Quote/s of the Day – 21 June – The Memorial of St Aloysius de Gonzaga SJ (1568-1591)
“I am a piece of twisted iron, I entered the religious life to get twisted straight.”
“He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him, if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake.”
“Take care above all things, most honoured lady, not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness, you would certainly do this, if you mourned as dead, one living face-to-face with God, one whose prayers, can bring you in your troubles, more powerful aid, than they ever could on earth.”
“When He takes away what He once lent us, His purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere, more safely and bestow on us, those very blessings, that we ourselves would most choose to have.”
(From A Letter to His Mother)
More of this letter here: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/21/quote-of-the-day-21-june-the-memorial-of-st-aloysius-de-gonzaga-s-j-1568-1591/
One Minute Reflection – 21 June – Friday Eleventh week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 6:19–23 and the Memorial of St Aloysius de Gonzaga SJ (1568-1591)
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”….Matthew 6:19-21
REFLECTION – “This is really Jesus’ message – have a free heart. Otherwise, if your treasure is in wealth, in vanity, in power or in pride, your heart will be chained there, your heart will be a slave to wealth, to vanity, to pride. On this line of reasoning, have a free heart, precisely because Jesus speaks to us about freedom of the heart. And one can only have a free heart with the treasures of heaven – love, patience, service to others, worshipping God. These are the true riches that cannot be stolen. The other types of treasures — money, vanity, power — weigh down the heart, chain it, don’t allow it freedom.”…Pope Francis (Santa Marta, 20 June 2014)
PRAYER – Father almighty, as we wait and work and pray and fast in joyful hope of our eternal life with You, grant we pray that we may always remain steadfast in Your love. Let your light so penetrate our minds, that walking by Your commandments, we may always follow You, our leader and our guide. St Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us that we will fully utilise the many gifts our Almighty God has bestowed on us as we journey home. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord, in union with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 21 June – St Aloysius de Gonzaga SJ (1568-1591) Jesuit Seminarian, Mystic, Marian devotee, Apostle of Charity. Patronages – Catholic youth, Jesuit scholastics, the blind, eye ailments, AIDS patients, care-givers, Jesuit students, for relief from pestilence, young people, Castiglione delle Stiviere, Italy, Valmonte, Italy.
The Lord can make saints anywhere, even amid the brutality and license of Renaissance life. Florence was the “mother of piety” for Aloysius Gonzaga despite his exposure to a “society of fraud, dagger, poison and lust.” As a son of a princely family, he grew up in royal courts and army camps. His father wanted Aloysius to be a military hero.
At age 7 Aloysius experienced a profound spiritual quickening. His prayers included the Office of Mary, the psalms and other devotions. At age 9 he came from his hometown of Castiglione to Florence to be educated, by age 11 he was teaching catechism to poor children, fasting three days a week and practising great austerities. When he was 13 years old, he travelled with his parents and the Empress of Austria to Spain and acted as a page in the court of Philip II. The more Aloysius saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became, seeking relief in learning about the lives of saints.
A book about the experience of Jesuit missionaries in India suggested to him the idea of entering the Society of Jesus and in Spain his decision became final. Now began a four-year contest with his father. Eminent churchmen and laypeople were pressed into service to persuade Aloysius to remain in his “normal” vocation. Finally he prevailed, was allowed to renounce his right to succession and was received into the Jesuit novitiate.
This is a detail of a painting by Guercino, titled the Vocation of St Aloysius. St Aloysius is shown renouncing the crown for the Cross.
Like other seminarians, Aloysius was faced with a new kind of penance—that of accepting different ideas about the exact nature of penance. He was obliged to eat more and to take recreation with the other students. He was forbidden to pray except at stated times. He spent four years in the study of philosophy and had Saint Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), Doctor of the Church, as his spiritual adviser.
In 1591, a plague struck Rome. The Jesuits opened a hospital of their own . The superior general himself and many other Jesuits rendered personal service. Because he nursed patients, washing them and making their beds, Aloysius caught the disease. A fever persisted after his recovery and he was so weak he could scarcely rise from bed. Yet, he maintained his great discipline of prayer, knowing that he would die within the octave of Corpus Christi, three months later, at the age of 23.
As a saint who fasted, scourged himself, sought solitude and prayer and did not look on the faces of women, Aloysius seems an unlikely patron of youth in a society where asceticism is confined to training camps of football teams and boxers and sexual permissiveness has little left to permit. Can an overweight and air-conditioned society deprive itself of anything? It will, when it discovers a reason, as Aloysius did. The motivation for letting God purify us is the experience of God loving us in prayer.
Feast of Our Lady of Miracles – 21 June – the patron of the town of Alcamo, Sicily. About this Title of Our Lady: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/21/feast-of-our-lady-of-miracles-21-june/
St Agofredus of La-Croix
St Alban of Mainz
St Apollinaris of Africa
Bl Colagia
St Corbmac
St Cyriacus of Africa
St Demetria of Rome
St Dominic of Comacchio
St Engelmund
Bl Jacques-Morelle Dupas
St John Rigby
St José Isabel Flores Varela
Bl Juan of Jesus
St Lazarus
St Leutfridus
St Martia of Syracuse
St Martin of Tongres
Bl Melchiorre della Pace
St Mewan of Bretagne
Bl Nicholas Plutzer
St Ralph of Bourges
St Raymond of Barbastro
St Rufinus of Syracuse
St Suibhne the Sage
St Terence
St Ursicenus of Pavia
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Martyrs of Taw – 3+ saints: Three Christians of different backgrounds who were martyred together – Moses, Paphnutius, Thomas. They were beheaded in Taw, Egypt, date unknown.
Saint of the Day – 20 June – St Pope Silverius (Died 538) Martyr – ruled the Holy See from 8 June 536 to his deposition in 538, a few months before his death. His rapid rise to prominence from a deacon to the papacy coincided the efforts of King Theodahad (nephew to Theodoric the Great), who intended to install a pro-Gothic candidate just before the Gothic War. Later deposed by Byzantine general Belisarius, he was tried and sent to exile on the desolated island of Palmarola, where he starved to death in 538. Patronage – Ponza, Italy.
Silverius was a legitimate son of Pope Hormisdas, born in Frosinone, Lazio, some time before his father entered the priesthood. Upon the death of St Pope Agapetas I, after a vacancy of forty-seven days, Silverius, then sub-deacon, was chosen Pope and ordained on the 8th of June, 536.
Theodora, the empress of Justinian, resolved to promote the sect of the Acephali. She endeavoured to win Silverius over to her interest and wrote to him, ordering that he should acknowledge Anthimus as a lawful bishop, or repair in person to Constantinople and re-ëxamine his cause on the spot. Without the least hesitation or delay, Silverius returned her a short answer, by which he peremptorily gave her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her unjust demands and betray the cause of the Catholic faith. The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon of the Roman Church, was then at Constantinople. To him the empress made her application and finding him a man of great ambition, promised to make him Pope and to bestow on him seven hundred pieces of gold, provided he would engage himself to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and receive to Communion, the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs, Anthimus of Constantinople, Severus of Antioch and Theodosius of Alexandria. The unhappy Vigilius having assented to these conditions, the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a letter to the general Belisarius, commanding him to drive out Silverius and to contrive the election of Vigilius to the pontificate. Vigilius urged the general to execute the project. The more easily to carry out this project the Pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy and a letter was produced which was forged to have been written by him to the king of the Goths, inviting him into the city and promising to open the gates to him.
Silverius was banished to Patara in Lycia. The bishop of that city received the illustrious exile with all possible marks of honour and respect and thinking himself bound to undertake his defence, repaired to Constantinople and spoke boldly to the emperor, terrifying him with the threats of the divine judgements for the expulsion of a bishop of so great a see, telling him, “There are many kings in the world but there is only one Pope over the Church of the whole world.” It must be observed that these were the words of an Oriental bishop and a clear confession of the supremacy of the Roman See. Justinian appeared startled at the atrocity of the proceedings, and gave orders that Silverius should be sent back to Rome but the enemies of the Pope contrived to prevent it and he was intercepted on his road toward Rome and carried to a desert island, Palmarola,where he died on the 20th of June, 538 of starvation.
Pope Silverius was recognised as a saint by popular acclamation and is now the patron saint of the island of Ponza, Italy near to the island of Palmarola where he died. The first mention of his name is in a list of saints which dates to the 11th century. He is also called Saint Silverius (San Silverio). While Pope Silverius perished without fanfare and largely unlamented during the 6th century, the people from the neighbouring island of Ponza have honoured the virtuous St Silverio, a heritage that has reached the United States of America from the island, where many settlers have settled in the Morisania section of the Bronx. From there, they celebrate the Festival of San Silverio at Our Lady of Pity Church on 151st Street and Morris Avenue, just as they have for centuries, calling on him for help. According to Ponza Islands legend, fishermen were in a small boat in a storm off Palmarola and they called on Saint Silverius for help. An apparition of Saint Silverius called them to Palmarola, where they survived.
