St Thomas More Husband and Martyr

St Thomas was born in London in 1478.  Thomas studied at Oxford University and then embarked on a legal career.  In 1505 he married Jane Colt and had four children, 3 daughters and a son.  The marriage was a very happy one but Jane died in 1511.  Shortly after Thomas married a widow Alice Middleton, who was a woman full of common sense and a good stepmother for his children.

Thomas was a many-sided personality, made up of intellectual sophistication, moral honesty, gentleness, loyalty to his king and affection to his wife, friends and children.  Thomas was always a man of prayer with daily recitation of the Little Office, he wore a hairshirt all his life.

King Henry V111, impressed by Thomas's ability appointed him to a succession of high posts, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529.  Thomas resigned in 1532 at the height of his career, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope.
Thomas was imprisoned in the Tower on 13th April 1534,[with his good friend St John Fisher] where he stayed for the remaining 15months of his life.

Many efforts were made to induce Thomas to conform, but in vain, he was condemned to death.  He was executed on Tower Hill on 6th July 1535.  His last words were that he died for the Catholic Church and was the king's good servant, but God's first.  Thomas was beatified in 1886[with John Fisher] and canonized in 1935.

St John Fisher Bishop and martyr

John was born in Yorkshire, England.  He went to Cambridge University and was ordained priest at 22years of age.  In 1502 he became chaplain to Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry V11.

Under John's guidence Lady Margaret became a great benefactress for Cambridge.  Together they reformed and re-endowed Cambridge University.  When John first went to Cambridge its scholarship had sunk to a low ebb; no Greek or Hebrew was taught, and the library had been reduced to 300 volumes.  He endowed scholarships, he re-introduced Greek and Hebrew into the curriculum, and he brought Erasmus over to teach and to lecture.

In 1504 he was elected chancellor of the university - a post he held until his death.  In the same year[1504] King Henry V11 nominated him to the bishopric of Rochester, he was only 35.  He carried out his pastoral duties with zeal.  He held visitations, visited the sick, the poor, distributed alms himself.  He lived very simply with very plain food, allowing himself only 4 hours sleep at night.

John lost the King's favour [Henry V111] when he opposed his marriage to Anne Boleyn.  John was now in danger, and warnings of friends and threats of his enemies, were not needed to bring home to him the risks he now ran by his opposition to the ruling powers.  He was arrested and put in the Tower in April 1534. John's physical health was now very poor, but his ill health did not affect his heroic courage. The next year he was made a Cardinal by Pope Paul 111 and King Henry retaliated by having John Fisher beheaded within a month.

John was beheaded on 22nd June 1535.  On the scaffold John declared he was dying for the faith of Christ's holy Catholic Church, and he asked the people to pray that he might be steadfast to the end.

Of all the English bishops, only John Fisher of Rochester publicly opposed Henry V111's mandatory Oath of Allegience, which unlawfully declared King Henry the head of the Church of England.  The bishop's stand ultimately cost John his life.
John was beatified by Pope Leo X111 in 1886, and he was canonized by Pope Pius X1 in 1935.

Your Guardian Angel- your greatest friend

Greetings all, Glory here. You have a great and powerful friend in your guardian angel.  He was given to you by God Himself, he will never leave you.

The angels are finite pure spirits modelled on the INFINITE, PURE,  SPIRIT WHICH IS GOD.

In our world we look around at the beauty and variety in nature different trees, flowers, birds, especially ourselves - none of us are exactly alike - but the beauty in our world dims into plainness compared to the angelic world.  St Thomas Aquinas tells us that the difference in each individual angel is immense, as different as a man and a rose or a fly and an elephant!

The angels are a luminous image of DIVINITY'S  PERFECTIONS  - STUPENDOUS  in its beauty - STAGGERING in its wide variety.  Yet all this is no more than a foggy outline of  the BEAUTY OF GOD.

