St. Dominic - Feast Day August 8

St. Dominic (1170 AD – 1221 AD) 

The truth is we do not know much about this Saint. Of all his writings, little to nothing has survived to this day. However, his legacy has come down to us in a form of a vibrant and lively Order named after him.  His orthodoxy in a time of rampant heresy throughout Europe is inspiring.  He travels through Europe establishing different priories and houses for the Order of Preachers to defeat the Cathari heresy, which has its root from the different Gnostic philosophies that appear in the 1^stcentury A.D. 

The Catharis round up multitudes of converts by utilizing on the wickedness of some clergy in the Church and using the sinful behaviour of Catholic clerics as a catalyst to spur the adherents of the Catholic faith into abandoning the Church and joining their heresy. Closely tied to Manichaeism, the Catharis teach that the universe consists of a duality, which is made of matter and spirit. Everything physical is wicked and must be treated as sinful, whereas only the spirit is good, and it must be protected from the flesh. 

Contrary to this view, the Catholic Church teaches that God created all things. Therefore, all things are good, including our bodies and all physical matter around us as well. However, due to Original Sin, our bodies have become corrupt. This corruption is not so extensive that our bodies cannot be salvaged. Rather, through God’s grace offered to us by the Sacraments, we are able to salvage our bodies and temper their rebellious passions, mending their unruly cravings, thereby redeeming our bodies and spirits as well. 

In fact, all matter in this universe is redeemed too. In Christianity, evil is not really a substance per se. Instead, evil is a corruption of good. The Dominican theology has been taught for 2000 years by the Catholic Church. 

St. Dominic’s inspiring sermons have won back many wayward Christians who have abandoned the Church. His order has produced numerous Saints, among which the most famous being St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Louis de Montfort, and St. Rose of Lima. 

May the zeal of this fervent preacher inspire us to love the sinners and desire their salvation.

Pope Gregory IX canonized St. Dominic on July 13, 1234, and his feast day is August 8.



source: http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=178
and
http://viewcatholic.blogspot.ca/2012/12/twenty-one-saints-everyone-must-know-ix.html

St. Monica - Feast Day August 27

St. Monica (331 AD – 387 AD) 

Feast Day: August 27

St. Monica is the mother of St. Augustine. She always reminds me of a faithful mother who can never bear the thought of her son, the child who has issued forth from her womb, suffering eternal damnation because of his rejection of the Gospel. This painful truth makes her cry and weep intensely. She visits St. Ambrose repeatedly to petition him to intervene in her son’s case. Finally, St. Ambrose famously responds, “woman the child of those tears will never perish” (Confessions, III, 12).  

For 20 years she continues praying, crying and imploring God to save her son. This sentiment embodies the perfect love of a mother and the sweet maternal instinct in a woman who has set her priorities straight. 

It is good for a mother to offer food and other necessities to her children, but their eternal destiny comes first and foremost. It is more important than even the children’s life on this earth. Out of her loving concern for her rebellious son, she travels to Rome, then Milan. 

After her son is baptized into the Catholic Church, she speaks these words to St. Augustine, “Son, for myself, I have no longer any pleasure in anything in this life. What I want here further, and why I am here, I know not, now that my hopes in this world are satisfied. There was indeed one thing for which I wished to tarry a little in this life, and that was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. My God has exceeded this abundantly, so that I see you despising all earthly felicity, made His servant—what do I here?” (Confessions IX, 10).  

Shortly after, she fell ill, and on her deathbed, she says to her two sons, “Lay this body anywhere, let not the care for it trouble you at all. This only I ask, that you will remember me at the Lord's altar, wherever you be” (Confessions IX, 11). 

St. John Marie Vianney - Feast Day August 4

Feast Day: August 4 

Born: May 8, 1768 :: Died: 1859

John Mary Vianney was born in Lyons, in France. As a child he took care of his father's sheep. He loved to pray but he also loved to play horseshoes. When John was eighteen, he asked his father if he could become a priest. His father was worried because John had become a big help on the family farm but two years later his father agreed.

When he was twenty years old, John studied under Father Balley. The priest was very patient but John became sad when he found it difficult to learn Latin. He then decided to walk sixty miles, which was a very long walk, to the shrine of St. John Francis Regis whose feast we celebrate on June 16. John prayed to St. John Francis for help. After the pilgrimage, he still found his lessons difficult but now he was not sad. He just decided to study harder.

John was finally able to enter the seminary to become a priest. No matter how much he tried, he found his studies quite hard. In the final exams, which were spoken, not written, John had to face a group of teachers and answer their questions. He was very worried and could not complete the test. 

Yet, because John was a holy man, he was full of common sense and understood what the Church taught about the subjects. He knew the right answers when asked what should be done in this case or that. He just couldn't say those answers in the difficult way they were taught in the Latin text books. John was ordained and became a priest anyway. He understood what his job was as a priest and everyone knew he was a good man.

After he became a priest, he was sent to a little parish called Ars. Father Vianney fasted, prayed and did hard penance so that God would save the people of his parish from sin. The people of his parish were not all good. They drank too much liquor, used bad language, worked even on Sundays and never went to Church.

Then God heard Fr. Vianney's prayer and one by one the liquor shops closed down. People slowly started going to Church for Mass and began worshipping God.

God gave John the power to see into people's minds and to know the future. Because of this gift, he converted many sinners and helped people make the right choices in life. 

Hundreds of pilgrims began to come to Ars and St. John Vianney spent twelve to sixteen hours everyday hearing confessions. He really wanted to spend the rest of his life in a monastery as a monk; instead, he stayed forty-two years at Ars and died there in 1859 at the age of seventy-three.