an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:
Why did the message of John the Baptist and the message of Jesus meet with deaf ears and resistance? It was out of jealously and spiritual blindness that the scribes and Pharisees attributed John the Baptist’s austerities to the devil and they attributed Jesus’ table fellowship with sinners as evidence that he must be a false messiah. They succeeded in frustrating God’s plan for their lives because they had closed their hearts to the message of John the Baptist and now to Jesus’ message. What can make us spiritually dull and slow to hear God’s voice? Like the generation of Jesus’ time, our age is marked by indifference and contempt, especially in regards to the things of heaven. Indifference dulls our ears to God’s voice and to the good news of the gospel. Only the humble of heart can find joy and favor in God’s sight. Is you life in tune with Jesus’s message of hope and salvation? And do you know the joy of obedience to God word?
“Lord Jesus, open my ears to hear the good news of your kingdom and set my heart free to love and serve you joyfully. May nothing keep me from following you wholeheartedly.”
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy
[Hail] our life, our sweetness and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished chidren of Eve,
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, o most gracious advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy and after this our exile
Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, o loving, o sweet Virgin Mary.
Latin text
Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae,
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, Salve!
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii [H]evae,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes,
In hac lacrimarum valle.
Eja ergo, Advocata nostra,
Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
Nobis, post hoc exilium, ostende,
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy
[Hail] our life, our sweetness and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished chidren of Eve,
To thee do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn, then, o most gracious advocate,
Thine eyes of mercy and after this our exile
Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, o loving, o sweet Virgin Mary.
Latin text
Salve Regina, Mater Misericordiae,
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, Salve!
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii [H]evae,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes,
In hac lacrimarum valle.
Eja ergo, Advocata nostra,
Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
Nobis, post hoc exilium, ostende,
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
an excerpt from today’s reflection by Don Schwager:
Jesus commissioned his disciples to carry on the works which he did – to speak God’s word and to bring his healing power to the weary and oppressed. Jesus said to his disciples: Freely you have received, freely give (Matthew 10:8). What they had received from Jesus (all free of charge) they must now pass on to others without expecting any kind of payment or reward. They must show by their attitude that their first interest is God, not material gain. Jesus’ words are just as relevant today. The kingdom of heaven is available to those who are ready to receive it. We cannot buy heaven; but if we accept the love and mercy of Jesus we already possess heaven in our hearts! The Lord brings his kingdom or heavenly reign to those who receive him with faith and obedience. When the Lord returns in his glory he will fully restore his kingdom of everlasting peace and justice. Do you pray and watch with confident hope for God’s kingdom to come in all its fullness?
“Lord Jesus, rouse my spirit from complacency and stir my faith to see you act today. Give me boldness to live and proclaim the message of the kingdom of heaven and to be a prophetic sign of that kingdom to this generation.”
General Intention:That the nations of the earth, through knowledge and mutual respect, may grow in harmony and peace.
Missionary Intention:That children and young people may be messengers of the Gospel and that their dignity may always be respected and preserved from all violence and exploitation.
Committed to the Tower of London, he was questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied she was, and she offered him wealth and dignities, but on condition of rejecting his Catholic faith, which he refused to accept. He was kept a long time in prison and reputedly racked twice. Despite the effect of a false rumour of retraction and a forged confession, his adversaries summoned him to four public conferences (September 1, 18, 23 and 27, 1581). Although still suffering from his ill treatment, and allowed neither time nor books for preparation, he reportedly conducted himself so easily and readily that he won the admiration of most of the audience. Tortured again on October 31, he was indicted at Westminster on a charge of having conspired, along with others, in Rome and Reims to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the Queen.
Edmund Campion, in a 1631 print.
Campion was sentenced to death as a traitor. He answered: “In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England — the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter.” He received the death sentence with the Te Deum laudamus. After spending his last days in prayer he was led with two companions, Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant, to Tyburn where the three sainted martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered on December 1, 1581. He was 41 years of age.
Veneration and Feast Day
Edmund Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on December 9, 1886. Blessed Edmund Campion was canonized nearly eighty-four years later in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of May 4. His feast day is celebrated on December 1, the day of his martyrdom.
The actual ropes used in his execution are now kept in glass display tubes at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire; each year they are placed on the altar of St Peter’s Church for Mass to celebrate Campion’s feast day—which is always a holiday for the school. – wiki
A Daily Prayer of St. Edmund
“I have made a free oblation of myself
to your Divine Majesty,
both of life and of death,
and I hope that
you will give me
grace and force to perform.
This is all I desire. Amen.”