St Bagne of Thérouanne
St Edburga of Caistor
St Gemma of Saintonge
St Goban of Picardie
St Helen of Öehren
St John of Pulsano
St Macarius of Petra
Bl Margareta Ebner
St Methodius of Olympus
Bl Michelina of Pesaro
St Novatus of Rome St Pope Silverius (Died 538) Martyr
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Irish Martyrs – 17 beati – This is the collective title given to the 260 or more persons who are credited with dying for the faith in Ireland between 1537 and 1714. Seventeen of them were beatified together on 27 September 1992 by St Pope John Paul II.
• Blessed Conn O’Rourke
• Blessed Conor O’Devany
• Blessed Dermot O’Hurley
• Blessed Dominic Collins
• Blessed Edward Cheevers
• Blessed Francis Taylor
• Blessed George Halley
• Blessed John Kearney
• Blessed Matthew Lambert
• Blessed Maurice Eustace
• Blessed Patrick Cavanagh
• Blessed Patrick O’Healy
• Blessed Patrick O’Loughran
• Blessed Peter Higgins
• Blessed Robert Meyler
• Blessed Terrence Albert O’Brien
• Blessed William Tirry
Martyrs of Lower Moesia: Martyred on the Black Sea at Lower Moesia (in modern Bulgaria), date unknown.
St Cyriacus
St Paul
Martyred in Nagasaki: 9 Beati : burned alive on 20 June 1626 in Nagasaki, Japan. Their ashes were thrown into the sea and no relics remain. They were Beatified on 7 May 1867 by Pope Pius IX.
• Blessed Baltasar de Torres Arias
• Blessed Francisco Pacheco
• Blessed Gaspar Sadamatsu
• Blessed Giovanni Battista Zola
• Blessed Ioannes Kisaku
• Blessed Michaël Tozo
• Blessed Paulus Shinsuke
• Blessed Petrus Rinsei
• Blessed Vincentius Kaun
Thought for the Day – 19 June – Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 6:1–6 and the Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027)
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.”...Matthew 6:6
“When you pray, go to your inner room”
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross [Edith Stein OCD (1891-1942)
Martyr, co-patron of Europe
The Prayer of the Church (trans. Darlington Carmel)
In those who have entered into the unity of the divine inner life, everything is one – rest and activity, contemplation and action, silence and speech, listening and communicating, loving receptiveness, and loving gift of self in thanksgiving and praise… We need hours of silent listening, when we allow the divine Word to work in us, until it craves to become fruitful in the sacrifice of praise and of action.
We need the traditional forms and participation in the set forms of acts of regular worship, so that the inner life can be awakened and guided and find a suitable expression. The solemn divine praise must have its homes on earth, where it is developed, to the greatest perfection possible, to human beings. From these, it ascends to heaven, for the whole Church and becomes effective in the members of the Church, quickening their interior life, inviting their participation. But, it must itself be quickened from within, even in these places, by leaving space for silence and depth. Otherwise it would degenerate into mere lip-service. Contemplative houses where souls stand in solitude and silence before the face of God, are a protection against this danger. They wish to be, in the heart of the Church, the love that vivifies all.
One Minute Reflection – 19 June – Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 6:1–6 and the Memorial of St Romuald (c 951-1027) and St Juliana Falconieri OSM (1270 – 1341)
“Beware of practising your piety before men, in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven..”... Matthew 6:1
REFLECTION – ”Vainglory can find a place, not only, in the splendour and pomp of worldly wealth but even in the sordid garment of sackcloth as well. It is then all the more dangerous, because it is a deception, under the pretence of service to God.
When one dazzles by immoderate adornment of the body and its raiment, or by the splendour of whatever else one may possess, by that very fact, one is easily shown to desire ostentatious display. This person deceives nobody by a crafty semblance of holiness. But if, through extraordinary squalor and shabbiness, one is attracting others’ attention to one’s manner of professing Christianity and if, one is doing this of choice and not merely enduring it through necessity, then one may determine by one’s other works whether one is doing it through an indifference toward needless adornment, or through ambition of some kind. Indeed, the Lord has forewarned us to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing: “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Trials of one kind or another, that cause these people to lose the very advantages they have gained, through their dress or claimed to deny, what they sought to gain by it, will inevitably reveal, whether it is a case of a wolf under a sheep’s skin or a sheep under its own. But just as sheep ought not to change their skin even though wolves sometimes hide themselves beneath it, so a Christian ought not try to delight the eyes of others by needless adornment, just because pretenders very often assume that scanty garb, which necessity demands and assume it, for the purpose of deceiving those, who are less aware.” … St Augustine (354-430) (Sermon on the Mount, 2)
PRAYER – Lord God, in Your wisdom You created us. By Your providence You rule us. Penetrate our inmost being with Your holy light, so that we may shine only by our service and imitation of Your Son and never seek to shine by our own efforts. May we be mirrors of His meek and humble Heart. Grant that the prayers of St Romuald and St Juliana Falconieri may be help on our way. Through Christ our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 19 June – St Juliana Falconieri OSM (1270 – 1341) Virgin and Foundress of the Religious Sisters of the Order of Servites, Mystic, apostle of charity – born in 1270 at Florence, Italy and died on 12 June 1341 at Florence, Italy of natural causes. Patronages – sick people, sickness. Her relics lie at the church of San Annunziata in Florence which was built by her father.
Juliana Falconieri was born in answer to prayer, in 1270. Her father built the splendid church of the Annunziata in Florence, while her uncle, Blessed Alexius, became one of the founders of the Servite Order. Under his care Juliana grew up, as he said, more like an angel than a human being. Such was her modesty that she never used a mirror or gazed upon the face of a man during her whole life. The mere mention of sin made her shudder and tremble and once hearing a scandal related she fell into a dead swoon.
Statue of St Julia at the Annunziata Church in Florence
Her devotion to the sorrows of Our Lady drew her to the Servants of Mary and, at the age of fourteen, she refused an offer of marriage and received the habit from St Philip Benizi de Damaini (1233-1285) himself, one of the seven holy founders.
Her sanctity attracted many novices, for whose direction she was bidden to draw up a rule and thus with reluctance she became foundress of the “Mantellate”. The Servites’ dress consisted of a black gown, secured by a leather girdle and a white veil. Because the gown had short sleeves to facilitate work, people called the sisters of the new Order “Mantellate.” The sisters devoted themselves especially to the care of the sick and other works of mercy.She was with her children as their servant rather than their mistress, while outside her convent she led a life of apostolic charity, converting sinners, reconciling enemies and healing the sick by sucking with her own lips their ulcerous sores.
She was sometimes rapt for whole days in ecstasy and her prayers saved the Servite Order when it was in danger of being suppressed. She was visited in her last hour by angels in the form of white doves and Jesus Himself, as a beautiful child, crowned her with a garland of flowers. She wasted away through a disease of the stomach, which prevented her taking food. She bore her silent agony with constant cheerfulness, grieving only for the privation of Holy Communion.
At last, when, in her seventieth year, she had sunk to the point of death, she begged to be allowed once more to see and adore the Blessed Sacrament. It was brought to her cell, and reverently laid on a corporal, which was placed over her heart. At this moment she expired and the Sacred Host disappeared. After her death the form of the Host was found stamped upon her heart in the exact spot over which the Blessed Sacrament had been laid. Immediately after her death she was honoured as a saint.
The Servite Order was approved by Pope Martin V in the year 1420. Pope Benedict XIII recognised the devotion long paid to her and granted the Servites permission to celebrate the feast of the Blessed Juliana. Pope Clement XII Canonised her in the year 1737 and extended the celebration of her feast day to the entire Church. Juliana is usually represented in the habit of her Order with a host upon her breast.
