Feb 1 - St. Brigid of Ireland

St. Brigid of Ireland - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online.

Brigid was probably born at Faughart near Dundalk, Louth, Ireland. Her parents were baptized by St. Patrick, with whom she developed a close friendship. According to legend, her father was Dubhthach, an Irish chieftain of Lienster, and her mother, Brocca, was a slave at his court. Even as a young girl she evinced an interest for a religious life and took the veil in her youth from St. Macaille at Croghan and probably was professed by St. Mel of Armagh, who is believed to have conferred abbatial authority on her. She settled with seven of her virgins at the foot of Croghan Hill for a time and about the year 468, followed Mel to Meath. About the year 470 she founded a double monastery at Cill-Dara (Kildare) and was Abbess of the convent, the first in Ireland. The foundation developed into a center of learning and spirituality, and around it grew up the Cathedral city of Kildare. She founded a school of art at Kildare and its illuminated manuscripts became famous, notably the Book of Kildare, which was praised as one of the finest of all illuminated Irish manuscripts before its disappearance three centuries ago. Brigid was one of the most remarkable women of her times, and despite the numerous legendary, extravagant, and even fantastic miracles attributed to her, there is no doubt that her extraordinary spirituality, boundless charity, and compassion for those in distress were real. She died at Kildare on February 1. The Mary of the Gael, she is buried at Downpatrick with St. Columba and St. Patrick, with whom she is the patron of Ireland. Her name is sometimes Bridget and Bride. Her feast day is February 1.



http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=453#

PRAYER
I would like the angels of Heaven to be among us.
I would like an abundance of peace.
I would like full vessels of charity.
I would like rich treasures of mercy.
I would like cheerfulness to preside over all.
I would like Jesus to be present.
I would like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us.
I would like the friends of Heaven to be gathered around us from all parts.
I would like myself to be a rent payer to the Lord; that I should suffer distress, that he would bestow a good blessing upon me.
I would like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings.
I would like to be watching Heaven’s family drinking it through all eternity.
- Saint Brigid

Jan 31 - St John Bosco

Saint John Bosco

Don Bosco is the Patron of The Youth, Catholic Schools & Education

“ Believe me... nobody can be truly happy in this world unless he is at peace with God.” ~ St. John Bosco

John Bosco was born in a small town not too far from Turin, Italy. His father died when he was two years old. He was raised with tender love yet firm discipline by his mother, Margaret.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1841 and went to work in Turin, where the industrial revolution was attracting waves of young people to the city.

The misery and abandonment of these youngsters moved John Bosco deeply. He dedicated his life to them and began youth clubs for them. John Bosco devoted himself to the care of the young, first of all by means of evening classes, to which hundreds came, and then by setting up a boarding-house for apprentices, and then workshops for their training and education.

He then started hostels and boarding schools, where he taught them trades. In 1859 he founded the Salesian Society and in 1872 the Salesian Sisters to work for girls. Three years later, he sent the first missionary group to Argentina. His work spread through-out the mission world, and today more than half the Society works in mission lands.

The educational philosophy of John Bosco can be condensed in three words: reason, religion and kindness. The basic principle of his system was a deep understanding and love for young people. Salesians continue his work all over the world

Saint John Bosco died at the age of seventy-two in 1888 and was canonized in 1934.

Novena Prayer:

Father and teacher of Young, In need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you, O Saint Don Bosco, for I require not only spiritual graces, but also temporal ones, and particularly...

(add your own personal intentions here)

May you, who on earth had such great devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Help of Christians, and who always had compassion for those who were suffering, obtain from Jesus and His Heavenly Mother the grace I now request, and also a sincere resignation to the Will of God.

Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be to the Father

Today's saint is Saint Gildas the Wise, a sixth century British monk

Gildas, surnamed “the Wise,” was born in Scotland around the year 516 to a noble family. He was educated under St. Iltus in Wales and was a companion of St. Samson and St. Peter of Leon. He was drawn to the monastic life and moved to Ireland to pursue such a life.

While in Ireland he was ordained to the priesthood. He apparently spent some time in Armagh and north Britain. King Ainmire invited him to return to Ireland where he built monasteries and churches and greatly inspired others by his teaching. He is compared to David and Cadoc by the Irish annalists in his giving a special Mass to the second order of Irish saints.

There are recordings of a pilgrimage he made to Rome. On his return, he decided to spend time alone and retired to the Isle of Houat, off Brittany, where he lived in solitude praying and studying. When it was discovered that he was there, he was asked to establish a monastery at Rhuys on the mainland. It was at this monastery that Gildas wrote his famous epistle to the British kings. He died at Houat, Brittany, in 570.

