Saint of the Day – 6 February – St Dorothy of Caesarea (died 311) – Virgin, Martyr – also known as Dora, Dorothea – Patronages – horticulture, brewers, brides, florists, gardeners, midwives, newlyweds, love, Pescia in Italy.
St Dorothy is a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed at Caesarea Mazaca. Evidence for her actual historical existence or acta is very sparse. She is called a martyr of the Diocletianic Persecution, although her death occurred after the resignation of Diocletian himself. She should not be confused with another 4th-century saint, Dorothea of Alexandria. She and St Theophilus the Lawyer are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology as martyrs of Caesarea in Cappadocia, with a feast day on 6 February. She is thus officially recognised as a saint but because there is scarcely any non-legendary knowledge about her, she is no longer (since 1969) included in the General Roman Calendar.
St Dorothy and the Child by Edward Burne Jones
St Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Cæsarea, where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecution and when the Governor Sapricius came to Cæsarea he called her before him and sent this child of martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her.
She was stretched upon the rack and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied that “Christ was her only Spouse and death her desire.”She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope that they might pervert her but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs and led them back to Christ.
St Dorothy by Francisco de Zubaran
When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore and asked her the cause of her joy. “Because,” she said, “I have brought back two souls to Christ and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing with the angels.”
Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with plates of red-hot iron. “Blessed be Thou,” she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,-“blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! Who dost call me to Paradise and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber.”
St Dorothy by Lucas Cranach the Elder
St Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him “apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse.”
The Saint promised to grant his request and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse.
St Dorothy had gone to heaven and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith and then shared in the martyrdom of St Dorothy.
St Dorothy by Girolamo Donnini
She is regarded as the patroness of gardeners. On her feast trees are blessed in some places.
St Amand of Maastricht
St Amand of Moissac
St Amand of Nantes
St Andrew of Elnone
Bl Angelus of Furci
St Antholian of Auvergne
St Brinolfo Algotsson
Cassius of Auvergne
Bl Diego de Azevedo St Dorothy of Caesarea (c 279/290-311) Martyr
St Ethelburga of Wessex
Bl Francesca of Gubbio
St Francesco Spinelli
St Gerald of Ostia
St Guarinus
St Guethenoc
St Hildegund
St Ina of Wessex
St Jacut
St Liminius of Auvergne
Bl Mary Teresa Bonzel
St Mateo Correa-Magallanes
St Maximus of Aurvergne
St Mel of Ardagh
St Melchu of Armagh
St Mun of Lough Ree
St Relindis of Eyck
St Revocata
St Saturninus
St Tanco of Werden
St Theophilus
St Theophilus the Lawyer
St Vaast of Arras
St Victorinus of Auvergne
—
Martyrs of Emesa:
St Luke the Deacon
St Mucius the Lector
St Silvanus of Emesa
Thought for the Day – 5 February – Tuesday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C – Gospel: Mark 5:21–43 and
Agatha, is claimed as the patroness of both Palermo and Catania. The year after her death, the stilling of an eruption of Mount Etna was attributed to her intercession. As a result, people continue to ask her prayers for protection, against fire.
St Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ, she followed Him in virginal purity and then looked to Him for protection. And down to this day, Christ has shown His tender regard for her mortal remains – again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her relics for public veneration and thus experienced safety. In modern times, on opening her tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, her skin has been found to be intact, a sweet fragrance emanating from this temple of the Holy Spirit.
The scientific modern mind winces at the thought of a volcano’s might being contained by God because of the prayers of a Sicilian girl. Still less welcome, probably, is the notion of that saint being the patroness of such varied professions as those of foundry workers, nurses, miners and Alpine guides. Yet, in our historical precision, have we lost an essential human quality of wonder and poetry and even our belief that we come to God by helping each other, both in action and prayer? And, far more than this, from where did it all come from in the first place and, you and I, in and by what power are we upheld?
Jesus Christ, Lord of all things! You see my heart, You know my desires. Possess all that I am – You alone. I am Your sheep. Make me worthy to overcome the devil.
One Minute Reflection – 5 February – Tuesday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C – Gospel: Mark 5:21–43 and The Memorial of St Agatha (c 231- c 251)
…”I say to you, arise.”… Mark 5:41
REFLECTION – ““He took the child by the hand and said to her: ‘Talitha koum’, which means, ‘Little girl…arise.’” “Since you have been born again, you are to be called ‘little girl’. Little girl, arise for my sake – your healing does not come from you.” “And immediately the little girl arose and walked around.” May Jesus touch us, too and at once we shall walk. We may well be paralysed, our deeds may be evil and we may be unable to walk, we may be lying on the bed of our sins… but if Jesus touches us, then we shall immediately be healed. Peter’s mother-in-law was suffering with fever – Jesus touched her hand and she arose and immediately served Him (Mk 1:31)…
“They were utterly astounded and he gave them strict orders that no one should know this.” Do you see now why He put the people out when He was going to work a miracle? He ordered and not just ordered but strictly ordered, that no one should know of this. He ordered the three apostles and He ordered the parents, too, that no one should know. Our Lord ordered them all but the little girl herself, she who had stood up, could not be silent.
“And he said she should be given something to eat” – so that her resurrection might not be thought to be a ghostly apparition. And He Himself, after His resurrection, ate fish and a piece of honeycomb (Lk 24:42)… Lord, I beseech you, touch our hands as we, too, lie prostrate. Make us rise from our bed of sins and enable us to walk. And when we have walked, make them give us something to eat. We cannot eat when we are lying down- unless we are standing, we shall not be able to receive the Body of Christ.”…St Jerome (347-420) – Father & Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Increase in us, O Lord, the gift of faith, so that we may arise and offer our praise to You and by Your grace, yield fruit from heaven, for the glory of Your Kingdom. Lord God, let St Agatha, who became precious in Your sight through her pure life and valiant martyrdom, plead for our forgiveness. For, with joy and rejoicing, as though to a feast, St Agatha, went to prison and offered her sufferings to You, with many prayers. Through Jesus Christ, Your divine Son, in unity with the Spirit, one God forever. St Agatha, pray for us, amen.
Saint of the Day – 5 February – St Adelaide of Guelders (c 970–1015) – Abbess, Apostle of Charity, Miracle-worker, Reformer, Counsellor to the Archbishop of Cologne. She is also known as Adelaide of Vilich, Adelaide of Bellich, Alice, Adelheid, Adalheide. Born in c970 in Geldern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and died on 5 February 1015 at Our Lady of the Capitol convent at Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany of natural causes.
