astonished if, locked up in the prison where Herod had put him, he went on preaching Christ by means of his disciples' mediation for, enclosed as he was in his mother's womb, he already proclaimed the Lord's coming with his bounds.
St Maximus of Turin
PRAYER – May the great festival of St John the Baptist, Thy Precursor and Martyr, we beseech Thee, O Lord, assure for us the results of Thy saving help. Who lives and reign with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 29 August – The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
“Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women, a greater than John the Baptist.”
Matthew 11:11
John was greater than a human being, equal to the angels, the apex of the Law, the seed of the Gospel, the harbinger of the apostles, the silence of the prophets, the lamp of the world, the herald of the Judge, the forerunner of Christ, the preparer for the Lord, the witness of God, the mediator of the whole Trinity.
St Peter Chrysologus
Why was John allowed to die? For what occurred was not a death but a crown, not an end but the beginning of a greater life. Learn to think and live like a Christian. You will not only remain unharmed by these events but will reap the greatest benefits.
John has risen, just as you yourself acknowledge, here it was not the person but the infirmity that perished, here it was not John, but rather death that was overcome by such a death, the punishment is mocked, the executioner is considered a laughingstock, the very sentence of the wretched judge is eluded, because it did not strike down the one who was killed, but raised him to a higher state.
St Peter Chrysologus
I, for my part, think that the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world until the present. The spirit and the power of John, must first fill the soul of whoever is destined to believe in Christ Jesus, “to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” and to “make ready the way of the Lord, [to] clear Him a straight path” in the roughness of their hearts. Not only at that time were “the winding paths … made straight and the rough ways smooth;” rather, the spirit and the power of John still go before the Lord and Saviour’s coming today. Oh greatness of the Lord’s Mystery and of His plan for the world!
Origen
What did you come out to see? A prophet? I tell you truly: he is even more than a prophet. John is more than a prophet, because he was counted worthy of both seeing and holding Christ, whose coming the prophets had foretold, and John was counted worthy of pointing out to a world that was perishing, the Saviour of the world.
St Peter Chrysologus
See how you lie prostrate unto death, while John who was killed is alive. You have lost the purple that received its colour from dye, John is forever gloriously clothed with the radiant purple from his blood. Your dinner guests are now made to share in your punishment, John partakes of the heavenly banquet with the choirs of angels. He hears the dulcet tones of heaven unceasingly; you hear forever the wailing and gnashing in hell. He, who was condemned as the price for your harlot and your dancing-girl, is now honoured with the kingdom and with heavenly rewards, for the sentence you gave, you have received recompense along with your daughter in Tartarus.
Further Divine Perfections Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary
Divine Mercy is a perfection directed towards the miseries of creatures, tending to alleviate them and even to free them from created things when such a liberation enters into the designs of Divine Providence, which does all things with measure, number and weight. This adorable mercy extends, like goodness itself, to all God’s works: “His tender mercies are over all His works.” God’s mercy overshadows the works of nature, the works of grace and the works of glory.
Among the effects of divine Mercy, we must enumerate three principal realities, which in turn embody numberless effects. The first is the Incarnation of the God-Man; the second, His Mystical Body, namely Holy Church; the third is the Mother of the God-Man, namely the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. These constitute three admirable masterpieces of divine mercy.
Beyond this, God not only willed to become man that men might become partakers of the divine nature, but He willed that His only Son should become the Son of Man that men might become sons of God. God willed that His Son come into this world by being born of the seed of Adam and of a daughter of Adam that we might have the God-Man for our brother and the Mother of God for our mother. Thus we have the same father and the same mother as the Son of God Himself.We are His brothers, and as He is our mediator with His Father, so His heavenly Mother is a mediatrix between Himself and us.
In order to render His admirable Mother paramountly able to exercise her double office of Mother and Mediatrix, so that she might protect, favor and assist us with greater efficacy in all our needs, Divine Mercy constituted her, first of all, most agreeable and holy. Secondly, Mercy gave her dominion over everything in heaven and on earth. Thirdly, it gave her the mildest, sweetest and most loving heart save that of the God- Man. To the Heart of Mary God communicated in great abundance His merciful inclinations and established in it the throne and reign of His Mercy more gloriously than in the heart of any other creature, save the sacred humanity of Christ. Divine Mercy reigns so perfectly in Mary’s Heart that she bears the name of Queen and Mother of Mercy. And this most loving Mary has so completely won the heart of God’s mercy that He has given her the key to all His treasures and made her absolute mistress of them.
