Sunday, November 22, 2015
Saint Cæcilia, Virgin and Martyr
Red Double Cæcilia united in her veins the blood of kings with that of Rome’s greatest heroes. At the time of the first preaching of the Gospel, more than one ancient patrician family had seen its direct line become extinct. But the adoptions and alliances, which under the Republic had knit more closely the great […]
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Saturday, November 21, 2015
The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
White Greater Double The Presentation is one of the minor solemnities of our Lady, and was inscribed at a comparatively late date on the sacred Cycle; it seems to court the homage of our silent contemplation. The world, unknown to itself, is ruled by the secret prayers of the just; and the Queen of saints, […]
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Friday, November 20, 2015
Saint Felix of Valois, Confessor
White Double Felix was called in his youth to dwell in the desert; and he thought to die there, forgotten by the world he had despised. But our Lord had decreed that his old age should yield fruit before men. It was one of those epochs which may be called turning points in history. The […]
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Thursday, November 19, 2015
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Duchess of Thuringia
White Double Although the blessed in heaven shine each with his own peculiar glory, God is pleased to group them in families, as he groups the stars in the material firmament. It is grace that presides over the arrangement of these constellations in the heaven of the Saints; but sometimes it seems as if God […]
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Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
White Greater Double quod duce te mundus surrexit in astra triumphans, hanc Constantinus victor tibi condidit aulam. Because the world under thy conduct has risen triumphant to the very heavens, Constantine the conqueror has built this temple in thy honor. This inscription stood in letters of gold over the triumphal arch in the ancient Vatican […]
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop and Confessor
White Semi-double Moses instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, mighty in his words and in his deeds, retired into the desert: Gregory, adorned with the best gifts of birth and nature, brilliant in rhetoric, rich in every science, hid himself from men in the flower of his youth, and hastened to offer to […]
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Monday, November 16, 2015
Saint Gertrude, Virgin
White Double The school which is founded upon the rule of the great Patriarch of the Monks of the West began with St. Gregory the Great. Such was the independent action of the Holy Spirit who guided it that in it women have prophesied as well as men. It is enough to mention St. Hildegarde […]
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Sunday, November 15, 2015
Sunday After the Octave of All Saints: The Dedication of Churches
Domum Dei decet sanctitudo: Sponsum ejus Christum adoremus in ea. Such is the Invitatory Antiphon, which sums up the liturgical thought of the day: “Holiness becometh the House of God: let us adore therein Christ her Spouse.”What is this mystery of a house that is at the same time a bride?—Our churches are holy because […]
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Saturday, November 14, 2015
Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
Red Double Josaphat Kuncewicz, contemporary with St. Francis de Sales and St. Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetic of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own […]
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Friday, November 13, 2015
Saint Didacus, Confessor
White Semi-double A humble lay brother, Didacus of St. Nicholas is welcomed today by his father St. Francis into the company of Bernardine of Siena and John Capistran, who preceded him by a few years to heaven. The two latter left Italy and the whole of Europe still echoing with their voices, the one making […]
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