Saint of the day and Feast days.

[odhiambo]

Francisco
Francisco was born on 11 June 1908. He was the sixth of seven children of Manuel and Olimpia Marto. He was a loving child. He loved games and he loved other children. He had a love for nature, and animals in particular. He played with lizards and snakes, and would bring them home, to his mother’s chagrin. It is said that once he gave a penny, all the money he had, to a friend for a captured bird, only to set the bird free. He played a reed pipe, to which Lucia and his sister Jacinta would sing and dance. In short, he was a kind, gentle boy also described as a peacemaker.
Francisco had a naughty streak in him too, as in fact, do most boys of that age. He was known to drop strange and inedible objects in his sleeping brother’s mouth!
Him alone among the three children of Fatima never heard the Lady’s words, although he saw her and felt her presence. After the first apparition, Lucia conveyed the Lady’s message to him that he would go to heaven if he prayed many Rosaries. In the second apparition, Lucia asked to be taken to heaven, and the Lady replied that Francisco and Jacinta would be taken soon, but Lucia would have to wait for a time.
True to the Lady’s words, on August 1918, when World War I was nearing an end, Francisco and Jacinta both contracted influenza. They had short reprieves, but their decline was inevitable.
In April of the following year, Francisco, knowing his time was short, asked to receive Holy Communion for the first time. The next morning, April 4th, at ten o’clock, he died with a glow on his shrunken face.
He was buried the next day in a little cemetery in Fatima, across from the parish church, and later translated to the Sanctuary at Cova da Iria.
Blessed Francisco,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

'Francisco!  Francisco, are you going to pray with me?  It is necessary to pray a great deal to save souls from Hell.  So many are going there!  So many!'

Bl. Jacinta of Fatima

Certain Fashions Threaten to Retard Mary's Triumph and World Peace by Rev. Bernard Kunkel

Good reading for today!

And again Bl. Jacinta Marto of Fatima, age 9, from her last words:

'The sins that lead more souls to hell are the sins of the flesh.'

'The sins of the world are very great.'

'Fashions that will greatly offend Our Lord will appear. People who follow God should not follow fashions. The Church has no fashions. Our Lord was always the same.'

'Wars are nothing but punishments for the sins of the world.'

'My godmother, pray much for sinners! Pray much for priests! Pray much for religious! Priests should only occupy themselves with the affairs of the Church. Priests should be pure, very pure.'

'Those who do not keep the promises they make to Our Lady will never succeed in their affairs.'

'Our Lady does not want people to talk in church.'

'The Mother of God wants more virgin souls who bind themselves to her by the vow of chastity.

'To be pure in body is to keep chastity. To be pure in soul is not to commit sins, not to look at what one should not see, not to steal, never to lie, always to tell the truth however hard that may be.'

[odhiambo]

21 February

Today is the Memorial of
Saint Peter Damian
Among many other saints.

[odhiambo]

Saint Peter Damian
Cardinal and Doctor of the Church
A noted Reformer.
Peter was born in Ravenna, Italy in the year 1007. His given name was Peter Onesti. He was the youngest of many children born to a poor but noble family. Peter lost both his parents at a very young age. He suffered through a very harsh childhood. One of his brothers was very cruel to him; sending him to tend swine instead of sending the boy to school. Fortunately for Peter, another brother who was an archpriest in Ravenna rescued him from this cruel brother and sent him to school, making sure that Peter was educated. According to tradition, the archpriest’s name was Damian and Peter adopted this name to honor his brother’s charity.
Peter made such rapid progress in his studies of theology and Canon law, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza, finally at Parma, that when about twenty-five years old he was already a famous teacher at Parma and Ravenna.
About 1035, however, he deserted his secular calling and entered the Benedictines at the isolated hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio.
Both as novice and as monk, the saint performed such extremes of self-mortification in penance that his health was affected. On his recovery, he was appointed to lecture to his fellow-monks. At the request of Guy of Pomposa and other heads of neighboring monasteries, he lectured to their brothers also for two or three years.
About 1042, Peter wrote the life of St. Romuald for the monks of Pietrapertosa. Soon after his return to Fonte Avellana he was appointed second in command of the house by the prior, who designated him as his successor. This, in fact, he became in 1043, and he remained prior of Fonte Avellana till his death.
Saint Peter Damien is considered one of the Western Churches leading advocates for reforms.
In 1051 during the pontificate of Pope Leo IX, Peter wrote a scathing treatise on the vices of the clergy, Liber Gomorrhianus, openly addressed to the pope.
Then the question arose as to the validity of the ordinations of simoniacal clerics. Peter wrote a treatise, the Liber Gratissimus, in favour of their validity.
He also waged a compaign against numerous abuses including concubinage and simony .( the buying or selling of ecclesiastical pardons)
On November 30, 1057, he was appointed Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. In addition, he was also appointed administrator of the Diocese of Gubbio.
He was used in a number of diplomatic missions to promote reforms in France and Germany.
Saint Peter Damian died on February 21/22, 1072, at Faenza while on a trip from Ravenna to Rome, after reconciling his native city with the Pope.
He was buried in the Cathedral of Faenza.
He was declared a doctor of the Church in 1028.
Saint Peter’s writings covered reforms and doctrinal matters, including the Eucharist and Purgatory.
In his time, Peter was one of the most respected figures in the Church.
He is invoked against headache as he, apparently, suffered greatly from this ailment.
Saint Peter Damian,
Pray for us!