St. Bernard says: “She is called the Queen of Mercy because she opens the abyss and treasure of divine mercy to whom she chooses, when she chooses and as she chooses.” Divine Mercy holds such complete sway over Mary’s Heart and fills it with so much compassion for sinners and for all persons in need that St. Augustine addresses her thus: “Thou art the sinner’s only hope,” after God. “My dearest children,” says St. Bernard, “her heart is the ladder by which sinners go up to heaven; this is my reliance, this the only reason of my hope.” Euthymius, one of the ancient Fathers who lived over seven centuries ago, adds: “O most merciful Virgin, deign to cast thy pitiful eyes on thy poor servants, for, after God, we have placed all our hope in thee who are our life, our glory, and, as it were, our substance and our being.” St. John Damascene tells us that Our Lady is the only relief of the afflicted, the sovereign comforter of anguished hearts; and St. John Chrysostom declares her to be a boundless ocean of mercy.
Would you know in what further manner divine mercy lives and reigns in the Heart of the Mother of Mercy? Listen to St. Bonaventure: “Great was Mary’s mercy towards the wretched while she was living in exile here below; but immeasurably greater still now that she is happily reigning in heaven. She manifests this greater mercy through innumerable benefits, now that she possesses a clearer insight into the numberless woes of mankind. She does not require past merits, but grants the petitions of all men, out of charity, and opens the bosom of her clemency to everyone. She relieves every need and necessity with an incomparable affection and tenderness of heart.”
Her gentle Heart is so filled with mercy that it overflows on all sides and spreads itself in heaven, on earth and even in hell. Let us again listen to St. Bernard proclaiming this truth: “Who can comprehend, O Blessed – Virgin, the length, the width, the height and the depth of thy mercy? Its length extends to the last day in the life of those who invoke thee; its width encompasses the whole world; its height reaches to heaven, there to repair the losses of the heavenly Jerusalem; its depth has penetrated hell to obtain the deliverance of them that sit in the darkness and shadow of death.”
The virginal Heart of the Mother of Grace is filled with such exceeding mercy that she exercises it not only in favor of sinners who wish to be converted, but also towards many persons who never think of their eternal salvation. She implores her Blessed Son to inspire them, to excite in their hearts sentiments of fear of God and terror at the thought of His judgments. She asks Him to chastise them in divers ways, to raise in their midst persons leading holy and exemplary lives, whose example will draw them to Himself, and to use all other means of obtaining their conversion, or at least, if they will not mend their ways, to prevent them from multiplying their sins, that their damnation may be less terrible.
But what is even more, the Heart of Mary is so full of mercy that, using the extraordinary privileges God has granted to her alone, and out of her incomparable goodness, she often saves from eternal perdition souls who in the ordinary course of divine Justice would have been cast into hell. Such is the mind of that ancient and excellent author, Raymund Jourdain, who succeeded in hiding his name, but not the extent of his learning and holiness: “The Mother’s mercy often saves many whom the justice of the Son would have otherwise condemned.”
Hence St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, addresses these beautiful words to Mary: “O purest, best and most merciful Lady, help and relief of the faithful, powerful comforter of the afflicted and assured refuge of sinners, forsake us not, but keep us ever under thy protection. If thou forsake us, to whom shall we have recourse? What would become of us without thee, most holy Mother of God, who are the spirit and life of Christians. Even as respiration is an infallible sign of life in our bodies, so is thy holy name, when it is constantly on the lips of thy servants, on all occasions, at every time and in all places, not only a sign, but a veritable cause of life, happiness and protection.”
Saint Hyacinth of Poland, the Apostle of the North, during the Siege of Kiev in 1240 by Mongols, went to save save the Blessed Sacrament from capture and desecration. He had removed the Sacred Host from the Tabernacle and was hurrying down the aisle when he heard a voice call, “Hyacinth, are you going to leave me here at the mercy of the Tartans?” The voice seemed to be coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin on one of the side altars. Hyacinth stopped and turned his gaze toward the statue which was of alabaster, fairly large in size, and obviously much too weighty for one man to carry.
Then the voice spoke again: “Take me with you, Hyacinth, I will make the burden light.” So, holding the Blessed Sacrament in one hand, he picked up the statue with the other, and, to his surprise, found he could easily carry it. Leaving the church, he fled from the city, and saved the Blessed Sacrament and the statue of Our Lady from harm.
Eighty years later, the statue was returned to Kiev. The city became the center of great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and people gave the statue the name of Our Lady of Kiev.
The statue was later taken to a Dominican convent in Lwow in Poland. What has happened to it since the Communists took over Poland is unknown. Meanwhile, the icon known as The Virgin of Kyiv (created by a Byzantine artist about the year 1132) and the most famous icon in the world, is housed in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) – Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of Grace and one of the original Four Fathers & Doctors of the Latin Church.
Bl Adelindis of Buchau St Agnes of Cologne St Alexander of Constantinople St Ambrose of Saintes
Blessed Angelo da Pesche d’Isernia TOR (c 1400-1460) Lay Franciscan Tertiary, Holy Beggar, gifted with the charism of levitation, Apostle of the poor, spiritual adviser.