When Adelaide was still very young, she entered the convent of St Ursula, Our Lady of the Capitol, founded by her parents in Cologne, where the Rule of St Jerome was followed. About 980, her parents founded the convent of Villich. Adelaide was “redeemed” from the Ursulione convent by exchange with a parcel of land and became abbess of this new convent, initially established as an unusually late example of a community of canonesses. Canons were attached to the convent in order that Mass might be said. Here, Adelaide introduced the stricter Benedictine rule. She insisted that the nuns under her care learn to read Latin, that they might understand the Mass.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia “the fame of her sanctity and of her gift of working miracles soon attracted the attention of Saint Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne”, who could scarcely have ignored an abbess of her high connections. He appointed her abbess of the convent of St Maria im Kapitol, Cologne, to succeed her sister Bertha, who died about 1000. Emperor Otto III reaffirmed Vilich’s immunities from ecclesiastical interference and the right to appoint its own abbess, a title that remained only briefly in the founding family. She died at her convent in Cologne in the year 1015 but was buried at Vilich, where her feast was solemnly celebrated on 5 February and rapidly attracted pilgrims.
A hagiography, Vita Adelheidis, provides some information regarding her family.
St Adelaide of Guelders (c 970–1015)
St Agatha Hildegard of Carinthia
St Agricola of Tongres
St Albinus of Brixen
St Anthony of Athens
St Avitus of Vienne
St Bertulph
St Buo of Ireland
St Calamanda of Calaf
St Dominica of Shapwick
St Fingen of Metz
Bl Françoise Mézière
St Gabriel de Duisco
St Genuinus of Sabion
St Indract
St Isidore of Alexandria
St Jesús Méndez-Montoya
Bl John Morosini
St Kichi Franciscus
St Luca di Demenna
St Modestus of Carinthia
Bl Primo Andrés Lanas
St Saba the Younger
St Vodoaldus of Soissons
—
Martyrs of Pontus: An unknown number of Christians who were tortured and martyred in assorted painful ways in the region of Pontus (in modern Turkey) during the persecutions of Maximian.
Thought for the Day – 4 February – The Memorial of St John de Britto SJ (1647-1693) Martyr
We are called to serve.
Excerpt from the EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION IN HONOUR OF ST JOHN DE BRITTO
HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II Madras Wednesday, 5 February 1986
“Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you” .
Saint John de Britto, whom we are remembering in today’s liturgical celebration, was born in Lisbon in 1647. After entering the Society of Jesus he followed the footsteps of Saint Francis Xavier to India where he chose to work for the humble and needy in what was then called the Madurai Mission. His patient labours, selfless zeal and genuine love for the poor, won for him their confidence. Like Jesus he was “a sign of contradiction” and his success created jealousy and opposition. As a result, John de Britto died a martyr on 4 February 1693, bearing witness to Christ.
…Saint John de Britto’s life faithfully reflected the life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for it was a life of service unto death. Today it challenges all of us to continue with fresh vigour the Church’s role of loving service to humanity. The immense and tender love of Jesus Christ for the poor and the downtrodden, for sinners and the suffering, remains a challenge for every Christian. Christ’s unrelenting stand for truth is a compelling example. Above all, the generosity shown in His suffering and death, as the culmination of His service to humanity and the supreme act of Redemption, is the example for us. We are called to serve.
There can be no authentic Christian life without an effective love of our fellow human beings. At the closing of the Vatican Council Pope Paul VI affirmed that ” if… in the face of every man, especially when this face is made transparent by his tears and suffering, we can and must, recognise the face of Christ … and in the face of Christ, we can and must, recognise, the face of our heavenly Father, … then our humanism becomes a Christianity and our Christianity becomes theocentric. And thus we can also say – to know God, it is necessary, to know man.”
Today we live at a time of history when peace and harmony between nations and races is constantly threatened. Division and hatred, fear and frustration – these are among the counter-values of our day. The message of love in Christ Jesus in urgently needed. Hence, the Church’s task of proclaiming the Gospel and of being at the service of society is supremely relevant in India today. This task requires the active collaboration of all sectors of the ecclesial community, especially the laity.
…Through the testimony of your lives, through your words and deeds, the word of God is made known to the minds and hearts of others who seek Him, so that “they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with its eternal glory” – that “they may obtain salvation”!
Brothers and sisters, if we die with Christ, we shall live also with Him, “if we endure, we shall also reign with him” .
Christ – Shepherd, Prophet and Priest – has sealed our hearts with His call just as He touched the hearts of the apostles, the hearts of Saint Thomas, Saint Francis Xavier and Saint John de Britto. May they intercede for the Church in India, for this beloved country and its people!
We will be happy if we remain faithful. For He, Christ, is faithful – “He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself” .
Brothers and sisters, you are called to be living witnesses to Christ, living witnesses to God’s word, living witnesses to the saving message of love and mercy that Christ revealed to the world. Amen.
Quote/s of the Day – 4 February – The Memorial of Blessed Rabanus Maurus OSB (776-856), St Joseph of Leonissa OFM CAP (1556-1612) and St John de Britto SJ (1647-1693) Martyr
Veni Creator Spiritus
Come, Creator, Spirit, come from Your bright heavenly throne, come take possession of our souls and make them all Your own. You who are called the Paraclete, best gift of God above, the living spring, the vital fire, sweet christ’ning and true love. . . . O guide our minds with Your best light, with love our hearts inflame and with Your strength, which ne’er decays, confirm our mortal frame. Far from us drive our deadly foe, true peace unto us bring and through all perils lead us safe beneath Your sacred wing. Through You may we the Father know, through You th’eternal Son and You the Spirit of them both, thrice-blessed Three in One. . . .
By Blessed Rabanus Maurus (776-856)
“Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel. This is what St Paul says to the Corinthians. Our heart is the parchment; through my ministry the Holy Spirit is the writer because ‘my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe’ (Psalm 45:1).”
St Joseph of Leonissa OFM CAP (1556-1612)
“God, Who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India…. Not to answer the vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God.”
One Minute Reflection – 4 February – Monday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Mark 5:1–20 and the Memorial of St John de Britto SJ (1647-1693) Martyr
“Go home to your friends and tell them, how much the Lord has done for you and how he has, had mercy on you.”…Mark 5:19
REFLECTION – “As the Son was sent by the Father, so He too sent the Apostles (Jn 20:21), saying: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world”.(Mt 28:19) The Church has received this solemn mandate of Christ to proclaim the saving truth from the apostles and must carry it out to the very ends of the earth.(Acts 1:8) Wherefore, she makes the words of the Apostle her own: “Woe to me, if I do not preach the Gospel” (1Cor 9:16) and continues unceasingly to send heralds of the Gospel until such time as the infant churches are fully established and can themselves continue the work of evangelising.
