Saint of the day and Feast days.

[martin]

Pope St. Martin I ora pro nobis!

Nowadays monotheletism seems so far away. But back then, it shook the world.

A good example for Martin!   

I am happy that these days there are not so many heresies; if there are, I am not aware.

Hmmm... Maybe not as obvious as the heresies back in the time of Pope St Martin I, but nevertheless there are many more subtle heresies abounding which many Catholics have mistakenly accepted as being true Church teaching. These can be found more-so at local level in parishes (though not exclusively) which have lost track of any sense of tradition.
A few I could mention in my own parish would be such things as, false ecumenism, disbelief in hell, disbelief in purgatory, Baptism being unnecessary for salvation, sacramental confession not being necessary for forgiveness of mortal sin, disbelief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist; some of these being more deep-rooted and widespread than others but definitely present to at least some degree and not just among the laity. 

[odhiambo]

Pope St. Martin I ora pro nobis!

Nowadays monotheletism seems so far away. But back then, it shook the world.

A good example for Martin!   

I am happy that these days there are not so many heresies; if there are, I am not aware.

Hmmm... Maybe not as obvious as the heresies back in the time of Pope St Martin I, but nevertheless there are many more subtle heresies abounding which many Catholics have mistakenly accepted as being true Church teaching. These can be found more-so at local level in parishes (though not exclusively) which have lost track of any sense of tradition.
A few I could mention in my own parish would be such things as, false ecumenism, disbelief in hell, disbelief in purgatory, Baptism being unnecessary for salvation, sacramental confession not being necessary for forgiveness of mortal sin, disbelief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist; some of these being more deep-rooted and widespread than others but definitely present to at least some degree and not just among the laity. 

What can one say; They are Protestants at heart 
It is just plain sad that with all the evidence we have,we choose to believe otherwise.
I had no idea that even Catholics feel that way. Is it even correct to call them 'Catholics' feeling and talking that way?

[odhiambo]

16 April.

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Bernadette Soubirous
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879)
Patroness of Lourdes

Bernadette was born on January 7, 1844, in Lourdes, France. She was the first born child of Francois and Louise Soubirous. She was baptized Mary Bernard. At the time of her birth, Francois was a miller, operating a mill which had belonged to his wife's people. He was a good-natured, easy-going man but without any business know-how. Consequently, he lost the mill due to bad debts and during most of Bernadette's childhood he was an odd job man. Add to this, within a short period of time, many children were born to the parents. Only five of whom survived infancy. After Bernadette, there was another girl, Toinette Marie, and three boys. Needless to say, the family lived in abject poverty, so poor that they reportedly lived in a cellar.

Bernadette was a sickly child who suffered from chronic severe asthma. She apparently had some difficulty learning as it is reported that she could neither write nor read even though she was fourteen years old. She was , however a poius little girl who loved God dearly. It was to this child that the Our Lady appeared; Here is the story:

On February 11, Bernadette, her sister Marie-Toinette and their friend Jeanne Abadie, all between the ages of eleven and fourteen, started out from their home in Lourdes to look for firewood. To reach their destination, they had to pass in front of a grotto in the rocky cliff of Massabielle and had also to cross a shallow stream. The two other girls crossed over, but Bernadette, who was wearing stockings because of her delicate health, bent down to remove the stockings when suddenly she heard a rustling sound as that made by a gust of wind. At first she paid only cursory attention but when she heard the same sound again, she looked intently towards the grotto. She saw the bushes violently agitated. Then, there floated out of the opening a golden cloud, and in the midst of this cloud, she perceived “a girl in white, no taller than I, who greeted me with a slight bow of the head”. The apparition, she said afterwords, was very beautiful. It was clad in white with a blue girdle, whilst a long rosary hung over her arm. The figure seemed to the child ,to invite her to pray. Bernadette knelt down and taking her rosary out of her pocket, began to pray. The apparition likewise took the rosary in her hand and passed the beads through her fingers. Her lips, however, did not move. No words were exchanged. At the end of the five decades, the figure withdrew into the shadow and disappeared.

When the other two children came back and found Bernadette on her knees, they laughed at her. She told her sister what she had seen and made her promise not to tell; but Toinette Marie told her mother that evening. After questioning Bernadette on the matter, her mother thought it might be a soul from Purgatory and forbade her to return to the Grotto.
Two days later, with permission from her father and accompanied by her mother, she returned to the Grotto, armed with holy water in a bottle. When the vision appeared, Bernadette went forward and threw some holy water towards it saying at the same time, “If you come from God, come nearer.” The vision advanced a little. The apparition asked Bernadette to continue to go to the Grotto daily for a fortnight. The apparition also said, “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next”.
No one believed her story. Not her relatives, nor the nuns who taught her catechism lessons.

