Quote of the Day – – 18 October – The Feast of St Luke the Evangelist
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness,
henceforth, all generations will call me blessed.”
One Minute Reflection – 18 October – Today’s Gospel: Luke 10:1–9 – The Feast of St Luke the Evangelist
“Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”…Luke 10:3
REFLECTION – “We must abandon ourselves to the power of the Spirit, who is able to infuse light and especially love for Christ; we must open ourselves to the inner fascination that Jesus works in the hearts of those who aspire to authenticity, while fleeing from half measures. This is certainly difficult for human beings but it becomes possible with the grace of God (cf. Lk 18: 27). On the other hand, if following Christ means carrying the Cross each day, the latter in turn is the tree of life leading to the resurrection. Luke, who emphasises the radical requirements for following Christ, is also the Evangelist who describes the joy of those who become Christ’s disciples.”…St Pope John Paul (1920-2005) 15 October 2000
PRAYER – Lord God, You chose St Luke to reveal the mystery of Your love in his preaching and his writings. Grant, we pray, that we may grow in love for the Holy Face of Christ, His words and His directions, revealed to us in the Gospels, in the example of your saints. Today, on his feast, we especially look to St Luke, to guide, teach and pray for us. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, one God with You, forever and ever, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 18 October – Feast of St Luke
Ave Maris Stella
Hail, O Star of the ocean,
God’s own Mother blest,
ever sinless Virgin,
gate of heav’nly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave,
which from Gabriel came,
peace confirm within us,
changing Eve’s name.
Break the sinners’ fetters,
make our blindness day,
Chase all evils from us,
for all blessings pray.
Show thyself a Mother,
may the Word divine
born for us thine Infant
hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling,
mildest of the mild,
free from guilt preserve us
meek and undefiled.
Keep our life all spotless,
make our way secure
till we find in Jesus,
joy for evermore.
Praise to God the Father,
honour to the Son,
in the Holy Spirit,
be the glory one.
Amen
Saint of the Day – 18 October – St Luke the Evangelist
St Luke, the inspired author of the third Gospel and of the Acts of the Apostles, was a native of Antioch in Syria and a physician and one of the early converts from paganism. He accompanied St Paul on a considerable part of his missionary journey. He was also his companion while in prison at Rome on two different occasions. His account of these events, contained in the Acts, is first hand history. His symbol is a Winged Ox anticipated by Ezekiel. The ox, recognised as the animal of sacrifice, was applied to St Luke because his Gospel emphasises the atonement made by Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the Cross. His name means “bringer of light” (= luke).
Luke’s Gospel is, above all, the Gospel of the Merciful Heart of Jesus. It emphasises the fact that Christ is the salvation of all men, especially of the repentant sinner and of the lowly. Legend says that Luke painted the Blessed Virgin’s portrait. It is certainly true that he painted the most beautiful word-picture of Mary ever written.
St Luke came from Antioch, was a practising physician and was one of the first converts to Christianity. He accompanied St Paul, who converted him, on his missionary journeys and was still with him in Rome when St Paul was in prison awaiting death. We hear no more of him afterwards and nothing is known of his last years. The Church venerates him as a Martyr.
St Luke’s Gospel is principally concerned with salvation and mercy – in it are preserved some of our Lord’s most moving parables, like those of the lost sheep and the prodigal son. Dante calls St Luke the “historian of the meekness of Christ.” It is also St Luke who tells us the greater part of what we know about our Lord’s childhood.
“According to tradition he was an artist, as well as a man of letters and with a soul alive to all the most delicate inspirations, he consecrated his pencil to the holiest use and handed down to us the features of the Mother of God. It was an illustration worthy of the Gospel which relates to the divine Infancy and it won for the artist a new title to the gratitude of those who never saw Jesus and Mary in the flesh. Hence St Luke is the patron of Christian art.” …-Excerpted from The Liturgical Year, Abbot Gueranger O.S.B.
St Luke did not personally know our Lord and like St Mark, the author of the second Gospel, he is not included among the apostles. For this reason the Gospel chosen for their feast is the account of the sending forth of the seventy-two disciples. According to St Jerome, St Luke died in Achaia (Greece) at the age of 84 and it is unknown whether or not he died a martyr’s death. 
His symbol is a Winged Ox anticipated by Ezekiel. The ox, recognised as the animal of sacrifice, was applied to St Luke because his Gospel emphasises the atonement made by Christ’s sacrifice of Himself on the Cross. His name means “bringer of light” (= luke).
St Luke the Evangelist (Feast)
St Luke here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/saint-of-the-day-st-luke-the-evangelist-18-october/
St Acutius of Pozzuoli
St Asclepiades of Antioch
St Brothen
Bl Burchard I of Halberstadt
St Cadwaladr of Brittany
Bl Domenico of Perpignano
St Eutychius of Pozzuoli
St Gwen
St Gwen of Tagarth
St Gwendoline
St Isaac Jogues
St Julian the Hermit
St Justus of Beauvais
Bl Margherita Tornielli
St Monon of Nassogne
St Proculus of Pozzuoli
Bl Theobald of Narbonna
St Tryphonia of Rome
—
Martyrs of Africa – 9 saints: A group of Christians martryed together in Africa. The only details that have survived are the names – Beresus, Dasius, Faustinus, Leucius, Lucius, Martialis, Victoricus, Victrix and Viktor. They were martyred in c.300 in Africa.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
• Blessed Alfredo Almunia López-Teruel
• Blessed Francisco Roselló Hernández
• Blessed Isidro Juan Martínez
Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort’s Total Consecration to Jesus Through Mary – Day One 17 October – About here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/thought-for-the-day-7-october-33-day-consecration-by-st-louis-marie-grignion-de-montfort/
Now begins the 33-day period of exercises. St Louis-Marie breaks these days into sections of days, each section having its own prayers and each particular day having its own brief readings with which to fill the mind for that day (the readings come from Sacred Scripture, “The Imitation of Christ” and “True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Mary”). Don’t just read the readings, internalise them; don’t let your lips just mouth the prayers, truly pray them.