For the Church is compelled by the Holy Spirit to do her part, that God’s plan may be fully realised, whereby He has constituted Christ as the source of salvation for the whole world. By the proclamation of the Gospel she prepares her hearers to receive and profess the faith. She gives them the dispositions necessary for baptism, snatches them from the slavery of error and of idols and incorporates them in Christ, so that through charity, they may grow up into full maturity in Christ. Through her work, whatever good is in the minds and hearts of men, whatever good lies latent in the religious practices and cultures of diverse peoples, is not only saved from destruction but is also cleansed, raised up and perfected unto the glory of God, the confusion of the devil and the happiness of man.
The obligation of spreading the faith is imposed on every disciple of Christ, according to his state. However, although all the faithful can baptise, the priest alone can complete the building up of the Body in the eucharistic sacrifice. Thus are fulfilled the words of God, spoken through His prophet: “From the rising of the sun until the going down thereof my name is great among the gentiles and in every place a clean oblation is sacrificed and offered up in my name”.(Mal 1:11) In this way the Church both prays and labours in order that the entire world may become the People of God, the Body of the Lord and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.”… Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium”, #17 – Vatican Council II
PRAYER – Lord God and Father, who entrusted the earth to men, to till and care for it and made the sun to serve their needs, give us grace this day, to work faithfully for Your Glord and for our neighbours’ good. As we follow the Way of Your Son, fill us with the Holy Spirit of faith, hope and love. Almighty God, You made Saint John of Britto, an illustrious preacher of the gospel. Through his prayers inflame us with love and with his zeal for souls that we may serve You alone. St John of Britto, pray for us! Through Jesus, our Lord in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 4 February – St John de Britto SJ (1647-1693) also known as Arul Anandar (his Indian title and name) – Martyr, Priest, Missionary, Confessor, Preacher – born João de Brito in Lisbon, Portugal on 1 March 1647 – martyred at Oriyur, Tamil Nadu, India on 11 February 1693 (aged 46). Patronages – Portugal, Diocese of Sivagangai, India.
King Pedro II of Portugal, when a child, had among his little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. Much had John de Britto—for so was he called—to bear from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a reproach. A terrible illness made him turn for aid to St Francis Xavier, a Saint so well loved by the Portuguese and when, in answer to his prayers, he recovered, his mother vested him for a year in the dress worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From that time John’s heart burned to follow the example of the Apostle of the Indies He gained his wish.
On 17 December 1662, he entered the novitiate of the Society at Lisbon and eleven years later, in spite of the most determined opposition of his family and of the court, he left all to go to convert the Hindus of Madura. When Blessed John’s mother knew that her son was going to the Indies, she used all her influence to prevent him leaving his own country and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to interfere. “God, Who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me from Portugal to India,” was the reply of the future martyr. “Not to answer the vocation as I ought, would be to provoke the justice of God. As long as I live, I shall never cease striving to gain a passage to India.”
He travelled to the missions of Madurai, in Southern India, present-day Tamil Nadu, in 1673 and preached the Christian religion in the region of the Maravar country. He renamed himself, Arul Anandar in Tamil and for fourteen years he toiled, preaching, converting, baptising multitudes, at the cost of privations, hardships and persecutions.
John at first hoped to win over members of both the higher and the lower castes to Christianity, and so he dressed and lived as an Indian ascetic. He attracted so many members of the lowest caste to Christianity that members of the royalty of Madura saw John as a threat to the caste system. They imprisoned and tortured him but then released him. The Jesuits recalled him to Portugal in 1687 and worked as a missions procurator. King Pedro III (his childhood friend who was now the King) wanted him to stay but in 1690 but after four years, he was allowed to return to Goa and went back to the same territory where he had once been held captive with 24 new missionaries.
The Madurai Mission was a bold attempt to establish an Indian Catholic Church that was relatively free of European cultural domination. As such, Britto learned the native languages, went about dressed in yellow cotton and lived like the people he was seeking to convert – abstaining from every kind of animal food and from wine. St John de Britto tried to teach the Catholic faith in categories and concepts that would make sense to the people he taught. This method, proposed and practised by Fr Roberto de Nobili SJ (1577–1656) (an Italian Jesuit missionary to Southern India. He used a novel method of adaptation (accommodation) to preach Christianity, adopting many local customs of India which were, not contrary to Christianity) met with remarkable success. Britto remained a strict vegan until the end of his life, rejecting meat, fish, eggs and alcohol and living only on legumes, fruits and herbs.
Like St John the Baptist, he died a victim to the anger of a guilty woman, whom a convert king had put aside and, like the Precursor, he was beheaded after a painful imprisonment. St John’s preaching had led to the conversion of a Marava prince who had several wives. When Thadiyathevan, the prince, was required to dismiss all his wives but one, a serious problem arose. One of the wives was a niece of the neighbouring king, who took up her quarrel and began a general persecution of Christians. Britto and the catechists were taken and carried to the capital, Ramnad. Thence he was led to Oriyur, some 30 miles northward along the coast, where he was executed on 4 February 1693.
St John was Beatified by Pope Pius IX on 21 August 1853. He was Canonised by Pope Pius XII on 22 June 1947.
The stained glass below shows St John portrayed in the attire of an ascetic, with a gold flame at each side of his head, representing two miracles attributed to him during his lifetime. The orange-red heart at the right knee and a black yin and yang symbol at the right ankle indicate his love for the people of all India. He stands on greenery, under which is a black scroll weighted down by a scimitar.
The shield of the Society of Jesus consists of a blue circlet on a purple background on which the Jesuit logo, IHS is written above the three nails of the crucifixion of Jesus, surrounded by rays of light. A circle around the shield contains the words “Society of Jesus” and the abbreviated motto of the Society, “A.M.D.G.” (“For the Greater Glory of God”). The foundation date of the Society is 1540.
The Red Sand of St John
This seashore sightseeing location is one of the most venerable pilgrim centres of Christians in the world, as it is the site of St John de Britto’s martyrdom. It was at this place where the saint was beheaded in 1693. The sand dune here was stained by the blood of the revered saint. There is a shrine constructed in Portuguese style (see below) containing a statue of the saint, known locally as ‘Arul Anandar’ who had modestly offered his neck to the executioner.
The “red sand dune” has become a pilgrimage site where many miracles have been granted. Numerous incurable diseases have been cured by the application of the red sand on the respective body parts. Couples are believed to have blessed with children on visiting the shrine and praying for St John’s intercession. During festivities, pilgrims mainly from Tamil Nadu and Kerala participate irrespective of their caste, creed and religion. Thus, together with Christians, Hindus and Muslims also come to worship at the shrine in thousands, to mark respect to a unique holy man who shed his life and blood at that spot. The occasion appears to be more as a social gathering rather than a religious festival. The auspicious ceremony is a rare opportunity for these simple people to bring gaiety and enthusiasm in their life. The strong faith and enviable ability to combine pleasure and righteousness on a pilgrimage gives a divine atmosphere to the Oriyur feast.
