Saint of the day and Feast days.

[odhiambo]

The following is a reflection on today’s Gospel, It is taken from the Bible Diary 2012 ( African Edition)
Published by the Claretian Publications, Tanzania:

T.S. Eliot, in his poem " The Magi", depicts dramatically the adventurous journey the magi made. Leaving the comfort zone of their luxurious palaces, they traversed through unfamiliar ways, experiencing most unexpected challenges on the way. Of course, they attained their cherished goal of meeting the long awaited Savior. But what did they see? A simple, ordinary child born of a village woman! Then was it worth making such a journey? The answer is an overwhelming yes. After meeting the Lord, they could not walk through the same way they came. They changed their 'way'. Yet some question remain. While they opened their treasuries and offered to the Lord some 'things', did they give of themselves? They departed by another way, but did they take the Lord with them?

[odhiambo]

Let us also remember
Saint Andre Bessette,
Whose Memorial is also today.
Saint Andre Bessette
Religious
Andre was born in the year 1845, to French Canadian parents in Quebec, near Montreal , Canada.
He was the eighth of 12 children, and rather unfortunately, he was known to be weak and sickly right from birth. This meant that he could not attend school regularly; consequently, Andre remained unlettered all his life.
When he was 12 years old, both his parents died and he was adopted.
In his youth, Andre worked in the U.S.A. at various jobs, first as a farmhand, then as a shoemaker, baker, blacksmith, etc. He was no good at any of these jobs. He also worked in the factory in the States when the Civil War was at its peak in that country.
When he was 25 years old, he returned to Canada and applied for admission to the Congregation of the Holy Cross Brothers. One year’s novitiate later, Andre was at first denied admission on account of ill health. Then Bishop Ignace Bourget interceded on his behalf and he was finally admitted to the Order.
He was assigned the humble task of doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Montreal, with additional duties as janitor, sacristan, infirmarian, laundry worker, barber, gardener and messenger, lamplighter, etc, on the campus. As he once humerously remarked:
“When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door, and I remained 40 years!”
Not surprisingly, his little room was near the door and he was known to spent long nights on his knees there. On his windowsill, facing Mount Royal, he had a small statue of St. Joseph, to whom he had been devoted since childhood.
When asked about it he said, “Some day, St. Joseph is going to be honored in a very special way on Mount Royal!”
Whenever Andre heard that someone was ill, he visited to pray with the sick person. He would then rub the sick person lightly with oil taken from a lamp burning before St. Joseph in the college chapel. Word of healing powers began to spread.
When an epidemic broke out at a nearby college, André volunteered to nurse. Not one person died. The trickle of sick people to his door became a flood. His superiors were uneasy; diocesan authorities were suspicious; doctors called him a quack. His reply to all these was: “I do not cure,” he said again and again. “St. Joseph cures.”
For many years the Holy Cross authorities had tried to buy land on Mount Royal. Brother André and others climbed the steep hill and planted medals of St. Joseph. Suddenly, the owners yielded.
A chapel in honor of Saint Joseph was eventually built there. The magnificent Oratory on Mount Royal took 50 years to build.
Andre Bessette, the sickly boy who could not hold a job, died in 1937, at the ripe old age of 92!
He is buried at the Oratory and was beatified in 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
At his canonization in October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said that St. Andre "lived the beatitude of the pure of heart."
Saint Andre Bessette,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

7 January

Today is the Memorial of
Saint Raymond of Penefort
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Raymond of Penafort.
Abbot, Confessor
Raymond was born in 1175, in the Castle of Penafort, in Catalina, Spain. He was a blood relative of the King of Aragon. He studied and taught Canon Law for 15 years at the University of Barcelona. He then traveled to Bologna, Italy where he completed his studies in Canon Law and obtained a doctorate.
In 1222, Raymond was admitted to the Dominican Order at Barcelona. Together with Saint Peter Nolasco, he established the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, for the redemption of the captives from the Moors.  Raymond was a powerful preacher and is credited with the conversion of over 10,000 Saracens, Waldenses and Albigenses.
In 1230, Pope Gregory IX called him to Rome to be his Chaplain and confessor. The Pope also entrusted to Raymond the task of systematizing, condensing, and codifying into convenient form the Church’s decrees which had been accumulating for several centuries.
Raymond compiled five books called the Decretals. They were looked upon as one of the best organized collections of Church law. So thorough was this work that it remained the basis of canon law until the new codex was promulgated in 1917.
Raymond declined the archbishopric of Tarragona, the capital of Aragon, and retired to Spain after completing this work, but in 1238, he was elected the third Dominican General. As such, he reorganized the constitutions of the Order.
Raymond was also dedicated to the cause of converting Muslims and Jews and so he established schools of Arabic and Hebrew studies in Barcelona and Tunis.
It was Raymond, who suggested to Saint Thomas Aquinas to compile the Summa contra Gentiles (Against the Gentiles), to assist missionaries in their work among non-Christians.
Raymond died on 6 January 1275 at the age of 100.
He was canonized by Pope Clement VIII in 1601.
He is the Patron Saint of canonists, i.e. those specializing in canon law.
Saint Raymond of Penafort,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

8 January

Today is the Memorial of
Blessed Angela of Foligno
Among many other saints and Blesseds

[odhiambo]

Angela of Foligno
Blessed
Angela was born at Foligno, Umbria, Italy in 1248. She was very wealthy and  not a Christian.  She married young and had several children. She took part in the social events of the city and ‘piety’ was not something she concerned herself with until she was about 40 years old when she had a vision. This was in 1285. Following that mystical experience, Angela became a tertiary member of the Franciscan Third Order. She recorded the history of her conversion in her "Book of Visions and Instructions", which contains seventy chapters, and which was dictated to her Franciscan Confessor. This book contains her visions and ecstasies, which reveal that she is a great mystic. Her writings are also found in "The Book of Divine Consolations of Blessed Angela of Foligno".
When her husband died, she gave away her possessions and started a community of tertiaries devoted to the care of the needy.
Angela is noted for her charity, patience, and humility. She is called "the Mistress of Theologians" due to her many recorded writings and visions.
Blessed Angela is the patron for those ridiculed for their piety, those who struggle with sexual temptations and temptations in general, widows, and those who have lost children.
She is represented being invited by Our Lord to receive Holy Communion; and chaining the devil.
Angela died in 1309.
Her tomb is in the church of Saint Francis in Foligno
Many miracles have been recorded there.
Blessed Angela of Foligno
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Bl. Angela pray for us!

