Saint of the day and Feast days.

[odhiambo]

reminding me of St. Camillus de Lellis and the poor, and dig, dig, digging to find them! Because people of such stripes prove and help, what is the word for hardening metal? Temper? their sanctity.

 

[martin]

5: Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, said to be the best of his spiritual works as mentioned earlier.

Odhiama I read this book before (by St Thomas Moore) and it is very moving. Letters back and forth comforting and helping each other to persevere through great persecusions.
Another saint on my list of helpers. 

[odhiambo]

5: Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, said to be the best of his spiritual works as mentioned earlier.

Odhiama I read this book before (by St Thomas Moore) and it is very moving. Letters back and forth comforting and helping each other to persevere through great persecusions.
Another saint on my list of helpers. 

I would love to read the book martin. Is it available on line ? I have a growing list of "must read" books, both on line and at home. Did you ever watch the movie "A Man for All Seasons" ? I used to watch old movies on TCM, but I no longer do that, thanks to Saints Discussion Forum. 
 Reading his biography, I too was touched by this saint.

[odhiambo]

June 24

Today we commemorate the
The Birth of Saint John the Baptist.

The birth of Saint John was foretold by the Archangel Gabriel to his father, Zachary, who was offering incense in the Temple in Jerusalem. Zachary could not believe what he heard. All his married life he and his wife Elizabeth had wanted children but as time passed and it did not happen, they accepted the fact that Elizabeth was baren; that it was the Will of God. Now, when they are both very old and well past the age of child bearing, he is being told he was to have a son and that he was to name him John which means “God is gracious” The Angel of the Lord went on to tell Zachary that his son would be a great man in the sight of the Lord. He was not to drink any wine or strong drink and most importantly, from his very birth, the child would be filled with the Holy Spirit. His role would be to prepare the way for the Messiah. Wow! Who would not be overwhelmed?
All this came to pass. Elizabeth did conceive and in the sixth month of her pregnancy, Mary, her young cousin, who had been told of the pregnancy by the same Angel, left her home immediataly to go and help Elizabeth who surely needed help at this time. The Child was duly born and named as had been instructed by Archangel Gabriel. He was born at Ain-Karim, southwest of Jerusalem, six months before Jesus was born.
Saint John the Baptist is unique in that he is the only saint whose birth day is observed in addition to that of his death, 29 August.( Except of course for The Lord Himself and Our Lady )
In the words of Jesus, “ Of all the children born to women, there is no one greater than John” Lk 7:28.
Saint John the Baptist,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

June 25

Today is the Feast day of
Saint William of Vercelli
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint William of Vercelli
Abbot and
 Founder of the Congregation of Monte Vergine
Also known as William of Monte Vergine

William was born in 1085 at Vercelli, Italy. His parents, who were members of the nobility, both died in his infancy. He was subsequently raised by a relative. At the age of 14, William gave away all his inheritance, and set out on a long and austere pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin, founded by Saint James at Saragossa, Spain.
On his return to Italy, God revealed to William, His Plan for his life. He was being called to live as a hermit. He chose for this life, an uninhabited mountain in southern Italy. Here, he lived in perpetual contemplation and the exercises of rigorous, penitential austerities.

More and more monks, attracted by his sanctity and miracles, joined him, placing themselves under his direction. He built a monastery for them and in 1119, he founded the Congregation of Monte Vergine, or the Hermits of Monte Vergine or Williamites. Theirs was a life of great austerity in accordance with the Benedictine rules.
After a while, some of the monks complained that their austerities were too severe and that William gave away too much of their sustenance to the poor. William simply left them. He moved to Monte Cognato. King Roger I of Naples, built for him a hermitage at Salermo, near his palace. It was said that the King wanted to keep Saint William nearby so as to benefit from his wise counsel.

Following is an excerpt from SQPN on the legend about today’s saint:

“Legend says that William began mining the stone and digging the foundations for the church on Montevergine when his only companion and helper was a single donkey. One evening, a wolf charged from the forest, killed and ate the donkey. William ordered the wolf to take the donkey’s place. The wolf, understanding that he had interrupted God‘s work, bowed his head, and began hauling the loads of stone. Tradition says that the same wolf still prowls the mountain, ready to help those who are in danger and who call upon the name of the Virgin Mary”
Willian died on 25 June 1142 at Guglietto, Italy of natural causes.
In liturgical art, he is sometimes represented as an abbot near a wolf wearing a saddle or saddling a wolf that killed his donkey.

