Letter to Diognetus

The Christians in the world  "Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.   They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred. To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments. Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body's hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself."   From a letter to Diognetus (Nn. 5-6; Funk, 397-401)      Prayer  Father of all holiness, guide our hearts to you. Keep in the light of your truth all those you have freed from the darkness of unbelief. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Prepared by the Spiritual Theology Department of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross   Source: http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010522_diogneto_en.html PODCAST: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/catholic-stuff-you-should-know/id412678859?mt=2 Fr. Michael, Byzantine? One of the speakers? Runs the podcast?

March 14 - St. Mathilde

Overlooking her slightly forbidding countenance, Saint Mathilda was noted for her great piety and for her charitable works. Her feast day is March 14th.

She is the patron of:

Misbehaving/disappointing children

Large families

Falsely accused persons.

People ridiculed for their piety.

Queens

Widows

Saint Mathilda pray for us!


From Catholic Online: (This blurb is so badly written! I have had not had time to edit the whole thing yet. Who writes these things??)

      St. Mathilda was the daughter of Theodoric, a Saxon Count. At an early age she was placed in the monastery of Erfurt under the care of Maud, her grandmother, who was Abbess of the monastery which she had entered after the death of her husband. 

     Here St. Mathilda learned needlework and acquired the love of labor, prayer and spiritual reading. She remained in the convent until her parents gave her in marriage, in 913, to Henry "the Fowler," so called from his fondness for hawking. 

      He became Duke in 916 on the death of his father, and in 919 he was chosen to succeed Conrad as King of Germany. 

     The pious Queen adorned the throne by her many virtues. She visited and comforted the sick and the afflicted, instructed the ignorant, succored prisoners, and endeavored to convert sinners, and her husband concurred with her in her pious undertakings. 

     After twenty-three years of married life, King Henry died, in 936. After King Henry died, the Queen had a Mass offered up for the repose of his soul. From that moment she renounced all worldly pomp. 

     Her sons were Otho, Henry, and Bruno.
Otho became King of Germany in 937, and in 962 he was crowned Emperor at Rome
Henry was Duke of Bavaria
St. Bruno  edified the Church as Archbishop of Cologne. 

Her two sons, Otho and Henry, entered into a contest for the crown.   
The Queen favored the former, a fault she expiated by great suffering, for both these sons subjected her to a long and cruel persecution. 
She died in 968. Her feast day is March 14th.

October 24 - St. Anthony Claret

I believe, Lord, but let me believe more firmly.

I hope, Lord, but let me hope more surely.

I love, Lord, but let me love more warmly.

I repent, Lord, but let me repent more deeply.


Lord, give me humility, meekness, patience, and charity.

Teach me goodness, knowledge and discipline.

Give me your love together with your grace
and I will be rich enough.


My God, my Jesus, my all in all.

~ St. Anthony Mary Claret



St. Anthony Mary Claret was born in Spain on December 23, 1807 and died on October 24, 1870.  He was canonized in 1950. 
His feast day is Oct. 24th.

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More about this saint:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-anthony-claret/

 http://catholicism.org/anthony-claret.html

May 18 - Mother Magdalen Damen

May 18 - “Mother Magdalen Damen” © icon by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM.

This foundress of the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity of Nonnenwerth was born in 1787 at Laek, in Dutch Limburg. She received the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis in 1817, and gathered a few other women around her to teach children and care for the sick. There were no institutions to provide these services.

The local priest profited from their help, but opposed their efforts to form a religious community. Once they had become a community, however, he stepped in and replaced Mother Magdalen with another superior who was better educated. Mother Magdalen went back to the kitchen and garden.

Mother Magdalen grew deaf as she became older. She ended her life as she had begun it, a contemplative wrapped in silence and prayer. She died on August 7, 1858, having just said, “Yes, I shall pray for you all!”

Extremely Interesting St. John the Baptist Info (via Father Z)

St. John the Baptist 1425-29 Jan Van Eyck

The greatest man born of woman

June 24 is the Feast of the one whom the Lord called the greatest man ever born of woman.

Here is the entry in the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum:

Sollemnitas Nativitatis sancti Ioannis Baptistae, Praecursoris Domini, qui iam in utero matris, Spiritu Sancto repletae, exsultavit gaudio ad humanae salutis adventum cuiusque ipsa nativitas Dominum Christum prophetavit; et tanta gratia refulsit in eo, ut ipse Dominus de illo diceret neminem maiorem inter natos mulierum Ioanne Baptista.

