2016
SHARE - Novena to St. Jude Thaddeus Apostle : #Patron of #Impossible - #Prayer #Miracles
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O glorious apostle, SAINT JUDE THADDEUS, true relative of Jesus and Mary, I salute you through the most Sacred Heart of Jesus! Through this Heart I praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed upon you. Humbly prostrate before you, I implore you through this Heart to look down upon me with compassion. Oh, despise not my poor prayer; let not my trust be confounded! To you God has granted the privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases. Oh, come to my aid that I may praise the mercies of God! All my life I will be grateful to you and will be your faithful client until I can thank you in heaven. Amen."Blessed Apostle, with confidence we invoke you!"
"Blessed Apostle, with confidence we invoke you!"
"St. Jude, help of the hopeless, aid me in my distress."
"St. Jude, help of the hopeless, aid me in my distress."PRAY FOR US that we before death may expiate all our sins by sincere repentance and the worthy reception of the holy Sacraments.Pray for us that we may appease the Divine Justice and obtain a favorable judgment.Pray for us that we may be admitted into the company of the blessed to rejoice in the presence of our God forever.Prayer to be recitedSaint Jude, glorious apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many. But the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of difficult and desperate cases. Pray for me who am so miserable. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded to you to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly — (here make your request) — and that I may bless God with you and all the elect throughout all eternity.I promise you, O blessed JUDE, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor you as my special and powerful patron and do all in my power to encourage devotion to you. Amen.Saint Jude, pray for us and for all who honor you and invoke your aid.(Say the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father, 3 times.)
#PopeFrancis "Jesus who is praying for us!" #Homily
Taking his cue from the Gospel reading recounting how Jesus spent the night in prayer before choosing his disciples, the Pope’s homily reflected on the fundamental importance of prayer for Christians. He said whilst Jesus is the cornerstone of the Church and there is no Church without Him, the key to this cornerstone is Jesus who is praying for us.
The cornerstone of the Church is Jesus in front of the Father who is praying for us
“‘Jesus went up to the mountain to pray and he spent the night in prayer to God.’ And then the rest followed, the crowds, the choosing of his disciples, the healings, the casting out of demons… Yes, the cornerstone is Jesus but Jesus who prays. Jesus is praying. He prayed and he continues to pray for the Church. The cornerstone of the Church is our Lord in front of the Father who intercedes on our behalf, who is praying for us. We pray to Him but the key thing is that He is praying for us.”
Our security is Jesus praying for each one of us
Pope Francis went on to describe how Jesus always prayed for his followers, be it at the Last Supper or before performing a miracle such as when he prayed to the Father before raising Lazarus from the dead.
“Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, on the Cross, he ended praying: his life ended in prayer. And this is our security, this is our foundation, this is our cornerstone: Jesus who is praying for us! Jesus who is praying for me! And each of us can say this: I am certain that Jesus is praying for me; that he is in front of the Father and naming me. This is the cornerstone of the Church: Jesus in prayer.”
Another example of Jesus praying for his followers, said the Pope, came before his Passion when Jesus told Peter he had been praying for him to withstand Satan’s temptation and for his faith to hold firm.
“And what Jesus tells Peter, he tells you and you and me, everybody: ‘I have prayed for you, I am praying for you, I am now praying for you’ and when He comes onto the altar, He comes to intercede, to pray for us. As he did on the Cross. And this gives us a great sense of security. I belong to this community that’s solid because Jesus is its cornerstone, Jesus who is praying for me, who is praying for us. Today we’d do well to reflect on the Church, reflect on this mystery of the Church. We are all like a building but its foundation is Jesus, Jesus who is praying for us, Jesus who is praying for me.”
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Friday October 28, 2016
Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
Lectionary: 666
Reading 1EPH 2:19-22
Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Responsorial PsalmPS 19:2-3, 4-5
R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day pours out the word to day,
and night to night imparts knowledge.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Not a word nor a discourse
whose voice is not heard;
Through all the earth their voice resounds,
and to the ends of the world, their message.
R. Their message goes out through all the earth.
Alleluia - See Te Deum
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
We praise you, O God,
we acclaim you as Lord;
the glorious company of Apostles praise you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
We praise you, O God,
we acclaim you as Lord;
the glorious company of Apostles praise you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 6:12-16
Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,and he spent the night in prayer to God.