First comes a 12-day preparation period that consists of emptying oneself of the spirit of the world in penance and mortification. For those 12 days, we pray the Veni Creator, the Ave Maris Stella, the Magnificat and the Glory Be.
Then follow 3 weeks, each week having a specific focus.
The first week focuses on offering up our prayers and devotions for the purpose of coming to understand ourselves and our sins; humility is the key and the prayers help us.
During the second week, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us better understand the Blessed Virgin; we pray the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the Litany of Loreto, the Ave Maris Stellis, the prayer to Mary by St Louis-Marie and 5 decades of the Holy Rosary each day for assistance.
During the third week, we seek to better understand Christ through meditation and the Litany of the Holy Ghost, the Ave Maris Stella and the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, Montfort’s prayer to Jesus, and the prayer O Jesus Living in Mary.
12 Day Preparation
Day 1 of 33
Matthew 5:1-19
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him. And opening his mouth, he taught them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God . Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or
the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Recite: Veni Creator, Ave Maris Stella, Magnificat and Glory Be (below)
Examine your conscience, pray, practice renouncement of your own will; mortification, purity of heart. This purity is the indispensable condition for contemplating God in heaven, to see Him on earth and to know Him by the light of faith. The first part of the preparation should be employed in casting off the spirit of the world which is contrary to that of Jesus Christ. The spirit of the world consists essentially in the denial of the supreme dominion of God; a denial which is manifested in practice by sin and disobedience; thus it is principally opposed to the spirit of Christ, which is also that of Mary.
It manifests itself by the concupiscence of the flesh, by the concupiscence of the eyes and by the pride of life and by disobedience to God’s laws and the abuse of created things. Its works are – sin in all forms, then all else by which the devil leads to sin; works which bring error and darkness to the mind and seduction and corruption to the will. Its pomps are the splendour and the charms employed by the devil to render sin alluring in persons, places and things.
Veni Creator
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;
Thou, finger of God’s hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father,
Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o’erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread,
and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide,
turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed,
of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven.
Amen
Ave Maris Stella
Hail, O Star of the ocean,
God’s own Mother blest,
ever sinless Virgin,
gate of heav’nly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave,
which from Gabriel came,
peace confirm within us,
changing Eve’s name.
Break the sinners’ fetters,
make our blindness day,
Chase all evils from us,
for all blessings pray.
Show thyself a Mother,
may the Word divine
born for us thine Infant
hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling,
mildest of the mild,
free from guilt preserve us
meek and undefiled.
Keep our life all spotless,
make our way secure
till we find in Jesus,
joy for evermore.
Praise to God the Father,
honour to the Son,
in the Holy Spirit,
be the glory one.
Amen
Magnificat
My soul magnifies the Lord.
And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.
Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid;
for behold, from henceforth
all generations shall call me blessed.
He that is mighty has done great
things to me and holy is His name.
And His mercy is from
generation to generations,
to those that fear Him.
He hsh showed might in His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones;
and has exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has received Israel His servant,
being mindful of His mercy.
As He spoke to our fathers, to
Abraham and to his seed forever.
Amen
Glory Be
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now
and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen
NOVENA to St John Paul the Great: DAY FIVE – 17 OCTOBER
Little Known Fact #5: Father Karol Wojtyla was only 38 when he was made a Bishop. It did not change his lifestyle at all. True, instead of walking everywhere he had a bicycle and even a rather ancient car and chauffeur to get around the diocese and in order not to waste time, he had a table and a light fixed into the car, to allow him to read and work on necessary journeys.
REFLECTION: ” ………reflecting on the assassination attempt, he said: “In sacrificing himself for us all, Christ gave a new meaning to suffering, opening up a new dimension, a new order: the order of love … It is this suffering which burns and consumes evil with the flame of love and draws forth even from sin a great flowering of good” (pp. 189-190). Impelled by this vision, the Pope suffered and loved in communion with Christ and that is why the message of his suffering and his silence proved so eloquent and so fruitful.” – Pope Benedict at St John Paul’s Funeral
Let us Pray:
O Holy Trinity, we thank You for having given to the Church Pope John Paul II and for having made him shine with Your fatherly tenderness, the glory of the Cross of Christand the splendour of the Spirit of love.
He, trusting completely in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd and has pointed out to us the way of holiness as the path to reach eternal communion with You Grant us, through his intercession, according to Your will, the grace that we implore,
………………….. [state your intention here].
Continue, beloved St John Paul, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. We praise and thank You Father that St John Paul has been numbered among Your saints and make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, one God forever.
Totus Tuus, Amen.
Quote Day Five: “I find great peace in thinking of the time when the Lord will call me: from life to life! And so I often find myself saying, with no trace of melancholy, a prayer recited by priests after the celebration of the Eucharist: In hora mortis meae voca me, et iube me venire ad te – at the hour of my death, call me and bid me come to you. This is the prayer of Christian hope, which in no way detracts from the joy of the present, while entrusting the future to God’s gracious and loving care.”
Thought for the Day 17 October – St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107) Father of the Church, Martyr – “Doctor of Unity”
Note: St John Chrysostom (347-407) , who grew up in Antioch, taught that St Ignatius had been ordained at the hands of St Peter. According to ancient tradition, St Ignatius was the child whom Christ had held, as described in Matthew 18:4, as depicted in the fresco below from the Gračanica.
For Ignatius unity was first and foremost a prerogative of God, who, since he exists as Three Persons, is One in absolute unity. Ignatius often used to repeat that God is unity and that in God alone is unity found in its pure and original state. Unity to be brought about on this earth by Christians is no more than an imitation as close as possible to the divine archetype.
