Martes, Abril 4, 2006
Double (1955 Calendar): April 4
Today the Church celebrates the feastday of St. Isidore of Seville who lived from (c. 560 - 636) in Spain during a period similar to our own - one of conflict and the promotion of lies. Spain was divided between the Catholic Romans and the Arian Goths. The Goths believed in the heresy of Arianism, which claims that Jesus Christ is not God.
St. Isidore helped unite Spain and defeat the heresy there. He came from a family in Cartagena, which included three other saints. St. Isidore followed his elder brother as bishop of Seville.
Above all, St. Isidore was a scholar. He was called the "The Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages" because the encyclopedia he wrote was used as a textbook for nine centuries! He required seminaries to be built in every diocese. St. Isidore wrote numerous books, one was a history of the world beginning at creation! He helped found numerous schools and even wrote a Rule for a religious order. For the last six months of his life, as he died, his house was filled with the poor and needy. St. Isidore cared for them regardless of his own condition. He has been declared a Doctor of the Church.
St. Isidore has even been proposed as the patron saint for the Internet. So, whenever you have a problem with your blog, remember to ask for his intercession.
The Traditional Reading for St. Isidore from Matins:
Isidore, by birth a Spaniard, was an illustrious Doctor of the Church. He was born at Carthagena, and his father, whose name was Severianus, was governor of that part of the country. He was solidly trained to piety and learning by his two brothers, Leander, bishop of Seville, and Fulgentius, bishop of Carthagena. He was taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew; he was put through a course of canon and civil law; and there was no science or virtue in which he did not excel. While yet a youth, he so courageously combated the Arian heresy, which had long before infected the Goths who had entered Spain, that he with difficulty escaped being put to death by the heretics. After the death of Leander, he was, in spite of himself, raised to the episcopal See of Seville, by the influence of king Reccared, and with unanimous consent of both clergy and people. His election was not only confirmed by apostolic authority, but St. Gregory the Great, when sending him as usual the pallium, is said to have appointed him his own vicar, and that of the apostolic See, throughout all Spain.
It would be impossible to describe the virtues of Isidore as bishop: how firm, humble, patient, and merciful; how zealously he laboured for the restoration of Christian morals and ecclesiastical discipline, and how untiring he was in his efforts, both by word and writing, to establish them among his people; and, finally, how he excelled in every virtue. He was a fervent promoter of the monastic life in Spain, and built several monasteries. He also built colleges, in which he himself applied himself to teaching the sacred sciences to the many disciples that flocked to him; among whom may be mentioned those two glorious pontiffs,Ildephonsus bishop of Toledo, and Braulio bishop of Saragossa. In a Council held at Seville, he spoke with such power and eloquence, that he may be said to have destroyed the heresy of the Acephali, which threatened to undermine the true faith in Spain. So great, indeed, was the universal reputation he had gained for piety and learning, that he had scarcely been dead sixteen years, when, in a Council held at Toledo, and at which fifty-two bishops were present, St. Ildephonsus himself among them, he was called the illustrious doctor, the new glory of the Catholic Church, the most learned man who had been seen in those ages, and one whose name should never be mentioned but with great respect. St. Braulio not only compared him to St. Gregory the Great, but said that he looked on him as having been sent by heaven, as a second St. James the apostle, to instruct the people of Spain.
Isidore wrote a book on Etymologies, and another on Ecclesiastical Offices, and several others, of such importance to Christian and ecclesiastical discipline, that Pope St. Leo IV. hesitated not to say, in a letter addressed to the bishops of Britain, that one ought to adhere to the words of Isidore with the same respect as is shown to those of Jerome and Augustine, as often as a difficult case should arise, which could not be settled by canon law. Several sentences of his works have been inserted into the body of the canon law. He presided over the fourth Council of Toledo, which is the most celebrated of all those that have been held in Spain. At length, after having driven the Arian heresy out of Spain, he publicly foretold the day of his death, and the devastation of the country by the Saracens; and having governed his See for about forty years, he died at Seville, in the year 636. His body was first buried, as he himself had requested, between those of his brother and sister, Leander and Florentina. Afterwards, Ferdinand I., King of Castille and Leon, purchased it for a large sum of money, from Enetus, the Saracen governor of Seville, and had it translated to Leon. Here a church was built in his honour, and the miracles that are wrought by his intercession have led the people to honour him with great devotion.Prayer:
O God, Who didst give blessed Isidore to Thy people as a minister of eternal salvation: grant, we beseech Thee, that we, who have had him for our teacher on earth, may deserve to have him for our advocate in heaven. Through our Lord.
