24 Jul – Memorial for St Charbel of Makhluf, Priest St. Charbel was a Lebanese monk, born in a small mountain village and ordained in 1858. Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he spent the last twenty three years of his life as a hermit. Despite temptations to wealth and comfort, St. Charbel taught the [...]
02 Apr – Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion _____________________ Isaiah 52:13-53:12 See, my servant will prosper, he shall be lifted up, exalted, rise to great heights. As the crowds were appalled on seeing him – so disfigured did he look that he seemed no longer human – so will the crowds be astonished at [...]
09 Jan – Saturday after Epiphany ____________________ 1 John 5:14-21 We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything, and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us; and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us, we know that we have already been granted what [...]
16 Jun ____________________ 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 Here, brothers, is the new of the grace of God which was given in the churches of Macedonia; and of how, throughout great trials by suffering, their constant cheerfulness and their intense poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity. I can swear that they gave not only as [...]
17 Feb – Memorial for the Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites The Order of the Servants of Mary (Servites) was named the fifth mendicant order by Pope Martin V. It was founded in 1233 by Sts. Alexis Falconieri, Bartholomew degli Amidei, Benedict dell’Antella, Buonfiglio Monaldi, Gherardino Sostegni, Hugh dei Lippi-Uguccioni, and John [...]
First, on behalf of all the OXYGEN contributors, here’s wishing you a very happy and fruitful 2009! Second, I have an announcement to make – a new feature for a new year: We recently had our first Christmas gathering of old and new contributors and at the meeting, it was suggested that there should be [...]
06 Sep - Saturday in the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time ____________________ 1 Cor 4:6b-15 Now in everything I have said here, brothers, I have taken Apollos and myself as an example (remember the maxim: ‘Keep to what is written’); it is not for you, so full of your own importance, to go taking sides for one man [...]
04 Sep - Thursday in the Twenty-Second Week in Ordinary Time ____________________ 1 Cor 3:18-23 Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world [...]
August 22, Queenship of Mary On Oct 11, 1954, Pope Pius XII promulgated his encyclical “Ad caeli reginam” in which he pronounced this new feast of the Queenship of Mary. It was celebrated on May 31 before Pope Paul VI moved it to Aug 22, a week after the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary [...]
08 Aug, Fri - Friday in the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time; St Dominic, priest & religious founder St Dominic (1170-1221) became discouraged at the progress of his mission; no matter how much he worked, heresies remained. But he received a vision from Our Lady who showed him a wreath of roses, representing the rosary. She told [...]