St Adleida of Bergamo
Bl Arnaldo of Liniberio
St Culmatius of Arezzo
St Deodatus of Jointures
St Deodatus of Nevers
St Gaudentius of Arezzo
St Gervase
St Hildegrin of Châlons-sur-Marne
Bl Humphrey Middlemore
St Innocent of Le Mans St Juliana Falconieri OSM (1270 – 1341)
St Lambert of Saragossa
St Lupo of Bergamo
St Modeste Andlauer
St Nazario of Koper
Bl Odo of Cambrai
St Protase
St Rémi Isoré
Bl Sebastian Newdigate
Bl Thomas Woodhouse
Bl William Exmew
St Zosimus of Umbria
Art Dei – 18 June – The Memorial of Blessed Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505) – Her House in Mantua, Italy
This beautiful painting was donated to the Andreasi House in 2002 by private collectors, it is a replica of a painting made in the late 16th century, the original is also part of a private collection, attributed to Luigi Costa the Elder. This versions differs from the original in that it lacks the plate at the bottom and also because in the background we can see a large writing in gold letters and the figure of a swan, the symbol of the Andreasi family. Though the original is more intense, this version also is very interesting, with the large cross and the lily around it, indicating the woman’s condition of virgin. The crown of thorns she is holding evidently creates a direct relationship with the suffering of Jesus Christ. In the course of time, a specific physical type representing the Blessed took shape – she is both severe and beautiful, conveying a sense of quiet prayer but also the charisma of a benefactor.
This painting below, is another portrait of the Blessed, evidently from a series beginning with the work that is part of the private collection attributed to Costa the Elder. The low quality of this canvas does not, however, prevent the viewer from recognising her typical features, here particularly severe and lacking many of the usual symbols. Here, in fact, we see only the cross, long and slender, that the Blessed holds as usual in her right hand, showing it to the worshippers.
Blessed Osanna and the Mysteries of the Rosary
In this devotional composition, the Blessed Osanna is painted standing on the left, while invoking the Virgin Mary who appears above, surrounded by clouds, carrying Baby Jesus in her arms. Next to Osanna we see Saint Dominic, who is in turn admiring the celestial vision. The peculiarity of this painting is, however, the presence of a total of fifteen tondos on the two sides and in the upper part of the painting, depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary. On the right we have the Joyful Mysteries – Annunciation, the Visitation of Mary to saint Elizabeth, the Nativity, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Finding of Jesus in the Temple. On the left the Sorrowful Mysteries – the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion. Above the Glorious Mysteries – the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption of Mary and the Coronation of the Virgin. Finally, it must be noted that between the Blessed and Saint Dominic, we can make out the outline of the city of Mantua seen from San Giorgio. This detail allows to identify with certainty the female figure as being the Blessed Osanna.
The home of the Blessed Osanna Andreasi
In between two floors is a small consecrated chapel and a study with painted cupboards. On the main floor are four rooms of which one is entirely fresh with trompe l’oeil architecture depicting columns, balustrades and Latin proverbs recorded on scrolls. The room of relics of the Blessed Osanna Andreasi (1449-1505) – Set among hydrangeas, roses and officinal plants in the courtyard is a delightful porch with 15th century pink marble columns bearing the Andreasi coat of arms. The interior frescoes date from the 15th, 16th and, above a fireplace, 17th centuries – the decoration on the wooden coffered ceilings is still visible in parts, while the floors and stairs are made of terracotta and the doors of wood. It was purchased by nobleman Niccolò Andreasi in the mid 15th century as his family home. The house underwent minor changes in the early 16th century when Andreasi’s daughter Osanna was beatified.
Property of the Andreasi family for centuries, the house passed in 1780 into the hands of the Magnaguti family by marriage. Conte Alessandro Magnaguti (1887 – 1966) bequeathed it to the Dominican Province Utriusque Lombardiae to perpetuate the memory and cult of Blessed Osanna, who was a Tertiary of the Order and whose home it was.
Since 1935 it has been home to the Dominican Fraternity, who restored it and created a cultural centre for the circulation of Dominican spirituality and for the study of Thomistic philosophy. They established the Association for Dominican Monuments in 1993. The house, which still preserves its vocation for philosophy, culture and mysticism, hosts courses on philosophy and art, comparative religion, conferences, book launches and exhibitions and is the home to countless amazing holy artworks, mostly depicting Dominican Saints but not exclusively.
One Minute Reflection – 18 June – Tuesday of the Eleventh week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 5:43–48 and the Memorial of Blessed Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”…Matthew 5:44
REFLECTION – “You have often heard it said that we are living through a marvellous time, a time of great men… It is easy to understand why people long for a strong and capable leader to arise… This kind of neo-paganism [Nazism] believes all nature to be an emanation of the divine…; it admires a race that is nobler and purer than any other… From this comes the cult of race and blood, the cult of its own people’s heroes.
By starting out from so mistaken an idea, this view of things can lead to capital errors. It is tragic to see how much enthusiasm, how many efforts are placed at the service of such an erroneous and baseless ideal! However, we can learn from our enemy. We can learn from his deceitful philosophy how to purify and improve our own ideal, we can learn how to develop great love for this ideal, how to arouse immense enthusiasm and even a readiness to live and die for it, how to strengthen our hearts to incarnate it in ourselves and in others…
When we talk about the coming of the Kingdom and pray for its coming, we are not thinking of a discrimination according to race or blood but of the brotherhood of all, for all men are our brothers – not excluding even those who hate and attack us – in a close bond with the One, who causes the sun to rise on the good and the bad alike (Mt 5:45).”…Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) Martyr
PRAYER – Almighty God, to whom this world, with all it’s goodness and beauty belongs, give us grace joyfully, to begin this day for Christ Your Son, in Him and with Him and to fill it, with an active love for all Your children, even those who may not like or who do us harm. Help us to love as You do so that we may become like You. Blessed Osanna Andreasi, you who spread your charity far and wide, pray for us. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 18 June – Blessed Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505) Virgin, Mystic with a gift of prophecy and Stigmatist, Spiritual Director, reformer, apostle of charity – born on 17 January 1449 at Mantua, Italy and died in 1505 of natural causes. Patronages – Mantua, school girls.
Osanna was the daughter of the nobles Niccolò Andreasi, whose family had originated in Hungary and of Agnese Gonzaga. She was reported to have had a vision of angels at age six. Feeling called to consecrated life, she rejected a marriage arranged by her father. Unable to explain her attraction to religious life to her father, in 1463, at the age of 14, she secretly received the religious habit of the Third Order of St Dominic. She had been drawn to this Order from her admiration of two members of the Order, the holy tertiary, Saint Catherine of Siena and her contemporary, Friar Girolamo Savonarola, who both represented to her lives of strict self-denial.
Returning home, Osanna explained that she had made a religious vow and had to wear it until she had fulfilled her promise, which is an ancient custom. She waited 37 years to complete her vows so she could care for her brothers and sisters after the death of her parents.
A legend states that Osanna, like St Catherine of Siena, miraculously learned to read and write. One day she saw a piece of paper with two words and said, “Those words are ‘Jesus’ and ‘Mary.'” From that time on, anything relating to the spiritual was within her grasp to read.
When Osanna was thirty years old, she received the stigmata on her head, her side and her feet. She also had a vision in which her heart was transformed and divided into four parts. For the rest of her life, she actively experienced the Passion of Jesus but especially intensely on Wednesdays and Fridays. Osanna confided these things in her biographer and “spiritual son,” the Olivetan monk, Dom Jerome of Mount Olivet, as well as the fact that for years, she subsisted on practically no food at all.
Osanna was a mystic who would fall into ecstasies whenever she spoke of God, and a visionary who saw images of Christ bearing His cross. She bore the stigmata along with red marks but there was no bleeding. She helped the poor and sick and served as spiritual director for many, spending much of her family’s considerable fortune to help the unfortunate. She spoke out against decadence and criticised the aristocracy for a lack of morality. She was a friend of another holy member of her Order, the Blessed Columba of Rieti and is recorded to have sought counsel from another, the Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis.
These phenomena brought Ossana to the attention of Mantua’s ruling family. Most notably, she was sought by Francesco II Gonzaga and his wife, Isabella d’Este, as both a spiritual guide and a counsellor on matters of state. She frequently foretold correctly events which later came to pass and gained the reputation of a seer. When she died in Mantua on 18 June 1505, all the members of the nobility and clergy attended her funeral, as her body was taken in procession to the Church of St Dominic, where it was enshrined. Later, her remains were transferred to the Cathedral of St Peter in Mantua, where they are still venerated.
Her confidant, Dom Jerome (Italian: Girolamo de Monte Oliveto), wrote a vita (biography) of her life in 1507, very shortly after her death. Although Jerome noted that Osanna was not quick to discuss her spiritual experiences, in the last years of her life she adopted Jerome as a “spiritual son,” “conceived in the Blood of Christ.”
Jerome’s account is especially unique due to his intimate relationship with his subject. The biography takes the form of a detailed report of his conversations with Osanna. Jerome appended to his account Latin translations of twenty-four letters from Osanna, accompanied by documents certifying their authenticity.