Overall, it is possible to grasp in the Letters of Ignatius a sort of constant and fruitful dialectic between two characteristic aspects of Christian life: on the one hand, the hierarchical structure of the Ecclesial Community and on the other, the fundamental unity that binds all the faithful in Christ.
Consequently, their roles cannot be opposed to one another. On the contrary, the insistence on communion among believers and of believers with their Pastors was constantly reformulated in eloquent images and analogies – the harp, strings, intonation, the concert, the symphony. The special responsibility of Bishops, priests and deacons in building the community is clear.
This applies first of all to their invitation to love and unity. “Be one”, Ignatius wrote to the Magnesians, echoing the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper: “one supplication, one mind, one hope in love…. Therefore, all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ who came forth from one Father and is with and has gone to one” (7: 1-2).
Imploring from the Lord this “grace of unity” and in the conviction that the whole Church presides in charity (cf. Romans, Prologue), I address to you yourselves the same hope with which Ignatius ended his Letter to the Trallians: “Love one another with an undivided heart. Let my spirit be sanctified by yours, not only now but also when I shall attain to God…. In [Jesus Christ] may you be found unblemished” (13).
And let us pray that the Lord will help us to attain this unity and to be found at last unstained, because it is love that purifies souls.
Quote/s of the Day – 17 October – The Memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107) Father of the Church, Martyr
“Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips
and the world in your heart.”
“Therefore run together
as into one temple of God,
as to one altar,
as to one Jesus Christ,
who came forth from one Father
and is with
and has gone to One.”
“I am the wheat of God,
and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts,
that I may be found the pure bread of God.
I long after the Lord,
the Son of the true God and Father, Jesus Christ.
Him I seek, who died for us and rose again.
I am eager to die for the sake of Christ.
My love has been crucified,
and there is no fire in me that loves anything.
But there is living water springing up in me,
and it says to me inwardly:
“Come to the Father.”
One Minute Reflection- 17 October – Today’s Gospel: Luke 11:42-46 – Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time, Year B and the Memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107) Father of the Church, Martyr
“Woe to you Pharisees! for you love the best seat in the synagogues and salutations in the market places.”…Luke 11:43
REFLECTION – “Christianity is not a matter of persuading people of particular ideas but of inviting them to share in the greatness of Christ. So pray that I may never fall into the trap of impressing people with clever speech but instead I may learn to speak with humility, desiring only to impress people with Christ Himself.”…St Ignatius of Antioch
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, grant that I may believe what I have learned, never presuming to know better than the teachings of Holy Mother Church and that I may put into practice what I believe. Let my commitment be like unto the Martyr, St Ignatius of Antioch, who went with joy to his horrific death, for the faith in Christ, Your Son, God with You and the Holy Spirit. St Ignatius, pray for us, amen.
Our Morning Offering – 17 October
O Lord, show Your mercy to me
By St Jerome (347-419) Father and Doctor
O Lord, show Your mercy to me
and gladden my heart.
I am like the man on the way to Jericho
who was overtaken by robbers,
wounded and left for dead.
O Good Samaritan,
come to my aid.
I am like the sheep that went astray.
O Good Shepherd,
seek me out and bring me home
in accord with Your will.
Let me dwell in Your house
all the days of my life
and praise You for ever and ever
with those who are there.
Amen
Saint of the Day – 17 October – St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107) Father of the Church, Martyr
Today, we will be speaking of St Ignatius, who was the third Bishop of Antioch from 70 to 107, the date of his martyrdom. At that time, Rome, Alexandria and Antioch were the three great metropolises of the Roman Empire. The Council of Nicea mentioned three “primacies”: Rome but also Alexandria and Antioch participated in a certain sense in a “primacy”.
St Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch, which today is located in Turkey. Here in Antioch, as we know from the Acts of the Apostles, a flourishing Christian community developed. Its first Bishop was the Apostle Peter – or so tradition claims – and it was there that the disciples were “for the first time called Christians” (Acts 11: 26). Eusebius of Caesarea, a fourth-century historian, dedicated an entire chapter of his Church History to the life and literary works of Ignatius (cf. 3: 36).
Eusebius writes: “The Report says that he [Ignatius] was sent from Syria to Rome and became food for wild beasts on account of his testimony to Christ. And as he made the journey through Asia under the strictest military surveillance” (he called the guards “ten leopards” in his Letter to the Romans, 5: 1), “he fortified the parishes in the various cities where he stopped by homilies and exhortations and warned them above all to be especially on their guard against the heresies that were then beginning to prevail, and exhorted them to hold fast to the tradition of the Apostles”.
The first place Ignatius stopped on the way to his martyrdom was the city of Smyrna, where St Polycarp, a disciple of St John, was Bishop. Here, Ignatius wrote four letters, respectively to the Churches of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralli and Rome. “Having left Smyrna”, Eusebius continues, Ignatius reached Troas and “wrote again”: two letters to the Churches of Philadelphia and Smyrna and one to Bishop Polycarp. Thus, Eusebius completes the list of his letters, which have come down to us from the Church of the first century as a precious treasure. In reading these texts one feels the freshness of the faith of the generation which had still known the Apostles. In these letters, the ardent love of a saint can also be felt.
Lastly, the martyr travelled from Troas to Rome, where he was thrown to fierce wild animals in the Flavian Amphitheatre.
No Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in Him with the intensity of Ignatius. We therefore read the Gospel passage on the vine, which according to John’s Gospel is Jesus. In fact, two spiritual “currents” converge in Ignatius, that of Paul, straining with all his might for union with Christ and that of John, concentrated on life in Him. In turn, these two currents translate into the imitation of Christ, whom Ignatius several times proclaimed as “my” or “our God”.
Thus, Ignatius implores the Christians of Rome not to prevent his martyrdom since he is impatient “to attain to Jesus Christ”. And he explains, “It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ than to reign over all the ends of the earth…. Him I seek, who died for us: Him I desire, who rose again for our sake…. Permit me to be an imitator of the Passion of my God!” (Romans, 5-6).
