Author name: sanjose

Saint Ephrem

Saint Ephrem, also referred to as Saint Ephrem the Syrian, he was born in Nisibis, served as a deacon and later lived in Edessa. He was a prominent Christian theologian and writer, who is revered as one of the most notable hymnographers of Eastern Christianity.

He was born around the year 306 in the city of Nisibis. Internal evidence from Ephrem’s hymnody suggests that both his parents were part of the growing Christian community in the city, although later hagiographers wrote that his father was a pagan priest. Saint Ephrem was baptized as a youth and almost certainly became a son of the covenant, an unusual form of Syriac proto-monasticism. He was appointed as a teacher and eventually ordained as a deacon.

He began to compose hymns and write biblical commentaries as part of his educational office. The most important of his works are his lyric, teaching hymns. These hymns are full of rich, poetic imagery drawn from biblical sources, folk tradition, and other religions and philosophies. Particularly influential were his Hymns Against Heresies. Ephrem used these to warn his flock of the heresies that threatened to divide the early church.

Saint Ephrem is popularly credited as the founder of the School of Nisibis, which, in later centuries, was the centre of learning of the Church of the East. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church in 1920.

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Romans 6:23

Verse:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23

Prayer For Greater Confidence In God's Love

Dear Heavenly Father, for most of my life I have tried to earn Your love and gain Your approval and whatever I tried to do, never made me feel that I had done enough. In fact, the more I tried to get You to love me, the more I found that I failed You miserably.

And as I look back on the mission trips, ministry activities, times of prayer and the many bible studies I attended, the more I believed that I must be disappointing to You, because I was not doing as much as I ought to do. Father, as I look back at this period of my life, is saddens me to realise what an incorrect perception I had of You and Your unconditional love to all Who are saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus.

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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Saint Medardus

Saint Medardus, also known as Medard, was the Bishop of Noyon. He was born around 456. He lived during the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The last Western Roman emperor was deposed in 476.

At the age of 33, he was ordained. His piety and knowledge, considerable for that time, caused Bishop Alomer of Vermand to confer on him Holy Orders. At the death of Alomer in 530, Medardus was chosen to succeed him as bishop of Vermand. Despite his objections, he found himself obliged to accept the heavy responsibilities of the position, to which he devoted himself zealously.

He is held to have removed the seat of his bishopric from Vermand, a little city with no defences, to Noviomagus Veromanduorum (modern Noyon), the strongest place in that region of Neustria, in 531. In 532, at the death of Eleutherius, bishop of Tornacum, Medardus was invited to assume the direction of that diocese also. He refused at first, but being urged by King Clotaire himself, he at last accepted. The union of the two dioceses of Noviomagus/Noyon and Tornacum/Tournai lasted until 1146, when they were again separated.

Medardus was one of the most honored bishops of his time. His memory has always been popularly venerated, first in the north of France, then in Cologne and extending to western Germany. He became the hero of numerous legends. He was often depicted laughing, with his mouth wide open, therefore he was invoked against toothache. He is also invoked against bad weather (but also for rain), sterility and imprisonment. He is patron saint of vineyards, brewers, captives and prisoners, the mentally ill, and peasants.

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1 John 5:11

Verse:

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” - 1 John 5:11

Prayer To Glorify God For Our Saviour Jesus Christ

Father, how we love to hear the wonderful angelic message to mankind, that You sent that first Christmas morning, when a heavenly choir sang its glorious refrain, “Glory to God In the Highest.. and peace on earth to men.” How we rejoice to recall the glorious reason that You gave Your only begotten Son, to be born into a race of sinners and to live a perfect life, so that by Your grace He would become the propitiation for our sins, and reclaim that peace between God and man that was lost in the garden, so many years ago.

Although that heavenly choir sang their joyful refrain some 2000 years ago, may the light of its glorious message of grace shine deep into the hearts of men and women everywhere, so that Jesus Christ may be lifted up in the hearts and minds of many, for Jesus Himself promised, “ if I am lifted up I will draw all men unto Myself.”

We pray that You would draw many into Your forgiving arms of grace and mercy.

May we never cease to glory in the eternal message of peace on earth and goodwill towards men, for You alone are worthy of all honour and praise. In Jesus' name we pray,

Amen.

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Saint Robert of Newminster

Saint Robert of Newminster was born in Gargrave in Yorkshire, England. He studied at the University of Paris, where he is said to have composed a commentary – since lost – on the Psalms. He became a parish priest, returning to serve Gargrave where he was made rector. He became a Benedictine joining the monks of Saint Mary’s Abbey in York.

About 1138, Saint Robert headed a group of monks sent out from Fountains to establish Newminster Abbey near the castle of Ralph de Merlay and his wife, Juliana, daughter of Gospatric II, Earl of Lothian, west of Morpeth in Northumberland. Abbot Robert was said to be was favoured with the gift of prophecy and miracles. During his abbacy three colonies of monks were sent to found new monasteries at Pipewell in Northamptonshire (1143), Roche in South Yorkshire (1147), and Sawley in Lancashire (1148).