Devotees from other dioceses and districts visit the shrine on specific dates. In February, believers from Dindigul arrive while in June, they are from Karunguli and Nagapattinam. During September more than 25,000 pilgrims visit the shrine for dedicating prayers and offerings. In October, nearly thousands of pilgrims arrive from the neighbouring Sivagangai district and in December, visitors are from Madurai and Melur. Throughout the year, thousands of pilgrims from Sakthikulangara, the only parish in Kerala, visit the St John de Britto shrine to seek the unique blessings.
St Liephard of Cambrai
St Magnus of Fossombrone
St Modan
St Nicholas Studites
St Nithard
St Obitius
St Phileas of Alexandria
Bl Rabanus Maurus
St Rembert
St Themoius
St Theophilus the Penitent
St Vincent of Troyes
St Vulgis of Lobbes
—
Jesuit Martyrs of Japan: A collective memorial of all members of the Jesuits who have died as martyrs for the faith in Japan.
Martyrs of Perga – 4 saints: A group of shepherds martyred in the persecutions of Decius. The only details we have about them are the names – Claudian, Conon, Diodorus and Papias. They were martyred in c 250 in Perga, Asia Minor (in modern Turkey).
Thought for the Day – 3 February – The Memorial of Saint Ansgar OSB (801-865)
The “Apostle of the North” had enough frustrations to become a saint—and he did.
History records what people do, rather than what they are. Yet the courage and perseverance of men and women like Ansgar can only come from a solid base of union with the original courageous and persevering Missionary.
Ansgar’s life is another reminder that God writes straight with crooked lines. Christ takes care of the effects of the apostolate in His own way, He is first concerned about the purity of the apostles themselves.
One Minute Reflection – 3 February – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Luke 4:21–30 and The Memorial of St Blaise – Martyr (Died c 316) and St Ansgar (801-865)
And they rose up and put him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them he went away….Luke 4:29-30
REFLECTION – “A doctor came amongst us to restore us to health – our Lord Jesus Christ. He discovered blindness in our hearts and promised the light that “eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and has not entered the heart of man” (1Cor 2:9).
The humility of Jesus Christ is the cure for your pride. Don’t scorn what will bring you healing, be humble, you for whom God humbled Himself. Indeed, He knew that the medicine of humility would cure you, He who well understood your sickness and knew how to cure it. While you were unable to run to the doctor’s house, the doctor in person came to your house… He is coming, He wants to help you, He knows what you need.
God has come with humility precisely in order that man might imitate Him. If He had remained above you, how would you have been able to imitate Him? And, without imitating Him, how could you be healed? He came with humility because He knew the nature of the remedy He had to administer – a little bitter, it is true but healing. And do you continue to scorn Him? He who holds out the cup to you and you say: “But what sort of God is this God of mine? He was born, suffered, was covered with spittle, crowned with thorns, nailed on the cross!” O miserable soul! You see the doctor’s humility and not the cancer of your pride. That is why humility displeases you…
It often happens that mentally ill people end up by beating their doctor. When that happens, the unfortunate doctor is not only not distressed by the one who beat him but attempts to treat him… As for our doctor, He did not fear being killed by sick people afflicted with madness, He turned His own death into their remedy. Indeed, He died and rose again.”…St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of the Church
PRAYER – Lord our God, make us love You above all things and all our fellow-men, with a love that is worthy of You. May we look to Your Divine Son in love and imitation. Holy Father, You sent St Ansgar, Monk and Bishop, to bring the light of Christ to many nations of Northern Europe. Through his prayer give us grace to live always in the light of Your truth. Grant too, that by the prayers of St Blaise, we too may be granted the grace to follow Your only Son, no matter our sufferings, to You, in our heavenly home. We make our prayer, through Christ our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever amen.
Saint of the Day – 3 February – Saint Ansgar OSB (801-865) “Apostle of the North”, Bishop, Monk, Mystic, Missionary, Preacher, Miracle-worker, Apostle of Charity Ascetic. Patronages – Denmark, Scandinavia, Sweden, Bremen, Germany, diocese of Hamburg, Germany, archdiocese of. He is also known as Anskar or Anschar. St Ansgarwas the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen – a northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. The See of Hamburg was designated a mission to bring Christianity to Northern Europe and Ansgar became known as the “Apostle of the North”. He was born in 801 at Amiens, Picardy, France and died on 3 February 865 at Bremen, Germany.
Ansgar was the son of a noble Frankish family, born near Amiens. After his mother’s early death, Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey and was educated at the Benedictine monastery in Picardy. According to the Vita Ansgarii – The Life of Ansgar, when the little boy learned in a vision that his mother was in the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his careless attitude toward spiritual matters changed to seriousness. His pupil, successor and eventual biographer St Rimbert (830–888) considered the visions, of which this was the first, to be the main motivation of the saint’s life.
Ansgar was a product of the phase of Christianisation of Saxony (present day Northern Germany) begun by Charlemagne and continued by his son and successor, Louis the Pious. A group of monks including Ansgar were sent back to Jutland with the baptised exiled king Harald Klak. Ansgar returned two years later and was one of a number of missionaries sent to found the abbey of Corvey in Westphalia and there became a teacher and preacher. Then in 829 in response to a request from the Swedish king Björn at Hauge for a mission to the Swedes, Louis the Pious appointed Ansgar missionary. With an assistant, the friar Witmar, he preached and made converts for six months at Birka, on Lake Mälaren. They organised a small congregation there with the king’s steward, Hergeir and Mor Frideborg as its most prominent members. In 831 he returned to Louis’ court at Worms and was appointed to the Archbishopric of Hamburg. This was a new archbishopric with a see formed from those of Bremen and Verden, plus the right to send missions into all the northern lands and to consecrate bishops for them. He was given the mission of evangelising Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The King of Sweden decided to cast lots as to whether the Christian missionaries should be admitted into his kingdom. Ansgar recommended the issue to the care of God, and the lot was favourable.
Ansgar was consecrated in November 831 and, the arrangements having been at once approved by Pope Gregory IV, he went to Rome to receive the pallium directly from the hands of the pope and to be named legate for the northern lands. This commission had previously been bestowed upon Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims but the jurisdiction was divided by agreement, with Ebbo retaining Sweden for himself. For a time Ansgar devoted himself to the needs of his own diocese, which was still missionary territory with but a few churches. He founded a monastery and a school in Hamburg.
A depiction of Saint Ansgar from the Church Trinitatis, in Hamburg, Germany
After Louis died in 840, his empire was divided and Ansgar lost the abbey of Turholt, which had been given as an endowment for his work. Then in 845, the Danes unexpectedly raided Hamburg, destroying all the church’s treasures and books and leaving the entire diocese beyond repair. Ansgar now had neither see, nor revenue. Many of his helpers deserted him but the new king, Louis the German, came to his aid. After failing to recover Turholt for him, in 847 he awarded him the vacant diocese of Bremen, where he took up residence in 848. However, since Hamburg had been an archbishopric, the sees of Bremen and Hamburg were combined for him. This presented canonical difficulties and also aroused the anger of the Bishop of Cologne, to whom Bremen had been suffragan but after prolonged negotiations, Pope Nicholas I approved the union of the two dioceses in 864.