One can perceive in these words on fire with love, the pronounced Christological “realism” typical of the Church of Antioch, more focused than ever on the Incarnation of the Son of God and on His true and concrete humanity: “Jesus Christ”, St Ignatius wrote to the Smyrnaeans, “was truly of the seed of David”, “he was truly born of a virgin” “and was truly nailed [to the Cross] for us” (1: 1). Ignatius’ irresistible longing for union with Christ was the foundation of a real “mysticism of unity”. He describes himself: “I therefore did what befitted me as a man devoted to unity” (Philadelphians, 8: 1).
For Ignatius unity was first and foremost a prerogative of God, who, since He exists as Three Persons, is One in absolute unity. Ignatius often used to repeat that God is unity and that in God alone is unity found in its pure and original state. Unity to be brought about on this earth by Christians is no more than an imitation as close as possible to the divine archetype.
Ignatius was the first person in Christian literature to attribute to the Church the adjective “catholic” or “universal” – “Wherever Jesus Christ is”, he said, “there is the Catholic Church” (Smyrnaeans, 8: 2). And precisely in the service of unity to the Catholic Church, the Christian community of Rome exercised a sort of primacy of love: “The Church which presides in the place of the region of the Romans and which is worthy of God, worthy of honour, worthy of the highest happiness… and which presides over love, is named from Christ and from the Father…” (Romans, Prologue).
As can be seen, Ignatius is truly the “Doctor of Unity” – unity of God and unity of Christ (despite the various heresies gaining ground which separated the human and the divine in Christ), unity of the Church, unity of the faithful in “faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred” (Smyrnaeans, 6: 1).
Ultimately, Ignatius’ realism invites the faithful of yesterday and today, invites us all, to make a gradual synthesis between configuration to Christ (union with Him, life in Him) and dedication to His Church (unity with the Bishop, generous service to the community and to the world).
St Ignatius of Antioch (c 35 – 107) Father of the Church – Bishop of Antioch and Martyr (Memorial)
Full Biography of St Ignatius here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/10/17/saint-of-the-day-17-october-st-ignatius-of-antioch-c-35-c-108-father-of-the-church/
St Anstrudis of Laon
Bl Balthassar of Chiavari
Bl Battista de Bonafede
St Berarius I of Le Mans
St Catervus
St Colman of Kilroot
Bl Contardo Ferrini
St Ethelbert of Eastry
St Ethelred of Eastry
St Florentius of Orange
St Francois Isidore Gagelin
Bl Gilbert the Theologian
St Heron of Antioch
Bl Jacques Burin
St John the Short/Dwarf
St Louthiern
St Mamelta of Persia
St Nothelm of Canterbury
St Richard Gwyn
St Rudolph of Gubbio
St Rufus of Rome
St Serafino of Montegranaro
St Solina of Chartres
St Zosimus of Rome
—
Martyrs of Nicomedia – 3 saints: A group of Christians martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. The only details about them that have survived are their names – Alexander, Marianus and Victor. 303 in Nicomedia (in modern Turkey).
Martyrs of Valenciennes -5 beati: A group of Ursuline nuns martyred in the persecutions of the French Revolution.
• Hyacinthe-Augustine-Gabrielle Bourla
• Jeanne-Reine Prin
• Louise-Joseph Vanot
• Marie-Geneviève-Joseph Ducrez
• Marie-Madeleine-Joseph Déjardins
Martyrs of Volitani: A group of martyrs who were praised by Saint Augustine of Hippo. In Volitani, proconsular Africa (in modern Tunisia).
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
• BlessedFidel Fuidio Rodriguez
• BlessedJosé Sánchez Medina
• BlessedPerfecto Carrascosa Santos
• BlessedTársila Córdoba Belda de Girona
NOVENA to St John Paul the Great: DAY FOUR – 16 OCTOBER
Little Known Fact #4: In his second assignment as a newly ordained priest, Father Karol Wojtyla took a new approach to training altar boys. He would hold frequent evenings of instruction, whereby one priest would give catechesis to the boys while another priest taught the parents educational psychology as well as catechesis in the liturgy. In addition to these meetings, Father Wojtyla and the other parish priests would take the boys on outings. This model proved to be a great success as the number of altar boys went from 10 in 1946 to 100 in 1952.
REFLECTION: ” In the first years of his pontificate, still young and full of energy, the Holy Father went to the very ends of the earth, guided by Christ. But afterwards, he increasingly entered into the communion of Christ’s sufferings; increasingly he understood the truth of the words: “Someone else will fasten a belt around you.” And in this very communion with the suffering Lord, tirelessly and with renewed intensity, he proclaimed the Gospel, the mystery of that love which goes to the end (cf Jn 13:1).” – Pope Benedict
Let us Pray:
O Holy Trinity, we thank You for having given to the Church Pope John Paul II and for having made him shine with Your fatherly tenderness, the glory of the Cross of Christand the splendour of the Spirit of love.
He, trusting completely in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd and has pointed out to us the way of holiness as the path to reach eternal communion with You Grant us, through his intercession, according to Your will, the grace that we implore,
………………….. [state your intention here].
Continue, beloved St John Paul, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. We praise and thank You Father that St John Paul has been numbered among Your saints and make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, one God forever.
Totus Tuus, Amen
Quote Day Four: “A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members; and among the most vulnerable are surely the unborn and the dying.”
Thought for the Day – 16 October – The Memorial of St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755)
Although his life was short, he managed to achieve great holiness. So numerous were the miracles God worked through him, that even during his lifetime he was called the“ wonder-worker “.
Since his death in 1775, countless favours and miracles have been granted and worked through his intercession. (In this regard, I know personally of a miracle granted by St Gerard’s intercession.)