God Himself gives each of us a guardian angel.  Your angel burning with love for God and full of intense love for you, interceding constantly for you to God.
Our guardian angel may not interfere with our free will, but he will do his very best urging us to correct our weaknesses, he is ever on the alert to protect us from danger and to turn our thoughts to God.  His efforts on our behalf are unceasing.  Love him, he never forgets you!
Our guardian angel's knowledge is all that our own is not - accurate, complete, absolutely firsthand, coming to him from TRUTH  ITSELF - GOD.

ST JOSEPH [first century]

Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary
He has two feastdays, his main one is on 19th March and on 1st May we celebrate him as St Joseph the worker.
Our facts about St Joseph comes from the New Testament.
Matt.[1:18-25] "Mary was betrothed to Joseph but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  Her husband Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.  He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins". So Joseph did what the angel said and took Mary home as his wife.

Joseph was in the stable in Bethlehem when
 Jesus was born.  What a joy for this holy man to take into his arms this tiny trembling little baby! To hear his first faint cry.  To this saint was given charge of the King of the Universe and His holy Mother!  Joseph must have wished with all his heart for better lodgings for the little one and his mother, but God chose to be born in extreme poverty in a stable!

We next hear of Joseph when he is again visited by an angel in a dream.  Matt. [2:13-15] "Get up take the child and his mother with you and escape into Egypt and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him".  So Joseph got up and taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt, where he stayed until Herod was dead.

When Jesus was 12 years old he went up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover with Joseph and Mary but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing, it took Mary and Joseph 3 days to find him. What heartache and grief did this holy couple go through!  They searched for their greatest treasure Jesus, finally they found him in the temple, sitting among the doctors listening to them, and asking them questions and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his answers.  They were overcome when they saw him and his mother said to him "My child why have you done this to us?  See how worried your father and I have been looking for you.  "Why were you looking for me?   Did you not know that I must be busy with My Father's business?  But they did not understand what he meant.  Jesus then went with them to Nazareth.

It was Joseph who guided the boy Jesus's first attempts at carpentry. It would have been his dear foster father who helped with the first things he made who encouraged him when he was learning.

Joseph it is believed, died before Jesus started his public life.  He would have died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, that is why he is the patron of a happy death.
Devotion to St Joseph has increased down the years, especially owing to the zeal of such saints as St Bernard, St Gertrude, St Bridget of Sweden.  St Teresa of Avila dedicated the mother-house of her reformed Carmelite convent at Avila to St Joseph and had great devotion to this great man.  St Ignatius of Loyola also had great devotion to St Joseph.
On December 8th 1870, Pope Pius 1X declared St Joseph "Patron of the Universal Church".  His name was added to the Canon of the mass by Blessed John XX111 in 1962.  Pope Leo X111 wrote a great Encyclical QUAMQUAM PLURIES [on devotion to St Joseph] on 15th August 1889.

He is also the patron saint of Fathers, of manual workers, and of social justice.

ST THOMAS AQUINAS

St Thomas was born about 1225 [exact date unknown] at Rocca Secca near Aquino.  He was educated from the age of five to thirteen at the monastery of Monte Cassino [founded by St Benedict], and later at the university of Naples.  While in Naples he met and was attracted by the Dominican friars.  He planned to join their order and at the age of about 19 he was received and clothed in the habit of the order.  This caused great indignation in his home partly because the Dominicans were mendicants [an order that worked but also begged for their living].  His family captured him and kept him under house arrest for almost 2 years, but finally the family gave up and in 1245 allowed him to return to his order.

In 1245 St Thomas set off for Paris to do his novitiate with the Dominicans.  St Albert the great became St Thomas's teacher in Paris.  St Albert immediately saw the great intellect and holiness in Thomas.  At Naples and Paris Thomas studied the writings of the great Christian thinkers, the Fathers of the Church, also he studied the writings of great Muslim scholars such as Avicenna and of important Jewish thinkers such as Moses Maimonides.  Above all he studied the writings of Aristotle who, became for him, simply, 'the philosopher'.

St Albert took St Thomas to Cologne where Thomas completed his studies.  At Cologne he was nicknamed 'The Dumb Ox' because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student.