When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:
Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,
Simon who was called a Zealot,
and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Saint October 28 : St. Jude Apostle : Patron of the #Impossible and #Hospitals
St. Jude
APOSTLE
Feast: October 28
Information:
Feast Day:
October 28
Major Shrine:
Saint Peter's, Rome, Rheims, Toulouse, France
Patron of:
lost causes, desperate situations, hospitals
Saint Jude (1st century C.E.), also known as St. Judas or Jude Thaddeus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, who is sometimes, the author of the Epistle of Jude. Mark and some manuscripts of Matthew identify him as "Thaddeus." Luke names him as Judas, son of James, or in the King James Version: "Judas the brother of James" (Luke 6:16). Biography St. Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in Galilee later rebuilt by the Romans and renamed Caesarea Philippi. In all probability he spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade. St. Jude was a son of Clopas and his wife Mary, a cousin of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Jude's father, Clopas, was murdered because of his forthright and outspoken devotion to the risen Christ. Tradition holds that Saint Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya.
He is also said to have visited Beirut and Edessa, though the latter mission is also attributed to Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the Seventy. He is reported as suffering martyrdom together with Simon the Zealot in Persia. The fourteenth-century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana. Though Saint Gregory the Illuminator is credited as the "Apostle to the Armenians," when he baptised King Tiridates III of Armenia in 301 C.E., converting the Armenians, the Apostles Jude and Bartholomew are traditionally believed to have been the first to bring Christianity to Armenia, and are therefore venerated as the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Linked to this tradition is the Thaddeus Monastery. Symbol of his martyrdom According to the Armenian tradition, Saint Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 C.E. in Beirut, Lebanon together with the apostle Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. Their acts and martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, bishop of Babylon, and said to have been translated into Latin by his disciple Tropaeus Africanus, according to the Golden Legend account of the saints. Saints Simon and Jude are venerated together in the Roman Catholic Church on October 28. Sometime after his death, Saint Jude's body was brought from Beirut, Lebanon to Rome and placed in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica which is visited by many devotees. According to popular tradition, the remains of St. Jude were preserved in a monastery on an island in the northern part of Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan at least until mid-fifteenth century. Iconography
St. Jude is traditionally depicted carrying the image of Jesus in his hand or close to his chest, denoting the legend of the Image of Edessa, recorded in apocryphal correspondence between Jesus and Abgarus which is reproduced in Eusebius' History Ecclesiastica, I, xiii. According to it, King Abgar of Edessa (a city located in what is now southeast Turkey) sent a letter to Jesus to cure him of an illness that afflicts him, and sent the envoy Hannan, the keeper of the archives, offering his own home city to Jesus as a safe dwelling place. The envoy either painted a likeness of Jesus, or Jesus, impressed with Abgar's great faith, pressed his face into a cloth and gave it to Hannan to take to Abgar with his answer. Upon seeing Jesus' image, the king placed it with great honor in one of his palatial houses. After Christ had ascended to heaven, St. Jude was sent to King Abgar by the Apostle St. Thomas. The king was cured and astonished. He converted to Christianity along with most of the people under his rule. Additionally, St. Jude is often depicted with a flame above his head. This represents his presence at Pentecost, when he received the Holy Spirit with the other apostles. Edited from New Encyclopedia
APOSTLE
Feast: October 28
Information:
Feast Day:
October 28
Major Shrine:
Saint Peter's, Rome, Rheims, Toulouse, France
Patron of:
lost causes, desperate situations, hospitals
Saint Jude (1st century C.E.), also known as St. Judas or Jude Thaddeus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, who is sometimes, the author of the Epistle of Jude. Mark and some manuscripts of Matthew identify him as "Thaddeus." Luke names him as Judas, son of James, or in the King James Version: "Judas the brother of James" (Luke 6:16). Biography St. Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in Galilee later rebuilt by the Romans and renamed Caesarea Philippi. In all probability he spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade. St. Jude was a son of Clopas and his wife Mary, a cousin of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that Jude's father, Clopas, was murdered because of his forthright and outspoken devotion to the risen Christ. Tradition holds that Saint Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya.