After the news spread, the police and city authorities began to take an interest. Bernadette was prohibited by her parents and police commissioner Jacomet to ever go there again, but she went anyway.
On 24 February the apparition asked for prayer and penitence for the conversion of sinners. The next day, Bernadette was asked to dig in the ground and drink the water of the spring she found there. This is the miraculous spring which to date is a source of comfort and healing to numerous pilgrims.

On another occasion, Bernadette was bidden to tell the clergy that a chapel should be built and a procession held. She went to the ‘cure’ who received her very harshly as he apparently did not believe in the veracity of the apparition.

On March 25, the day of the Annunciation, Bernadette started for the grotto very early in the morning. When Our Lady appeared, Bernadette asked. “Would you kindly tell me who you are?” Our Lady, joining her hands together and raising her eyes to heaven, answered: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. ("que soy era immaculate concepciou").
The eighteenth and the final apparition was on July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Bernadette lived for twenty one years after the last apparition.
At Lourdes, miracles are witnessed. Many people are cured of their varied ailments.
An imposing basilica, known as the Church of the Rosary, now stands on top of the rock where the apparition took place.

Hail Mary conceived without sin.
Pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Saint Bernadette,
Pray for us!
__________________

[Patricia]

“I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next”.

[odhiambo]

“I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next”.

How wonderful to have that assurance  

[Shin]

'It is in loving the cross that one discovers His Heart, for divine Love does not exist without suffering.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'What does it profit a man to gain the universe if he loses his soul? A terrible thought, but profoundly true! As Saint Ignatius said: How insignificant earth seems to me when I consider Heaven.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'Holy Scripture tells us that whoever gives in to temptation will perish.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'Why is He so little in me? Is it because I am not little enough, not humble enough. Therefore may I become more humble, may I humble myself, and Jesus will increase.

Grow, Jesus, grow in my, in my heart, in my spirit, my imagination, my senses, by your modesty, your purity, your humility, your zeal, your love. Grow with your grace, your light, your peace. Grow despite my resistance, my pride. Grow until you reach the fullness of human perfection. Grow as you did at Nazareth before God and before men, for the glory of your Father.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'O Most Holy Mother of my Jesus, you who saw and felt the extreme desolation of your dear Son, help me in my own time of desolation.

And you saints of Heaven who have passed through this trial, have pity on those who are suffering it now and pray that I be given the grace to be faithful until death.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'If I had to remake my character entirely, struggle endlessly against my own inclinations and destroy them, or even tear my own heart out, all this I would do to be worthy of serving you. I am entirely persuaded that the miracle you worked to reward the faith of our holy patron is but a shadow of the glorious resurrection you will deign to grant me if I am faithful to my vocation.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'O Virtue! How rarely we see you, yet how real you are!'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

It's truly important to learn about the virtues and appreciate them and develop them in one's life.

'When you pass before a chapel and do not have time to stop for a while, tell your Guardian Angel to carry out your errand to Our Lord in the tabernacle. He will accomplish it and then still have time to catch up with you.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

My italics.

But let me add, if you have time do stop. . .

[Shin]

'Holy Scripture tells us that whoever gives in to temptation will perish.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

When I read this I think it points to how we must become people who do not habitually give into temptation. Great or small.. our habit must be to live supernaturally.. spiritually.. for the sake of God, directly, lives..

Whether it's food, excessive comforts, etc.. Mortification is so important to correct our predispositions and habitual weaknesses to the passions.. to give us fortitude.. and a spiritual orientation instead of an earthly one..

So that our -habit- is, overall, in all things, that we do not go with what temptation offers, great or small..

[odhiambo]

'Holy Scripture tells us that whoever gives in to temptation will perish.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

When I read this I think it points to how we must become people who do not habitually give into temptation. Great or small.. our habit must be to live supernaturally.. spiritually.. for the sake of God, directly, lives..

Whether it's food, excessive comforts, etc.. Mortification is so important to correct our predispositions and habitual weaknesses to the passions.. to give us fortitude.. and a spiritual orientation instead of an earthly one..

So that our -habit- is, overall, in all things, that we do not go with what temptation offers, great or small..

{'Holy Scripture tells us that whoever gives in to temptation will perish.'
St. Bernadette Soubirous}

So stated  as highlighted above, it sounds so frighteningly final, like there is no  penance, repentance or forgiveness. So many of us do give in to temptation, it is important to remember the warning as you said, but also that Jesus does forgive us even after we give in to temptation.

