Week beginning 5th September, 23rd Sunday of the Year

Our Lady’s Birthday is this Wednesday 8th.

St Peter Claver (Thursday 9th / 1581 – 1654) was born in Spain, became a Jesuit in 1601, orgained in (what is now) Columbia, South America, and worked for 40 years among the black slaves, baptising and caring for over 300,000 of them. He is patron of the Catholic missions.

Cardinal John Henry Newman

Cardinal John Henry Newman will be Beatified by Pope Benedict in Birmingham on Sunday 19th September during the Papal Mass at Crofton Park.

This convert from Anglicanism was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II. Beatification is the next stage before someone becomes a Canonized Saint. His annual Feast Day will be 9th October – the day on which he was Received into the Catholic Church by Blessed Dominic Barberi, at Littlemore, Oxford, in 1845.

Our Bookshop (and the back of church) has plenty of literature about Newman, from biographies, prayers by him, and guides to his writings and devotion.

Week beginning 18th July, 16th Sunday of the Year

St Apollinaris (Tuesday 20th) was Bishop of Ravenna in the late 2nd century and was martyred there. Devotion to him was widespread by the 7th century.

St Laurence of Brindisi (Wednesday 21st), a Capuchin Friar whose deep knowledge of the bible (and of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, French and German) made him a popular preacher not only to Catholics but to Protestants and Jews. He was also an able administrator and diplomat for the Church.

St Mary Magdalene (Thursday 22nd) ministered to Jesus in Galilee, was present at His Crucifixion, she was among the group of women who discovered His empty tomb, and it was to her that the Risen Lord first appeared.

St Bridget of Sweden (Friday 23rd / 1303 – 91) was married to a nobleman and had eight children. Her saintly husband died on pilgrimage to Compostela. Six years later St Bridget went to Rome and remained for the rest of her life, caring for the poor and sick. She had many mystical visions.

St Sharbel Makhluf (Saturday 24th / 1828 – 98) was born in the Lebanon and became a hermit who considered himself the servant of anyone who came to visit him.

Week beginning 11th July, 15th Sunday of the Year

‘It’s been a testing time’, is a common expression, often used when life has been a bit tough, but not so bad, really.

One saint, for whom the above expression would not have been an exaggeration, was our own diocese’s St Mildred of Thanet (Tuesday 13th / obit ca 725). The name, Mildred, means
‘peaceful counsel’, a name she lived up to.

The daughter of the local Kentish king, she was sent to a French convent for studies, where the impious abbess foresaw the personal benefits of marrying the young Mildred to a local prince. Mildred would have none of this, desiring instead to offer herself to God as a nun.

Anger overwhelmed the abbess who tried burning Mildred alive in an oven, only to find after three hours, that not one hair of her head was singed. There followed beatings and assaults, but still Mildred remained resolute, that her vocation lay in the cloister.

She escaped, eventually returning to Kent and landed at Ebbsfleet, where she left, embedded in a rock, the mark of her saintly foot. (St Augustine had previously landed here in 597, when he brought his mission to the Anglo-Saxons, at the bidding of Pope St Gregory the Great.)

She joined the community at Minster-in-Thanet, where she eventually became Mother Abbess. Greatly loved and revered as a living saint, she led by example, even during her final years when she endured a painful and lingering death, which she gladly united with Christ’s suffering and Passion.

A ‘Mother Theresa’-figure of her time, her fame and popularity within Kent eclipsed even that of St Augustine’s cult at Canterbury.

She is often depicted holding a church, which is both a salient reminder of her love and support for the 8th Century Church, but also an encouragement for us, to discern our vocations as saints, fearless in our pursuit of holiness and the desire to do God’s will as obedient servants of the Church.

Minster Abbey was re-founded in 1937 as a house of Benedictine nuns. www.minsterabbeynuns.org

One of the largest crowds ever assembled for a canonization – 250,000 – symbolized the reaction of millions touched by the simple story of Maria Goretti (Tuesday 6th / 1890-1902).

She was the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. She made her First Communion not long before her death at age 12, but had struggled with catechesis.

On a hot afternoon in July, Maria was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12-years-old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and an 18-year-old neighbour, Alessandro, ran up the stairs. He seized her & pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help. “No, God does not wish it,” she cried out. “It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.” Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger.

She was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good – concern about where her mother would sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had long been in fear of him, but said nothing, lest she cause trouble to his family) and her devout welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died 24 hours after the attack.

Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria, gathering flowers & offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years, his first act was to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother.

Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized. At her beatification in 1947, her mother (then 82), two sisters and a brother appeared with the Venerable Pope Pius XII on the balcony of S. Peter’s. Three years later, at her canonization, her attacker, 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli, knelt among the quarter of a million people and cried tears of joy at her raising to the altars.

St Joseph’s is blessed to possess a relic of this remarkable saint.

Week beginning 27th June, 13th Sunday of the Year

Writing in what many consider his most famous work, the ‘Apologeticus’, Tertullian, the second century Father of the Church declared, “… the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” This is very true this week, wherein the Church rejoices in many martyrs, both named and unnamed, but who nonetheless planted a rich seed, the fruit of which we see around us.

The Apostles of Rome, Ss Peter and Paul (Tuesday 29th) both came from unlikely beginnings to become fearless lions of the Faith. In his first epistle, Peter urges his readers to be full of hope and propriety, regardless of their surroundings or the impending trials that would befall them. Likewise, in his epistle to the Romans, Paul urges them to remember that they are saved by hope (this being the text chosen by the Holy Father for his momentous encyclical of 2007, “Spe salvi facti sumus” – in hope we are saved!).