He is also said to have visited Beirut and Edessa, though the latter mission is also attributed to Thaddeus of Edessa, one of the Seventy. He is reported as suffering martyrdom together with Simon the Zealot in Persia. The fourteenth-century writer Nicephorus Callistus makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana. Though Saint Gregory the Illuminator is credited as the "Apostle to the Armenians," when he baptised King Tiridates III of Armenia in 301 C.E., converting the Armenians, the Apostles Jude and Bartholomew are traditionally believed to have been the first to bring Christianity to Armenia, and are therefore venerated as the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Linked to this tradition is the Thaddeus Monastery. Symbol of his martyrdom According to the Armenian tradition, Saint Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 C.E. in Beirut, Lebanon together with the apostle Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. Their acts and martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, bishop of Babylon, and said to have been translated into Latin by his disciple Tropaeus Africanus, according to the Golden Legend account of the saints. Saints Simon and Jude are venerated together in the Roman Catholic Church on October 28. Sometime after his death, Saint Jude's body was brought from Beirut, Lebanon to Rome and placed in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica which is visited by many devotees. According to popular tradition, the remains of St. Jude were preserved in a monastery on an island in the northern part of Issyk-Kul lake in Kyrgyzstan at least until mid-fifteenth century. Iconography
St. Jude is traditionally depicted carrying the image of Jesus in his hand or close to his chest, denoting the legend of the Image of Edessa, recorded in apocryphal correspondence between Jesus and Abgarus which is reproduced in Eusebius' History Ecclesiastica, I, xiii. According to it, King Abgar of Edessa (a city located in what is now southeast Turkey) sent a letter to Jesus to cure him of an illness that afflicts him, and sent the envoy Hannan, the keeper of the archives, offering his own home city to Jesus as a safe dwelling place. The envoy either painted a likeness of Jesus, or Jesus, impressed with Abgar's great faith, pressed his face into a cloth and gave it to Hannan to take to Abgar with his answer. Upon seeing Jesus' image, the king placed it with great honor in one of his palatial houses. After Christ had ascended to heaven, St. Jude was sent to King Abgar by the Apostle St. Thomas. The king was cured and astonished. He converted to Christianity along with most of the people under his rule. Additionally, St. Jude is often depicted with a flame above his head. This represents his presence at Pentecost, when he received the Holy Spirit with the other apostles. Edited from New Encyclopedia
Saint October 28 : St. Simon : Patron of Curriers and Sawyers
St. Simon
APOSTLE
Feast: October 28
Information:
Feast Day:
October 28
Born:
Cana or Canaan
Died:
Abyssinians claim he was crucified in Samaria; Lipsius says he was sawn in half at Suanir, Persia; Moses of Chorene writes that he was martyred at Weriosphora in Iberia; many locations claim to have relics including Toulouse, France, and Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy
Major Shrine:
relics claimed by many places, including Toulouse; Saint Peter's Basilica
Patron of:
curriers; sawyers; tanners
St Simon is surnamed the Canaanean or Canaanite, and the Zealot, to distinguish him from St. Peter, and from St. Simeon, the brother of St. James the Less, and his successor in the see of Jerusalem. From the first of these surnames some have thought that St. Simon was born at Cana, in Galilee: certain modern Greeks pretend that it was at his marriage that our Lord turned the water into wine. It is not to be doubted but he was a Galilean. Theodoret says, of the tribe either of Zabulon or Nepthali. Hammond and Grotius think that St. Simon was called the Zealot, before his coming to Christ, because he was one of that particular sect or party among the Jews called Zealots, from a singular zeal they possessed for the honour of God and the purity of religion. A party called Zealots were famous in the war of the Jews against the Romans. They were main instruments in instigating the people to shake off the yoke of subjection; they assassinated many of the nobility and others in the streets, filled the temple itself with bloodshed and other horrible profanations, and were the chief cause of the ruin of their country. But no proof is offered by which it is made to appear that any such party existed in our Saviour's time, though some then maintained that it was not lawful for a Jew to pay taxes to the Romans At least if any then took the name Zealots, they certainly neither followed the impious conduct nor adopted the false and inhuman maxims of those mentioned by Josephus in his history of the Jewish war against the Romans.