Through all this political turmoil, Ansgar continued his mission to the northern lands. The Danish civil war compelled him to establish good relations with two kings, Horik the Elder and his son, Horik II. Both assisted him until his death. He was able to secure recognition of Christianity as a tolerated religion and permission to build a church in Sleswick. He did not forget the Swedish mission and spent two years there in person (848–850), at the critical moment when a pagan reaction was threatened, which he succeeded in averting. In 854, Ansgar returned to Sweden when king Olof ruled in Birka. According to Rimbert, he was well disposed to Christianity.
Ansgar wore a rough hair shirt, lived on bread and water and showed great charity to the poor. Being the first missionary in Sweden and the organiser of the hierarchy in the Nordic countries, he was declared Patron of Scandinavia. Ansgar was buried in Bremen in 865.
His life story was written by his successor as archbishop, Rimbert, in The Life of Ansgar – Vita Ansgarii.
His Relics are located in Hamburg on two places – St. Mary’s Cathedral and St Ansgar’s and St Bernard’s Church.
St Ansgar Statue in Hamburg
The Life of Ansgar aims above all to demonstrate Ansgar’s sanctity. It is speaks of St Ansgar’s visions, which, encouraged and assisted Ansgar’s remarkable missionary feats.
Through the course of this work, St Ansgar repeatedly embarked on a new stage in his career following a vision. His studies and ensuing devotion to the ascetic life of a monk were inspired by a vision of his mother in the presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the Swedish people were left without a priest for some time, he begged King Horik to help him with this problem. St Ansgar was convinced he was commanded by heaven to undertake this mission and was influenced by a vision he received when he was concerned about the journey, in which he met a man who reassured him of his purpose and informed him of a prophet that he would meet, the Abbot Adalard, who would instruct him in what was to happen. In the vision, he searched for and found Adalard, who commanded, “Islands, listen to me, pay attention, remotest peoples”, which Ansgar interpreted as God’s will that he go to the Scandinavian countries as “most of that country consisted of islands and also, when ‘I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth’ was added, since the end of the world in the north was in Swedish territory”. Saint Adalard of Corbie (c 751-827), was the cousin of Charlemagne.
There are Statues dedicated to him in Hamburg, Copenhagen, Ribe as well as a stone cross at Birka. A crater on the Moon, Ansgarius, has been named for him.
St Blaise (Died c 316) – Martyr (Optional Memorial)
All about St Blaise: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/saint-of-the-day-st-blaise-died-c-316-martyr/
St Ansgar OSB (801-865) (Optional Memorial)
Bl Alois Andritzki
St Anatolius of Salins
St Anna the Prophetess
St Berlinda of Meerbeke
St Blasius of Armentarius
St Blasius of Oreto
St Caellainn
St Celerinus of Carthage
St Claudine Thevenet
St Clerina of Carthage
St Deodatus of Lagny
St Eutichio
St Evantius of Vienne
St Felix of Africa
St Felix of Lyons
St Hadelin of Chelles
Bl Helena Stollenwerk
Bl Helinand of Pronleroy
St Hippolytus of Africa
St Ia of Cornwall
St Ignatius of Africa
Bl Iustus Takayama Ukon
Bl John Nelson
Bl John Zakoly
St Laurentinus of Carthage
St Laurentius of Carthage
St Lawrence the Illuminator
St Liafdag
St Lupicinus of Lyon
St Margaret of England
Bl Marie Rivier
St Oliver of Ancona
St Philip of Vienne
St Remedius of Gap
St Sempronius of Africa
St Tigrides
St Werburga of Bardney
St Werburga of Chester
—
Benedictine Martyrs: A collective memorial of all members of the Benedictine Order who have died as martyrs for the faith.
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord: The feast commemorates the purifying of the Blessed Virgin according to the Mosaic Law, 40 days after the birth of Christ and the presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple. The feast was introduced into the Eastern Empire by Emperor Justinian I and is mentioned in the Western Church in the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 7th century. Candles are blessed on that day in commemoration of the words of Holy Simeon concerning Christ “a light to the revelation of the Gentiles” (Luke 2) and a procession with lighted candles is held in the church to represent the entry of Christ, the Light of the World, into the Temple of Jerusalem. “Candlemas” is still the name in Scotland for a legal term-day on which interest and rents are payable (2 February).
Patronage
• Jaro, Philippines
• Western Visayas, Philippines
Our Lady of the Candles – (formally known as Nuestra Señora de la Purificación y la Candelaria) is a Marian title and image venerated by Filipino Catholics. The image, which is enshrined on the balcony of Jaro Cathedral, is known as the patroness of Jaro District of Iloilo City and the whole of the Western Visayas.
The feast day of Our Lady of the Candles is on Candlemas (2 February) and is celebrated in Iloilo City with a Solemn Pontifical Mass presided by the Archbishop of Jaro. St Pope John Paul II personally issued a Canonical coronation towards the venerated image on 21 February 1981.
World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life: Begun in 1997 by St Pope John Paul II, the World Day for Consecrated Life was intended to serve three purposes:
• to praise the Lord and thank Him for the great gift of consecrated life;
• to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God;
• to allow those in consecrated life to celebrate together the marvels which the Lord has accomplished in them, to discover by a more illumined faith the rays of divine beauty, spread by the Spirit in their way of life and to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission, in the Church and in the world;
It serves an opportunity to highlight the extraordinary contributions of men and women religious, as well as a time to pray for vocations to the consecrated life.
—
St Adalbald of Ostrevant
St Adeloga of Kitzingen
St Agathodoros of Tyana
St Andrea Carlo Ferrari
St Apronian the Executioner
St Bruno of Ebsdorf
St Burchard of Wurzburg
St St Candidus the Martyr
St Columbanus of Ghent
St Cornelius the Centurion
St Felician the Martyr
St Feock
St Firmus of Rome
St Flosculus of Orléans
St Fortunatus the Martyr
St Giovanni Battista Clemente Saggio
St Hilarus the Martyr
St Jean Theophane Venard
St Jeanne de Lestonnac
St Lawrence of Canterbury
Bl Louis Alexander Alphonse Brisson
Bl Maria Domenica Mantovani
St Marquard of Hildesheim
St Mun
Bl Peter Cambiano
St Rogatus the Martyr
St Saturninus the Martyr
St Sicharia of Orleans
St Simon of Cassia Fidati
Bl Stephen Bellesini
St Theodoric of Ninden
St Victoria the Martyr
—
Martyrs of Ebsdorf: Members of the army of King Louis III of France under the leadership of Duke Saint Bruno of Ebsdorf. The martyrs died fighting invading pagan Norsemen, and defending the local Christian population. Four bishops, including Saint Marquard of Hildesheim and Saint Theodoric of Ninden, eleven nobles, and countless unnamed foot soldiers died repelling the invaders. They were martyred in the winter of 880 in battle at Luneberg Heath and Ebsdorf, Saxony (modern Germany).