With such fertile teaching, the First Martyrs of the Roman See (Wednesday 30th / Ca AD 64) willingly surrendered their mortal lives, as witness to the world, that they were Christ’s.

However, such martyrs are not confined to far off lands or distant history. St Oliver Plunkett (Thursday 1st July / 1629 – 81) was martyred at Tyburn for the Truth as recently as 1681. Following a scandalous show trial, this saintly Archbishop of Armagh was hanged, drawn and quartered; but, in accepting his martyrs’ crown like those before, he is numbered among the company of the white-clothed army of martyrs.

Week beginning 20th June, 12th Sunday of the Year

St Aloysius Gonzaga (Monday 21st / 1568-1591): As one who responded to God’s call from an early age, St Aloysius entered the Jesuit Seminary in Rome where he lived a life dedicated to the pursuit of holiness. He remained in the plague-torn city to care for the sick and dying, eventually yielding to the plague himself, dying at the age of 23. He is the patron saint of young adults and teenagers.

St Thomas More (Tuesday 22nd / 1478-1535): Lord Chancellor of England and a close friend of Henry VIII, St Thomas More, wore a hair shirt under his robes of state and led a life of prayer and mortification. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535, for steadfastly refusing to approve Henry VIII’s remarriage and break with Rome. At his martyrdom, he prayed for the king and taught the assembled crowd the true meaning of Christian conscience, when he said, “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first”.

St John Fisher (also Tuesday 22nd / 1469-1535): A friend of St Thomas More, it was as Bishop of Rochester that, of all the bishops, he singularly refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, recognizing Henry VIII as head of the new protestant national church. The Pope accorded him the dignity of a Cardinal, which he could accept only in death, clothing himself in the scarlet of his own blood, rather than of his cardinalate robes. His body lay under the flagstones of the porch of All Hallows-by-the- Tower for centuries, as an act of desecration to his sacred memory.

Week beginning 13th June, 11th Sunday of the Year

If your name is Richard, or is someone in your family, or among your friends has this name – this Wednesday 16th June is your (their) Feast Day. Celebrate your Feast Day, or pray for your friend or family member.

Who was St Richard?
Richard de Wych was born in 1197 at Droitwich in Worcestershire. He studied at Oxford, Parish and Bologna before returning to England in 1235 when he was chosen as Chancellor of Oxford University, and then became the legal advisor to the Archbishops of Canterbury (Ss Edmund Rich and Boniface of Savoy).

He was Ordained in France, became Bishop of Chichester, and had to oppose King Henry III. He died at Dover, which is now in our Archdiocese of Southwark. He was a model pastor of his flock. His Shrine, in Chichester Cathedral until the ‘reformation’, was the site of many miracles, especially cures of ill health.

We could also pray for our new Archbishop whose diocese includes the port of Dover where St Richard died.

Week beginning 6th June, Corpus Christi

St Columba, Abbot (Wednesday 9th / 521 – 597) the most famous of the saints of Scotland who founded countless monasteries and churches in Ireland and Scotland, including the famous abbey on the island of Iona. His biographer and successor recorded that “He had the face of an angel; he was of an excellent nature, polished in speech, holy in deed, great in counsel … loving until all”.

St Ephrem, Deacon (Wednesday 9th / 306 – 373) a native of Mesopotamia where he was head of a catechetical school, he later became a monk and deacon near Edessa where he wrote Bible commentaries and hymns (many still in our hymnbooks) which contributed greatly to Catholic dogma. He organised relief and helk for the sick during a terrible local famine, and is revered in both East and West.

Week beginning 30th May, Trinity Sunday

The Visitation of Our Lady (Monday 31st) celebrates Mary’s journey into the hill country to visit her Cousin Elizabeth, respectively to give birth to Jesus and St John the Baptist.

St Justin (Tuesday 1st June), martyr (100 – 165), born in Palestine of pagan parents and converted by reading the Bible and witnessing the heroism of the martyrs, he was beheaded in Rome with other Christians.

Ss Marcellinus and Peter (Wednesday 2nd / d. 304). Marcellinus was a priest, and Peter an exorcist, in Rome.

St Charles Lwanga (Thursday 3rd) was baptised in November 1885 and burnt alive the next June with 21 other youths of 13 – 30 years by orders of the despotic King of Uganda.

St Boniface (Saturday 5th / 680 – 754) a native of Crediton, Devon, and monk of Exeter, who evangelised Bavaria and neighbouring areas. Ordained Bishop of the Germanies, he founded many monasteries, bringing monks and nuns from England.

Corpus et Sanguis Christi (Sunday 6th) – the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ – gives thanks for the institution of the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith.

Week beginning 23rd May, Pentecost Sunday

This week sees the celebration of three Saints who are great influences upon the religious and civil life of England.

St Bede the Venerable (Tuesday 25th / 673 – 735), born at Wearmouth, spent his whole life “always writing, always praying, always reading, always teaching”. His “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” (still available from Pelican Books) was the first history of our land.

St Philip Neri (Wednesday 26th / 1515 – 1595) lived in poverty in Rome, gathered companions, noted for prayer, a great sense of humour, and a loving manner. He founded the Oratory (of which Cardinal John Henry Newman was later a member), and fully deserves the title given him of “Second Apostle of Rome”.

St Augustine of Canterbury (Thursday 27th / d. 604) was a prior of the Monastery from which Pope St Gregory the Great sent missionaries to England. Landing at Ebbsfleet near Ramsgate (597), he converted the King of Kent, established his See at Canterbury, and was hugely influential across this land and beyond.