St. Simon, after his conversion, was zealous for the honour of his Master, and exact in all the duties of the Christian religion; and showed a pious indignation toward those who professed this holy faith with their mouths, but dishonoured it by the irregularity of their lives. No further mention appears of him in the gospels than that he was adopted by Christ into the college of the apostles. With the rest he received the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost, which he afterwards exercised with great zeal and fidelity. If this apostle preached in Egypt, Cyrene, and Mauritania, he returned into the East; for the Martyrologies of St. Jerome, Bede, Ado, and Usuard place his martyrdom in Persia, at a city called Suanir, possibly in the country of the Suani, a people in Colchis, or a little higher in Sarmatia, then allied with the Parthians in Persia; which may agree with a passage in the Acts of St. Andrew, that in the Cimmerian Bosphorus there was a tomb in a "rot, with an inscription importing that Simon the Zealot was interred there. His death is said in these Martyrologies to have been procured by the idolatrous priests. Those who mention the manner of his death say he was crucified. St. Peter's Church on the Vatican at Rome and the Cathedral of Toulouse are said to possess the chief portions of the relics of SS. Simon and Jude.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
#PopeFrancis "...the peace that He offers us, the peace of love.” #Homily
Taking his inspiration from a reading from the gospel of Luke where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, the “closed” city that “kills the prophets and stones those sent” to it, Pope Francis’ homily reflected on some of the moments of weeping during Christ’s ministry. He explained that Jesus had the tenderness of His Father looking at his children when he wept over the city of Jerusalem in the gospel account saying: “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were unwilling.”
“Somebody said that God became man in order to be able to weep, to weep over what His children had done. The weeping in front of the tomb of Lazarus is the weeping of a friend. This is the weeping of the Father.”
In the same way, the Pope continued, we can look at the behaviour of the father of the prodigal son and what happens when this son asks for his inheritance and leaves home. He said the father did not go to his neighbours to say “Look what has happened to me! This horrible thing he did to me! But I will curse this son…” Pope Francis said he is certain that the father did not do this although maybe he went “to weep alone in his bedroom.”
“And why do I tell you this? Because the Gospel does not talk about this, it says that when his son returned home, he saw him from afar: this means that the Father was continually going up onto the terrace to look at the road to see if his son was coming back. And a father who does this is a father who lives in tears, waiting for his son to return home. This is the weeping of God the Father. And with his weeping, the Father recreates through his Son all of creation.”
Turning next to the moment when Jesus is carrying the cross to Calvary, Pope Francis reflected on the pious women who were weeping, saying they were not weeping over Him but over their own children. He stressed that this weeping like that of a father and of a mother is one that God still continues to do in our times.
“Even nowadays in front of the calamities, the wars waged in order to worship the god of money, the many innocent people killed by the bombs launched by those who worship the idol of money, God still weeps and He also says: ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, my children, what are you doing?’ And he also says this to the poor victims, to the arms traffickers and to all those who sell the life of people. We’d do well to think both about how God our Father became man in order to be able to weep and how God our Father weeps nowadays: he weeps over humanity that ends up not understanding the peace that He offers us, the peace of love.”
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Thursday October 27, 2016
Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 482
Reading 1EPH 6:10-20
Brothers and sisters:
Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.
Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm
against the tactics of the Devil.
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood
but with the principalities, with the powers,
with the world rulers of this present darkness,
with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armor of God,
that you may be able to resist on the evil day
and, having done everything, to hold your ground.
So stand fast with your loins girded in truth,
clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,
and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield,
to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
With all prayer and supplication,
pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.
To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication
for all the holy ones and also for me,
that speech may be given me to open my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel
for which I am an ambassador in chains,
so that I may have the courage to speak as I must.
Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.
Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm
against the tactics of the Devil.
For our struggle is not with flesh and blood
but with the principalities, with the powers,
with the world rulers of this present darkness,
with the evil spirits in the heavens.
Therefore, put on the armor of God,
that you may be able to resist on the evil day
and, having done everything, to hold your ground.
So stand fast with your loins girded in truth,
clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,
and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield,
to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.
With all prayer and supplication,
pray at every opportunity in the Spirit.
To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication
for all the holy ones and also for me,
that speech may be given me to open my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel
for which I am an ambassador in chains,
so that I may have the courage to speak as I must.
Responsorial PsalmPS 144:1B, 2, 9-10
R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
who subdues my people under me.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.
R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!
AlleluiaSEE LK 19:38; 2:14
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.’
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Behold, your house will be abandoned.
But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 13:31-35
Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said,“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”
He replied, “Go and tell that fox,
‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow,
and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.
Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day,
for it is impossible that a prophet should die
outside of Jerusalem.’
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Behold, your house will be abandoned.