[Shin]

St. Peter Damian, pray for us! St. Dominic Loricatus, pray for us!

St. Peter Damian is known for his corporal mortification and was a companion of St. Dominic Loricatus, a saint who practiced very great mortification. Both saints very appropriate for the beginning of Lent!

'Tell me, you who in your arrogance mock at Christ's passion, you who, in refusing to be stripped and scourged with Him, deried His nakedness and all His torments as foolish and vain things like the illusions which come to us in sleep, what will you do when you see Him who was stripped in public and hung on the Cross shining in the glory of His majesty, surrounded by the angelic host, with His immeasurable and incomparable splendor round about Him, more glorious than all things, visible or invisible? What, I say, will you do, when you behold Him for whose shame you now have nothing but scorn, seated on the fiery throne of the tribunal of Heaven, and judging the whole human race in the dreadful judgement of His justice? By what rash boldness of presumption do you hope to share in His glory, whose shame and injuries you scorned to bear?'

St. Peter Damian

'For the wisdom of the flesh brings death, but that of the spirit brings life and peace, since the wisdom of the flesh is the enemy of God; it is not subject to God's law, nor can it be. And since the wisdom of the flesh is unable to bear the yoke of God's law, it cannot look upon it either, for its eyes are clouded with the smoke of pride.'

St. Peter Damian

[odhiambo]

Ash Wednesday
Today, Wednesday 22nd 2012 is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a period during which we prepare ourselves for Easter Sunday, the day Our Lord arose from the dead.
For us in the Roman Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday always falls 46 days before Easter as opposed to those in the Eastern Rite Catholic churches, for whom Lent begins two days earlier, on a day they refer to as ‘Clean Monday’.
We are all encouraged to mark this day by attending Mass. During Mass on this day, the priest will bless the ash (obtained by burning the blessed palms of the previous Palm Sunday ) and with his thumb he traces the Sign of the Cross on each person's forehead, says, something like Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.
Remember Memento mori a Latin phrase meaning "Remember your are mortal"; "Remember you must die"; “Remember you will die", etc.
The priest thus reminds us of how it will all end with us here on earth-sobering thought.
The ash is to remind us that we have all sinned and is a call to repentance. On this day, we fast and abstain from eating meat.
So my dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, have a memorable day of Repentance

[odhiambo]

22 February

Today we commemorate
The Chair or more appropriataly
The See of Saint Peter
The Apostle at Rome.

[odhiambo]

The See of Saint Peter
The Apostle at Rome.

And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.

Mt.16:18-19
With this declaration, Jesus invested Peter with the right to sit in his place as Head of the Apostles, giving him authority over the whole Church.
It is this Episcopal dignity of the high office instituted by Our Lord himself, that we venerate today rather than the oak wood, arm chair supposedly used by Peter.
The word “chair” derives from the Latin sedes, i.e. the Holy See, or the Greek expression Cathedra Sancti Petri.
Talking of Saint Peter’s chair, the one that was reportedly used by Peter. The chair itself is a plain oak armchair as already mentioned. The legs are connected by crossbars in order to strengthen it. In the course of time, other support was added to it but it remains in form and substance, the chair occupied by Saint Peter when he instructed the early Christians.
For many years the chair was exposed to the public and also each newly elected Pope was solemnly enthroned on it. Later, however, in order to preserve it, it was deemed necessary to enclose it in metal. It is now enclosed in bronze casing designed by Bernini and rests in the apse of Saint Peter’s basilica at the Vatican.
The feast of the See of Saint Peter has been celebrated since the fourth century in Rome to recall how Christ named the Galilean fisherman the shepherd of His flock. The chair symbolizes the seat of authority

[odhiambo]

I went to evening Mass and of course received the ashes.
I doubted whether the priest just dipped his thumb into the ash before tracing the Sign of the Cross on my forehead. It seems to me like he took a pinch 
There was a whole lot of ash.
My nose was all white, it was on my blouse and on my jacket.
I noticed the lady who was kneeling next to me when she returned to the pew, she too had a fair amount of ash on her nose and forehead. I am afraid I wiped off my nose, but only my nose 

[Shin]

Ho ho ho! You thought you were deprived but actually you were given an over generous amount! 