Thought for the Day – 1 February – the Memorial of St Brigid of Ireland (c 453-523)
St Brigid directly influenced several other future saints of Ireland and her many religious communities helped to secure the country’s conversion from paganism to the Catholic faith.
The Irish call on her in every need, for, as the ancient legends run, “everything that Brigid asked of the Lord, was granted her at once. For this was her desire – to satisfy the poor, to expel every hardship, to spare every miserable man.” And, she still carries on this mission today.
St Brigid took the whole of humanity into her heart and 1500 years after her death, the power of goodness and holiness reaches down through the centuries. There was no limit to her charity and her love for all. God thus graced her with great power to do good for all. There should be no limit to ours – imagine a world such as this!
St Brigid’s Blessing
May Brigid bless the house wherein we dwell. Bless every fireside, every wall and door. Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof. Bless every hand that toils to bring its joy. Bless every foot that walks portals through. May Brigid bless the house that shelters us.
Quote of the Day – 1 February – the Memorial of St Brigid of Ireland (c 453-523)
I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us. I would like an abundance of peace. I would like full vessels of charity. I would like rich treasures of mercy. I would like cheerfulness to preside over all. I would like Jesus to be present. I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us. I would like the friends of Heaven, to be gathered around us, from all parts. I would like myself to be a rent-payer to the Lord, that I should suffer distress, that He would bestow a good blessing upon me. I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings. I would like to be watching Heaven’s family drinking it through all eternity.
One Minute Reflection – 1 February – Friday of the Third week in Ordinary Time, Year Gospel: Mark 4:26–34 and the Memorial of St Brigid of Ireland (c 453-523)
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground and should sleep and rise, night and day and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.”...Mark 4:26-28
REFLECTION – “We can be confident because the Word of God is a creative word, destined to become the “full grain in the ear” (v. 28). This Word, if accepted, certainly bears fruit, for God Himself makes it sprout and grow in ways that we cannot always verify or understand. (cf. v. 27). All this tells us that it is always God, it is always God who makes His Kingdom grow. That is why we fervently pray “thy Kingdom come”. It is He who makes it grow. Man is His humble collaborator, who contemplates and rejoices in divine creative action and waits patiently for its fruits.”…Pope Francis – Angelus, 14 June 2015
PRAYER – Almighty Father, we bless You Lord of life, through whom all living things tend. You are the source of all, our first beginning and our end! Grant holy Father, that we may allow the Word to enter our hearts and grow by Your grace, so that we may always live for Your glory. May the intercession of St Brigid of Ireland, who consistently tended Your seed, grant us strength and zeal. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.
Saint of the Day – 1 February – St Brigid of Ireland/Kildare (c 453-523) Virgin, Abbess, Apostle of Charity and foundress of several Monasteries of Nuns, including that of Kildare in Ireland, which was famous and was greatly revered – born in 453 at Faughart, County Louth, Ireland and died on 1 February 523 at Kildare, Ireland of natural causes. Patronages – Ireland, babies, blacksmiths, sailors, brewers, cattle, chicken farmers, children whose parents are not married, children with abusive fathers, children born into abusive unions, Clan Douglas, dairy workers, Florida, fugitives, Leinster, midwives, Nuns, poets, the poor, printing presses, students, travellers.
Next to the glorious St Patrick, St Brigid, whom we may consider his spiritual daughter in Christ, has ever been held in singular veneration in Ireland.
Historians say we know a lot more about St Brigid than we have facts, a polite way of saying that legends swirl about Ireland’s most celebrated woman. But even legends may have cores of truth. And some miracle stories are not legends at all but true accounts of God’s interventions.
St Bride (Brigid) Carried By Angels, a painting by Scottish artist, John Duncan, 1913.
Brigid was the daughter of a slave woman and a chieftain, who liberated her at the urging of his overlord. As a girl she sensed a call to become a nun and St Mel, bishop of Armagh, received her vows. Before Brigid, consecrated virgins lived at home with their families. But the saint, imitating Patrick, began to assemble nuns in communities, a historic move which enriched the church in Ireland.
In 471, Brigid founded a monastery for both women and men at Kildare. This was the first convent in Ireland and Brigid was the abbess. Under her leadership Kildare became a centre of learning and spirituality. Her school of art fashioned both lovely utensils for worship and beautifully illustrated manuscripts. Again following Patrick’s model, Brigid used Kildare as a base and built convents throughout the island. The renown of Brigid’s unbounded charity drew multitudes of the poor to Kildare, the fame of her piety attracted thither many persons anxious to solicit her prayers or to profit by her holy example. In course of time the number of these so much increased that it became necessary to provide accommodation for them in the neighbourhood of the new monastery and thus was laid the foundation and origin of the town of Kildare.
Brigid’s hallmark was uninhibited, generous giving to anyone in need. Many of the saint’s earliest miracles seem to have rescued her from punishment for having given something to the poor that was intended for someone else. For example, once as a child she gave a piece of bacon to a dog and was glad to find it replaced when she was about to be disciplined. Brigid exhibited this unbounded charity all her life, giving away valuables, clothing, food—anything close by—to anyone who asked.
One of the most appealing things told of Brigid is her contemporaries’ belief that there was peace in her blessing. Not merely did contentiousness die out in her presence but just as by the touch of her hand she healed leprosy, so by her very will for peace she healed strife and laid antiseptics on the suppurating bitterness that foments it.
In the ninth century, the country being desolated by the Danes, the remains of St Brigid were removed in order to secure them from irreverence and, being transferred to Down-Patrick, were deposited in the same grave with those of the glorious St Patrick. Their bodies, together with that of St Columba, were translated afterwards to the cathedral of the same city but their monument was destroyed in the reign of King Henry VIII. The head of St Brigid is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon.
Saint Brigid’s Cross
A special type of cross known as “Saint Brigid’s cross” is popular throughout Ireland. It commemorates a famous story in which Brigid went to the home of a pagan leader when people told her that he was dying and needed to hear the Gospel message quickly. When Brigid arrived, the man was delirious and upset, unwilling to listen to what Brigid had to say. So she sat with him and prayed and while she did, she took some of the straw from the floor and began weaving it into the shape of a cross. Gradually the man quieted down and asked Brigid what she was doing. She then explained the Gospel to him, using her handmade cross as a visual aid. The man then came to faith in Jesus Christ and Brigid baptised him just before he died.