-St. Edmund Campion
Committed to the Tower of London, he was questioned in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, who asked him if he acknowledged her to be the true Queen of England. He replied she was, and she offered him wealth and dignities, but on condition of rejecting his Catholic faith, which he refused to accept. He was kept a long time in prison and reputedly racked twice. Despite the effect of a false rumour of retraction and a forged confession, his adversaries summoned him to four public conferences (September 1, 18, 23 and 27, 1581). Although still suffering from his ill treatment, and allowed neither time nor books for preparation, he reportedly conducted himself so easily and readily that he won the admiration of most of the audience. Tortured again on October 31, he was indicted at Westminster on a charge of having conspired, along with others, in Rome and Reims to raise a sedition in the realm and dethrone the Queen.
Edmund Campion, in a 1631 print.
Campion was sentenced to death as a traitor. He answered: “In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England — the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter.” He received the death sentence with the Te Deum laudamus. After spending his last days in prayer he was led with two companions, Ralph Sherwin and Alexander Briant, to Tyburn where the three sainted martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered on December 1, 1581. He was 41 years of age.
Veneration and Feast Day
Edmund Campion was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on December 9, 1886. Blessed Edmund Campion was canonized nearly eighty-four years later in 1970 by Pope Paul VI as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales with a common feast day of May 4. His feast day is celebrated on December 1, the day of his martyrdom.
The actual ropes used in his execution are now kept in glass display tubes at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire; each year they are placed on the altar of St Peter’s Church for Mass to celebrate Campion’s feast day—which is always a holiday for the school. – wiki
A Daily Prayer of St. Edmund
“I have made a free oblation of myself
to your Divine Majesty,
both of life and of death,
and I hope that
you will give me
grace and force to perform.
This is all I desire. Amen.”
-St. Edmund Campion
I love this feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary!!!
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (as it is known in the West), or The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (its name in the East), is a liturgical feast celebrated by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
wiki – The feast is associated with an event recounted not in the New Testament, but in the apocryphal Infancy Narrative of James. According to that text, Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne, who had been childless, received a heavenly message that they would bear a child. In thanksgiving for the gift of their daughter, they brought her, when still a child, to the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate her to God. Mary remained in the Temple until puberty, at which point she was assigned to Joseph as guardian. Later versions of the story (such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary) tell us that Mary was taken to the Temple at around the age of three in fulfillment of a vow.
The feast originated as a result of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New, built in the year 543 by the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian I near the site of the ruined Temple in Jerusalem. Although this basilica was destroyed by the Sassanid Persians under Khosrau II after the Siege of Jerusalem (614), the feast continued to be celebrated throughout the East. The feast was celebrated in the monasteries of Southern Italy by the ninth century and was later introduced into the Papal Chapel in Avignon in the year 1372 by a decree of Pope Gregory XI. It was included in the Roman Missal in 1472. But, as the fact of the “Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” is only a pious belief, but not a defined matter of faith, it was suppressed by Pope Pius V in 1568. As a result, it did not appear in the Tridentine Calendar. Pope Sixtus V reintroduced it into the Roman Calendar in 1585. Pope Clement VIII made this feast a Greater Double in 1597. The feast also continued as a memorial in the Roman Calendar of 1969.
Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (Russian icon, 16th century).The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates it as one of its twelve Great Feasts on November 21 (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar, November 21 falls on December 4 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). The first documented celebration of the feast in any calendar is the mention of the Εἴσοδος τῆς Παναγίας Θεοτόκου (Entry of the All-Holy Theotokos – i.e. into the Temple) in the 11th-century Menology of the Eastern Roman (also known as Byzantine) emperor Basil II. In the Orthodox Church the feast always falls during the Nativity Fast, and on the day of the feast the fasting rules are lessened somewhat so that fish, wine and oil may be eaten.
For the Roman Catholic Church, on the day of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “we celebrate that dedication of herself which Mary made to God from her very childhood under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who filled her with grace at her Immaculate Conception.”
November 21 is also a “Pro Orantibus” Day, a day of prayer for cloistered religious “totally dedicated to God in prayer, silence and concealment.”
The Presentation in art Western depictions usually focused on the lone figure of the young Mary climbing the steep steps of the Temple, having left her parents at the bottom, and climbing towards the Chief Priest and other Temple figures at the top of the steps. The Presentation was one of the usual scenes in larger cycles of the Life of the Virgin, although it was not usually one of the scenes shown in a Book of hours. – wiki
Collect: Eternal Father,
we honor the holiness and glory of the Virgin Mary.
May her prayers bring us
the fullness of your life and love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Reading: Zechariah 2:14-17 (2:10-13 RSV) Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 12:46-50
While He was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood outside, asking to speak to Him. But He replied to the man who told Him, “Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brethren! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
I love this feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary!!!
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (as it is known in the West), or The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (its name in the East), is a liturgical feast celebrated by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
wiki – The feast is associated with an event recounted not in the New Testament, but in the apocryphal Infancy Narrative of James. According to that text, Mary’s parents, Joachim and Anne, who had been childless, received a heavenly message that they would bear a child. In thanksgiving for the gift of their daughter, they brought her, when still a child, to the Temple in Jerusalem to consecrate her to God. Mary remained in the Temple until puberty, at which point she was assigned to Joseph as guardian. Later versions of the story (such as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary) tell us that Mary was taken to the Temple at around the age of three in fulfillment of a vow.