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal
Today's Stational Church is at the Church of St. Cyriacus
The Sacred Texts, which like a garland, surround the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Divine Office must not only be understood in their literal and historical sense, but above all in their liturgical one. This is always the case, but especially during Passiontide.
The Divine Head, who nineteen centuries ago underwent the great Passion is now undergoing it in His Body, the Church. An attack on the Church is an attack on Christ. Whenever the Church suffers, her Divine head suffers. But all these sufferings lead to victory. "They have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. The disciple is not greater than the Master." Persecutions and sufferings purify the Church. They remove what is not of God. They cast forth all that comes from Satan—the arch-enemy, and that comes from the fatal act in Paradise—the arch-sin.
May the holy Deacon Cyriacus obtain for us "God's light and truth and conduct us and bring us to His holy hill, to the altar, to Calvary, to Easter, to the immortal Christ at the right-hand of the Father.
Let us pray: O Lord, deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. Send forth Thy Light and Thy Truth. They shall lead me on. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Source: St. John Cantius Parish
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The Sacred Texts, which like a garland, surround the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and the Divine Office must not only be understood in their literal and historical sense, but above all in their liturgical one. This is always the case, but especially during Passiontide.
The Divine Head, who nineteen centuries ago underwent the great Passion is now undergoing it in His Body, the Church. An attack on the Church is an attack on Christ. Whenever the Church suffers, her Divine head suffers. But all these sufferings lead to victory. "They have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. The disciple is not greater than the Master." Persecutions and sufferings purify the Church. They remove what is not of God. They cast forth all that comes from Satan—the arch-enemy, and that comes from the fatal act in Paradise—the arch-sin.
May the holy Deacon Cyriacus obtain for us "God's light and truth and conduct us and bring us to His holy hill, to the altar, to Calvary, to Easter, to the immortal Christ at the right-hand of the Father.
Let us pray: O Lord, deliver me from the unjust and deceitful man. Send forth Thy Light and Thy Truth. They shall lead me on. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Source: St. John Cantius Parish
Pope Benedict XVI has called for us to fast yesterday and today (April 3rd and 4th) for peace throughout the world but especially in Iraq. He specifically called the Iraqi Christians to pray while "entrusting this intention to the intercession of Mary most holy, Queen of Peace."
Let us fast and pray for them today:
O God, Who bringest wars to nought and shieldest by Thy power all who hope in Thee, overthrowing those that assail them: help Thy servants who implore Thy mercy, so that the fierce might of their enermies may be brought low, and we may never cease to praise and thank thee. Through our Lord.
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal, Votive Mass in Time of War
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Let us fast and pray for them today:
O God, Who bringest wars to nought and shieldest by Thy power all who hope in Thee, overthrowing those that assail them: help Thy servants who implore Thy mercy, so that the fierce might of their enermies may be brought low, and we may never cease to praise and thank thee. Through our Lord.
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal, Votive Mass in Time of War
"Never let anything so fill you with pain or sorrow so as to make you forget the joy of Christ Risen."
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Lunes, Abril 3, 2006
"Who does not see that the hidden life of Nazareth is continued in the divine Host of the tabernacle, and that the Passion of the Man-God on Calvary is renewed in the Holy Sacrifice at every moment of the day and night and all over the world? Is not our Lord as meek and humble in His Sacrament as during His mortal life? Is He not always the Good Shepherd, the divine Consoler, our bosom Friend?"(St. Peter Julian Eymard)
Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain
Today's Stational Church is at the Church of St. Chrysogonus
We are branches of Christ, the Vine. As such, we share in His life, share in His joys, and must share also in His sufferings, and thus—as the Apostle so boldly put it—make up in our own body what is yet wanting in the sufferings of Christ, the Head. This we shall do gladly in these holy Passion days. Our mortifications, our self-discipline, our temptations, our trials from within and from without, all our sufferings, we will unite with Christ's Blessed Passion. They will then be lifted out of their own smallness and will share in the greatness and efficacy of His sufferings. He will suffer in us and we in Him.