Saint Robert ruled and directed the monks at Newminster for 21 years. The small monastery of only 17 monks was one of the first to be dissolved in 1535 by Henry VIII, and the site has been privately owned since.

Saint Robert was described as a devout, prayerful, and gentle man. He is known for being merciful in his judgment of others and a warm and considerate companion. He was zealous regarding his own vows of poverty.

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Psalm 105:4

Verse:

“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” - Psalm 105:4

Prayer To Know God

Father, I am not worthy to gather up the crumbs under Your table but You are a gracious God, whose nature is loving and merciful and in Your wisdom You have unveiled the building blocks of Your very character and revealed Yourself to us, within the pages of scripture.

Thank You for Your incomparable grace, in that despite my unworthiness You have lifted me up out of the miry clay and set my feet on the rock of my salvation and seated me in heavenly places in Christ.

I pray Lord, that in the power of the Holy Spirit, You would endow me the spirit of wisdom and understanding, so that I may know You more and love You better, with every passing day. I pray also that the eyes of my heart may be illumined by Your Word of truth, so that I may know more fully the hope to which I have been called.

Give me a deeper understanding of what it actually meant for You to die on the cross for my sins. Give me a deeper reverence for Who You truly are. In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen.

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Saint Norbert of Xanten

Saint Norbert of Xanten, also known as Norbert Gennep, was a bishop of the Catholic Church and founder of the Premonstratensian order of canons regular.

He adopted such strict discipline that it killed his first three disciples. This may be why he failed to reform the canons of Xanten, who denounced him as an innovator at the Council of Fritzlar in 1118. He then resigned his benefice, sold all his property and gave the proceeds to the poor. In settlement after settlement he encountered a demoralized clergy, lonely, often practicing concubinage and feeling that the official Church cared little about them.

He also became acquainted with the Cistercian administrative system that created an international federation of monasteries with fair amount of centralized power, though local houses had a certain amount of independence. These reforms, written up in their “Charter of Charity” would affect him significantly in his own future work.

In 1126 Pope Honorius II appointed Norbert to the Archbishopric of Magdeburg, where he put into practice the precepts he instituted at Prémontré. Several assassination attempts were made as he began to reform the lax discipline of his see. He was instrumental in protecting the Church’s rights against the secular power during the Investiture Controversy.

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Ephesians 6:13

Verse:

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” - Ephesians 6:13

Prayer For Divine Protection

Thank You, Father, for the divine protection that comes to me through my covenant of faith in Jesus Christ. You will never break Your covenant or go back on Your Word. Help me and my family abide in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty. You are our Rock, our Fortress, our Shield, and our High Tower. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

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Saint Boniface

Saint Boniface, known as the apostle of the Germans, was an English Benedictine monk who gave up being elected abbot to devote his life to the conversion of the Germanic tribes. Two characteristics stand out: his Christian orthodoxy and his fidelity to the pope of Rome.

How absolutely necessary this orthodoxy and fidelity were is borne out by the conditions Saint Boniface found on his first missionary journey in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II. Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many instances uneducated, lax and questionably obedient to their bishops. In particular instances their very ordinations were questionable.

These are the conditions that Saint Boniface was to report in 722 on his first return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German Church. The pope sent letters of recommendation to religious and civil leaders. Boniface later admitted that his work would have been unsuccessful, from a human viewpoint, without a letter of safe-conduct from Charles Martel, the powerful Frankish ruler, grandfather of Charlemagne. Boniface was finally made a regional bishop and authorized to organize the whole German Church. He was eminently successful.

In the Frankish kingdom, he met great problems because of lay interference in bishops’ elections, the worldliness of the clergy and lack of papal control.

During a final mission to the Frisians, Boniface and 53 companions were massacred while he was preparing converts for confirmation.

In order to restore the Germanic Church to its fidelity to Rome and to convert the pagans, Boniface had been guided by two principles. The first was to restore the obedience of the clergy to their bishops in union with the pope of Rome. The second was the establishment of many houses of prayer which took the form of Benedictine monasteries. A great number of Anglo-Saxon monks and nuns followed him to the continent, where he introduced the Benedictine nuns to the active apostolate of education.

Sources:

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-hilary-of-arles/

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The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9

First Reading: Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9

Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.

Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."

Responsorial Psalm: Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56

Response– Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R–Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R–Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R–Glory and praise for ever!

Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R–Glory and praise for ever!

Second Reading: 2 Cor 13:11-13

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

Alleluia:

Alleluia, alleluia. Glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit;
to God who is, who was, and who is to come. Alleluia, alleluia.

 

The Readings and Gospel were sourced from:

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