[odhiambo]

Ho ho ho! You thought you were deprived but actually you were given an over generous amount! 

He was probably hinting that I needed to repent more 
You never can tell; some priests see more than the rest of us 
I must try harder 

[odhiambo]

23 February

Today is the Memorial of
Saint Polycarp
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Polycarp
Bishop of Smyrna.
 Martyr.
Polycarp was born in 69 AD. He was converted to Christianity by Saint John the Evangelist around the year 80 AD. He became a disciple of the Apostle. Aged about 37 Saint John consecrated him Bishop of Smyrna (somewhere in modern Turkey) just before his banishment to Patmos.
Polycarp served the Church for seventy years as Bishop of Smyrna. He was greatly respected by the people. Among the disciples that he trained were Saint Irenaeus and Papias.
As Saint Ignatius of Antioch passed by Smyrna on his way to martyrdom, Polycarp is reported to have respectfully kissed his chains. Historically, Saint Ignatius and Saint Polycarp formed a link between the apostolic and patristic ages, the period in which the Fathers of the Church lived.
St. Polycarp is well known for an epistle he wrote to the Philippians (The Letter to the Philippians) which demonstrated the existence of New Testament texts, quoting St. Matthew, St. Luke, the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St. Peter and St. John. The epistle is said to exist to this day.
He also combated various heretical sects, including certain Gnostic groups that claimed religious salvation exclusively through their spiritual knowledge. Polycarp's Letter to the Philippians contains a classic formulation in which he refutes the Gnostics' argument that God's incarnation in, and the death and Resurrection of, Christ were all imaginary phenomena of purely moral or mythological significance.
Toward the end of his life Polycarp visited Bishop Anicetus of Rome to discuss with him the date at which the Easter festival was to be celebrated, a controversy that threatened to provoke a schism between Rome and Asia Minor. The two men could not reach an agreement on a common date on which to celebrate Easter, so they agreed that Rome and Asia Minor would follow different practices in this regard.
On his return to Smyrna, Polycarp was arrested by the Roman proconsul. When he refused to renounce Christianity, he was bound and burned at the stake then stabbed when the fire failed to touch him.
This event has been eulogized in the Martyrdom of Polycarp, one of the earliest-known Christian documents of this nature.
And so it came to pass that Polycarp was martyred in 155 AD.
Saint Polycarp,
Pray for us!

[odhiambo]

24 February
Today is the Memorial of
Saint Luke Belludi
Among many other saints

[odhiambo]

Saint Luke Belludi.
Saint Luke is also known as Lucas Belludi as well as Lukas Belludi.
He was born in the year 1200 in Padua, Italy, into a noble family.
As a university student in, Luke combined intelligence with humility and purity of heart.
In 1220, St. Anthony was preaching conversion to the inhabitants of Padua. Luke, aged 20 at the time, went to him and humbly asked to receive the habit of the followers of St. Francis. Anthony liked the talented, well-educated Luke and personally recommended him to St. Francis, who received him into the Franciscan Order. Luke became Saint Anthony's companion in his travels and in his preaching. He tended to him in his last days and when Anthony died, he took his place
He was appointed guardian of the Friars Minor in the city of Padua. In 1239 the city fell into the hands of its enemies.
Nobles were put to death, the mayor and council were banished, the great university of Padua where Luke himself studied, gradually closed and the church dedicated to St. Anthony was left unfinished.
Luke was expelled from the city but secretly returned. At night he visited the tomb of St. Anthony in the unfinished shrine to pray for his help.
While praying one night, Luke and another Franciscan with him heard a voice from the tomb assuring them that their prayers for Padua were soon to be answered.
The voice assured them that the city would soon be delivered from its evil tyrant.
The city was liberated soon after this prophetic message.
Luke was elected provincial minister. He supervised the construction of the Padua basilica that now enshrines Saint Anthony’s body.
Luke founded many convents of the Franciscan Order and had, as did Anthony, the gift of miracles.
Saint Luke died a natural death in 1285. His relics are in the basilica of Saint Anthony, the very one that he helped finish.
Saint Luke
Pray for us.

[odhiambo]

 25 February

Today is the Memorial of
Blessed Sebastian Aparicio
Among many others
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