As well as the patron of a good confession, he has become well known as the patron of mothers and has been invoked as a constant source of help and inspiration to parents.
The League of St Gerard is an association of Christians united in prayer for family life and its Christian values.
The League Prayer is on the site but I copied it here too.
Membership is open to all.
All information here: http://www.redemptorists.co.uk/what-we-do/league-of-st-gerard/1697-st-gerard-family-league.html
Quote/s of the Day – 16 October – The Memorial of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and St Gerard Majella (1726-1755)
“Let us begin in earnest
to work out our salvation,
for no-one will do it for us,
since even He Himself,
Who made us without ourselves,
will not save us without ourselves!”
“Let every knee bend before You,
O greatness of my God,
so supremely humbled in the Sacred Host.
May every heart love You,
every spirit adore You
and every will be subject to You!
“The Most Blessed Sacrament
is Christ made visible.
The poor sick person
is Christ again made visible.”
One Minute Reflection – 16 October – Today’s Gospel: Luke 11:37–41 – Tuesday of the Twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time, Year B and The Memorial of St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755)
And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness.”...Luke 11:39
REFLECTION – “Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?”...St Gerard Majella (1726-1755)
“Let us ask the Lord that we never tire of going down that path, that we never tire of rejecting this religion of appearances, this religion of seeming, of pretending…. We must instead be committed to proceed quietly, doing good and doing so freely, as we have freely received, our interior freedom. Let us ask for this grace.”…Pope Francis – Santa Marta, 11 October 2016
PRAYER – Lord Jesus Christ, You wondrously revealed all of the deep treasures of Your Heart to Your saints. May their merits and example win us the grace to love You above all things and in all things so that we may make our abode in Your own Sacred Heart. With You, for You and in You, may we assist and love our neighbour. Hear the prayers of St Gerard Majella on our behalf dear Lord, we beg. Who live and reign forever, amen
Our Morning Offering – 16 October – The Memorial of St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755)
Thanksgiving Prayer for St Gerard
and Request for his Intercession
Almighty and loving Father,
We thank You for giving St Gerard to us
as a most appealing model and powerful friend.
By his example,
he showed us how to love and trust You.
You have showered many blessings
on those who call upon him.
For Your greater glory and my welfare,
please grant the favours
which I ask in his name.
………………………………..
(Mention your needs here…)
And you, my powerful patron,
intercede for me before the throne of God.
Draw near to that throne
and do not leave it until you have been heard.
O good saint,
to you I address my fervent prayers,
graciously accept them
and let me experience in some way
the effects of your powerful intercession.
Through Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
God forever,
Amen.
Saint of the Day – 16 October – St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755) Religious Lay Brother of the Congregation of the Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, Apostle of the Holy Eucharist, Apostle of Charity, known as a Thaumaturge, a Saint who works miracles not just occasionally but as a matter of course. Born on 23 April 1725 at Muro, Italy as Gerardo Maiella and died on 16 October 1755 at Caposele, Provincia di Avellino, Campania, Italy of tuberculosis, aged just 29. Patronages – children (and unborn children in particular); childbirth; mothers (and expectant mothers in particular); motherhood; falsely accused people; good confessions; lay brothers; tennis ball football, head boys and Muro Lucano, Italy.
St Gerard was born in Muro Lucano, Basilicata, the youngest of five children. He wanted very much to receive Holy Communion at the age of seven and went to the Communion railing one day with the others but the priest, seeing his age, passed him up; and he went back to his place in tears. The following night, Saint Michael the Archangel brought him the Communion he so much desired. His tailor father died when Gerard was twelve, leaving the family in poverty. His mother then sent him to her brother so that he could teach Gerard to sew and follow in his father’s footsteps. However, the foreman was abusive. The boy kept silent but his uncle soon found out and the man who taught him resigned from the job. After four years of apprenticeship, he took a job as a servant to work for the local Bishop of Lacedonia. Upon the bishop’s death, Gerard returned to his trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account. He divided his earnings between his mother and the poor and in offerings for the souls in Purgatory.
He tried to join the Capuchin Order but his health prevented it. He had acquired a reputation of sanctity and finally, when he was 23 years old, he obtained the aid of some missionaries to second his request and was admitted as a Coadjutor of the newly founded Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as Redemptorists, in 1749. The order was founded in 1732 by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787 Doctor of the Church) at Scala, near Naples. The essentially missionary order is dedicated to “preaching the word of God to the poor.” Its apostolate is principally in giving of missions and retreats.
During his life, he was very close to the peasants and other outsiders who lived in the Neapolitan countryside. In his work with the Redemptorist community, he was variously gardener, sacristan, tailor, porter, cook, carpenter and clerk of works on the new buildings at Caposele.
At 27, the good-looking Majella became the subject of a malicious rumour. An acquaintance, Neria, accused him of having had relations with a young woman. When confronted by St Alphonsus Liguori, the founder, on the accusations, the young lay brother remained silent. The girl later recanted and cleared his name.
Some of Majella’s reported miracles include restoring life to a boy who had fallen from a high cliff, blessing the scanty supply of wheat belonging to a poor family and making it last until the next harvest and several times multiplying the bread that he was distributing to the poor. One day, he walked across the water to lead a boatload of fishermen through stormy waves to the safety of the shore. He was reputed to have had the gift of bilocation and the ability to read souls.
Once he conducted a group of students on a nine-day pilgrimage to Mount Gargano, where the Archangel Michael had appeared. They had very little money for the tri, and when they arrived at the site, there was none left. Gerard went before the Tabernacle and told Our Lord that it was His responsibility to take care of the little group. He had been observed in the church by a religious, who invited the Saint and his companions to lodge in his residence. When the party was ready to start home again, Gerard prayed once more, and immediately someone appeared and gave him a roll of bills.
His last will was a small note on the door of his cell: “Here the will of God is done, as God wills and as long as God wills.” He died at 29 of tuberculosis.