According to Father Benedict Ashley, OP, these letters express an “intense and constant physical and inner suffering” made bearable only by “sublime experiences of union with God which [Osanna] cannot describe except in broken and inadequate language.” A special source of misery for Osanna was the degradation of the Church under the abusive pontificate of Alexander VI.
In a response to a request by the Marchesa Isabella d’Este while on a visit to Rome, through a papal brief of 8 January 1515, Leo X authorised the celebration of her feast day in the City of Mantua. Her local cultus was confirmed by Pope Innocent XII with a Papal bull of 24 November 1694 and extended to the whole of the Dominican Order two months later.
The Blessed Virgin Mary in glory appearing to the Blessed Osanna Andreasi by Ippolito Andreasi (c 1575)
St Abraham of Clermont
St Alena of Dilbeek
St Amandus of Bordeaux
St Arcontius of Brioude
St Athenogenes of Pontus
St Calogero of Sicily
St Calogerus of Fragalata
St Calogerus the Anchorite
St Colman mac Mici
St Cyriacus of Malaga
St Demetrius of Fragalata
St Edith of Aylesbury
St Elizabeth of Schonau
St Elpidius of Brioude
St Equizio of Telese
St Erasmo
St Etherius of Nicomedia
Bl Euphemia of Altenmünster
St Fortunatus the Philosopher
St Gerland of Caltagirone St Gregory Barbarigo (1625-1697) About St Gregory: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/18/saint-of-the-day-18-june-2018-st-gregory-barbarigo-1625-1697/
St Gregory of Fragalata
St Guy of Baume
St Jerome of Vallumbrosa
St Marcellian
St Marina of Alexandria
St Marina of Bithynia
Bl Marina of Spoleto
St Mark Bl Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505)
St Osanna of Northumberland
St Osmanna of Jouarre
St Paula of Malaga
Bl Peter Sanchez
—
Hermits of Karden: A father (Felicio) and his two sons (Simplicio and Potentino)who became pilgrim to various European holy places and then hermits at Karden (modern Treis-Karden, Germany). (Born in Aquitaine (in modern France) Their relics transferred to places in the Eifel region of western Germany at some point prior to 930. They were canonised on 12 August 1908 by Pope Pius X (cultus confirmation).
Martyrs of Ravenna – 4 sai nts: A group of four Christians martyred together. We have no details but their names – Crispin, Cruciatus, Emilius and Felix. They were martyred in Ravenna, Italy, date unknown.
Martyrs of Rome – 3 saints: Three Christians martyred together . We have no details but their names – Cyriacus, Paul and Thomas. In Rome, Italy, date unknown.
Martyrs of Tripoli – 3 saints: Three imperial Roman soldiers, at last two of them recent converts, who were imprisoned, tortured and executed for their faith. Martyrs – Hypatius, Leontius and Theodulus. They were Greek born and they died c135 at Tripoli, Phoenicia (in modern Lebanon).
Thought for the Day – 17 June – The Memorial of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant OCSO (1878-1903)
Fr Joseph-Marie always put his trust in God, in contemplation of the mystery of the Passion and in communion with Christ present in the Eucharist.
Thus, he was imbued with love for God and abandoned himself to Him, “the only true happiness on earth”, detaching himself from worldly goods in the silence of the Trappist monastery. In the midst of trials, his eyes fixed on Christ, he offered up his sufferings for the Lord and for the Church.
May our contemporaries, especially contemplatives and the sick, discover, following his example, the mystery of prayer, which raises the world to God and gives strength in trial!”…St John Paul II (1920-2005) Beatification Homily, Sunday, 3 October 2004
‘The Eucharist is the Saviour Himself, wholly giving Himself to men, His Heart is pierced on the Cross and then tenderly gathers in all those who trust in Him.’
One Minute Reflection – 17 June – Monday of the Eleventh week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel : Matthew 5:38–42 and the Memorial of Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant OCSO (1878-1903)
“Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles.”… Matthew 5:41
REFLECTION – “Do you grasp the excellence of a Christian disposition? After you give your coat and your cloak, even if your enemy should wish to subject your naked body to hardships and labours, not even then, Jesus says, must you forbid him. For He would have us possess all things in common, both our bodies and our goods, as with them that are in need, so with them that insult us. For the latter response comes from a courageous spirit, the former from mercy. Because of this, Jesus said, “If any one shall compel you to go one mile, go with him two.” Again He leads you to higher ground and commands you to manifest the same type of aspiration. For if the lesser things He spoke of at the beginning receive such great blessings, consider what sort of reward awaits those who duly perform these and what they become even before we hear of receiving rewards. You are winning full freedom from unworthy passions in a human and passible body.” … Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) Bishop, Father & Doctor (The Gospel of Matthew: Homily 18)
PRAYER – King of heaven and earth, Lord God, rule over or hearts and bodies this day. Sanctify us and guide our every thought, word and deed according to the commandments of Your law, so that now and forever, Your grace may free and save us. Teach us Lord to walk in the ways of the Cross of Your Son, our Saviour, as Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant so lovingly and willingly inspires us to do. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, God, forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 17 June – Blessed Joseph-Marie Cassant OCSO (1878-1903) aged 25 – Priest, Trappist Monk – born as Pierre-Joseph Cassant on 6 March 1878 in Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, France as Pierre-Joseph Cassant and died on 17 June 1903 in Abbey of Sainte-Marie-du-Désert, Lévignac, Haute Garonne, France of tuberculosis.
Joseph-Marie Cassant was born on the 6th of March, 1878, at Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, in the diocese of Agen, France, into a family of orchard-keepers. The second child born to the family, he had an elder brother already nine years of age. He was a lodger at the boarding school of the La Salle Brothers in Casseneuil itself and it was there that his poor memory began to cause him difficulty in studying.
He received a solid Christian education at home and at school and, little by little the deep desire to become a priest grew within him. Father Filhol, the parish priest, thought well enough of the boy to help him with his studies but his weak memory kept him from entering the minor seminary. When it became clear that he was drawn towards silence, recollection and prayer, Fr Filhol suggested that he would think of the Trappists and the young sixteen-year-old unhesitatingly agreed. After a trial period, Joseph entered the Cistercian Abbey of Sainte-Marie du Désert, in the diocese of Toulouse, France, on 5 December 1894.
The Novice Master at the time was Fr André Mallet, a man skilled at understanding the needs of souls and responding in love. From their very first meeting he showed this when he said to the young man, “Only trust and I will help you to love Jesus!” Nor were the other monks of the monastery slow to appreciate the newcomer – he neither argued nor grumbled but was ever happy, ever smiling.
The young monk would often meditate upon Jesus in his Passion and on the Cross and so became deeply imbued with love for Christ. The “way of Jesus’ heart” which Fr André taught him, is an unceasing call to live the present moment with patience, hope and love. Brother Joseph-Marie was well aware of his lacks and weaknesses and so was led to depend more and more on Jesus, His strength. He had no interest in half measures but wished to give himself completely to Christ. His personal motto bears witness to this: “All for Jesus, all through Mary”. On Ascension Thursday, 24 May 1900, he was admitted to final vows.
Then came his preparation for the priesthood. This he viewed primarily in relation to the Eucharist, which was truly to him the living presence of Jesus among us. The Eucharist is the Saviour Himself, wholly giving Himself to men, His Heart is pierced on the Cross and then tenderly gathers in all those who trust in Him. There were times during his theological studies when, because of his great sensitivity, he suffered much from the lack of understanding of the monk teaching the course. But, as in all his contradictions, he relied upon Christ present in the Eucharist as his “only good upon this earth”and confided his suffering to Fr André who would cheer him up and help him better to understand. In the end, he did well enough to pass his examinations and had the great joy of being ordained a priest on 12 October 1902.
At that point, it became clear that he had contracted tuberculosis and that the disease was already well advanced. The young priest spoke of his pains only when it was impossible to hide them further. How could he complain, he who meditated so lovingly on the Lord’s Way of the Cross? In spite of a seven weeks’ stay with his family which he undertook at his abbot’s request, his health continued to deteriorate. He then returned to the monastery, where he was soon sent to stay in the infirmary. Here was one more opportunity to offer up his sufferings for Christ and the Church – his physical pain became more and more unbearable and was even worsened by the infirmarian’s neglect. Fr André continued to accompany him and became more than ever his constant aid and support. He had said, “When I can no longer say Mass, Jesus can take me from this world.”Early in the morning of 17 June 1903, Father Joseph-Marie received communion and left this world to be with Christ Jesus forever.
On the 9th of June 1984, the Holy Father, John Paul II, acknowledged his heroic virtues.