The feast originated as a result of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary the New, built in the year 543 by the Byzantines under Emperor Justinian I near the site of the ruined Temple in Jerusalem. Although this basilica was destroyed by the Sassanid Persians under Khosrau II after the Siege of Jerusalem (614), the feast continued to be celebrated throughout the East. The feast was celebrated in the monasteries of Southern Italy by the ninth century and was later introduced into the Papal Chapel in Avignon in the year 1372 by a decree of Pope Gregory XI. It was included in the Roman Missal in 1472. But, as the fact of the “Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary” is only a pious belief, but not a defined matter of faith, it was suppressed by Pope Pius V in 1568. As a result, it did not appear in the Tridentine Calendar. Pope Sixtus V reintroduced it into the Roman Calendar in 1585. Pope Clement VIII made this feast a Greater Double in 1597. The feast also continued as a memorial in the Roman Calendar of 1969.
Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (Russian icon, 16th century).The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates it as one of its twelve Great Feasts on November 21 (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar, November 21 falls on December 4 of the modern Gregorian Calendar). The first documented celebration of the feast in any calendar is the mention of the Εἴσοδος τῆς Παναγίας Θεοτόκου (Entry of the All-Holy Theotokos – i.e. into the Temple) in the 11th-century Menology of the Eastern Roman (also known as Byzantine) emperor Basil II. In the Orthodox Church the feast always falls during the Nativity Fast, and on the day of the feast the fasting rules are lessened somewhat so that fish, wine and oil may be eaten.
For the Roman Catholic Church, on the day of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “we celebrate that dedication of herself which Mary made to God from her very childhood under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who filled her with grace at her Immaculate Conception.”
November 21 is also a “Pro Orantibus” Day, a day of prayer for cloistered religious “totally dedicated to God in prayer, silence and concealment.”
The Presentation in art Western depictions usually focused on the lone figure of the young Mary climbing the steep steps of the Temple, having left her parents at the bottom, and climbing towards the Chief Priest and other Temple figures at the top of the steps. The Presentation was one of the usual scenes in larger cycles of the Life of the Virgin, although it was not usually one of the scenes shown in a Book of hours. – wiki
Collect: Eternal Father,
we honor the holiness and glory of the Virgin Mary.
May her prayers bring us
the fullness of your life and love.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Reading: Zechariah 2:14-17 (2:10-13 RSV) Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 12:46-50
While He was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brethren stood outside, asking to speak to Him. But He replied to the man who told Him, “Who is My mother, and who are My brethren?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brethren! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
Born in 321 AD, in what is modern day France, St Martin began his life journey as a pagan, converted to Christianity, ascended through church ranks to become Bishop of Tours and ultimately achieved sainthood.
Martin was forced into the army by his father at age 15. But he disliked military life, and led a monk-like existence as an officer, as he wanted to become a Christian, then a new religion in his land.
One severe winter’s day, army officer Martin saw a poor man at the city gates of Amiens, shivering with cold and begging for food. Having no money, Martin took off his warm woolen cloak, cut it in half with his sword and gave half to the beggar. That night Martin dreamt of Christ surrounded by angels, and wearing the half-cloak Martin had given the beggar, and He said, “See, this is the cloak in which Martin, the heathen, has covered me”.
Shortly after Martin was baptized a Christian. Because of that, and because he’d already spent five long years fighting invaders from Germany, he asked for his release from the army. “Up to now, I have served you as a soldier; let me now serve Christ”.
Free to pursue a new life as a disciple of St Hilary of Poitiers, Martin’s path was to remain challenged. He developed a community of disciples, abstaining from worldly comforts and riches. In 371 AD, the city of Tours wanted him as their bishop. A small pocket of opposition said he was not refined enough. But clergy and majority rule prevailed over such criticism, and Martin as consecrated as bishop. At first he ruled a pagan diocese. But with each year, his increasingly far-flung congregation grew through his visits by boat, donkey and on foot.
When he died, aged eighty, on November 9 401 AD, Martin’s body was carried by boat to Tours for burial. It is said the boat moved without oars or sail, accompanied by the sound of heavenly music, and that trees along the river, bare and ready for winter, burst into blossom at his passing.
Prayer to Continue to Fight for God
Lord, if your people still have need of my services, I will not avoid the toil. Your will be done. I have fought the good fight long enough. Yet if you bid me continue to hold the battle line in defense of your camp, I will never beg to be excused from failing strength. I will do the work you entrust to me. While you command, I will fight beneath your banner. Amen
~~by St Martin of Tours
Latin text