Holy family, pray for us!

[Patricia]

Blessed Angela , pray for us!! 

[odhiambo]

9 January

Today is the Feast day of
Saint Adrian of Canterbury
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Adrian of Canterbury.
Adrian was a native of Africa. He was a Berber, a native of Greek speaking North Africa.
Feeling called to the monastic life, Adrian left his native home and traveled to Italy where he became a Benedictine monk. While still a young man, he was made Abbot of the monastery of Nerida, near Naples. Outstanding for his learning as well as his sanctity, Adrian was offered the Archbishopric of Canterbury, England by Pope Saint Vitalian in succession to Saint Deusdedit, who had died in 664. It seems strange now, hearing of a missionary going from Africa to the West, but many centuries ago, when the Church was still young and hadn't spread to Europe, people would travel from Judea or Egypt to other lands as missionaries.
The Pope offered him the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury, (twice), but Adrian modestly declined the appointment. He first recommended that it should be given to Andrew, a monk belonging to a neighboring nunnery, who also declined on the plea of advanced years. Then, when the offer was made to Adrian a second time, he introduced to the pontiff his friend Theodore of Tarsus, who chanced to be at Rome at the time, and who consented to undertake the charge. Vitalian, however, stipulated that Adrian should accompany the new archbishop to Britain. He gave as his reasons that Adrian, having twice before made a journey into Gaul, knew the road and the mode of traveling.
They left Rome in 668, but Adrian was detained in France for 2 whole years on suspicion that he was bearing secret messages to England from the Byzantine Emperor, Constans II. When he was finally released, he sailed to England and was made Abbot of the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul. (Called, in time, St. Austin’s).
Under Adrian, the monastery became the very center of learning in the British Isle. From it and from the other schools which Saint Adrian had established, came many great missionaries and saintly scholars who in the 8th century established the faith in parts of Europe.
Saint Adrian died on 9 January 710 after 39 years of faithful labor, preaching and education, and was buried in Canterbury.
Saint Adrian of Canterbury
Pray for us!

[Shin]

Saint Adrian of Canterbury, pray for us!

I didn't know about him! Thank you odhiambo! 

[Patricia]

St. Adrian pray for us!!

[odhiambo]

10 January

Today is the Memorial of
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Gregory of Nyssa.
Gregory of Nyssa was the younger brother of St. Basil the Great and St. Macrina. He was born around 330 AD in Ceasarea, Cappadocia (modern Turkey). He was the son of St. Basil and St. Emmilia.
Gregory married and spent several years of his life in secular employment before he entered the monastery founded by his elder brother Basil.
He was consecrated Bishop of Nyssa in 371 by his brother.
In 376, Gregory was falsely accused by the local governor, of improper use of Church property. He was deposed and exiled for about 2 years. The real reason for his deposition and exile, however, was his strong adherence to the Nicene Creed, and Emperor Valens, who was Arian, did not like it!
Emperor Gratian restored him in 378, after the death of the Arian Emperor Valens.
The following year, Gregory attended the Council of Antioch, where he was most outspoken against Arianism.
In 380, Gregory was elected bishop of Sebaste against his wishes.
In 381, Saint Gregory emerged as one of the most ardent, orthodox leaders at the Second General Council (First Council of Constantinople, 381). As a consequence of this, he is honored as one of the most prominent and respected theologians in the Eastern Church.
He wrote numerous theological treatises, including Catechetical Discourse;
Commentaries on the Scriptures; explanations and defense of the faith; and others.
Gregory died around the year 395 AD and is revered as one of the greatest of the Eastern Church Fathers. He, his brother Basil and their friend St. Gregory of Nazianzen, are known as the Cappadocian Fathers, from the region in modern Turkey from which they came.
Many consider him the most profound of the three Cappadocian Fathers.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

11 January

Today is the Memorial of
Blessed William Carter
Among many others.

[odhiambo]

Blessed William Carter.
William Carter was born in London, England in1548. He was the son of John Carter, a draper, and Agnes, his wife.
He entered the printing business at an early age and for many years he served as apprentice to well-known Catholic printers.
William was Imprisoned and tortured for 18 months for “printing lewd (read, Catholic) pamphlets.”
But even more, he offended public officials by publishing works that aimed to keep Catholics firm in their faith. Officials who searched his house found various vestments and suspect books, and even managed to extract information from William's distraught wife. Over the next 18 months William remained in prison, suffering torture.
His wife died while he was in prison.
He was eventually charged with printing and publishing the Treatise of Schisme, which allegedly incited violence by Catholics and which was said to have been written by a "traitor" and addressed to "traitors."
The jury debated 15 minutes before returning a guilty verdict.
He was hanged, drawn, and quartered on 11 January 1584 at Tyburn, London, England
Blessed William Carter is one of the 85 martyrs put to death in England, Wales and Scotland. They were beatified on November 22, 1987, by Pope Paul II.
Blessed William Carter,
Pray for us!