The sheer ordinariness of his life has been noted by some – 16 quiet years at Casseneuil and 9 years of monastic enclosure spent in doing the simplest of things: prayer, studies, work. They are indeed simple things but lived in an extraordinary way. They were the slightest of deeds but performed with limitless generosity. Christ imbued his mind, clear as the water that leaps from a spring, with the conviction, that God alone is our true and highest happiness and that His kingdom is like a hidden treasure or a pearl of great price.
The message of Fr Joseph-Marie has great meaning for us today. In a world filled with distrust and often with despair but thirsting for love and kindness, his life can provide an answer and in a special way to today’s young who seek meaning in their lives. Joseph-Marie was a youth without any standing or worth in the eyes of men. He owed the success of his life to a meeting with Jesus that redefined his very existence. He showed himself a follower of the Lord in the midst of a community of brothers, with the guidance of a spiritual father, who was to him a witness of Christ, as well as one, who knew to receive and to understand him.
For the meek and humble he is a superb example. Watching Joseph-Marie, we learn how to live each day for Christ with love, zeal and fidelity, accepting at the same time the help of an experienced brother or sister who can lead us in the footsteps of Jesus. His life shows us the path to sainthood.
Maria in the Forest: Also known as:
• Holy Mary in the Forest
• Maria im Walde
The Apparitions occurred in a wooded area near Dolina, Grafenstein, Carinthia, Austria on the 17, 18 and 19 June 1849 to three young shepherdesses.
St Antidius of Besançon
Bl Arnold of Foligno
St Avitus of Perche
St Blasto of Rome
St Botolph of Ikanhoe
St Briavel of Gloucestershire
St David of Bourges
St Dignamerita of Brescia
St Diogenes of Rome
St Emily de Vialar
St Gundulphus of Bourges
St Herveus of Bretagne
St Himerius of Amelia
St Hypatius of Chalcedon Bl Joseph-Marie Cassant OCSO (1878-1903)
St Molling of Wexford
St Montanus of Gaeta
St Nectan of Hartland
Bl Paul Burali d’Arezzo
Bl Peter Gambacorta
St Phêrô Ða
Bl Philippe Papon
St Prior
St Rambold of Ratisbon
Bl Ranieri Scaccero
St Theresa of Portugal
—
Martyrs of Apollonia – 7 saints: A group of Christians who fled to a cave near Apollonia, Macedonia to escape persecution for his faith, but were caught and executed. The names we know are – Basil, Ermia, Felix, Innocent, Isaurus, Jeremias and Peregrinus. They were beheaded at Apollonia, Macedonia.
Martyrs of Aquileia – 4 saints: Four Christian martyrs memorialised together. No details about them have survived, not even if they died together – Ciria, Maria, Musca and Valerian. c.100 in Aquileia, Italy.
Martyrs of Chalcedon – 3 saints: Three well-educated Christian men who were sent as ambassadors from King Baltan of Persia to the court of emperor Julian the Apostate to negotiate peace between the two states, and an end of Julian’s persecutions of Christians. Instead of negotiating, Julian imprisoned them, ordered them to make a sacrifice to pagan idols and when they refused, had them executed. Their names were Manuel, Sabel and Ismael. They were beheaded in 362 in Chalcedon (part of modern Istanbul, Turkey) and their bodies burned and no relics survive.
Martyrs of Fez – 4 beati: A group of Mercedarians sent to Fez, Morocco to ransom Christians imprisoned and enslaved by Muslims. For being openly Christian they were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and executed. Martyrs – Egidio, John, Louis and Paul. They were martyred in Fez, Morocco.
Martyrs of Rome – 262 saints: A group of 262 Christians martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. In c303 in Rome, Italy. They were buried on the old Via Salaria in Rome.
Martyrs of Venafro – 3 saints: Three Christian lay people, two of them imperial Roman soldiers, who were converts to Christianity and were martyred together in the persecutions of Maximian and Diocletian – Daria, Marcian and Nicander. They were beheaded c.303 in Venafro, Italy. By 313 a basilica had been built over their graves which were re-discovered in 1930. They are patrons of Venafro, Italy.
Thought for the Day – The Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua OFM (1195-1231) Doctor of the Church, 13 June
Actions Speak Louder than Words
Saint Anthony of Padua
Priest and Doctor of the Church
An excerpt from Sermon, I #226
The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience and obedience, we speak in those languages, when we reveal in ourselves, these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words, let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions and, therefore, are cursed by the Lord, since He Himself cursed the fig tree when He found no fruit but only leaves. Gregory says: “A law is laid upon the preacher to practice what he preaches.” It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law, if he undermines its teaching by his actions.
But the apostles spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. Happy the man, whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! ,,For some men speak as their own character dictates but steal the words of others and present them as their own and claim the credit for them. The Lord refers to such men and others like them in Jeremiah – So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets that steal my words from each other. I have a quarrel with the prophets, says the Lord, who have only to move their tongues to utter oracles. I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, who recount them and lead my people astray with their lies and their pretensions. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them and they serve no good purpose for this people, says the Lord.
We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves, should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfilment, insofar, as He infuses us with His grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. Likewise, we shall request, that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith, so that our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendour of the saints and to look upon the triune God.
Saint of the Day – 13 June – St Anthony of Padua OFM (1195-1231) Doctor of the Church
The gospel call, to leave everything and follow Christ, was the rule of Saint Anthony of Padua’s life. Over and over again, God called him to something new in his plan. Every time, Anthony responded with renewed zeal and self-sacrificing to serve his Lord Jesus more completely.
His journey as the servant of God began as a very young man when he decided to join the Augustinians in Lisbon, giving up a future of wealth and power, to be a servant of God. Later, when the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs went through the Portuguese city where he was stationed, he was again filled with an intense longing to be one of those closest to Jesus Himself: those who die for the Good News.
So Anthony entered the Franciscan Order and set out to preach to the Moors. But an illness prevented him from achieving that goal. He went to Italy and was stationed in a small hermitage where he spent most of his time praying, reading the Scriptures and doing menial tasks.
The call of God came again at an general chapter where no one was prepared to speak. The humble and obedient Anthon,y hesitantly accepted the task. The years of searching for Jesus in prayer, of reading sacred Scripture and of serving Him in poverty, chastity and obedience, had prepared Anthony to allow the Spirit to use his talents. Anthony’s sermon was astounding to those who expected an unprepared speech and knew not the Spirit’s power to give people words.
Recognised as a great man of prayer and a great Scripture and theology scholar, Anthony became the first friar to teach theology to the other friars. Soon he was called from that post to preach to the Albigensians in France, using his profound knowledge of Scripture and theology, to convert and reassure those, who had been misled by their denial of Christ’s divinity and of the sacraments..
After he led the friars in northern Italy for three years, he made his headquarters in the city of Padua. He resumed his preaching and began writing sermon notes to help other preachers. In the spring of 1231, Anthony withdrew to a friary at Camposampiero, where he had a sort of treehouse built as a hermitage. There he prayed and prepared for death.
On 13 June, he became very ill and asked to be taken back to Padua, where he died after receiving the last sacraments. Anthony was Canonised less than a year later and named a Doctor of the Church in 1946.
Anthony should be the patron of those, who find their lives completely uprooted and set in a new and unexpected direction. Like all saints, he is a perfect example of turning one’s life completely over to Christ. God did with Anthony as God pleased—and what God pleased was a life of spiritual power and brilliance that still attracts admiration today heaping miracle upon miracle during Anthony’s lifetime. He whom popular devotion has nominated as finder of lost objects, found himself by losing himself totally, to the providence of God.
St Anthony writes: “Christ, who is your life, is hanging before you, so that you may look at the Cross, as in a mirror. There you will be able to know, how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other, than the Blood of the Son of God, could heal. If you look closely, you will be able to realise, how great your human dignity and your value are…. Nowhere other than looking at himself, in the mirror of the Cross, can man better understand how much he is worth”(Sermones Dominicales et Festivi III, pp. 213-214).
In meditating on these words we are better able to understand the importance of the image of the Crucified One for our culture, for our humanity that is born from the Christian faith. Precisely by looking at the Crucified One we see, as St Anthony says, how great are the dignity and worth of the human being. At no other point can we understand how much the human person is worth, precisely because, God makes us so important, considers us so important that, in His opinion, we are worthy of His suffering, thus, all human dignity appears in the mirror of the Crucified One and our gazing upon Him is ever a source of acknowledgement of human dignity…..Pope Benedict XVI (General Audience – February 10, 2010)
St Anthony of Padua, pray for us!
