30 Sep – Memorial for St Jerome, Priest & Doctor of the Church Jerome (347-419) led a misspent youth. He later converted in theory, being baptised in 365, and then had a true conversion when he studied theology. Monk. He revised the Latin text of the Bible. The result of his 30 years of work [...]
29 Sep – Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser [...]
28 Sep – Memorial for St Wenceslaus, Martyr; Memorial for St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions, Martyrs Wenceslaus (907-929) was the son of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia, whose family had been converted by St. Cyril and St. Methodius, and Drahomira, daughter of a pagan chief, who was baptised on her wedding day but apparently never [...]
27 Sep – Memorial for St Vincent de Paul, Priest Vincent (1581-1660) spent four years with the Franciscan friars getting an education. He was taken captive by Turkish pirates and sold into slavery, then freed when he converted one of his owners to Christianity. He started organisations to help the poor, nursed the sick, found [...]
26 Sep – Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time; World Migrant Sunday Behold The Man! It is our purple and fine linen, our life of ease and our love of wealth, that is mocked today by Christ, the centre of our celebration, who in the presence of Pilate stood like a Lazarus covered with sores and [...]
24 Sep _____________________ Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8 Rejoice in your youth, you who are young; let your heart give you joy in your young days. Follow the promptings of your heart and the desires of your eyes. But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement. Cast worry from your heart, [...]
24 Sep _____________________ Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for [...]
23 Sep – Memorial for St Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), Priest Pio (1887-1968) was ordained when he was 22. He founded the House for the Relief of Suffering in 1956, a hospital that serves 60,000 a year. In the 1920s he started a series of prayer groups that continue today with over 400,000 members [...]
22 Sep _____________________ Proverbs 30:5-9 Every word of God is unalloyed, he is the shield of those who take refuge in him. To his words make no addition, lest he reprove you and know you for a fraud. Two things I beg of you, do not grudge me them before I die: keep falsehood and [...]
21 Sep – Feast of St Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist Matthew was the son of Alphaeus, and he lived at Capernaum on Lake Genesareth. He was a Roman tax collector, a position equated with collaboration with the enemy by those from whom he collected taxes. Jesus’ contemporaries were surprised to see the Christ with a [...]