We humbly ask St. Chrysogonus, in whose Roman home we observe today's mysteries of redemption, that he would accompany us to "the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory."
Let us pray: O God, hear my prayer. Give ear to the words of my mouth. Save me, O Lord, by Thy name and in Thy power deliver me. Through Christ, Our Lord.Amen.
Source: St. John Cantius Parish
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We are branches of Christ, the Vine. As such, we share in His life, share in His joys, and must share also in His sufferings, and thus—as the Apostle so boldly put it—make up in our own body what is yet wanting in the sufferings of Christ, the Head. This we shall do gladly in these holy Passion days. Our mortifications, our self-discipline, our temptations, our trials from within and from without, all our sufferings, we will unite with Christ's Blessed Passion. They will then be lifted out of their own smallness and will share in the greatness and efficacy of His sufferings. He will suffer in us and we in Him.
We humbly ask St. Chrysogonus, in whose Roman home we observe today's mysteries of redemption, that he would accompany us to "the Lord of Hosts, the King of Glory."
Let us pray: O God, hear my prayer. Give ear to the words of my mouth. Save me, O Lord, by Thy name and in Thy power deliver me. Through Christ, Our Lord.Amen.
Source: St. John Cantius Parish
Linggo, Abril 2, 2006
With Lent approaching I wanted to start posting scripture here relating to Christ's death and our salvation.Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live:And every one that liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou this? John 11:25-26
Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain
Update: Keep praying!
In mid-January I posted about a bill in the Philippines (HB 3773) that would create a law similar to China requiring a "two child per family limit." The bill is highly opposed by the majority of the country and the Catholic Church; the Philippines is 87% Catholic.
Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just announced that she will veto any legislation approved by lawmakers that would legalize abortion in the Philippines. She called this her "best birthday gift" to Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, the chairman of the Philippines Catholic Bishops Conference.
President Arroyo of the Philippines said that bill "pave[s] the way for the kind of human rights nightmare that is already in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices."
I commend Arroyo, a practicing Catholic, for standing up for the truth - that human life is worthy of dignity. Thanks be to God for this great news.
Visit The Filipino Family Fund for more information and a petition against this dangerous bill
Read more >>
In mid-January I posted about a bill in the Philippines (HB 3773) that would create a law similar to China requiring a "two child per family limit." The bill is highly opposed by the majority of the country and the Catholic Church; the Philippines is 87% Catholic.
Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just announced that she will veto any legislation approved by lawmakers that would legalize abortion in the Philippines. She called this her "best birthday gift" to Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, the chairman of the Philippines Catholic Bishops Conference.
President Arroyo of the Philippines said that bill "pave[s] the way for the kind of human rights nightmare that is already in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices."
I commend Arroyo, a practicing Catholic, for standing up for the truth - that human life is worthy of dignity. Thanks be to God for this great news.
Visit The Filipino Family Fund for more information and a petition against this dangerous bill
O my God, I beg of Thee, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, through the merits of the Precious Blood offered to Thee in every Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, to grant that, this day, one sinner may be converted, one mortal sin be averted, one soul in doubt be converted to truth, one soul about to die in sin receive the grace of repentance and a happy death, and the deliverance of that soul in Purgatory which is nearest Heaven. I wish, by this offering, to console the Heart of Jesus in Agony for souls lost through the teaching of error against the true Church of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.Prayer excerpted from Schouppe, Father F.X., Purgatory: Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints
. Rockford: TAN, 1991. "Appendix 3: Prayers for the Poor Souls", pp. 413-427. Imprimatur, Nihil Obstat.Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain
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