Wonderful St Anthony the miracle worker: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/13/saint-of-the-day-13-june-st-anthony-of-padua-o-f-m-evangelical-doctor-hammer-of-heretics-professor-of-miracles-wonder-worker-ark-of-the-tes/
Celebrating St Anthony: https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/13/celebrating-the-life-and-miracles-of-st-anthony-of-padua-on-his-memorial-today-13-june/
O God, send forth Your Holy Spirit By St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) Doctor of the Church
O God,
send forth Your Holy Spirit
into my heart
that I may perceive,
into my mind,
that I may remember,
and into my soul,
that I may meditate.
Inspire me to speak
with piety,
holiness,
tenderness
and mercy.
Teach, guide and direct my thoughts
and senses, from beginning to end.
May Your grace,
ever help and correct me,
and may I be strengthened now
with wisdom from on high,
for the sake of Your infinite mercy.
Amen
News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all, to remain faithful to the Lord, with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord...Acts 11:22-24
“While we cannot see God, there is something we can do, to open a way, for the eye of our understanding to come to Him. It is certain that we can see now in His servants, one whom we can in no way see in Himself. When we see them doing astonishing things, we can be sure that God dwells in their hearts… None of us can look directly at the rising sun by gazing at its orb. Our eyes are repelled as they strain to see its rays. But we look at mountains bathed in sunlight and see that it has risen. Because we cannot see the Sun of righteousness (Mal 3,20) Himself, let us see the mountains bathed in His brightness, I mean the holy apostles. They shine with virtues and gleam with miracles… The power of His divinity, is in itself, like the sun in the sky; in human beings it is like the sun shining on earth…”
St Pope Gregory the Great (c 540-604), Father & Doctor of the Church
Today is the First Feast Day since his Canonisation, of dearly beloved St Pope Paul VI. So, although a rather belated post for those in the Southern Hemisphere, I simply could not allow this day to go unrecorded.
Saint of the Day – 29 May – St Pope Paul Paul VI (1897-1978), born Giovanni Battista Montini, on 26 September 1897, at Concesio, near Brescia, Italy—died 6 August 1978, at Castel Gandolfo. Priest, Bishop of Rome, Social Reformer. He reigned 1963–1978 during a period including most of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) and the immediate postconciliar era, in which he issued directives and guidance to a changing Roman Catholic Church. His pontificate was confronted with the problems and uncertainties of a church facing a new role in the contemporary world. His Mottos were: Cum Ipso in monte (With Him on the mount) and In nomine Domini (In the name of the Lord). Patronages – Archdiocese of Milan and the Ambrosian Rite, Paul VI Pontifical Institute, Second Vatican Council, Diocese of Brescia, Concesio (his birth town), Magenta and Paderno Dugnano.
Early Life And Career
The son of a middle-class lawyer—who was also a journalist and local political figure—and of a mother belonging to the same social background, Montini was in his early years educated mainly at home because of frail health. Later he studied in Brescia. Ordained a priest on 29 May 1920, he was sent by his bishop to Rome for higher studies and was eventually recruited for the Vatican diplomatic service. His first assignment, in May 1923, was to the staff of the Apostolic Nunciature (papal ambassador’s post) in Warsaw but persistent ill health brought him back to Rome before the end of that same year. He then pursued special studies at the Ecclesiastical Academy, the training school for future Vatican diplomats and at the same time resumed work at the Vatican Secretariat of State, where he remained in posts of increasing importance for more than 30 years.
In 1939 Montini was appointed Papal Undersecretary of state and later, in 1944, acting Secretary for Ordinary (or non-diplomatic) affairs. He declined an invitation to be elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1953. In the beginning of November 1954, Pope Pius XII appointed him Archbishop of Milan and St Pope John XXIII named him a Cardinal in 1958.
He was elected pope on 21 June 1963, choosing to be known as Paul VI.
Vatican II And Paul VI’s Pontificate
The Montini pontificate began in the period following the difficult first session of the Second Vatican Council, in which the new pope had played an important, though not spectacular, part. His lengthy association with university students in the stormy atmosphere of the early days of the fascist regime in Italy, in combination with the generally philosophical bent of his mind—developed by a long-standing habit of extensive and reflective reading—enabled him to bring to the perplexing problems of the times an academic understanding, coupled with the knowledge derived from long years of practical diplomatic experience. Paul VI guided the three remaining sessions of the Second Vatican Council, often developing points he had first espoused as Cardinal Archbishop of Milan. His chief concern was that the Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century should be a faithful witness to the tradition of the past, except when tradition was obviously anachronistic.
Upon the completion of the council (8 December 1965), Paul VI was confronted with the formidable task of implementing its decisions, which affected practically every facet of church life. He approached this task with a sense of the difficulty involved in making changes in centuries-old structures and practices—changes rendered necessary by many rapid transformations in the social, psychological, and political milieu of the 20th century. Paul VI’s approach was consistently one of careful assessment of each concrete situation, with a sharp awareness of the many varied complications that he believed could not be ignored.
This prevalently philosophical attitude was often construed by his critics as timidity, indecision and uncertainty. Nonetheless, many of Paul VI’s decisions in these crucial years called for immense courage. In July 1968 he published his encyclical Humanae vitae (“Of Human Life”), which reaffirmed the stand of several of his predecessors on the long-smouldering controversy over artificial means of birth control, which he opposed. In many sectors this encyclical provoked adverse reactions that may be described as the most violent attacks on the authority of papal teaching in modern times. Similarly, his firm stand on the retention of priestly celibacy (Sacerdotalis caelibatus, June 1967) evoked much harsh criticism. Paul VI later likened the large numbers of priests leaving the ministry to a “crown of thorns.”He also was disturbed by the growing numbers of religious men and women asking for release from vows or who were abandoning out of hand their religious vows.
From the very outset of his years as pope, Paul VI gave clear evidence of the importance he attached to the study and the solution of social problems and to their impact on world peace. Social questions had already been prominent in his far-reaching pastoral program in Milan (1954–63). During those years he had travelled extensively in the Americas and in Africa, centring his attention mainly on concern for workers and for the poor. Such problems dominated his first encyclical letter, Ecclesiam suam (“His Church”), 6 August 1964 and later became the insistent theme of his celebrated Populorum progressio (“Progress of the Peoples”), 26 March 1967. This encyclical was such a pointed plea for social justice that in some conservative circles the pope was accused of Marxism. (- ring any bells folks?)
Apostolic Journeys
In an address to the Council Fathers at the end of the first session of the Second Vatican Council, Cardinal Montini formulated a question that may be called the theme of his pastoral service as pontiff: “Church of Christ, what say you of yourself?” In an effort to answer this fundamental question, Paul VI undertook a series of apostolic journeys that were unparalleled occasions for a pope to set foot on every continent. His first journey was a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (January 1964), highlighted by his historic meeting with the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, in Jerusalem. At the end of that same year, he went to India, becoming the first pope to visit Asia. The following year (4 October 1965), in the first visit by a pope to the United States, he delivered a moving plea for peace at a special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City and said mass at Yankee Stadium. In 1967 he undertook short visits to Fátima (Portugal) and to Istanbul and Ephesus (Turkey), a journey that had special ecumenical significance – a second meeting with Athenagoras in the patriarch’s own episcopal city (Constantinople). In August 1968 the pope went to Bogotá, Colombia, and he appeared before the International Labour Organisation and the World Council of Churches in Geneva in June 1969. The following month he was in Uganda, East Africa. In the autumn of 1970 he undertook the longest papal journey in modern history up to that time – 10 days spent in visits to Tehrān, Pakistan, the Philippines, Western Samoa (now Samoa), Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), each stop bringing Paul VI into personal contact with different peoples of the world of the Universal Catholic Church! His arrival in Manila almost ended in tragedy – within minutes of his descent from the plane, an attempt was made on his life but with no serious injury.
The themes treated by Paul VI on these trips were basically the same – world peace, social justice, world hunger, illiteracy, brotherhood under God and international cooperation.
Social And Ecumenical Interests
On 6 January 1971, in the Clementine Hall in the Vatican, Paul VI conferred the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize on the Albanian-born Mother Teresa, who had spent most of her life in India, where she had founded a special religious congregation of women dedicated to the alleviation of the countless ills of the poorest classes in the country. Paul VI declared on this occasion that the award was intended to centre attention on how even a humble individual without means can further world peace without fanfare, simply by proving in day-to-day action that “every man is my brother.” Here, as in other instances, Paul’s aim was to confront the world at large with the inescapable problems of justice and peace while at the same time proving conclusively that even these apparently insoluble problems can and must be settled with realistic courage and individual perseverance.