I’ll let you readers provide your own perfect versions.

12 Responses to The greatest man born of woman

1. Sol says:

   Not slavishly literal, but my Latin has gone a bit rusty since I left my alma mater:
   
   The Solemnity of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, the Predecessor of the Lord, who already in the womb of his mother, filled with the Holy Spirit, rejoiced at the coming of the salvation of the human race; his birth itself foretold the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the grace of God shone forth in him so brightly that the Lord himself said about him that among those born from a woman no man was greater than John the Baptist.
   In Christo
   Peter
   
2. albinus1 says:

   Of course today is also traditionally Midsummer Day in England.
   I once saw a set of Shakespeare’s plays translated into Spanish; at the time I couldn’t figure out why “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was rendered as, “Suen~o de una noche de San Juan” (“Dream of a St. John’s Night”).
   
3. Charles E Flynn says:

   Carl Oslon at IgnatiusInsightScoop: “It is clear, then, that John the Baptist’s mission was essential: …”.
   
4. Sam Schmitt says:

   Yes, the Lord called St John the Baptist the “greatest born of woman,” yet the rest of the verse is often forgotten: “yet the least in the kingdom of heaven [i.e. those born of the Holy Spirit] are greater than he.”
   
5. Father G says:

   On Aug 29th, the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, that some Byzantine Christians (both Catholic and Orthodox) observe the custom of not eating from round plates, not using knives, or not eating food that is round in shape.
   
   
6. Tina in Ashburn says:

   Speaking of visions and St John the Baptist, last night we attended a vision of beauty for the Mass of the Nativity of St John the Baptist.
   In Charles Town West Virginia, there is now a little monastery situated in an old Catholic church that offers daily the Tridentine Mass. The group, founded by then-bishop Burke, is the Cannons Regular of the New Jerusalem. Amidst the swirling incense, tall candles, and thickly embroidered vestments, the Mass was solemnly chanted in that peaceful way that only monks can achieve.
   Anybody who can visit them, please do! They officially moved in on Palm Sunday this year. They are located at 219 South George Street, Charles Town, WV.
   
   
   This entry was posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols and tagged Roman Martyrology, St. John the Baptist. Bookmark the permalink.
   

   ← WDTPRS John the Baptist – Collect

   Re-orienting a church →

   source: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2011/06/the-greatest-man-born-of-woman/

   
   

St. Catherine of Siena (Feast Day: April 29)

Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena
Doctor of the Church (1347-1380)

The 25th child of a wool dyer in northern Italy, St. Catherine started having mystical experiences when she was only 6, seeing guardian angels as clearly as the people they protected. She became a Dominican tertiary when she was 16, and continued to have visions of Christ, Mary, and the saints. St. Catherine was one of the most brilliant theological minds of her day, although she never had any formal education. She persuaded the Pope to go back to Rome from Avignon, in 1377, and when she died she was endeavoring to heal the Great Western Schism. In 1375 Our Lord give her the Stigmata, which was visible only after her death. Her spiritual director was Blessed Raymond of Capua. St, Catherine's letters, and a treatise called "a dialogue" are considered among the most brilliant writings in the history of the Catholic Church. She died when she was only 33, and her body was found incorrupt in 1430.

St. Augustine (Stay With Us)

Saint Augustine
« Stay with us »

My brethren, when was it that the Lord made himself recognized? 
When he broke the bread. So we ourselves are convinced, too: when we break the bread we recognize the Lord. If he hadn't wanted to be recognized until that moment it was for our sakes, we who were not to see him in the flesh but who were yet to eat him in the flesh. 

So you who believe in him, whoever you are, you who do not bear the name of christian in vain, you who do not come casually into the church, you who hear the word of God in fear and hope: for you the broken bread will be a consolation. Our Lord's absence is not a real absence. 

Have trust, be faithful and he is with you even if you do not see him. When the Lord hailed them the disciples had no faith. They did not believe in his resurrection, they did not even hope that he might be raised. They had lost faith; they had lost hope. They were dead men walking alongside a living one; they were walking, dead, with life. Life was walking with them but, in their hearts, life was not as yet renewed. 

And do you long for life? Imitate the disciples and you will recognize the Lord. They offered hospitality; our Lord seemed determined to proceed on his way but they held him back... You too, then, keep hold of the stranger if you wish to recognize your Savior... Learn where to look for the Lord, where to possess him, where to recognize him: in breaking bread with him.