In Memoriam [first anniversary] Sept. XXIX

MEMORIAL TO MY MOTHER

WHO RESTS IN THE SURE

HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION

Saint Justa

by Murillo

Saint Justa, a vendor of clay pots, together with her sister Saint Rufina. After refusing to sell their pots for use in pagan worship were set upon by the pagans of Seville who destroyed their whole stock of pots. The saintly sisters in full Christian indignation then overturned the cult idol of the pagans, smashing it. They were denounced as Christians before the imperial authorities, a fact, which they did not deny. Having thus confessed the name of Christ they suffered martyrdom, and gained paradise.

O most blessed Saint Justa, pray for the soul of she who in this life so joyfully bore your name.

Prayer to Saint Michael [Sept. XXIX]

Saint Michael the Archangel

defender of the Holy Church of God

Saint Michael

the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;

and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host -

by the Divine Power of God -

cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits,

who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls.

Amen.

Bl. Mary of Jesus [Sept. XII]

Blessed Mary of Jesus

Born in 1560 at Tartanedo (Spain), she took the Discalced Carmelite habit at Toledo in 1577 and made her profession the following year. She spent the rest of her life serving God in that Carmel, except for a brief period in 1585 when she helped with a foundation at Cuerva. She died at Toledo on September 13, 1640. St. Teresa of Jesus thought extremely highly of her. She was a great contemplative, intensely devoted to our Lord, and often drawing inspiration from the liturgy.

Our Day of Charity [Sept. VIII]

Our Lady of Charity

pray for us.

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Sept.VIII]

The birth of the Mother of God

Thy birth, O Virgin Mother of God,


heralded joy to all the world.


For from thou hast risen the Sun of justice,


Christ our God.

Destroying the curse, He gave blessing;


and damning death, He bestowed on us
life everlasting.

Blessed art thou among women


and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.


For from thou hast risen of Sun of justice,
Christ our God.

Saint Adrian of Nicomidia

Saint Adrian Nicomidia

Feast: September 8th.

The holy martyrs Adrian and Natalia were married in their youth for one year prior to their martyrdom, and lived in Nicomedia during the time of the emperor Maximian (305-311). The emperor promised a reward to whomever would inform on Christians to bring them to trial. Then the denunciations began, and twenty-three Christians were captured in a cave near Nicomedia.

They were tortured, urged to worship idols, and then brought before the Praetor, in order to record their names and responses. Adrian, the head of the praetorium, watched as these people suffered with such courage for their faith. Seeing how firmly and fearlessly they confessed Christ, asked: "What rewards do you expect from your God for your suffering?" The martyrs replied: "Such rewards as we are not able to describe, nor can your mind comprehend." St Adrian told the scribes,"Write my name down also, for I am a Christian and I die gladly for Christ God."

The scribes reported this to the emperor, who summoned St Adrian and asked: "Really, have you gone mad, that you want to die? Come, cross out your name from the lists and offer sacrifice to the gods, asking their forgiveness."

St Adrian answered: "I have not lost my mind, but rather have I found it." Maximian then ordered Adrian to be thrown into prison. His wife, St Natalia, knowing that her husband was to suffer for Christ, rejoiced, since she herself was secretly a Christian.

She hastened to the prison and encouraged her husband saying: "You are blessed, my lord, because you have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28 years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only faith and good deeds are pleasing to God."

On the pledge of the other martyrs, they released St Adrian from prison to tell his wife about the day of his execution. At first St Natalia thought that he had renounced Christ and thus had been set free, and she did not want to let him into the house. The saint persuaded his wife that he had not fled from martyrdom, but rather had come to give her the news of the day of his execution.

They tortured St Adrian cruelly. The emperor advised the saint to have pity on himself and call on the gods, but the martyr answered: "Let your gods say what blessings they promise me, and then I shall worship them, but if they cannot do this, then why should I worship them?" St Natalia did not cease to encourage her husband. She asked him also to pray to God for her, that they would not force her into marriage with a pagan after his death.

Saint Teresa Margaret Redi of the Sacred Heart

Saint Teresa Margaret of Redi

of the Sacred Heart

Teresa Margaret was born in Arezzo in Tuscany in 1747 of the noble Redi family, and entered the Discalced Carmelites at Florence on September 1, 1764. She was given a special contemplative experience concerning the words of St John, “God is love.” She felt deeply that her vocation was to live a hidden life of love and self-immolation. That vocation was confirmed by her heroic exercise of fraternal charity, but was soon completed: she died in 1770, aged twenty-three.

Saints of September

La sainte chapelle

We enter into the month of September and find the saints of God already waiting for us. Let us enter and join the holy ones in the worship and adoration of the Lord.

List of the Saints commemorated in the month of September.

