Category: Saints & Blesseds

CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Letter on the Occasion of the IV Centenary of the Death of St. Philip Neri” – Saint Pope John Paul II, 1999

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View of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican from River

“… The loving figure of the ‘saint of joy’ even today still maintains intact that irresistible charm that he exercised on all those who drew near him to learn to know and experience the authentic sources of Christian joy. Leafing through the biography of St Philip, in fact, one is surprised and fascinated by the cheerful and relaxed method he used to educate, supporting each person with fraternal generosity and patience.

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Fatima seers become church’s youngest non-martyred Saints” – CNS/ Catholic Philly

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File Photo of Statue of Mary As Our Lady of Fatima

“Standing before the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pope Francis canonized two shepherd children who saw Mary at Fatima … more importantly, he said, they heeded the call to pray for sinners and trust in the Lord. ‘We declare and define Blessed Francisco Marto and Blessed Jacinta Marto as saints,’ … The Marian apparitions began May 13, 1917, when 9-year-old Francisco and 7-year-old Jacinta, along with their 10-year-old cousin Lucia dos Santos, reported seeing the Virgin Mary. The apparitions continued once a month until Oct. 13, 1917, and later were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. …”

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION REDEMPTORIS CUSTOS OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II ON THE PERSON AND MISSION OF SAINT JOSEPH IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST AND OF THE CHURCH” – Saint John Paul II/ VaticanVa

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Saint Pope John Paul II file photo, adapted from image at archives.gov

“1. ‘Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife’ (cf. Mt 1 :24).

Inspired by the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church from the earliest centuries stressed that just as St. Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing,(1) he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, that is, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model.

… I wish to offer for your consideration … some reflections concerning him ‘into whose custody God entrusted his most precious treasures.'[] I gladly fulfill this pastoral duty so that all may grow in devotion to the Patron of the Universal Church and in love for the Savior whom he served in such an exemplary manner.

In this way the whole Christian people not only will turn to St. Joseph with greater fervor and invoke his patronage with trust, but also will always keep before their eyes his humble, mature way of serving and of ‘taking part’ in the plan of salvation.[]

I am convinced that by reflection upon the way that Mary’s spouse shared in the divine mystery, the Church – on the road towards the future with all of humanity – will be enabled to discover ever anew her own identity within this redemptive plan, which is founded on the mystery of the Incarnation.

This is precisely the mystery in which Joseph of Nazareth ‘shared’ like no other human being except Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Word. He shared in it with her; he was involved in the same salvific event; he was the guardian of the same love, through the power of which the eternal Father ‘destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ (Eph 1:5). …”

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “QUAMQUAM PLURIES, ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON DEVOTION TO ST. JOSEPH” – VaticanVa

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View of St. Peter's Basilica at Vatican from River

“… Now, Venerable Brethren, you know the times in which we live; they are scarcely less deplorable for the Christian religion than the worst days, which in time past were most full of misery to the Church. We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft; a relentless war waged against the Sovereign Pontiff; and the very foundations of religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity. These things are, indeed, so much a matter of notoriety that it is needless for Us to expatiate on the depths to which society has sunk in these days, or on the designs which now agitate the minds of men. In circumstances so unhappy and troublous, human remedies are insufficient, and it becomes necessary, as a sole resource, to beg for assistance from the Divine power.”

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FAITHLINK: “Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II on the Person And Mission of Saint Joseph in the Life of Christ and of the Church”

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Saint Pope John Paul II file photo, adapted from image at archives.gov

1. “Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife” (cf. Mt 1 :24).
Inspired by the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church from the earliest centuries stressed that just as St. Joseph took loving care of Mary and gladly dedicated himself to Jesus Christ’s upbringing,(1) he likewise watches over and protects Christ’s Mystical Body, that is, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the exemplar and model. …

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Confession of Saint Patrick” – Christian Classics Ethereal Library

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Saint Patrick Etching, from 19th Century adapted from image at loc.gov

“I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement [vicus] of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners. …”

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CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: “Feast of Saint Valentine” – FishEaters

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Cross Atop Rocky Cliff

“St. Valentine (Valentino) was a Roman priest who performed #marriages in spite of Claudius II’s law against such (Claudius believed that marriage was distracting to his soldiers, so outlawed it to them for a time). Fr. Valentine was martyred in A.D. 270 on the Flammian way, and at the site of his martyrdom, Julius I built a popular basilica.

Other than this, little is known. Because two other St. Valentines share this Feast day (“Valentine” was an extremely common name for Christians as it has the same root as the word “valor”), often their stories are confused, but it is the Roman priest-martyr whom we honor during the liturgy. …”

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#CATHOLIC FAITHLINK: Feast Of Our Lady of #Lourdes – Homily Of His Holiness Saint John Paul II – 11 February 1979

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Saint Pope John Paul II file photo, adapted from image at archives.gov

“… #Christ of our sufferings,

Christ of our sacrifices,

Christ of our Gethsemane,

Christ of our difficult transformations,

Christ of our faithful service to our neighbour,

Christ of our pilgrimages to Lourdes,

Christ of our community, today, in St Peter’s Basilica,

Christ our Redeemer,

Christ our Brother!

Amen.”

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FAITHLINK: “The Life Story of St. John Bosco (Biography of Don Bosco)” – Salesians

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Cross Atop Rocky Cliff

“God, it is said, sends the world saints when they are most needed-not men and women of ‘general holiness,’ but specialized experts who fit into the pattern of the times and are capable of giving God’s tone to their century. And so it was that on August 16, I8I5 when one era was closing in Europe with the exile of Napoleon, and the Industrial Revolution was clanging another open, ‘a man was sent by God whose name was John.’ He came to the scrubby stone cottage of Francis and Margaret Bosco on the hills of Becchi, at the foot of the Italian Alps. ‘A fine healthy baby,’ the neighbors all agreed, ‘fit for the soil, to take his father’s place on the old homestead.’ But no one went further than that in predicting the child’s future. …”

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FAITHLINK: “St. John Bosco and the Gray Dog” – FishEaters

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File Photo of Sunrise at Joshua Tree National Park

“Was it an angel or was it a dog? The life of Don Bosco furnishes us with a remarkable and interesting story of what appears to many an angelic intervention in saving the life of this servant of God from the fierce attacks of the Waldensian heretics, who made several attempts to assassinate him. …”

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