Whitsunday

May 27

Creator Spirit, by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid,
Come visit every pious mind,
Come pour Thy joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free,
And make Thy temples worthy Thee.

The Ascension of the Lord

I will not leave you orphans;
I go and I come to you,
and your heart shall rejoice.
Alleluia.

Jesus said, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.

____St. Luke xxiv. 49.

St. Venantius

May 18

St. Venantius.

Feast: May 18th

When still a boy of fifteen, Venantius was martyred for his faith in his native city under the Emperor Decius (249-251). With heroic steadfastness he endured many and unspeakably cruel tortures. According to legend, he was scourged, burned with torches and hung headfirst over a smoking fire. He was then thrown to the lions; while they lay like lambs at his feet, he preached the Gospel to the people. This induced many pagans to accept the faith. Finally he was beheaded.

_____[from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.]

La Aparecida, Queen of Brazil

May 13

Our Lady Aparecida

Feast day October 12

In October of 1717, Dom Pedro de Almedida, Count of Assumar, was on his way to the state of Minas Gerais from Sao Paulo. He would have to pass by Guarantinqueta, a small city in the Paraiba river valley. The people of Guarantinqueta decided to hold a great feast to honor the Count, and a lot of fish would be needed.

However, it was not the season for fish and the water seemed deserted. After many hours of catching nothing, the fishermen were very depressed. Among the fishermen were three men who always prayed to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception -- Domingos Garcia, Joco Alves, and Felipe Pedroso. Before going out to fish, they asked God to help then in this difficult task, to find enough fish at this time when no fish were available. Felipe knelt and prayed, along with his companions, "Mother of God and our Mother, we need to find fish!"

Just before they were ready to give up, Joco cast his net one more time near the Port of Itaguagu in hopes that they would find fish. However, they found a body of a statue! Joco called out in surprise, "Domingo! Felipe! Come and see what we have!" They cast the net one more time and brought up the head of the statue!

They very carefully washed the statue and saw that it was Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. They wrapped her in some cloths and continued to fish. Domingo commented, "We worked all night and have found no fish!"

Felipe had a proposition: "Let's continue to fish with faith in the Virgin Aparecida (who appeared)." From this moment on, the net became very full with fish. This was the first miracle of Our Lady of Aparecida.

It is not known how the small (less than three feet high) statue came to rest at the bottom of the river, but its artist is known, Frei Agostino de Jesus, a "carioca'' monk from Sao Paulo who created artistic clay sculptures.The image was made around 1650 and must have stayed submerged in the river for many years because it lost its original polychromy. The image is now a brilliant dark brown color, and is covered by a stiff mantle of richly embroidered thick cloth, allowing only her face and hands to be seen. She wears on her head the imperial crown with precious stones with which she was crowned in 1904. In 1930 Pope Pius XII proclaimed her principal patroness of Brazil.

___(thanks to Overheard in the Sacrasty)

The Month of Mary

Hail Blessed Mother of the Saviour

"...And thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata,
art a little one among the thousands of Judah:
out of thee shall be come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel,
and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.
Therefore will he give them up till the time wherein she that travaileth shall bring forth,
and the remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of Israel."

___Micheas V: 2-3

480th. Anniversary of the Sack of Rome

Swiss Guard

May 6th

In the year 1527 an Imperial army numbering 35,000 troops of largely mercenary Lutheran soldiers, was sent to the north of Italy, at the time the southern most point of the Holy Roman Empire to defeat the attempts of Francis I of France to gain a foothold in Italy. Though successful in their mission, the Imperial army mutinied after the Emperor failed to raise sufficient funds to pay its troops. The soldiers noting that Rome was not far off, set out for the Holy City in hopes of finding loot. Arriving at the gates of Rome on the 5^th of May the Imperial army quickly entered the city. The next day the Lutherans were at the walls of the Vatican. The Swiss Guard, the personal guards of the Pope were able to safely lead Pope Clement VII out of the Vatican and into the safety of Castelo Sant'Angelo. Of the 189 guards only 42 survived, and to this date the anniversary of the sack of Rome, on which the memory of the valiant defense of the person of the Vicar of Christ is recalled by all Romans, the Guards make their oath of fidelity to the Sovereign Pontiff.

Saint Joseph the Worker.

Saint Joseph
Guardian of the Lord;
Spouse of the Mother of God
Patron of the Universal Church of God
Pray for us.

Though the principal feast (solemnity) of Saint Joseph is celebrated on March 19, a second feast of a lower rank is celebrated today May 1. Until 1956 the first day in May was kept by the Roman Rite as the feast of the Apostles Saints Philip and James. This is now celebrated in the calendar observed by Traditionalist Latin Rite Catholics on the 11^th of May, and by Councilists on the 3^rd of May.

The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was instituted by Pope Pius XII to over shadow the communistic May 1^st celebrations and public demonstrations of Europe’s Socialists and Communists. Through the celebration of this feast it was hoped that the social teaching of the Church would come to the fore of the cultural and social-political discussions current in many parts of the world at the time, and thus make a salutary impact on the lives of men and women throughout the world.

Despite the fact that the Soviet Union is now a thing of the past, and the Marxist governments of Eastern Europe have fallen, Communism today still enslaves over one billion persons in China, and millions of others in South-Eastern Asia, as well as Latin America. Socialism with its distinctive totalitarian methodology is on the rise in many places in the West, most notably among the nations of the European Union; but also here in the United States were a noticeable push for power by far leftist organization and highly influential persons imbued with the spirit of Marxism (Socialism) endanger the civil liberties of all citizens, and nullify the rights of God in our society, and in our republic. The one constant antidote to this social, cultural, and political poison remains the social doctrine of the Church, and the grace of God working in the hearts of men. Through the constant intercession of Saint Joseph may the Church of God be safe from every danger, and may the scourge of Communism and Socialism remain far form our land.