Saint of the day .

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 24th December

Christmas Eve Prayer

byRobert Louis Stevenson

Loving God, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 25th December

O Come, all ye faithful .



O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the King of Angels:
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

God of God, light of light,
Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb;
Very God, begotten, not created:
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of Heaven above!
Glory to God, glory in the highest:
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.


O Come, all ye faithful

#17 O Come, all ye faithful arr. David Willcocks King's College Cambridge 2009 - YouTube
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Be with us Mary and Joseph that inspired by your example and aided by your prayer we may do homage to our Lord and Saviour , Jesus Christ , the Word made flesh .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 26th December

St Stephen

The first martyr. Described as 'a man full of faith and power', Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew, the first of seven deacons chosen by the Apostles to look after the needs of Greek-speaking Christian widows in Jerusalem. A wonderful preacher and miracle worker, he was denounced to the authorities as a blasphemer. When he was brought before the Jewish council he spoke for a long time, recollecting the history of Israel and concluding by calling the council 'stiff-necked men' who had resisted the Holy Spirit and had killed the Holy One as the prophets had foretold.

He said: "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God". Stephen's judges took him out of the city and stoned him. He fell on his knees praying: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

One of the men in the crowd approving the execution, was Saul from Tarsus, who went on to become St Paul, apostle to the Gentiles .

Good King Wenceslas - Traditional Carol

Good King Wenceslas - Traditional Choir - YouTube
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St Stephen , pray for us that we too may be filled with faith , power and forgiveness .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 27th December

St John

Apostle and Evangelist. John and his brother James, fishermen from Galilee, were the sons of Zebedee. Jesus called them to follow him while they were mending their nets. Jesus chose them and St Peter, to be with him during the Transfiguration and during his agony in the Garden at Gethsemene. According to tradition, John was the disciple that Jesus loved, who leaned on his breast during the Last Supper. When Jesus was on the cross he asked him to look after his mother. It was John who ran to the tomb ahead of St Peter on the morning of the Resurrection, and, seeing it empty, believed. It was John also who first recognised the risen Jesus by the sea at Tiberius.

In the Acts, John is with Peter at the healing of the lame man in the temple. They are sent to prison together and go with him to the converts in Samaria. St Paul describes John with Peter and James as pillars of the church in Jerusalem.

Later John was exiled to the island of Patmos and is said to have spent his last years at Ephesus, where he died at a great age.

St Jerome wrote that when John was too old to preach, he would simply say: "love one another. That is the Lord's command., and if you keep it that is enough."

The fourth Gospel, three epistles and the Book of Revelation are traditionally attributed to St John. His symbol is an eagle.


St John , inspire us , and pray for us that we may love one another .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 28th December

The Holy Family of Jesus , Mary and Joseph .

Bless all the families in the world .

Bless the whole human family .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 29th December

St Thomas a Becket

Archbishop and martyr. Thomas Becket was born in around 1120, the son of a prosperous London merchant. He studied at Merton Priory in south London and quickly became an agent to Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on several missions to Rome. Becket's talents were noticed by Henry II, who made him his chancellor and the two became close friends. When Theobald died in 1161, Henry made Becket archbishop, much against his will. From the moment he was ordained bishop, Thomas transformed himself from a pleasure-loving courtier into a serious, simply-dressed cleric.

The king and his archbishop's friendship was put under strain when it became clear that Becket would now stand up for the church in its disagreements with the king. In 1164, realising the extent of Henry's displeasure,Thomas fled into exile in France, and remained there for several years. He returned in 1170.

When Henry heard that Thomas had returned he fell into a rage. On this day in 1170, four knights, believing the king wanted Becket out of the way, confronted and murdered Becket on the steps of his own altar in Canterbury Cathedral.

The king, denying all share in the murder, was absolved; but in 1174, he did penance at his tomb. Becket was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1172

For the next 400 years, St Thomas's shrine at Canterbury was one of the most important destinations for pilgrims in Europe.

The struggle between St Thomas a Becket and Henry II foreshadows that of St Thomas More and Henry VIII. His story has attracted many dramatists - among them TS Elliot. who wrote Murder in the Cathedral and Jean Anouilh, whose play was made into a film in 1964.


St Thomas a Becket , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 30th December

St Egwin

St. Mary's Bell Tower , Evesham

Bishop. St Egwin was probably a member of the Mercian royal family. He was appointed bishop of Worcester in 692. At one time he was accused of being too strict by some clergy but his name was cleared after he went to Rome to see the Pope.

St Egwin is mainly remembered as the founder of the monastery at Evesham, which went on to become one of the great Benedictine abbeys of England. Egwin is said to have founded the monastery after a vision of the Virgin Mary was seen in a meadow by the River Avon by a herdsman, Eof. Later Egwin also saw the apparition.

St Egwin , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

Saint of the Day: 31st December

St Robert of Knaresborough

St. Robert's cave .

Hermit. Born in 1160, in York, the son of an important townsman, Robert became a religious early in life. As a subdeacon he was a novice at the Cistercian abbey of Newminster, but only stayed a few months before choosing to be a solitary.

Robert lived in a cave in Knaresborough, where another hermit was a knight in hiding from Richard I. When the king died, the knight returned to his wife. St Robert stayed on for some time, until a wealthy widow offered him a cell and chapel at Rudfarlington. Unfortunately bandits destroyed his home.

For a few months, Robert lived under the church wall at Spofforth. He then moved in with the monks at Hedley for a time, but found their lives too comfortable and returned to the ruins at Rudfarlington. Here he had four companions and kept livestock, but soon got into trouble with William de Stuteville, the constable of Knaresborough, who accused him of harbouring outlaws. Again his home was destroyed and Robert returned to his cave where he lived for the rest of his life.

