Sunday, January 31, 2016
Sexagesima Sunday
Violet Semidouble (Privilege of the Second Class) The Church offers to our consideration, during this week of Sexagesima, the history of Noah and the deluge. Man has not profited by the warnings already given him. God is obliged to punish him once more, and by a terrible chastisement. There is found out of the whole […]
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Saint John Bosco, Confessor
White Double At the close of the month dedicated to honoring the infancy of our Savior, St. John Bosco leads to the Child Jesus—to Jesus the worker—the multitude of young people and workers to whom he dedicated his life. Let us turn our attention to the Lessons which abbreviate this holy man’s life and work. […]
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Saturday, January 30, 2016
Saint Martina, Virgin and Martyr
Red Semidouble A third Roman Virgin, wearing on her brow a Martyr’s crown, comes today to share the honors given to Agnes and Emerentiana, and offer her palm to the Lamb. Her name is Martina, which the pagans were wont to give to their daughters in honor of their god of war. Her sacred relics […]
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Saturday of Septuagesima Week
The sentence pronounced by the Almighty upon our first parents was to fall upon their children to the end of time. We have been considering, during this week of Septuagesima, the penalties of the great sin; but the severest and most humiliating of them all remains to be told. It is the transmission to the […]
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Friday, January 29, 2016
Saint Francis of Sales, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church
White Double The angelical Bishop Francis of Sales has a right to a distinguished position near the Crib of Jesus, on account of the sweetness of his virtues, the child-like simplicity of his heart, and the humility and tenderness of his love. He comes with the luster of his glorious conquests upon him—seventy-two thousand heretics […]
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Friday of Septuagesima Week
The curse, which is henceforth to lie so heavily on every human being, has been expressed in the sentence pronounced against Eve; the curse, to which the earth itself is to be subjected, is Adam’s sentence. “Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded […]
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Thursday, January 28, 2016
Saint Peter Nolasco, Confessor
White Double The Ransomer of Captives, Peter Nolasco, is thus brought before us by the Calendar, a few days after having given us the Feast of his master, Raymund of Pegnafort. Both of them offer to the Divine Redeemer the thousands of Christians they ransomed from slavery. It is an appropriate homage, for it was […]
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Saint Agnes, Her Second Feast
Red Simple Five days after the martyrdom of the Virgin Emerentiana, the parents of the glorious Saint Agnes visited the tomb of their child during the night, there to weep and pray. It was the eighth day since her martyrdom. While they were thinking upon the cruel death, which, though it had enriched their child […]
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Thursday of Septuagesima Week
Forgiveness is promised; but atonement must be made. Divine justice must be satisfied, and future generations be taught that sin can never pass unpunished. Eve is the guiltier of the two, and her sentence follows that of the serpent. Destined by God to aid man in peopling the earth with happy and faithful children, formed […]
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
White Double Before our Emmanuel came upon this our earth, men were as sheep without a shepherd; the flock was scattered, and the human race was hastening on to perdition. Jesus would, therefore, not only be the Lamb that was to be slain for our sins; he made himself, moreover, a Shepherd, that so he […]
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