Author name: sanjose

Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony of Padua was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal. His wealthy and noble family arranged for him to be instructed at the local cathedral school. At the age of 15, he entered the Augustinian community of Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross at the Abbey of Saint Vincent on the outskirts of Lisbon. In 1212, distracted by frequent visits from family and friends, he asked to be transferred to the motherhouse of the congregation, the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, then the capital of Portugal.

After his ordination to the priesthood, Saint Anthony of Padua was named guestmaster at the age of 19, and placed in charge of hospitality for the abbey. While he was in Coimbra, some Franciscan friars arrived and settled at a small hermitage outside Coimbra dedicated to Anthony the Great. He was strongly attracted to the simple, evangelical lifestyle of the friars, whose order had been founded only 11 years prior. He obtained permission from church authorities to leave the Canons Regular to join the new Franciscan order. Upon his admission to the life of the friars, he joined the small hermitage in Olivais.

Occasionally, Saint Anthony took another post as a teacher at universities like University of Montpellier and University of Toulouse in southern France, but his preaching was considered to be his supreme gift. According to historian Sophronius Clasen, Anthony preached “the grandeur of Christianity”. His method included allegory and symbolical explanation of scripture.

In 1228, he served as envoy from the general chapter to Pope Gregory IX. At the papal court, his preaching was hailed as a “jewel case of the Bible” and he was commissioned to produce his collection of sermons, Sermons for Feast Days.

Saint Anthony became sick with ergotism in 1231 and went to the woodland retreat at Camposampiero with two other friars for a respite. There, he lived in a room built for him under the branches of a walnut tree. Anthony died on the way back to Padua on 13 June 1231 at the Poor Clare monastery at Arcella (now part of Padua), at the age of 35.

He is especially invoked and venerated all over the world as the patron saint for the recovery of lost items and is credited with many miracles involving lost people, lost things and even lost spiritual goods.

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Luke 12:6-7

Verse:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” - Luke 12:6-7

Prayer For Greater Confidence In God's Love

Father, forgive me for misrepresenting Your Father-heart of love, and thank You for showing me that Your love for me is not dependent on what I can do for You but rests entirely on what the Lord Jesus did for me, on the cross. Thank You, that Your approval does not rely on me at all but simply rests on the fact that I believed on the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, and that I am accepted by You because of Him. Accepted in the Beloved because I am a new creation in Christ, clothed in His righteousness and without condemnation. All because of Jesus.

Father, thank You for this liberating truth. May I never again be drawn into wrong thinking about Your Father-heart of love and may I gain greater confidence and understanding of what my position in Christ truly means. This I ask in the precious name of my Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for me that I might be free from any condemnation and receive Your unconditional and everlasting love. Praise His holy name.

Amen.

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Blessed Jolenta of Poland

Blessed Jolenta of Poland was the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. As a young girl, Yolanda was sent to Poland to be tutored under the supervision of her sister, Kinga, who was married to the Duke of Poland.

During the time of her marriage, she was noted for her great services to the poor and needy of the country, as well as being a major benefactor of the monasteries, friaries and hospitals connected to them. Her husband gave her so much support in her charities that he earned the nickname “the Pious”. She was widowed in 1279.

Upon the death of her husband and the marriage of two of her daughters, Jolenta and her third daughter entered the convent of the Poor Clares. War forced Jolenta to move to another convent where despite her reluctance, she was made abbess.

So well did Jolenta serve her Franciscan sisters by word and example, that her fame and good works continued to spread beyond the walls of the cloister. Her favorite devotion was the Passion of Christ. Indeed, Jesus appeared to her, telling her of her coming death. Many miracles, down to our own day, are said to have occurred at her grave.

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Proverbs 10:28

Verse: :

“The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.” - Proverbs 10:28

Prayer For An Unwavering Hope

Father God, in a world that is ever changing and in a society that has all but rejected the truth of Your Word, I thank You that You are our never-changing Saviour, Who knows the end from the beginning and has the universe in the palm of His hand. Develop in me an unwavering trust in the hope that is set before me, knowing that in Christ I have already received Your gift of eternal life, by grace through faith in Christ Jesus my Lord.

May I learn more and more of Your divine character and perfect attributes, for the more I know You the more I trust You, and the more I trust You the more I come to love You. Develop in me an unwavering hope in Your promises, knowing that despite the evil and wickedness that seems to be suffocating all that is good and pure, Your plans and purposes for mankind will one day be brought to fruition. On that day, Christ will be all in all, and the whole world will be brought into submission under His feet as He rules and reigns on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. May I hope in Him unswervingly and live my life to His praise and glory. In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen.

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Saint Barnabas

Saint Barnabas was initially named as Joseph. But when recounting the story of how he sold his land and gave the money to the apostles in Jerusalem, the Book of Acts says the apostles called him Barnabas.

Barnabas’ story appears in the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul mentions him in some of his epistles. He and Paul the Apostle undertook missionary journeys together and defended Gentile converts against the Judaizers. They traveled together making more converts and participated in the Council of Jerusalem. Barnabas and Paul successfully evangelized among the “God-fearing” Gentiles who attended synagogues in various Hellenized cities of Anatolia.