One miracle in particular explains how Majella became known as the special patron of mothers. A few months before his death, he visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief. One of the Pirofalo girls spotted the handkerchief moments after he had left the house and she ran after Gerard to return it. “Keep it,” he said to her. “You may need it some day.” Years later when the girl, now a married woman, was on the verge of losing her life in childbirth, she remembered the words of the saintly lay brother. She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her. Almost immediately, the pain disappeared and she gave birth to a healthy child. That was no small feat in an era when only one out of three pregnancies resulted in a live birth and word of the miracle spread quickly.
Because of the miracles that God worked through Gerard’s prayers with mothers, the mothers of Italy took Gerard to their hearts and made him their patron. At the process of his beatification, one witness testified that he was known as “il santo dei felice parti,” “the saint of happy childbirths.” It is a well-known patronage and many miracles still occur. The St Gerard Majella Annual Novena takes place every year in St Josephs Church, Dundalk, Ireland. This annual nine-day novena is the biggest festival of faith in Ireland. St Joseph’s sponsors the St Gerard’s Family League, an International Association of Christians united in prayer for their own and other families, to preserve Christian values in their home and family life. Since his death in 1775, countless favours and miracles have been granted and worked through his intercession. As well as the patron of a good confession, he has been invoked as a constant source of help and inspiration to parents. 
St Gerard was Beatified in Rome on 29 January 1893, by Pope Leo XIII. He was Canonised less than twelve years later on 11 December 1904, by St Pope Pius X.
St Hedwig of Silesia (1174-1243) (Optional Memorial)
St Margaret Mary Alacoque V.H.M. (1647-1690) (Optional Memorial)
Biography here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/10/16/saint-of-the-day-16-october-st-margaret-mary-alacoque-1647-1690-v-h-m/
St Amandus of Limoges
St Ambrose of Cahors
Bl Anicet Koplinski
Bl Augustine Thevarparampil
St Balderic
St Baldwin
St Bertrand of Comminges
St Bolonia
St Conogon of Quimper
St Dulcidius of Agen
St Eliphius of Toul
St Eremberta of Wierre
St Florentinus of Trier
St Gall
St Gerard Majella C.Ss.R. (1726-1755)
Bl Gerald of Fossanuova
Bl Jesús Villaverde Andrés
Bl Józef Jankowski
St Junian
St Lull
St Magnobodus of Angers
St Marguerite d’Youville
St Martinian of Mauretania
St Mummolinus
St Saturian of Mauretania
St Silvanus of Ahun
St Victor of Cologne
St Vitalis of Noirmoutier
—
Martyrs in Africa – 220 saints: A group of 220 Christians martyrs about whom we know nothing but that they died for their faith.
Martyrs of North Africa – 365 saints: A group of 365 Christians who were martyred together in the persecutions of the Vandal king Genseric. The only details that have survived are the names of two of the martyrs – Nereus and Saturninus. 450 in North Africa.
NOVENA to St John Paul the Great: DAY THREE – 15 OCTOBER
Little Known Fact #3: During his fourth year of Theological studies, Karol Wojtyla felt an increasing call to enter a Carmelite monastery. In the same year, one of his good friends, Br Leonard Kowalowka, was appointed Novice Master at a Carmelite monastery. This appointment of his friend prompted Wojtyla to pursue his desire to be a Carmelite. Wojtyla applied to enter the monastery at Czerna but transferring from the Diocesesan seminary to a religious monastery needed the approval of the bishop. Cardinal Sapieha did not give his approval and instead told Wojtyla to “finish what he started.” Wojtyla did exactly that and stayed the path of a Diocesesan priest.
REFLECTION DAY THREE: “In October 1978 Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: “Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!” To the Lord’s question, “Karol, do you love me?,” the Archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: “Lord you know everything; you know that I love you.” The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Thanks to his being profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden which transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ’s flock, his universal Church.”……..Pope Benedict
Let us Pray:
O Holy Trinity, we thank You for having given to the Church Pope John Paul II and for having made him shine with Your fatherly tenderness, the glory of the Cross of Christand the splendour of the Spirit of love.
He, trusting completely in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd and has pointed out to us the way of holiness as the path to reach eternal communion with You Grant us, through his intercession, according to Your will, the grace that we implore,
………………….. [state your intention here].
Continue, beloved St John Paul, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. We praise and thank You Father that St John Paul has been numbered among Your saints and make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, one God forever. Totus Tuus, Amen.
Quote Day Three: “A person’s rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use.”
Thought for the Day – 15 October – The Memorial of St Teresa of Jesus/Avila (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church “Doctor of Prayer”
“It is far from easy to sum up in a few words Teresa’s profound and articulate spirituality. I would like to mention a few essential points. In the first place St Teresa proposes the evangelical virtues as the basis of all Christian and human life and in particular, detachment from possessions, that is, evangelical poverty and this concerns all of us; love for one another as an essential element of community and social life; humility as love for the truth; determination as a fruit of Christian daring; theological hope, which she describes as the thirst for living water. Then we should not forget the human virtues: affability, truthfulness, modesty, courtesy, cheerfulness, culture.
Secondly, St Teresa proposes a profound harmony with the great biblical figures and eager listening to the word of God. She feels above all closely in tune with the Bride in the Song of Songs and with the Apostle Paul, as well as with Christ in the Passion and with Jesus in the Eucharist. The Saint then stresses how essential prayer is. Praying, she says, “means being on terms of friendship with God frequently conversing in secret with Him who, we know, loves us” (Vida 8, 5). St Teresa’s idea coincides with Thomas Aquinas’ definition of theological charity as “amicitia quaedam hominis ad Deum”, a type of human friendship with God, who offered humanity His friendship first – it is from God that the initiative comes (cf. Summa Theologiae II-II, 23, 1).