Today, many Irish people display a Saint Brigid’s cross in their homes, since it is said to help ward off evil and welcome good. Brigid died in 523 and after her death people began to venerate her as a saint, praying to her for help seeking to heal from God, since many of the miracles during her lifetime related to healing.
Blessing of St Brigid’s Crosses
Father of all creation and Lord of Light,
You have given us life and entrusted Your creation to us, to use it and to care for it.
We ask You to bless these crosses made of green rushes in memory of holy Brigid,
who used the cross to recall and to teach Your Son’s life, death and resurrection.
May these crosses be a sign of our sharing in the Paschal Mystery of your Son
and a sign of Your protection of our lives, our land and its creatures,
through Brigid’s intercession, during the coming year and always.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
The crosses are sprinkled with holy water:
May the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
be on these crosses and on the places where they hang
and on everyone who looks at them.
Amen
St Brigid of Fiesole St Brigid of Ireland/Kildare (c 453-523)
St Cecilius of Granada
St Cinnia of Ulster
St Clarus of Seligenstadt
Bl Conor O’Devany
St Crewenna
St Darlaugdach of Kildare
St Henry Morse
St Ioannes Yi Mun-u
St Jarlath
Bl John of the Grating
St Kinnia
Bl Luigi Variara
Bl Patrick O’Lougham
St Paul of Trois-Châteaux
St Paulus Hong Yong-ju
St Raymond of Fitero
St Sabinus
St Severus of Avranches
St Severus of Ravenna
St Sigebert III of Austrasia
St Tryphon of Lampsacus
St Ursus of Aosta
St Veridiana
—
Martyrs of Avrillé – 47 beati: Forty-seven Christians executed together for their faith in the anti-Catholic persecution of the French Revolution.
• Anne-François de Villeneuve
• Anne Hamard
• Catherine Cottenceau
• Charlotte Davy
• François Bellanger
• François Bonneau
• François Michau
• François Pagis epouse Railleau
• Gabrielle Androuin
• Jacquine Monnier
• Jeanne Bourigault
• Jeanne Fouchard épouse Chalonneau
• Jeanne Gruget veuve Doly
• Jeanne-Marie Sailland d’Epinatz
• Louise-Aimée Dean de Luigné
• Louise-Olympe Rallier de la Tertinière veuve Déan de Luigné
• Madeleine Blond
• Madeleine Perrotin veuve Rousseau
• Madeleine Sailland d’Epinatz
• Marguerite Rivière epouse Huau
• Marie Anne Pichery épouse Delahaye
• Marie-Anne Vaillot
• Marie Cassin épouse Moreau
• Marie Fausseuse épouse Banchereau
• Marie Gallard épouse Quesson
• Marie Gasnier épouse Mercier
• Marie Grillard
• Marie-Jeanne Chauvigné épouse Rorteau
• Marie Lenée épouse Lepage de Varancé
• Marie Leroy
• Marie Leroy épouse Brevet
• Marie Roualt épouse Bouju
• Odilia Baumgarten
• Perrine Androuin
• Perrine Besson
• Perrine-Charlotte Phelippeaux épouse Sailland d’Epinatz
• Perrine Grille
• Perrine Ledoyen
• Perrine Sailland d’Epinatz
• Renée Cailleau épouse Girault
• Renée Grillard
• Renée Martin épouse Martin
• Renée Valin
• Rose Quenion
• Simone Chauvigné veuve Charbonneau
• Suzanne Androuin
• Victoire Bauduceau epouse Réveillère
They were martyred on 1 February 1794 in Avrillé, Maine-et-Loire, France and Beatified on 19 February 1984 by St Pope John Paul II at Rome, Italy.
Martyrs of Korea: Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions in Korea. Today we celebrate and honour:
• Saint Barbara Ch’oe Yong-i
• Saint Ioannes Yi Mun-u
• Saint Paulus Hong Yong-ju
Thought for the Day – 31 January -The Memorial of St John Bosco (1815-1888)
On 19 September 1840, John Bosco was ordained sub-deacon at Turin, the diaconate followed on the Saturday of Passion week (27 March) 1841. On 26 May, he went into retreat at the Vincentian House in Turin, in preparation for his ordination to the priesthood. The notes of his retreat contain the nine resolutions which he made at this solemn moment of his life. They can be set down without commentary, for they speak for themselves and their punctual execution for the rest of his days, is added testimony to his determination in taking them.
1. I will take no unnecessary walks.
2. I will make exactingly careful use of my time.
3. When the salvation of souls is at stake, I will be always ready to suffer, to act and to humble myself.
4. May the charity and gentleness of St Francis de Sales, inform my every action.
5. I will always be content with the food set before me, unless it is really harmful to my health.
6. I will always add water to my wine and drink it only for reasons of health, that is, on such days ain such measure as health requires.
7. Since work is a powerful weapon against the enemies of my salvation, I will take only five hours sleep a night. During the day, especially after dinner, I will take no rest, except in case of illness.
8. Every day, I will devote some time to meditation and spiritual reading. During the day, I will make a short visit, or at any rate a prayer, to the Blessed Sacrament. My preparation for Mass, shall last at least a quarter of an hour and so shall my thanksgiving.
9. Outside the confessional and save in cases of strict necessity, I will never stop to talk with women. *
(the only commentary is in regard to this point * – just remember the times in which St John lived).
We would do well to adopt some of these resolutions for our own spiritual growth!
Quote/s of the Day – 31 January -The Memorial of St John Bosco (1815-1888)
“Do not try to excuse your faults, try to correct them.”
“Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake.”
“Act today in such a way, that you need not blush tomorrow.”
“We do not go to Holy Communion because we are good, we go to become good.”
“Ask the Blessed Virgin for the grace to receive Communion frequently and worthily… Try to imagine that the Blessed Virgin, herself, will give you the Sacred Host. No-one would dare strike at the Heart of Jesus while He is in Mary’s hands.”
“Be good. This will make your angel happy. When sorrows and misfortunes, physical or spiritual, afflict you, turn to your guardian angel with strong trust and he will help you.”
“Ask your angel to console and assist you, in your last moments.”
“Be ever more convinced that, your guardian angel is really present, that he is ever at your side. St Frances of Rome always saw him standing before her, his arms clasped at his breast, his eyes uplifted to Heaven – but at the slightest failing, he would cover his face as if in shame and at times, turn his back to her!”
“Serve the Lord joyfully!” “Servite Domino in laetitia!”