St Robert was never officially canonised but a huge cult grew around him after his death on this day in 1218. The site of his chapel where many miracles are said to occurred, can still be seen, overlooking the River Nidd.


St Robert of Knaresborough , pray for us .
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WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE .

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[Colin]

Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God - 1 January 2015 By: Fr Robin Gibbons

Christian devotion to Mary the Mother of Jesus goes back a very long way, well before the Council of Ephesus in 432 where she was defined as Theotokos, the ‘God bearer’ or as the Orthodox theologian Nicholas Zernov translated - ‘the one who gives birth to the one who is God’. However, the early ways in which Mary was venerated aren’t clear to us, except that it was always in the context of Jesus, and that’s important because it links Mary clearly with the incarnate Christ, the Son of God born of Mary, in time, as one of us. It immediately takes away from her any suspicion that she invested with qualities of a quasi-divine being, she is the very human mother of the Word made flesh and dwelling amongst us!
I very much like one of her titles as ‘first amongst the saints’, a reminder that through her Jesus shares our finite life in all its aspects. All her ancient feasts, particularly those of the undivided tradition of East and West, reflect the story of salvation found in Christ, for in these feasts of Mary we find a proclamation of faith in Jesus.
Some of you may know that in the Byzantine tradition of the Church no icon of Mary is portrayed without Christ unless it is one belonging to a set where she is pointing to another icon of Christ, she always points way from herself to Jesus.
There is something wonderfully healthy in a robust and loving devotion to Mary the Theotokos based on these ancient feasts where the intimate connectivity between her and her son is very clearly understood. They are very deeply Christological!
But her feasts also place her on our side of the fence so to speak, she is after all just one of us, a handmaid of the Lord who accepted and lived out God’s call to the full. This feast, ancient and eastern in origin, reminds us that the role of `Mary in salvation’s song needs to be better understood as a feast that joins her firmly to us, for she is very much a mother figure for all the disciples of Christ! Not for nothing did the Anglo Saxon veneration of her in England lead to that most evocative of titles, ‘Our Lady’, for truly that is who she is, one of ‘our’ family of God.
Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Britain.

 

[Colin]

Saint Basil the Great - 2 January

Bishop and monastic founder. St Basil the Great was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330. He was one of ten children of St Basil the Elder and St Emmelia. Several of his brothers and sisters are also honoured among the saints. He attended school in Caesarea, as well as Constantinople and Athens, where he met St Gregory Nazianzen in 352. A little later, he opened a school of oratory in Caesarea and practiced law.
Eventually he decided to become a monk and found a monastery in Pontus which he directed for five years. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has proved the most lasting of those in the East. After founding several other monasteries, he was ordained and, in 370, made bishop of Caesaria. In this post until his death in 379, he continued to be a man of vast learning and constant activity, genuine eloquence and immense charity. This earned for him the title of 'Great' during his life and Doctor of the Church after his death.
One of the giants of the early Church, St Basil was responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over Arianism in the Byzantine East, and the denunciation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381-82 was in large measure due to his efforts.
He fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was learned, accomplished in statesmanship, a man of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity.
St Basil died in 379 at the age of forty-nine. He is patron of hospital administrators.

Saint Basil the Great , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

3 January 

- Saint Genevieve

Virgin and patron of Paris. Born at Nanterre in around 420, St Genevieve is said to have met St Germanus of Auxerre on his way to England, when she was about seven years old. She told him then that she wanted to live only for God. He encouraged her to pray, and when she was 15, she took the veil.
After her parents' death she moved to Paris and stayed with her godmother, living a life of prayer and caring for the poor, sick and elderly. When Attilla the Hun invaded the country in 451, some people thought St Genevieve was to blame - but Germanus defended her. The Hun's defeat at Orlean was attributed to her prayers. When the Franks blockaded Paris she led a party up the river Seine to bring back food for the starving citizens. Later she persuaded the Frankish king to release a number of prisoners of war. From that time, Parisians saw her as their protector.
St Genevieve died around 500AD and was buried in the church of St Peter and Paul, (later St Genevieve's) where many miracles are said to have taken place. A new church was built in 1746.
Throughout mediaeval times she was very popular. Her statue would be brought out in times of disaster. In 1129 an epidemic suddenly ended after people asked Genevieve to intercede for them. Many French churches were dedicated to her. There were also several in Germany and two in England. Her shrine was destroyed during the French revolution, but she remains a much loved saint. Her most usual emblem is a candle, which the Devil is said to have blown out when she prayed at night.

Saint Genevieve , pray for us .

 

[Colin]

4 January - Saint Elizabeth Seton

Wife and foundress. She was the first native-born American woman to be canonised. Born in New York in 1774 to a prominent Episcopalian family, at 20 she married a professor of anatomy, Richard Seton. Their marriage was a happy one and they had five children, but in 1803, Richard died.
Elizabeth became a Catholic in 1805 and founded a religious order, the American Sisters of Charity, based on the rule of St Vincent de Paul, devoted to the relief of the poor and school teaching. She spent the rest of her life to leading and caring for her community.
She has been described as a 'charming and cultivated woman of determined character'. Elizabeth died near Baltimore in 1821 and was canonised in 1975 by Pope Paul VI.
During the canonization service, which was attended by more than 1,000 sisters from north and south America, the Pope stressed her extraordinary contribution as wife, mother, widow and consecrated nun, the example of her dynamic and authentic witness for future generations and the affirmation of that ' religious spirituality which your (i.e. America's) temporal prosperity seemed to obscure and almost make impossible.'


Saint Elizabeth Seton , pray for us .