For more information on St. Gildas, see:
Catholic Exchange, Catholic News Agency, and Catholic Encylopedia.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS Priest and Doctor of the Church (c. 1225-1274)

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
Priest and Doctor of the Church
(c. 1225-1274)

St. Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino in Italy, in 1226. At the age of nineteen he received the Dominican habit at Naples, where he was studying.

Seized by his brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a two years' captivity in their castle of Rocca-Secca; but neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his vocation. While St. Thomas was in confinement at Rocca-Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning brand, the Saint drove from his chamber the wretched creature whom they had there concealed. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith, being rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that St. Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never told this grace to any one save only to Father Raynald, his confessor, a little while before his death. Hence originated the Confraternity of the "Angelic Warfare," for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.

Having at length escaped, St. Thomas went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and after that to Paris, where for many years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure-house of sacred doctrine; while in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than study.

His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he composed. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, "Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as a reward?" he replied, "Naught save Thyself, O Lord."

He died at Fossa-Nuova, 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X. had summoned him.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

" Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire us, like St Thomas, to love God with our minds as well as our hearts; and if we come across a fact or a teaching that seems to us to contradict our faith, let us not reject it but investigate it: for the truth that it contains can never contradict the truth that is God."

Steve's Graduation

Steve Graduation, a set on Flickr.

What a blessing!

THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS

THE LITANY OF THE
HOLY NAME OF JESUS



This litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus brings to mind the words of St. Paul: “whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Col 3:17). This tribute of supplication to our Lord is thought to have been composed by two 15th century champions of devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, St. Bernardine of Siena and his student St. John of Capistrano. It gives us a good opportunity to meditate on both our Lord’s attributes and His life, while asking Him for heavenly guidance and assistance.

The litany of the Most Holy Name of Jesus received the Church’s approval for private use by Pope Sixtus V in 1585, and public recitation by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. (It is one of only six litanies approved for public use.)

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us (after each line)
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God the Holy Ghost,
Holy Trinity, one God,
Jesus, Son of the living God,
Jesus, splendor of the Father,
Jesus, brightness of eternal light,
Jesus, King of glory,
Jesus, sun of justice,
Jesus, Son of the Virgin Mary,
Jesus, most amiable,
Jesus, most admirable,
Jesus, the mighty God,
Jesus, father of the world to come,
Jesus, Angel of great counsel,
Jesus, most powerful,
Jesus, most patient,
Jesus, most obedient,
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Jesus, lover of chastity,
Jesus, lover of us,
Jesus, God of peace,
Jesus, author of life,
Jesus, example of virtues,
Jesus, zealous lover of souls,
Jesus, our God,
Jesus, our refuge,
Jesus, father of the poor,
Jesus, treasure of the faithful,
Jesus, good Shepherd,
Jesus, true light,
Jesus, eternal wisdom,
Jesus, infinite goodness,
Jesus, our way and our life,
Jesus, joy of Angels,
Jesus, King of Patriarchs,
Jesus, Master of the Apostles,
Jesus, Teacher of the Evangelists,
Jesus, strength of Martyrs,
Jesus, light of Confessors,
Jesus, purity of Virgins,
Jesus, crown of all Saints,
Be merciful, spare us, O Jesus.
Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Jesus.
From all evil, deliver us, O Jesus. (after each line)
From all sin,
From Thy wrath,
From the snares of the devil,
From the spirit of fornication,
From everlasting death,
From the neglect of Thine inspirations,
By the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation,
By Thy Nativity,
By Thine Infancy,
By Thy most divine Life,
By Thy labors,
By Thine agony and Passion,
By Thy Cross and dereliction,
By Thy sufferings,
By Thy Resurrection,
By Thine Ascension,
By Thine institution of the most Holy Eucharist,
By Thy joys,
By Thy glory,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Hear us, O Jesus.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us, O Jesus.
Jesus, hear us.
Jesus, graciously hear us.

Let us pray.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast said: Ask and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you; mercifully attend to our supplications, and grant us the gift of Thy divine charity, that we may ever love Thee with our whole heart and with all our words and deeds, and may never cease from praising Thee.

Make us, O Lord, to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name, for Thou never failest to help and govern those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love; who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.

It is important to point out that the fear that that the Holy Name of Jesus should inspire in us is not a cringing, loathing kind of fear, but rather one of reverence and respect, as children should have for their parents.

Speaking of parents, the words our Blessed Mother said of the God the Father in the Magnificat can apply to her Son as well: “His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear him.” (Luke 1:50)

We should fear God’s justice and trust in His mercy as well by asking Him for pardon for our sins in prayers such as this litany, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (Mass), and, most importantly, in the Sacrament of Penance (Confession).



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Prayers Please

Request for prayers.......

Have minor ear procedure in the morning (tubes).

Praying for the doctors.

Blessings,
Deacon Tom