Prayer is life and develops gradually, in pace with the growth of Christian life – it begins with vocal prayer, passes through interiorisation by means of meditation and recollection, until it attains the union of love with Christ and with the Holy Trinity. Obviously, in the development of prayer climbing to the highest steps does not mean abandoning the previous type of prayer. Rather, it is a gradual deepening of the relationship with God that envelops the whole of life.
Dear brothers and sisters, St Teresa of Jesus is a true teacher of Christian life for the faithful of every time. In our society, which all too often lacks spiritual values, St Teresa teaches us to be unflagging witnesses of God, of His presence and of His action. She teaches us truly to feel this thirst for God that exists in the depths of our hearts, this desire to see God, to seek God, to be in conversation with Him and to be His friends.
This is the friendship we all need that we must seek anew, day after day. May the example of this Saint, profoundly contemplative and effectively active, spur us too every day to dedicate the right time to prayer, to this openness to God, to this journey, in order to seek God, to see Him, to discover His friendship and so to find true life – indeed, many of us should truly say: “I am not alive, I am not truly alive because I do not live the essence of my life”.
Therefore time devoted to prayer is not time wasted, it is time in which the path of life unfolds, the path unfolds to learning from God an ardent love for Him, for His Church and practical charity for our brothers and sisters. Many thanks.”
Quotes of the Day – 15 October – The Memorial of St Teresa of Jesus/Avila (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church
“Oh my Lord!
How true it is that,
whoever works for You,
is paid in troubles!
And what a precious price
to those who love You,
if we understand its value.”
“We need no wings
to go in search of Him
but have only to look upon Him,
present within us.”
“Always think of yourself
as everyone’s servant;
look for Christ Our Lord
in everyone
and you will then have
respect and reverence
for them all.”
One Minute Reflection – 15 October – Today’s Gospel: Luke 11:29–32 – Monday of the Twenty-eighth week in Ordinary Time, Year B and the Memorial of St Teresa of Jesus/Avila (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church “Doctor of Prayer”
“This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah…”…Luke 11:29
REFLECTION – “Am I attached to my things, to my ideas, closed? Or am I open to the God of surprises? Am I a stationary person or a person on a journey?….Do I believe in Jesus Christ and in what He has done? He died, rose again… do I believe that the journey goes forth toward maturity, toward the manifestation of the glory of the Lord? Am I capable of understanding the signs of the times and of being faithful to the voice of the Lord that is manifest in them?”…Pope Francis 13 October 2014
Better Your faithful love than life itself;
my lips will praise You.
Thus I will bless You all my life,
in Your name lift up my hands. (Ps 63:3-4)
PRAYER – Almighty God, our Father, You sent St Teresa of Jesus to be a witness in the Church to the way of perfection. Sustain us by her spiritual doctrine and kindle in us, the longing for true holiness. Through Christ, our Lord, in union with the Holy Spirit, God forever. May the intercession of St Teresa be a source of strength, amen
Our Morning Offering – 15 October – The Memorial of St Teresa of Jesus/Avila (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church “Doctor of Prayer”
Morning Offering
Of St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Lord,
grant that I may always
allow myself
to be guided by You,
always follow Your plans,
and perfectly accomplish
Your Holy Will.
Grant that in all things,
great and small,
today and all the days of my life,
I may do
whatever You require of me.
Help me respond
to the slightest prompting
of Your Grace,
so that I may be
Your trustworthy instrument
for Your honour.
May Your Will be done
in time
and in eternity
by me,
in me
and through me.
Amen
Saint of the Day – 15 October – St Teresa of Avila/of Jesus (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church – Full Biography here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/saint-of-the-day-15-october-st-teresa-of-jesusof-avila-1515-1582-doctor-of-the-church/
St Teresa, whose name was Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515. In her autobiography she mentions some details of her childhood – she was born into a large family, her “father and mother, who were devout and feared God”. She had three sisters and nine brothers.
While she was still a child and not yet nine years old she had the opportunity to read the lives of several Martyrs which inspired in her such a longing for martyrdom that she briefly ran away from home in order to die a Martyr’s death and to go to Heaven (cf. Vida, [Life], 1, 4) – “I want to see God”, the little girl told her parents.
A few years later Teresa was to speak of her childhood reading and to state that she had discovered in it the way of truth which she sums up in two fundamental principles. On the one hand was the fact that “all things of this world will pass away” while on the other God alone is “forever, ever, ever”, a topic that recurs in her best known poem: “Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, all things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices”. She was about 12 years old when her mother died and she implored the Virgin Most Holy to be her mother (cf. Vida, I, 7).
When she was 20 she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation, also in Avila. In her religious life she took the name “Teresa of Jesus”. Three years later she fell seriously ill, so ill that she remained in a coma for four days, looking as if she were dead (cf. Vida, 5, 9). In the fight against her own illnesses too, the Saint saw the combat against weaknesses and the resistance to God’s call: “I wished to live”, she wrote, “but I saw clearly that I was not living but rather wrestling with the shadow of death, there was no one to give me life and I was not able to take it. He who could have given it to me had good reasons for not coming to my aid, seeing that He had brought me back to Himself so many times and I as often had left Him” (Vida, 7, 8).
In 1543 she lost the closeness of her relatives, her father died and all her siblings, one after another, emigrated to America. In Lent 1554, when she was 39 years old, Teresa reached the climax of her struggle against her own weaknesses. The fortuitous discovery of the statue of “a Christ most grievously wounded”, left a deep mark on her life (cf. Vida, 9). The Saint, who in that period felt deeply in tune with the St Augustine of the Confessions, thus describes the decisive day of her mystical experience: “and… a feeling of the presence of God would come over me unexpectedly, so that I could in no wise doubt either that He was within me, or that I was wholly absorbed in Him” (Vida, 10, 1).