One Minute Reflection – 31 January – Thursday of the Third week in Ordinary Time, Year C – Gospel: Mark 4:21–25 and The Memorial of St John Bosco (1815-1888)
And he said to them, “The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you and still more will be given to you. To the one who has, more will be given, from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”…Mark 4:24–25
REFLECTION – “Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s scales are different from ours. He weighs people and their actions differently – God does not measure quantity but quality, He examines the heart, He looks at the purity of intentions. This means that our “giving” to God in prayer and to others in charity should always steer clear of ritualism and formalism, as well as of the logic of calculation and must be an expression of gratuity, as Jesus did with us – He saved us freely. And we must do things as an expression of gratuity. “…Pope Francis – Angelus, 11 November 2018
PRAYER – We praise You, Lord, for calling St John Bosco to be a loving father and prudent guide of the young. Give us his fervent zeal for souls and the graces You granted him, making him in a servant of all. Enable us, O Lord, to live for You alone and to see in all, Your image. For the more we give of ourselves in total love of You and Your children, the more You will shower down Your grace. Grant we pray, that we may become a shining beacon of the salvation which comes to us in Christ. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, in union with the Holy Spirit, one God with You, forever and ever, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 31 January – The Memorial of St John Bosco (1815-1888)
Most Holy Virgin Mary, Help of Christians By Saint John Bosco
Most Holy Virgin Mary,
Help of Christians,
how sweet it is to come to your feet
imploring your perpetual help.
If earthly mothers cease not to remember their children,
how can you, the most loving of all mothers forget me?
Grant then to me, I implore you,
your perpetual help in all my necessities,
in every sorrow
and especially in all my temptations.
I ask for your unceasing help
for all who are now suffering.
Help the weak,
cure the sick,
convert sinners.
Grant through your intercessions
many vocations to the religious life.
Obtain for us, O Mary, Help of Christians,
that having invoked you on earth
we may love
and eternally thank you in heaven.
Amen
Saint of the Day -31 January – St John Bosco “Don Bosco” SDB (1815-1888) Founder of the Society of St Francis de Sales now known as the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and the Association of Salesian Co-operators. His body is incorrupt.
John Bosco’s theory of education could well be used in today’s schools. It was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He advocated frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.
Encouraged during his youth in Sardinia to become a priest so he could work with young boys, John was ordained in 1841. His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.
After serving as chaplain in a hospice for working girls, Don Bosco opened the Oratory of St Francis de Sales for boys. Several wealthy and powerful patrons contributed money, enabling him to provide two workshops for the boys, shoe-making and tailoring.
By 1856, the institution had grown to 150 boys and had added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. John’s interest in vocational education and publishing justify him as patron of young apprentices and Catholic publishers.
John’s preaching fame spread and by 1850 he had trained his own helpers because of difficulties in re-training young priests. In 1854, he and his followers informally banded together, inspired by Saint Francis de Sales.
With Pope Pius IX’s encouragement, John gathered 17 men and founded the Salesians in 1859. Their activity concentrated on education and mission work. Later, he organised a group of Salesian Sisters to assist girls.
Salesian Coat of Arms
Salesian Logo
John Bosco knew God wanted him to work with boys because of a dream he had when he was young. In this dream, boys who had been playing roughly suddenly began playing together as happily as lambs. John heard a voice saying, “Teach them right from wrong. Teach them the beauty of goodness and the ugliness of sin.” When John told his mother about his dream, she said it might mean God wanted him to be a priest and care for some of the sheep in his flock.
John Bosco spent so much time working that people who knew him well became worried about his health. They said he should take more time for rest and sleep. John replied that he’d have enough time to rest in heaven. “Right now,” he said, “how can I rest? The devil doesn’t rest from his work.”
St Abraham of Abela
Bl Adamnan of Coldingham
St Aedan of Ferns
St Aiden
St Athanasius of Modon
St Bobinus of Troyes
St Eusebius of Saint Gall
St Francesco Saverio Maria Bianchi
St Geminian of Modena
Bl John Angelus
St Julius of Novara
Bl Louise degli Albertoni
Bl Luigi Talamoni
St Madoes
St Marcella
Bl Maria Cristina di Savoia
St Martin Manuel
St Nicetas of Novgorod
St Tryphaena of Cyzicus
St Tysul
St Ulphia of Amiens
St Waldo of Evreux
St Wilgils
—
Martyrs of Corinth – 14 saints: A group of Christians tortured and martyred together in Corinth, Greece in the persecutions of Decius. We know nothing about them except some names – Anectus, Claudius, Codratus, Crescens, Cyprian, Diodorus, Dionysius, Nicephorus, Papias, Paul, Serapion, Theodora, Victor and Victorinus.
Martyrs of Canope:
Athanasia
Cyrus the Physician
Eudoxia
John the Physician
Theoctista
Theodotia
Martyred in Alexandria, Egypt
Cyriacus
Metranus
Saturninus
Tarskius
Thyrsus
Victor
Zoticus
Martyred in Alexandria, Egypt:
Cyriacus
Metranus
Saturninus
Tarskius
Thyrsus
Victor
Zoticus
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
José Acosta Alemán
Juan José Martínez Romero
Pedro José Rodríguez Cabrera
Martyrs of Korea: Thousands of people were murdered in the anti-Catholic persecutions in Korea.
• Saint Agatha Kwon Chin-i
• Saint Agatha Yi Kyong-I
• Saint Augustinus Park Chong-Won
• Saint Magdalena Son So-Byok
• Saint Maria Yi In-Dok
• Saint Petrus Hong Pyong-Ju
One Minute Reflection – 30 January – Wednesday of the Third week in Ordinary Time, Year C – Gospel: Mark 4:1-20 and the Memorial of the Salesian Priest Blessed Bronislaw Markiewicz SDB (1842-1912)
“The sower sows the word. … And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word but the cares of the world and the delight in riches and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.”…Mark 4:14,18-19
REFLECTION – “Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus invites us today to look inside ourselves – to give thanks for our good soil and to tend the soil that is not yet good. Let us ask ourselves, if our heart is open to welcome the seed of the Word of God with faith. Let us ask ourselves, if our rocks of laziness are still numerous and large;, let us identify our thorns of vice and call them by name.,, Let us find the courage to reclaim the soil, to effect a new conversion of our heart, bringing to the Lord in Confession and in prayer our rocks and our thorns. In doing this, Jesus, the Good Sower will be glad to carry out an additional task – to purify our hearts, by removing the rocks and the thorns which choke His Word…Pope Francis – Angelus, 16 July 2017
PRAYER – Lord God, in Your wisdom You created us, by Your providence You rule us, You have planted us, penetrate our inmost being Your holy Light, so that our way of life may always be one of faithful service to You. May we never hesitate to run to Your all-forgiving arms of mercy, when we allow the rocks and thorns of this life to prevent our growth and our steps as we return home to You. May the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, all the angels and saints and of Blessed Bronislaw Markiewicz be unfailing assistance to us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, with You and the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 
You must be logged in to post a comment.