Saint of the Day – August 24 – St Bartholomew 0ne of the Twelve – Apostle and Martyr – (1st Century) – Attributes – Knife and flayed skin – Patron of Armenia; bookbinders; butchers; Florentine cheese and salt merchants; Gambatesa, Italy; Catbalogan, Samar; Għargħur, Malta; leather workers; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; curriers; tanners, and various cities.
One of the Twelves Apostles. Probably a close friend of Saint Philip; Bartholomew’s name is always mentioned in the Gospels in connection with Philip and it was Philip who brought Bartholomew to Jesus. May have written a gospel, now lost; it is mentioned in other writings of the time. May have preached in Asia Minor, Ethiopia, India and Armenia; some one did, leaving behind assorted writings, and local tradition says it was Bartholomew. St. Nathanael, is St. Bartholomew. Image 3 – Anthony van Dyck; 4-Rubens; 5-Jusepe de Ribera.
It is easy to dismiss excessive penances of the saints as the expression of a certain culture or temperament. But a woman wearing a crown of thorns may at least prod our consciences. We enjoy the most comfort-oriented life in human history. We eat too much, drink too much, use a million gadgets, fill our eyes and ears with everything imaginable. Commerce thrives on creating useless needs on which to spend our money. It seems that when we have become most like slaves, there is the greatest talk of “freedom.” Are we willing to discipline ourselves in such an atmosphere? “Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.” (St Rose of Lima)
“If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into fiery Gehenna” (Matthew 18:8–9).
It is in Christ….that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven, so immeasurably generous is God’s favour (grace) to us……..Eph 1:7
REFLECTION – If only we would learn how great it is to possess divine grace and how many riches it has within itself, how many joys and delights.
We would devote all our concern to winning for ourselves pains and afflictions in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace…..St Rose of Lima (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – God is all goodness, keep ever in my mind the surpassing riches of Your grace. Grant that I may devote all my efforts to co-operating with that grace and growing in it day by day. St Rose of Lima Pray for us! Amen
High and Holy God,
give me this day
a word of truth
to silence the lies
that would devour my soul
and kind encourgements
to strengthen me when I fall.
Gracious One,
I come quietly to Your door
needing to receive
from Your hands
the nourishment
that gives life.
Amen and Amen
St Rose of Lima T.O.S.D. #august23 #stroseoflima ( 20 April 1586 – 15 August 1617) – Virgin and Penitent – Attributes – rose, anchor, the Infant Jesus – Patron of embroiderers, gardeners, florist, India, Latin America, people ridiculed or misunderstood for their piety; for the resolution of family quarrels, indigenous peoples of the Americas, Peru, Philippines, against vanity, Lima, Peruvian Police Force, Santa Rosa California, Santa Rosa, Luguna, Alcoy, Cebu.
Jose del Pozo (attributed)
The first canonized saint of the New World has one characteristic of all saints—the suffering of opposition—and another characteristic which is more for admiration than for imitation—excessive practice of mortification.
She was born to parents of Spanish descent in Lima, Peru, at a time when South America was in its first century of evangelization. She seems to have taken Catherine of Siena (April 29) as a model, in spite of the objections and ridicule of parents and friends.
The saints have so great a love of God that what seems bizarre to us and is indeed sometimes imprudent, is simply a logical carrying out of a conviction that anything that might endanger a loving relationship with God must be rooted out. So, because her beauty was so often admired, Rose used to rub her face with pepper to produce disfiguring blotches. Later, she wore a thick circlet of silver on her head, studded on the inside, like a crown of thorns.
When her parents fell into financial trouble, she worked in the garden all day and sewed at night. Ten years of struggle againsther parents began when they tried to make Rose marry. They refused to let her enter a convent and out of obedience she continued her life of penance and solitude at home as a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic. So deep was her desire to live the life of Christ that she spent most of her time at home in solitude.
During the last few years of her life, Rose set up a room in the house where she cared for homeless children, the elderly and the sick. This was a beginning of social services in Peru. Though secluded in life and activity, she was brought to the attention of Inquisition interrogators, who could only say that she was influenced by grace.
What might have been a merely eccentric life was transfigured from the inside. If we remember some unusual penances, we should also remember the greatest thing about Rose: a love of God so ardent that it withstood ridicule from without, violent temptation and lengthy periods of sickness. When she died at 31, the city turned out for her funeral. Prominent men took turns carrying her coffin. (Lives of the Saints by Fr Leonard Foley O.F.M.)
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