[odhiambo]

'
'When you pass before a chapel and do not have time to stop for a while, tell your Guardian Angel to carry out your errand to Our Lord in the tabernacle. He will accomplish it and then still have time to catch up with you.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Do you know Shin, in days gone by, when I must have been a better person than I am today.
I would start my rosary in bed but ask my Guardian Angel to finish it for me, once I am asleep.
Oh, the Blessed old days

[odhiambo]

17 April

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Benedict  Joseph Labre
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Benedict Joseph Labre

Also known as
Beggar of Perpetual Adoration
Benedetto Giuseppe Labre
Saint Benedict, called “the Beggar of Rome”, was born March 25, 1748 in Amettes, France.
He was the first born in a family of fifteen children.( there were eighteen children by other accounts) His father was a shopkeeper and had done well for himself in the business. Benedict manifested exceptional piety from his earliest years. He was particularly attracted to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. He was educated by his uncle, the then parish priest of Erin, France. At the age of sixteen, following the death of his uncle, he tried to join the Trappists, Carthusians and Cistercians but was refused by these orders.
In 1770, he made a pilgrimage to the major shrines of Europe, settling in Rome in 1774. There he lived near the Collosseum, gaining fame for his sanctity.
He was dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament and attended the Fourty Hours devotion in the City. I had to look up this devotion from Catholic Encyclopedia. This is what it says:
“Also called Quarant' Ore or written in one word Quarantore, is a devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed Sacrament exposed….”
He died in Rome on April 16 in 1783. It was on a Friday of Holy Week, just as it is Holy week now, when we are commemmorating his holy life.
Below is an excerpt from Eternal Word Television Network.

“"Scarcely had this poor follower of Christ breathed his last when all at once the little children from the houses hard by filled the whole street with their noise, crying out with one accord: 'The Saint is dead, the Saint is dead.'—But presently after they were not only young children who published the sanctity of Benedict; all Rome soon joined in their cries, repeating the self-same words: 'A Saint is dead.' . . . Great numbers of persons who have been eminent for their holiness, and famous for their miracles, have ended the days of their mortal life in this city; but the death of none of them ever excited so rapid and lively an emotion in the midst of the people as the death of this poor beggar. This stirred a kind of universal commotion; for in the streets scarcely anything could be heard but these few words: 'There is a saint dead in Rome. Where is the house in which he has died?"'

He was beatified in 1860 by Blessed Pius IX and canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1883
He is invoked against insanity among other ailments. He is the patron saint of beggars, pilgrims, and others.

Saint Benedict Joseph Labre
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

18 April

Today is the Feast day of
Blessed James Oldo
Among many others Blesseds and Saints

[odhiambo]

Blessed James Oldo

Also known as
James D'Oldo
James of Lodi.
James of Oldo was born in 1364, into a well-to-do family at Lodi near Milan in Italy.

He married a woman named Catharine when he was quite young. He and Catharine were reportedly, both self-indulgent and appreciated the comforts that came with wealth. Then there was an outbreak of plague that drove James, his wife and their three children out of their home and into the countryside. Despite the precautions that they took, two of their daughters died from the plague. This calamity jolted James and was the turning point in his life.

Here I must also mention that there is another account that mentions an instantaneous conversion and I am not quite sure how to tie the two together. I would appreciate some help from anyone who is more familiar with this saint.

This other account adds that one day a travelling reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre came to Lodi. As a joke, James lay down on it to compare his height to that of Christ. While lying there, he had an instant conversion. He became a Franciscan tertiary. He gave up his old lifestyle and did penance for his sins.
His mother and wife were at first opposed to the change but they soon became tertiaries as well. The family turned their mansion into a chapel and they worked with the sick and with prisoners. When James’ wife died, he became a priest. His acts of penance were so severe that his bishop had to order him to eat at least three times a week. He was a celebrated preacher, who inspired many to enter the religious life.

James died at the age of 40 in 1404, from a disease he contracted from one of his patients. When his body was moved seven years after his death, it was found incorrupt.
James was beatified in 1933.

Blessed James,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

I read a biography of his in which he was referred to as 'Saint James Oldo'
It seems like he must have been canonized already.
Anyone with any information to that effect?

[Shin]

No, don't see any news about it.

But I truly love the story of his conversion.

"His acts of penance were so severe that his bishop had to order him to eat at least three times a week. He was a celebrated preacher, who inspired many to enter the religious life."