Parallel to her inner development, the Saint began in practice to realise her ideal of the reform of the Carmelite Order – in 1562 she founded the first reformed Carmel in Avila, with the support of the city’s Bishop, Don Alvaro de Mendoza and shortly afterwards also received the approval of John Baptist Rossi, the Order’s Superior General. In the years that followed, she continued her foundations of new Carmelite convents, 17 in all. Her meeting with St John of the Cross was fundamental. With him, in 1568, she set up the first convent of Discalced Carmelites in Duruelo, not far from Avila. In 1580 she obtained from Rome the authorisation for her reformed Carmels as a separate, autonomous Province. This was the starting point for the Discalced Carmelite Order.
Indeed, Teresa’s earthly life ended while she was in the middle of her founding activities. She died on the night of 15 October 1582 in Alba de Tormes, after setting up the Carmelite Convent in Burgos, while on her way back to Avila. Her last humble words were: “After all I die as a child of the Church” and “O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time to meet one another”.
Teresa spent her entire life for the whole Church although she spent it in Spain. She was beatified by Pope Paul V in 1614 and Canonised by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 . The Servant of God (now Canonised yesterday, 14 October 2018) Paul VI proclaimed her a “Doctor of the Church” in 1970.
St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) Doctor of the Church (Memorial)
Biography here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/saint-of-the-day-15-october-st-teresa-of-jesusof-avila-1515-1582-doctor-of-the-church/
St Antiochus of Lyon
St Aurelia of Strasbourg
St Callistus of Huesca
St Cannatus of Marseilles
Bl Cipriano Alguacil Torredenaida
St Euthymius the Younger
St Fortunatus of Rome
Bl Josefa Martínez Pérez
St Leonard of Vandoeuvre
St Magdalena of Nagasaki
Bl Narcis Basté y Basté
St Odilo
Bl Pere Verdaguer Saurina
Bl Ramón Esteban Bou Pascual
St Sabinus of Catania
St Severus of Trier
St Thecla of Kitzengen
St Willa of Nonnberg
—
Martyrs of Cologne: A group of 360 Christian soldiers martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian and Maximian. They were martyred in 303 outside the city walls of Cologne, Germany.
Martyred in the Spanish Civil War:
• Blessed Cipriano Alguacil Torredenaida
• Blessed Josefa Martínez Pérez
• Blessed Narcis Basté y Basté
• Blessed Pere Verdaguer Saurina
• Blessed Ramón Esteban Bou Pascual
NOVENA to St John Paul the Great DAY TWO – 14 OCTOBER
Little Known Fact #2: While working in a factory during the Nazi Occupation of Poland, Karol Wojtyla heard that one of his co-workers was expecting a child. The man worked the night shift and found out that his wife gave birth to their child. After a full day of work during the day, Karol told his co-worker to go home to be with his family. Karol then worked the entire night shift in place of the new father. He continued to work the night shift after his own shift until his co-worker’s wife regained her strength and he could return to work.
REFLECTION: ”Follow me! In July 1958 the young priest Karol Wojtyla began a new stage in his journey with the Lord and in the footsteps of the Lord. Follow me – Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment, for he heard in the Church’s call the voice of Christ. And then he realised how true are the Lord’s words: “Those who try to make their life secure will lose it but those who lose their life will keep it” (Lk 17:33). Our Pope – and we all know this – never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself; he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything which he had given over into the Lord’s hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature, became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the Gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.”…Pope Benedict
Let us Pray:
O Holy Trinity, we thank You for having given to the Church Pope John Paul II and for having made him shine with Your fatherly tenderness, the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendour of the Spirit of love.
He, trusting completely in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd and has pointed out to us the way of holiness as the path to reach eternal communion with You Grant us, through his intercession, according to Your will, the grace that we implore,
………………….. [state your intention here].
Continue, beloved St John Paul, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. We praise and thank You Father that St John Paul has been numbered among Your saints and make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, one God forever.
Totus Tuus, Amen.
Quote Day Two:
“Mary is ‘the Mother of the Son of God.
As a result she is also the favourite daughter of the Father
and the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Because of this gift of sublime grace,
she far surpasses all other creatures,
both in heaven and on earth.”
(REDEMPTORIS MATER – 1987)
Sunday Reflection – 14 October – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
“And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognised him… but he vanished from their sight.”…Luke 24:30-31
“Before Communion you hear about Jesus Christ and you know Him – you are told of His Cross, of His suffering; doubtless you are affected, are even touched with compassion.
But let these same truths be presented to you after Communion. Oh, how much more deeply your soul is moved! It cannot hear enough, it understands much more perfectly. Before Communion, you contemplate Jesus outside you, now you contemplate Him within you, with His own eyes!
It is the mystery of Emmaus re-enacted. When Jesus taught the two disciples along the way, explaining the Scriptures to them, their faith still wavered, though they felt inwardly some mysterious emotion. But participating in the Fraction of the bread, immediately their eyes were opened and their hearts were like to burst with joy.
The voice of Jesus had not sufficed to reveal His presence to them, they had to feel His Heart, had to be fed with the Bread of understanding!”
Thought for the Day – 14 October – Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Today, 14 October 2018, in Rome, Pope Francis will Canonise the following (announced on 19 May 2018):
– Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini), Supreme Pontiff;
– Oscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr;
– Nunzio Sulprizio (1817-1836) Announced by Pope Francis on 19 July 2018: Details here: https://anastpaul.wordpress.com/2018/07/19/pope-francis-announces-that-he-will-canonise-blessed-nunzio-sulprizio-in-october/
– Francesco Spinelli, Diocesan Priest, Founder of the Institute of the Sisters Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament;
– Vincenzo Romano, Diocesan Priest;
– Maria Katharina Kasper, Virgin, Founder of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ;
– Nazaria Ignacia de Santa Teresa de Jesús (née: Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa), Founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Crusaders of the Church.
Let us ask our new Saints to pray for the Church and the whole world!
AnaStpaul 
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