But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Saint October 27 : St. Frumentius : Bishop of #Ethiopia
BISHOP
Feast: October 27
Information:
Feast Day:
October 27
Born:
Tyre (modern Sur, Lebanon)
Died:
380 in Ethiopia
Patron of:
Abyssinia, Ethiopia
Saint Frumentius, Amharic Abba Salama (flourished 4th century, feast day October 27 in the Roman Catholic Church; November 30 in Eastern Orthodox churches; December 18th in the Coptic Church), Syrian apostle who introduced Christianity into Ethiopia. As first bishop of its ancient capital, Aksum, he structured the emerging Christian church there in the orthodox theology of the Alexandrian school during the 4th-century controversy over Arianism. A student of philosophy from Tyre, Frumentius and a colleague, Aedesius, were captured by Ethiopians in about 340. They became civil servants at the court of the Aksumite king Ezana, whom Frumentius converted. On the death of the monarch, Frumentius became the royal administrator and tutor to the crown prince and was empowered to grant freedom of religious expression to visiting Christian merchants from the Roman Empire. After fulfilling his regency Frumentius visited Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in about 347. Athanasius ordained Frumentius bishop and commissioned him to initiate the cultural adaptation of Greek Christianity’s biblical-liturgical texts to Ethiopic symbols and language. The link between the Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian churches having thus been established, Frumentius, despite the enmity of the Byzantine Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361), repudiated the Arians. The 4th-century church historian Rufinus of Aquileia, by meeting Aedesius later at Tyre, was able to document Frumentius’ achievements, noting that the Ethiopians addressed him as abuna, or “Our Father,” a title that is still used for the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.SOURCE Encyclopedia Britannica
Image Google
Information:
Feast Day:
October 27
Born:
Tyre (modern Sur, Lebanon)
Died:
380 in Ethiopia
Patron of:
Abyssinia, Ethiopia
Saint Frumentius, Amharic Abba Salama (flourished 4th century, feast day October 27 in the Roman Catholic Church; November 30 in Eastern Orthodox churches; December 18th in the Coptic Church), Syrian apostle who introduced Christianity into Ethiopia. As first bishop of its ancient capital, Aksum, he structured the emerging Christian church there in the orthodox theology of the Alexandrian school during the 4th-century controversy over Arianism. A student of philosophy from Tyre, Frumentius and a colleague, Aedesius, were captured by Ethiopians in about 340. They became civil servants at the court of the Aksumite king Ezana, whom Frumentius converted. On the death of the monarch, Frumentius became the royal administrator and tutor to the crown prince and was empowered to grant freedom of religious expression to visiting Christian merchants from the Roman Empire. After fulfilling his regency Frumentius visited Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, in about 347. Athanasius ordained Frumentius bishop and commissioned him to initiate the cultural adaptation of Greek Christianity’s biblical-liturgical texts to Ethiopic symbols and language. The link between the Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian churches having thus been established, Frumentius, despite the enmity of the Byzantine Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361), repudiated the Arians. The 4th-century church historian Rufinus of Aquileia, by meeting Aedesius later at Tyre, was able to document Frumentius’ achievements, noting that the Ethiopians addressed him as abuna, or “Our Father,” a title that is still used for the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.SOURCE Encyclopedia Britannica
Image Google
#PopeFrancis "..I want to recommend the prayer of the Rosary." #Audience - FULL TEXT - Video
THE HOLY FATHER’S CATECHESIS
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
We continue with the reflection on the works of corporal mercy, which the Lord Jesus has given us to keep our faith always alive and dynamic. These works, in fact, make evident that Christians are not tired and lazy in awaiting the final encounter with the Lord, but they go to encounter Him every day, recognizing His face in that of the many individuals who ask for help. Today we reflect on this word of Jesus: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me” (Matthew 25:35-36). How much more timely in our time is the work regarding strangers. The economic crisis, armed conflicts and climate changes drive many people to emigrate. However, migrations are not a new phenomenon, but belong to humanity’s history. It is a lack of historical memory to think that they are in fact only of our years.
The Bible gives us so many concrete examples of migration. Suffice it to think of Abraham. God’s call drives him to leave his country and go to another: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Genesis 12:1). It was so also for the people of Israel, who from Egypt, where they were slaves, went marching for forty years in the desert until they reached God’s Promised Land. The Holy Family itself – Mary, Joseph and the little Jesus – was constrained to emigrate to flee from Herod’s threat: “Joseph rose and took the child and His Mother by night, and departed to Egypt, where he remained until Herod’s death” (Matthew 2:14-15). The history of humanity is the history of migrations: in all latitudes there are no people that have not known the migratory phenomenon.