Saint William of Vercelli,
 Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

Today is the Feast of
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
"The Food and Drink of Eternal Life.
God kept His people alive in the desert by giving them food and drink from heaven.
The food and drink He gives us in this sacrament is the Body and Blood of His Son, given for the life of the world"
From our Parish Newsletter.

Following is an appropriate Hymn for today

1 O Lord, I am not worthy
That Thou should'st come to me,
But speak the words of comfort,
My spirit healed shall be.

2. Oh, come, all you who labor
In sorrow and in pain,
Come, eat This Bread from heaven;
Thy peace and strength regain.

3. O Jesus, we adore Thee,
Our Victim and our Priest,
Whose precious Blood and Body
Become our sacred Feast.

4. O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving
Be ev'ry moment Thine.

[odhiambo]

June 26

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Josemaria Escriva
Among many other Saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Josemaria Escriva
Priest and Founder of
Opus Dei.
Also known as
Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer

Josemaria was born in Barbastro, Spain on 9 January 1902. He was the second of six children. His parents,
José and Dolores Escriva, brought up their children with a devout Catholic faith. Of the six children they were blessed with, three died in infancy. Josemaria's father was a small scale businessman. In 1915, his business failed. Jose moved his family to
Logroño, Spain. It was here in Logrono that he felt called to the priesthood. It is recorded that he saw
some bare footprints in the snow. The foot prints were those of a monk who had walked that way a short while earlier. Looking at those prints, he felt that God wanted something of him, and the best way he saw of finding out God's plan for him, was to become a priest. Accordingly he entered the seminary at Logrono and completed his training for the priesthood at the Pontifical University of Saragossa. His father died in 1924, and Josemaria had to support his family as well as study. He was ordained in Zaragossa on 28 March 1925.
Following his ordination, he was assigned for a while to a rural parish, but was later brought back in Zaragossa. He moved to Madrid, in 1927 to study law. At the end of his studies, Josemaria started working for the poor and the sick. On October 2, 1921, Josemaria received an inspiration to start the Society of Opus Dei which is Latin for "Work of God" The reason for the founding of the society was to promote holiness worldwide, membership being open to both men and women.
When the Spanish civil war broke out in 1936, Josemaría was in Madrid. He risked his life during the religious persecution that followed. He was forced to hide from the authorities, eventually escaping to Andorra.
On February 14, 1943, the Saint also founded the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross. in 1946, he took up residence in Rome. Josemaria had a motto, and it was this:
" to hide and disappear so that only Jesus may shine"
Opus Dei spread across the world. and Josemaria became a consultor to the Holy See under Pope Pius XII.
In time, Opus Dei owned publishing houses, and radio stations dedicated to the use of modern media techniques in serving the Church.

On June 26 , 1975 Josemaria died of a heart attack in his office at Opus Dei headquarters in Rome.
His remains were enshrined in the Prelatic Church of Our Lady of Peace in Rome.
At the time of his death, Josemaria left more than sixty thousand members of Opus Dei in eighty countries and a thousand priests dedicated to the Opus Dei apostolate.

He was beatified on 17 May 1992 by Pope John Paul II and canonized on 6 October 2002 by Pope John Paul II.
Saint Josemaria,
Pray for us!


Ref:
Our Sunday Visitor Encyclopedia Of Saints.
By Matthew Bunson, Stephen Bunson, Margaret Bunson:

[odhiambo]