Paul VI’s human concern found further expression in his efforts to lessen the long-standing tensions between the church of Rome and other churches and even with those professing no religion at all. He sought out closer understanding with numerous religious leaders throughout the world, both Christian and non-Christian, placing more emphasis on those aspects that unite the churches than on those that divide. To show that mutual acquaintance is at the very foundation of any plans or hopes for unity, Pope Paul met with prominent religious leaders from various communities in Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union as well as other countries. Paul VI also set up a special secretariat for nonbelievers, stressing the need of understanding and endeavouring to solve the problems posed by atheism.
Under his guidance the Roman Catholic Church drastically revised its legislation governing marriages between its own members and those who profess other faiths, expressing a firm desire to diminish the threat of human tragedy following possible clashes of individual consciences. For this reason Paul VI’s motu proprio was welcomed and praised for its understanding of human problems and its desire to find a satisfactory solution to the problem of mixed marriages without demanding of either side any renunciation of basic principles of conscience.
In the rise of modern ecumenism, Paul VI saw excellent opportunities to encourage world brotherhood, which, he hoped, might further efforts for human well-being in the pursuit of happiness in unity of faith in God. On 15 May 1971, commemorating the 80th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum on the reform of the social order, Pope Paul issued a forceful apostolic letter, Octogesima adveniens, with particular insistence on the necessity of involvement of all human beings in the solution of the problems of justice and peace.
In 2012 Pope Benedict XVI declared that Paul had lived “a life of heroic virtue.” Two years later he was Beatified by Benedict’s successor, Francis. He was Canonised by Pope Francis on 14 October 2018.
One Minute Reflection – 24 May – Friday of the Fifth week of Easter, C, Gospel: John 15:12–17 and the Memorial of Our Lady Help of Christians and Blessed Maria Gargani (1892-1973)
“You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide”…John 15:16
REFLECTION – “Oh, how happy and blessed are those who love God and do as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel – “You shall love the lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and your neighbour as yourself.” Let us love God, therefore and adore Him with a pure heart and a pure mind…
And let us love our neighbours as ourselves. And if there is anyone who does not wish to love them as himself, at least let him do no harm to them but rather do good. But those who have received the power to judge others, should exercise judgement with mercy, as they themselves desire to receive mercy from the Lord… Let us then have charity and humility, let us give alms since this washes our souls from the stains of our sins. For people lose everything they leave behind in this world but they carry with them, the rewards of charity and the alms which they gave, for which they will have a reward and a suitable remuneration from the Lord…
Upon all men and women, if they have done these things and have persevered to the end, the Spirit of the Lord will rest and He will make His home and dwelling among them. They will be children of the heavenly Father whose works they do. And they are spouses, brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ… Oh, how glorious it is, how holy and great, to have a Father in heaven! Oh, how holy, consoling, beautiful and wondrous it is to have a Spouse! Oh, how holy… humble, peaceful, sweet, lovable, and desirable above all things to have such a Brother and Son, who laid down his life for his sheep and who prayed to the Father for us, saying: “Holy Father, protect those in your name whom you have given to me…; and I wish, Father, that where I am they also may be with me so that they may see my glory in your kingdom” … St Francis of Assisi (c 1181-1226) Founder of the Friars Minor – Letter to all the faithful, 2nd version
PRAYER – Almighty God and Father, You gave us a new birth in holy baptism and a new life in Your Son, who gave His life for us. Give us the grace to bear much fruit always striving after what He has taught who goes ahead of us to lead us to You. May the prayers of His beloved Mother and ours and Blessed Maria Gargani, grant us help and inspiration as we travel the road to eternal life. Through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God now and for all eternity, amen.
Saint of the Day – 24 May – Blessed Maria Gargani OFS (1892-1973) – Religious, Founder of the the Sisters Apostles of the Sacred Heart, a member of the Secular Franciscan Order, Teacher and was involved with Catholic Action during her teaching career but is well known for having been the first spiritual daughter and correspondent of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) from World War I until St Pio’s death in 1968. He wrote a total of 67 letters to Gargani during this period. Blessed Maria is the Patron of the Order she founded.
Maria Gargani was born in the evening on 23 December 1892 in Morra de Sanctis as the last of eight children to Rocco Gargani and Angiolina De Paola. Her devout father instructed the children in catechism and it was from him that Gargani’s faith grew over time.
Her education was spent in her hometown before finishing it in Avellino where she was the guest of an uncle. She obtained a master’s degree in 1913 that would allow her to begin work as a teacher.
She began teaching in San Marco la Catola in Foggia from 1913 to 1928 and lived there alongside her married sister Antonietta. It was also there, that she first met Father Benedetto and Father Agostino Daniele who both became spiritual guides for her as she discerned her vocation. It was in 1914 that this manifested and she recorded that she wept as she discerned her call to follow God, due to the seriousness of the task. Gargani later entered the Secular Franciscan Order after having discovered Saint Francis of Assisi. St Francis represented to her, a model of love, that served as an influence on her religious convictions. Not long after this she began teaching catechism to children while also preparing them for the reception of their First Communion and she even purchased a machine to project images to explain to them the life of Jesus Christ, a very rare possession in those days. Blessed Maria also began collaborating with Catholic Action around this time. From 1928 to 1945 she began teaching in Volturara Appula.
In 1915 her adviser Father Agostino was summoned to serve in World War I as a chaplain and so entrusted her to the spiritual care of the Franciscan Capuchin priest Padre Pio, while advising her to maintain correspondence with the friar. Gargani made first contact with the friar at the beginning of August 1916 via letter which began several decades of spiritual guidance, friendship and correspondence that lasted until the saint’s death in 1968. The first letter he wrote to her was dated 26 August 1916. St Padre Pio became a spiritual guide to Blessed Maria and a source of moral support. The two met for the first time, face-to-face, in the Capuchin convent at San Marco la Catola in mid-April 1918.
In 1934 she received diocesan permission to form a group of companions in the former convent of Santa Maria della Sanità – this became the foundation for the religious congregation that she would establish not long after. She later established the Sisters Apostles of the Sacred Heart on 11 February 1936 with the permission of the Archbishop of Lucca Antonio Torrini. The first convent for the order opened that 21 April. In 1945 the order moved its headquarters to Naples – with other companions, she made her profession as a professed religious as “Mary Crucified of Divine Love” “Maria Crocifissa del Divino Amore”.
From 1946 until her retirement she taught in Naples. On 21 July 1951 she met the zealous priest Antonio Fanucci who became their spiritual director. Her order later received diocesan approval from Cardinal Marcello Mimmi on 2 June 1956 and she made her perpetual profession a month later on 22 July. St Pope John XXIII granted her order full pontifical approval on 12 March 1963 and the sisters continue their good work today in many centres and countries.
Blessed Maria died on the evening of 23 December 1892 at Morra de Sanctis, Avellino, Italy, of natural causes. Her remains were later exhumed and relocated to the order’s motherhouse on 17 May 1992.
The cause for her beatification opened in 1988 and she became titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis named her as Venerable in mid-2017 and later approved a miracle attributed to her in 2018. The Beatification took place in Naples in the metropolitan cathedral on 2 June 2018, by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Francis.
Our Lady of China: Our Lady of China is a title for the Virgin Mary in China who is believed to have appear at the small village of Donglu in 1900. In Chinese she is called Zhōnghuá Shèngmǔ. She is also known as Our Lady of Donglu.
St Afra of Brescia
Bl Benedict of Cassino
St David of Scotland
Bl Diego Alonso
St Donatian of Nantes
St Gennadius of Astroga
St Hubert of Bretigny
Bl Isidore Ngei Ko Lat
St Joanna the Myrrhbearer
Bl John del Prado
Bl John of Montfort
Bl Juan of Huete
Bl Louis-Zéphirin Moreau
St Manahen
St Marciana of Galatia Bl Maria Gargani OFS (1892-1973)
Bl Mario Vergara
St Meletius the Soldier
Bl Nicetas of Pereslav
St Palladia
St Patrick of Bayeux
Bl Philip of Piacenza
St Rogatian of Nantes
St Sérvulo of Trieste
St Simeon Stylites the Younger
St Susanna
Bl Thomas Vasière
St Vincent of Lérins
St Vincent of Porto Romano
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Martyrs of Istria: A group of early martyrs in the Istria peninsula. We know little more than some names – Diocles, Felix, Servilius, Silvanus and Zoëllus.
Martyrs of Plovdiv: 38 Christians martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian. We don’t even known their names. They were beheaded in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Martyrs of the Small West Gate: Additional Memorial – 20 September as part of the Martyrs of Korea. A group of lay catechists and catechumens who were imprisoned and executed together for the crime of being Christian.