In this connection, in the course of the centuries we witnessed great expressions of solidarity, even though social tensions were not lacking. Today, unfortunately, the context of economic crisis fosters the emergence of closed and unwelcome attitudes. Walls and barriers rise in some parts of the world. It seems sometimes that the silent work of many men and women, who spend themselves in different ways to help and assist refugees and migrants, is overshadowed by the noise of others who give voice to an instinctive egoism. But closure is not a solution; rather it ends by fostering criminal trafficking. The only way of solution is that of solidarity — solidarity with the migrant, solidarity with the stranger.
Christians’ commitment in this field is as urgent today as it was in the past. To look only at the last century, we recall the stupendous figure of Saint Frances Cabrini, who dedicated her life, together with her companions, to immigrants in the United States of America. Today we are also in need of these testimonies so that mercy can reach the many who are in need. It is a commitment that involves everyone; no one is excluded. The dioceses, the parishes, the Institutes of Consecrated Life, the Associations and Movements, as well as individual Christians, we are all called to receive brothers and sister fleeing from war, from hunger, from violence and from inhuman conditions of life. All of us together are a great force of support for all those who have lost their homeland, family, work and dignity. A little story happened a few days ago in the city. A refugee was looking for a street and a lady approached him and said to him: “But are you looking for something?” That refugee was without shoes. And he said: “I would like to go to Saint Peter’s to enter the Holy Door.” And the lady thought: “But he doesn’t have shoes, how can he walk?” And she called a taxi. But that migrant, that refugee stank and the driver of the taxi almost did not want him to get in, but in the end he let him get into the taxi. And, in the course of the trip, the lady, who was beside him, asked him about his story as a refugee and migrant: ten minutes to arrive here. The man told his story of grief, of war, of hunger and why he fled from his country to migrate here. When they arrived, the lady opened her purse to pay the taxi driver and the driver, who at first did not want the migrant to get in because he stank, said to the lady: “No, lady, I should pay you because you made me hear a story that has changed my heart.” This lady knew the pain of a migrant because she had Armenian blood and knew the suffering of her people. When we do something of this sort; initially we refuse because it gives us some bother, “but … he stinks …” But in the end, the story perfumes our soul and makes us change. Think of this story and let us think what we can do for the refugees.
And the other thing is to clothe the naked: what does it mean if not to restore dignity to one who has lost it? Certainly, to give garments to those deprived of them, but we think also of the women victims of trafficking thrown out on the streets, or of the others, too many ways of using the human body as merchandise, even of minors. And so, also, to not have work, a home, a just salary is a form of nakedness, or to be discriminated because of race or because of faith – they are all forms of ‘nakedness,” in face of which as Christians we are called to be attentive, vigilant and ready to act.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us not fall into the trap of withdrawing into ourselves, indifferent to the needs of brothers and concerned only about our interests. It is precisely in the measure in which we open to others that life becomes fecund, societies re-acquire peace and individuals recover their full dignity. And do not forget that lady, do not forget that migrant who stank and do not forget the driver whose soul was changed by the migrant.
[Original text: Italian] [Working Translation by ZENIT]
Greeting in Italian
A warm welcome goes to the Italian-speaking pilgrims! I am happy to receive the faithful of the Diocese of Ivrea, with the Bishop, Monsignor Edoardo Cerrato; the “Fidei Donum”priests of the Diocese of Brescia; generous diocese, that gives “Fidei Donum” priests …; and the women religious participants in the meeting promoted by USMI. Dear brothers and sisters, may your pilgrimage for the Holy Year revive your communion with the Successor of Peter and the universal Church and render you witnesses of Divine Mercy in your local Churches.
I greet the specialists of the Umberto I Polyclinic, with the youngsters affected by the Apert syndrome and their relatives; the participants in the national congress of the Society of Organ Transplants; the Welcome Network Association; the Daughters of Charity with the little ones of the “Puppies of Aquila” family home of Mollas in Albania and the numerous students, in particular those of the De Carlo Lyceum of Giugliano di Campania and of the Gerini-Torlonia Institute of Rome.
Finally, my greeting goes to young people, the sick and newlyweds. At the end of the month of October, I want to recommend the prayer of the Rosary. May this simple Marian prayer indicate to you, dear young people, the way to interpret God’s will in your life; love this prayer, dear sick, because it bears in it consolation for the mind and heart. May it become for you, dear newlyweds, a privileged moment of spiritual intimacy in your new family.
[Original text: Italian] [Working Translation by ZENIT]
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