27 June
Today is the Feast day of
Saint Cyril of Alexandria
Among many other Saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Cyril of Alexandria
Doctor of the Church.
Cyril was born in the year 376 at Alexandria in Egypt. He was the nephew of Theophilus the Patriarch or Bishop of Alexandria. He received his education at Alexandria, and was sent by his uncle, to the monks in the Egyptian desert to be trained in ascetical life. His uncle, the Bishop of Alexandria, ordained him a priest.
In July, 403, Cyril accompanied The Bishop to Constantinople to attend the Synod of the Oak at which Saint John Chrystostom was condemned and deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople.
Nine years later, in 412, His uncle died and Cyril, then 36 years old, was named to succeed him.
Cyril began his reign by undertaking two drastic measures.
1: He closed all churches belonging to the heretical sect, the Novatianists. This heresy as you will recall, originated with the Roman priest, Novatian who became an antipope. The Novatianists adopted a moral high ground maintaining that the Church had no power to absolve those Christians who had lapsed into idolatry during the preceding years of persecution and they were to be permanently excluded from the Church. Absolution was also refused to those guilty of the sins of murder and adultery.
2: Cyril also drove away all the Jews from Alexandria. At the time of the founding of the city by Alexander the Great, the Jews had been established in the city in order to encourage trade. They were, however reported to hate Christians, causing repeated riots and massacres.
In 430 Cyril took up the battle with Nestorian heretics, condemning Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, who was preaching that Mary was not the Mother of God since Christ was Divine and not human, and consequently she should not have the word theotokos (God-bearer) applied to her.
He persuaded Pope Celestine I to convoke a synod at Rome, which condemned Nestorius, and then did the same at his own synod in Alexandria. Celestine directed Cyril to depose Nestorius, and in 431, Cyril presided over the third General Council at Ephesus, attended by some two hundred bishops, which condemned all the tenets of Nestorius and his followers. The table soon turned on him however, when he found himself deposed by Archbishop John of Antioch and forty-two followers who believed Nestorius was innocent.
Emperor Theodosius II arrested both Cyril and Nestorius but released Cyril on the intervention of the Pope. Nestorius was later condemned by all sides.

Cyril of Alexandria is known for his writings on the Incarnation and the Trinity.
He wrote commentaries on Saint John, Saint Luke and other Scriptures to mention but a few of his works.
He died of natural causes in 444 at Alexandria. His relics are in Alexandria
His canonization was pre-Congregation.
He is the patron of Alexandria, Egypt
He was declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

June 28

Today is the Feast Day of
Saint Irenaenus
Among many other Saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Irenaenus
Bishop of Lyons.
Doctor of the Church,
Martyr.

Saint Irenaeus, " Father of Catholic Theology", as he has been called, was born in a Christian family between the years 120 and 140, in Smyrna.
While he was still young, his parents placed him under the care of Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and disciple of Saint John the Apostle. Saint Irenaeus is reported to have said the following to a friend once:
"I listened to St. Polycarp's instructions very carefully. I wrote down his actions and his words, not on paper, but on my heart."
He was ordained in 177 and soon after that, he was sent to Lyons to assist Bishop Saint Pothimus. On his arrival in Lyons, Bishop Pothimus sent him to Rome with a message to Pope Saint Eleutherius to brief him on the spread of the Montanist heresy. In his absence during that same year, a violent, very cruel persecution against the Church broke out in Lyons. It claimed the lives of Pothimus, priests and many other Christians.
The following year, Irenaeus returned to Lyons, luckily, by then, the persecution was over. He was elected Bishop of Lyons. Although the persecution was over, there was another danger to the Church, a heresy called Gnosticism. Saint Irenaeus
studied all its teachings and then he wrote a number of books that showed how wrong they were.
One such work was " Adversus Omnes Haereses" or " Against Heresies", written in his own Greek tongue and which was a sharp criticism of Gnosticism.
Another is "Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching" or, “Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" which was also written in Greek.
In 190, Irenaeus, whose name means " lover of peace, helped in bringing peace between Pope Victor I and the Eastern Churches in relation to the Eastern Church refusal to conform to the Roman practice concerning the Easter date.
Saint Irenaeus was Bishop of Lyons for 24 years and in that time, he was successful in gaining many new converts to the Church and in rebuilding the Church in Gaul.
He is, however, chiefly known for his writings some of which have been mentioned above.
Irenaeus was martyred in 202, under Septimius Severus, in Lyons, France. His tomb and relics were destroyed by Calvinists in 1562.
His head is in Saint John’s church, Lyons, France
His canonization was Pre-Congregation.

Saint Irenaeus,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Isn't it impressive odhiambo? It's like being there at the time, with these early saints and companions of the apostles.

[martin]

"I listened to St. Polycarp's instructions very carefully. I wrote down his actions and his words, not on paper, but on my heart."

That's what I wish to do when I read a saints quote that really hits home. I read it many times hoping that it will stick. 

[odhiambo]

Isn't it impressive odhiambo? It's like being there at the time, with these early saints and companions of the apostles.

It is Shin. It is our history. Part of us. We are the  Body of the Church