Blessed Adelindis of Buchau, also known as Adelindis of Poulagy, Adelindis of Swabia and Adelinda, Adele, Adelaide. Blessed Adelindis was the founder of the Imperial Abbey Buchau Ladies’ Convent, in today’s Bad Buchau near the Federsee lake in Swabia, Francia (Württemberg, Germany).
Adelindis kneels at right at the founding of the Abbey
Adelindis was born c. 729, the daughter of Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto, a member of the Lombard nobility, later under the protection of Charlemagne. Her mother Regarde was the daughter of Gotfrid and came from Bavaria. She married the Frankish Count Warin II around 750. In 770 she and her husband founded the Buchau Abbey.
She is not to be confused with the second Abbess, a woman of the same name and a countess who entered the convent as a nun to atone when her three sons were killed attempting to abduct their sister from it in order to marry her off.
In her memory, the Adelindis Festival, a homeland and children’s festival, is celebrated in Bad Buchau every two years on August 28.
Our Morning Offering – 28 August – St Augustine (354-430) – Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of Grace and Father
O God, the House of My Soul is Narrow By St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of Grace
O God, the Light of the heart, which sees Thee, The Life of the soul, which loves Thee, The Strength of the mind, which seeks Thee, May I ever continue to be steadfast in Thy love. Be the Joy of my heart, Take all of me to Thyself and abide therein. The house of my soul is, I confess, too narrow for Thee. Enlarge it, that Thou may enter. It is ruinous but do repair it. It has within it what must offend Thine Eyes, I confess and know it, But whose help shall I seek in cleansing it but Thine alone? To Thee, O God, I cry urgently. Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep me from false pride and sensuality, that they may not get dominion over me. Amen
One Minute Reflection – 28 August – St Augustine (354-430) – Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of Grace and Father – Readings: Sir 15:5, Ps 91:2, 2 Tim 4:1-8, Matt 5:13-19
You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.
Matt 5:13-19
REFLECTION – This “day which the Lord has made” penetrates all things, contains all things and simultaneously embraces heaven, earth and the underworld! The light which is Christ is neither hindered by walls nor broken by the elements nor darkened by shadow. Yes, I say, the light of Christ is a day without night, a day without end, shining everywhere, extending everywhere, remaining everywhere. Christ is day, says the apostle Paul: “The night is advanced, the day is near”. The night is advanced, he says, it precedes the day. Understand by this that, as soon as the light of Christ appears, the darkness of the devil is dispersed and the night of sin does not follow, eternal splendor casts out the shadows of yesterday and halts the insinuating advance of evil.
Scripture attests that the day of Christ illumines heaven, earth and hell. It shines on the earth: "He was the true light" says saint John, "who enlightens everyone, coming into the world". It gives light in the underworld: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;" says the prophet, "upon those who lived in a land of gloom a light has shone". And in heaven this day remains, as David said: "His dynasty will continue forever, his throne like the sun before me".
Saint Maximus of Turin
PRAYER – Give heed to our humble prayers, Almighty God and through the intercession of blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, kindly grant Thy oft-given mercy to those upon whom Thou bestows great hope in Thy forgiveness. 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
Quote/s of the Day – 28 August – St Augustine (354-430) Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of Grace and Father–
St Jerome wrote to Augustine in 418: “You are known throughout the world; Catholics honour and esteem you as the one who has established anew the ancient Faith.”
“The sky and the earth and the waters and the things that are in them, the fishes and the birds and the trees are not evil. All these are good; it is evil men who make this evil world.”
“What is reprehensible, is that while leading good lives themselves and abhorring those of wicked men, some, fearing to offend, shut their eyes to evil deeds instead of condemning them and pointing out their malice.”
“Give of your earthly goods and receive eternal ones; give earth and receive heaven!”
Every man is not justified in sacrificing his son to God, because Abraham was commendable in so doing.
I occupied some considerable space, partly that I might relieve the anxieties which disturb many when they observe that the blessings of God, and the common and daily human casualties, fall to the lot of bad men and good without distinction; but mainly that I might minister some consolation to those holy and chaste women who were outraged by the enemy, in such a way as to shock their modesty, though not to sully their purity, and that I might preserve them from being ashamed of life, though they have no guilt to be ashamed of.
In truth, Rome, which was founded and increased by the labors of these ancient heroes, was more shamefully ruined by their descendants, while its walls were still standing, than it is now by the razing of them. For in this ruin there fell stones and timbers; but in the ruin those profligates effected, there fell, not the mural, but the moral bulwarks and ornaments of the city, and their hearts burned with passions more destructive than the flames which consumed their houses.
AnaStpaul 
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