• Saint Agatha Kim A-Gi
• Saint Agatha Yi So-Sa
• Saint Anna Pak A-Gi
• Saint Augustine Yi Kwang-Hon
• Saint Barbara Han A-Gi
• Saint Damianus Nam Myong-Hyok
• Saint Lucia Pak Hui-Sun
• Saint Magdalena Kim Ob-I
• Saint Petrus Kwon Tug-In
They were beheaded on 24 May 1839 at the Small West Gate, Seoul, South Korea and were Canonised on 6 May 1984 by Pope John Paul II.
One Minute Reflection – 23 May – Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter, C, First Reading: Acts 15:7-21 and the Memorial of St John Baptist de Rossi (1698-1764)
“He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts.” …Acts 15:9
REFLECTION – “Faith in God purifies the heart, the pure heart sees God. But faith is sometimes defined, as followed by people, who wish to deceive themselves, — as if it were enough merely to believe — some people, you see, promise themselves the vision of God and the kingdom of heaven for believing, while living bad lives. Against these the apostle James indignantly took umbrage out of spiritual charity, so he says in his letter, “You believe that God is one.” You pat yourself on your back for your faith, you observe that many godless people assume there are many gods and you congratulate yourself for believing that there is only one God. “You do well. The demons also believe — and shudder.” Shall they too see God? Those who are pure of heart shall see Him. Whoever would say, that the unclean spirits are pure of heart? And yet, “they believe—and shudder.”
So our faith must be distinguished from the faith of demons. Our faith, you see, purifies the heart, their faith makes them guilty. So let us distinguish our faith and see that believing is not enough. That is not the sort of faith that purifies the heart. “Purifying their hearts,” it says, “by faith.” But which faith, what sort of faith? The one, surely, which the apostle Paul defines when he says “faith that works through love.” This faith is different from the faith of demons, different from the morals of dissolute and desperate people. “Faith,” he says. “Which faith?” The one “that works through love,” hopes for what God promises. You could not have a more perfect, a more carefully thought-out definition than that.”…St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor (Sermon 53)
PRAYER – Lord God, we were sinners and Your grace made us holy, we were without hope and You filled us with faith and joy. Stand by us, in Your saving work and stay with us, in Your gifts of grace. May we never fail to persevere in the holiness that comes from faith. Listen to the prayers of the Mother of our Lord and our Mother and those of St John Baptist de Rossi, whom we ask for supplication. Through Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 23 May – St William of Rochester (Died c 1201) Martyr – also known as William of Perth – Patron of adopted children.
Practically all that is known of William comes from the Nova Legenda Anglie and that is little. He was born in Perth, at that time one of the principal towns of Scotland. In youth, he had been somewhat wild but on reaching manhood he devoted himself wholly to the service of God. A baker by trade (some sources say he was a fisherman), he was accustomed to setting aside every tenth loaf for the poor.
He went to Mass daily and one morning, before it was light, found on the threshold of the church an abandoned child, whom he adopted and to whom he taught his trade. Later, he took a vow to visit the Holy Places and, having received the consecrated wallet and staff as a Palmer, set out with his adopted son, whose name is given as “Cockermay Doucri”, which is said to be Scots for “David the Foundling”. They stayed three days at Rochester and purposed to proceed next day to Canterbury (and perhaps thence to Jerusalem) but instead, David wilfully misled his benefactor on a short-cut and, with robbery in view, felled him with a blow on the head and cut his throat.
The body was discovered by a mad woman, who plaited a garland of honeysuckle and placed it first on the head of the corpse and then her own, whereupon the madness left her. On learning her tale the monks of Rochester carried the body to the cathedral and there buried it. He was honoured as a martyr because he was on a pilgrimage to holy places. As a result of the miracle involving the madwoman as well as other miracles wrought at his intercession after death, he was acclaimed a saint by the people.
In 1256 Lawrence of St Martin, Bishop of Rochester, obtained the canonisation of William from Pope Alexander IV. A beginning was at once made with his shrine, which was situated first in the crypt, then in the northeast transept and attracted crowds of pilgrims. At the same time, a small chapel was built at the place of the murder, which was thereafter called Palmersdene. Remains of this chapel are still to be seen near the present St William’s Hospital, on the road leading by Horsted Farm to Maidstone.
The shrine of St William of Rochester became a place of pilgrimage second only to Canterbury’s shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, bringing many thousands of medieval pilgrims to the cathedral. Their footsteps wore down the original stone Pilgrim Steps and nowadays they are covered with wooden steps.
St Basileus of Braga
St Desiderius of Langres
St Epitacius of Tuy
St Euphebius of Naples
St Euphrosyne of Polotsk
St Eutychius of Valcastoria
St Florentius of Valcastoria
St Goban Gobhnena
St Guibertus of Gorze
Bl Ivo of Chartres
St Jane Antide Thouret St John Baptist de Rossi (1698-1764) About St John: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/saint-of-the-day-23-may-st-john-baptist-de-rossi-1698-1764/
Bl Józef Kurzawa
Bl Leontius of Rostov
St Michael of Synnada
St Onorato of Subiaco
St Spes of Campi
St Syagrius of Nice St William of Rochester (Died c 1201) Martyr
Bl Wincenty Matuszewski
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Martyrs of Béziers: 20 Mercedarian friars murdered by Huguenots for being Catholic. Martyrs. 1562 at the Mercedarian convent at Béziers, France.
Martyrs of Cappadocia: A group of Christians tortured and martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian and Galerius. Their names and the details of their lives have not come down to us. They were crushed to death in c.303 in Cappadocia (in modern Turkey).
Martyrs of Carthage: When a civil revolt erupted in Carthage in 259 during a period of persecution by Valerian, the procurator Solon blamed it on the Christians, and began a persecution of them. We know the names and a few details about 8 of these martyrs – Donatian, Flavian, Julian, Lucius, Montanus, Primolus, Rhenus and Victorius. They were beheaded in 259 at Carthage (modern Tunis, Tunisia).
Martyrs of Mesopotamia: A group of Christians martyred in Mesopotamia in persecutions by imperial Roman authorities. Their names and the details of their lives have not come down to us. They were suffocated over a slow fire in Mesopotamia.
Martyrs of North Africa: A group of 19 Christians martyred together in the persecutions of the Arian Vandal King Hunneric for refusing to deny the Trinity. We know little more than a few of their names – Dionysius, Julian, Lucius, Paul and Quintian. c 430.
Without the least hesitation or delay, Silverius returned her a short answer, by which he peremptorily gave her to understand that he neither could nor would obey her unjust demands and betray the cause of the Catholic faith. The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon of the Roman Church, was then at Constantinople. To him the empress made her application and finding him a man of great ambition, promised to make him Pope and to bestow on him seven hundred pieces of gold, provided he would engage himself to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and receive to Communion, the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs, Anthimus of Constantinople, Severus of Antioch and Theodosius of Alexandria. The unhappy Vigilius having assented to these conditions, the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a letter to the general Belisarius, commanding him to drive out Silverius and to contrive the election of Vigilius to the pontificate. Vigilius urged the general to execute the project. The more easily to carry out this project the Pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy and a letter was produced which was forged to have been written by him to the king of the Goths, inviting him into the city and promising to open the gates to him.
– Set among hydrangeas, roses and officinal plants in the courtyard is a delightful porch with 15th century pink marble columns bearing the Andreasi coat of arms. 
The interior frescoes date from the 15th, 16th and, above a fireplace, 17th centuries – the decoration on the wooden coffered ceilings is still visible in parts, while the floors and stairs are made of terracotta and the doors of wood. It was purchased by nobleman Niccolò Andreasi in the mid 15th century as his family home. The house underwent minor changes in the early 16th century when Andreasi’s daughter Osanna was beatified.
At the end of that same year, he went to India, becoming the first pope to visit Asia. The following year (4 October 1965), in the first visit by a pope to the United States, he delivered a moving plea for peace at a special session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City and said mass at Yankee Stadium. In 1967 he undertook short visits to Fátima (Portugal) and to Istanbul and Ephesus (Turkey), a journey that had special ecumenical significance – a second meeting with Athenagoras in the patriarch’s own episcopal city (Constantinople). In August 1968 the pope went to Bogotá, Colombia, and he appeared before the International Labour Organisation and the World Council of Churches in Geneva in June 1969. The following month he was in Uganda, East Africa. In the autumn of 1970 he undertook the longest papal journey in modern history up to that time – 10 days spent in visits to Tehrān, Pakistan, the Philippines, Western Samoa (now Samoa), Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), each stop bringing Paul VI into personal contact with different peoples of the world of the Universal Catholic Church! His arrival in Manila almost ended in tragedy – within minutes of his descent from the plane, an attempt was made on his life but with no serious injury.
AnaStpaul 
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