According to tradition an early Christian, he was one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem. Christian tradition holds that Barnabas was martyred at Salamis, Cyprus. He is traditionally identified as the founder of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. In 1538, the Catholic religious order officially known as “Clerics Regular of St. Paul” (Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli), gained the grand old Monastery of Saint Barnabas by the city wall of Milan as their main seat. The Order was known by the popular name of Barnabites.

St. Barnabas is venerated as the patron saint of Cyprus. He is also considered a patron saint in many other places in the world, highlighting Milan in Italy. On the island of Tenerife (Spain), St. Barnabas was invoked in historical times as patron saint and protector of the island’s fields against drought, together with St. Benedict of Nursia.

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Zechariah 4:6

Verse:

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” - Zechariah 4:6

Prayer To Do God’s Will

Heavenly Father, it is my desire to do Your will in my life and I have been praying how I may find out how to know what Your will is, so that I can do Your will in my life. Thank You, Lord, for sending me to 1 Thessalonians chapter five, where I see that You have clearly laid out exactly what Your will for each one of us is.
 
Help me to walk in spirit and truth and encourage my brothers and sisters in the faith. Help me to esteem others as better than myself and support them in love.
 
Help me I pray, to encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone, always return good for evil and seek after that which is good and lovely and pleasing in Your sight.
 
Most of all I pray that I develop a heart of ready rejoicing and an attitude of continuous prayer and praise. And give me the ability to be thankful in all things, even those times that prove to be the most difficult and frustrating. Help me to grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and mature in the faith, knowing that this is Your will for my life. Praise Your holy name.
 
Amen.

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Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a

Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.

"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20

Response– Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R– Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R– Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R– Praise the Lord, Jerusalem

Second Reading: 1 Cor 10:16-17

Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.

Sequence – Lauda Sion:

Lo! the angel's food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children's bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.

You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav'nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.

Alleluia:

Alleluia, alleluia. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, says the Lord;
whoever eats this bread will live forever. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Jn 6:51-58

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."

The Readings and Gospel were sourced from:

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Saint Getulius

Saint Getulius was a native of Gabii in Sabina. Getulius was an officer in the Roman army who resigned when he became a Christian. According to tradition, Saint Getulius was the husband of Saint Symphorosa.

Some say Getulius was killed on the Via Salaria and is called the father of the Seven Martyrs and the husband of Symphorosa. Their seven sons, according to their legend, suffered a different kind of martyrdom. Crescens was pierced through the throat, Julian through the breast, Nemesius through the heart, Primitivus was wounded at the navel, Justinus was pierced through the back, Stracteus (Stacteus, Estacteus) was wounded at the side, and Eugenius was cleft in two parts from top to bottom.

He is venerated venerated together with Amantius, Cerealus, and Primitivus as a Christian martyr and saint. They were imprisoned, thrown into the flames but emerged unharmed, and then beaten to death with clubs. The legend further states that Saint Symphorosa buried them in an arenarium on her estate.

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Philippians 4:20

Verse:

“To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” - Philippians 4:20

Prayer Glorifying God For His Abundant Provision

Thank You, Father, for Your abundant provision and generous hand of blessing, which You lavish on each one of us day by day. You are a good and mighty God, Whose great compassion and tender mercies are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness to us and to all men.

We praise You, we worship You, we glorify, we give thanks to You for Your great glory. We lift up our hands in worship and praise before You, for You alone are worthy of our reverential fear and humble praise.

But Father, not only do we praise and thank You for faithfully providing our daily needs, but for the amazing gift of Salvation which You have given freely, to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, by grace through faith.

May we never cease to worship You in thought and in deed, and may our lives never cease to be lived in awe and wonder, knowing that the eternal Creator and almighty God of the universe should die to save a sinner such as I. Praise Your holy name, for ever and ever,

Amen.

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Ecclesiastes 7:14

Verse:

“When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” - Ecclesiastes 7:14

A Prayer To God In Time Of Great Sadness

O Lord God, we come to You at this time of great shock and grief and ask that in Your grace, You would shed Your peace and comfort to all who are mourning this death that was so sudden and so very unexpected.

Lighten our darkness O Lord we pray, and comfort our sorrowing hearts. Pour Your peace that passes all understanding into the hearts of all that are grieving and shower the assurance of Your love on all, at this time of sadness.

Lord, we are not to grieve as those who have no hope, those that have not trusted in Christ as Saviour, for our hope and trust is in You and our eyes are looking to You for strength, encouragement and comfort at this time of great sadness.

Lord, it is at a time like this that we suddenly begin to realise the great frailty of life and the brief portion that we are permitted on this earth. Cause all who are grieving here today to take stock of our own individual lives, and help us to be wise to number our days. Help us to live our lives as unto the Lord, knowing that at any time You may choose to call us home as well.

Thank You, Father, that our times are in Your hands and there are no sudden deaths in Your economy. May we live wisely from this day forward and use us we pray, to be a comfort to others who may experience similar times of great sadness. In Jesus' name we pray,

Amen.

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