I. St. Teresa Redi

II. Bl. Walter of Bergamo and Ingrid of Skanninge

III. St. Balin of Techsaxon

IV. Blessed Catherine of Racconigi

V. St. Jordan of Pulsano

VI. Bl. Bertrand of Garrigue, Michael Czartorysky and Juliana Rodzinska

VII. St. Diuma

VIII. St. Adrian of Nicomedia

IX. St. Peter Claver of Verdu

X. St. Nicholas of Tolentino

XI. St. John Gabriel de le Puech

XII. Bl. Mary of Jesus

XIII. St. Philip the confessor

XIV. St. Cormac of Cashel

XV. St. Adam of Caithness

XVI. St. Ludmila

XVII. Bl. Albert of Jerusalem

XVIII. St. John Macias

XIX. St. Alfonso de Orozco

XX. Bl. Mark of Modena, and Francis de Posadas

XXI. St. Matthew the Apostle

XXII. Bl. Jacino and his companions, St. Maurice and his companions

XXIII. St. Pio of Pietrelcina

XXIV. Bl. DalmatiusMoner

XXV. St. Cadoc

XXVI. Sts. Cosmas and Damian

XXVII. Sts. Adolphus and John of Seville

XXVIII. Bl. Lawrence of Ripafratta, and St. Lorenzo Ruiz and his companions.

XXIX. St. Michael the Archangel

XXX. St. Midan

Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Feast: August 28

The Assumption of the Mother of God

The Assumption of the Mother of God

August 15th.

…For the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority,

We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.

___from the Papal Constitution Munificentissimus Deus of Pope Pius XII in which the Assumption of the Mother of God was dogmatically defined as a necessary article of Faith.

Saint Philomina

Print showing principal image of St. Philomina

 over her Altar at her tomb

Feast: August 11

Prayer

O most pure Virgin, glorious Martyr, St. Philomena, whom God in His eternal power has revealed to the world in these unhappy days in order to revive the faith, sustain the hope and enkindle the charity of Christian souls, behold me prostate at thy feet. Deign, O Virgin, full of goodness and kindness, to receive my humble prayers and to obtain for me that purity for which thou didst sacrifice the most alluring pleasures of the world, that strength of soul which made thee resist the most terrible attacks and that ardent love for our Lord Jesus Christ, which the most frightful torments could not extinguish in thee. So, that waring thy holy cord and imitating thee in this life, I may one day be crowned with thee in heaven.

 Amen.

"Pray to St. Philomena, whatever you ask from Her She will obtain for you."

_____(Pope Gregory XVI)

The Cross of Jesus Christ

The Holy Cross

Our understanding, which is enlightened by the Spirit of truth, should receive with purity and freedom of heart the glory of the cross as it shines in heaven and on earth. It should see with inner vision the meaning of the Lord's words when he spoke of the imminence of his passion: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Afterward he said: Now my soul is troubled, and what am I to say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this I came to this hour. Father, glorify your Son. When the voice of the Father came from heaven, saying, I have glorified him, and will glorify him again, Jesus said in reply to those around him: It was not for me that this voice spoke, but for you. Now is the judgment of the world, now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.

How marvelous the power of the cross; how great beyond all telling the glory of the passion. Here is the judgment-seat of the Lord, the condemnation of the world, the supremacy of Christ crucified.

Lord, you drew all things to yourself so that the devotion of all peoples everywhere might celebrate, in a sacrament made perfect and visible, what was carried out in the one temple of Judea under obscure foreshadowings. Now there is a more distinguished order of Levites, a greater dignity for the rank of elders, a more sacred anointing for the priesthood, because your cross is the source of all blessings, the cause of all graces. Through the cross the faithful receive strength from weakness, glory from dishonor, life from death.

The different sacrifices of animals are no more: the one offering of your body and blood is the fulfillment of all the different sacrificial offerings, for you are the true Lamb of God: you take away the sins of the world. In yourself you bring to perfection all mysteries, so that, as there is one sacrifice in place of all other sacrificial offerings, there is also one kingdom gathered from all peoples.

Dearly beloved, let us then acknowledge what Saint Paul, the teacher of the nations, acknowledged so exultantly: This is a saying worthy of trust, worthy of complete acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.

God's compassion for us is all the more wonderful because Christ died, not for the righteous or the holy but for the wicked and the sinful, and, though the divine nature could not be touched by the sting of death, he took to himself, through his birth as one of us, something he could offer on our behalf.

The power of his death once confronted our death. In the words of Hosea the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; grave, I shall swallow you up. By dying he submitted to the laws of the underworld; by rising again he destroyed them. He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity. As all die in Adam, so all will be brought to life in Christ.

______From one of the sermons of Saint Leo the Great