Wednesday, August 21, 2013
St. Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal, Widow
Although Mary’s glory is within her, beauty appears also in the garment wherewith she is clad: a mysterious robe woven of the virtues of the Saints, who owe to her both their justice and their reward. As every grace comes to us through our Mother, so all the glory of heaven converges towards that of […]
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Tuesday, August 20, 2013
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
The valley of wormwood has lost its bitterness; having become Clairvaux, or the bright valley, its light shines over the world; from every point of the horizon vigilant bees are attracted to it by the honey from the rock which abounds in its solitude. Mary turns her glance upon its wild hills, and with her […]
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Monday, August 19, 2013
Fifth Day Within the Octave of the Assumption
“It is a great thing for a saint to have as much grace as would suffice for many; but if he had sufficient for all men in the world, that would be fulness of measure: and this is the case with Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin.” So speaks the prince of theologians with regard […]
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St. John Eudes, Confessor
Born on a farm in northern France, St. John was a religious, a parish missionary, founder of two religious communities and a great promoter of the devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He joined the religious community of the Oratorians and was ordained a priest at twenty-four. During severe plagues […]
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Sunday, August 18, 2013
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
The dominical series—which, formerly, counted from the feast of Saint Peter, or of the Apostles—never went beyond this Sunday. The feast of Saint Laurence gave its name to those which follow; through that name began with even the ninth Sunday, for the years when Easter was nearest the Spring equinox. When, on the contrary, that […]
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Saturday, August 17, 2013
St. Hyacinth, Confessor
One of the loveliest lilies from the Dominican field today unfurls its petals at the foot of Mary’s throne. Hyacinth represents on the sacred cycle that intrepid band of missionaries who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, faced the barbarism of the Tartars and Mussulmans which was threatening the West. From the Alps to the […]
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Friday, August 16, 2013
St. Joachim, Confessor, Father of the Blessed Virgin Mary
From time immemorial the Greeks have celebrated the feast of St. Joachim on the day following our Lady’s birthday. The Maronites kept it on the day after the Presentation in November, and the Armenians on the Tuesday after the Octave of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The Latins at first did not keep […]
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Thursday, August 15, 2013
Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary
“Today the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven; rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.” The Church will close her chants on this glorious day with this sweet antiphon which resumes the object of the feast and the spirit in which it should be celebrated. No other solemnity breathes, like this one, at once triumph and […]
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Vigil of the Assumption
What is this aurora before which the brightest constellations pale? Laurence, who has been shining in the August heavens as an incomprarable star, is well nigh eclipsed, and becomes but the humble satellite of the Queen of Saints, whose triumph is preparing beyond the clouds. Mary stayed on earth after her Son’s Ascension, in order […]
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Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Saints Hippolytus and Cassian, Martyrs
Not far from the sepulcher of St. Laurence, on the opposite side of the Tiburtian Way, lies the tomb of St. Hippolytus, one of the sanctuaries most dear to the Christians in the days of triumph. Prudentius has described the magnificence of the crypt, and the immense concourse attracted to it each year on the […]
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