He completed his studies with St Albert and then returned to Paris to begin his career as a teacher at the university.  After 4 years Thomas was appointed professor of Theology in 1256.  St Thomas was sent back to Italy in 1259 where he stayed for 10 years.  About this time he started the most important work of his life his 'Summa Theologica' this writing which fills about 5 volumes is a comprehensive statement of his mature thought on all the Christian mysteries.

In 1272 St Thomas was recalled to Naples as regent of studies.  Here on 6th December he experienced a revelation of God, after which he dictated no more, but said that all he had written in comparison to what he had seen was like so much straw.  So leaving his great work 'Summa Theologiae' unfinished.

He died on his way to the Council of Lyons on 7th March 1274.  He was about 49 years old.

St Thomas was not only a great writer, but a man full of humility, gentle, kind full of the Holy Spirit.  He was able to write about sublime things clearly, this is why he has the title 'Angelic Doctor'.  St Thomas was canonized in 1323.  St Pius V conferred on him the title Doctor of the Church on 15th April 1567.

The Problem of Suffering

Greetings to you, Glory here, It seems to me there is an awful lot of suffering in this world. Jesus suffered all His life, from His birth in piercing cold in a stable to a horrific death on a cross.  What about His Mother? How did she survive watching her son in such agony? I believe that if God had not miraculously sustained His Mother, she could not possibly have survived her martyrdom.
She was His Mother, a Mother more loving than all mothers combined could love.  In her heart were united natural love by which she loved Jesus as her Son, and  supernatural love, by which she loved Him as her God.
At the foot of the cross, Mary was made the Queen of Martyrs, and at the same time she became our Mother, the Comforter of the Afflicted, the Help of Christians and the Refuge of Sinners. 
If you are suffering in any way you have a powerful advocate in heaven your heavenly Mother, Jesus will refuse His Mother nothing, Go and ask her and especially remember her sorrows, She had to withstand them for her Son to redeem us.  I can only tell you that I have a great devotion to Our Mother of Sorrows, she has helped me so much, and got me out of so much trouble, not the least of when I got myself into debt with my spend first, worry about paying later!
Here is a little extract from the Stabat Mater prayer:

"At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last".
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing, All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had passed.
Oh! how sad and sore distressed Was that Mother highly blest,
of the sole begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying, glorious Son
Is there one who would not weep,
'Whelmed in miseries so deep
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

GEMS FROM THE SAINTS

" Oh what inspiration there is in the Crucifix!  who could find it hard to persevere at the sight of a God who never commands us to do anything
which he has not first practised himself?
[St John Vianney Cure of Ars]

" I was all alone without a single friend to give me a word of encouragement.  I could neither pray nor read, but there I remained for hours uneasy in mind and afflicted in spirit on account of the weight of my troubles, and for the fear that perhaps I was being tricked by the devil and wondering what I could do for my relief, not a gleam of hope seem to shine upon me from heaven or earth, except just this:  In the midst of all my fears and dangers, I never forgot how our Lord must be seeing the weight of what I endured.  Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, what a true friend you are, and how powerful, for when you wish to be with us, you can be and you always do wish it, if only we receive you"
[words of St Teresa of Avila taken from Fr. Benedict Groeschel's book 'Arise from Darkness]

" The key to love of God is prayer.  By turning your eyes on God in meditation, your whole soul will be filled with God.  Begin all your prayers in the presence of God.
For busy people of the world, he advised "Retire at various times into the solitude of your own heart even while outwardly engaged in discussions or transactions with others and talk to God".

The test of prayer was a persons's actions:  " To be an angel in prayer and a beast in one's relations with people is to go lame on both legs".
He believed the worst sin was to judge someone or to gossip about them.
"Even if we say we do it out of love we are still doing it to look better ourselves. But we should be as gentle and forgiving with ourselves as we should be with others".
[St Francis de Sales]

The Rosary

The Rosary is my favourite prayer.
What is the rosary if not a series of prayerful reflections on the kernel of Scripture which most concerns us, namely the Good News of our Salvation?
Take the joyful mysteries for example, every one of them are in Luke's gospel.
If you want to grow in holiness, say the rosary every day. Jesus himself gave us the 'Our Father' and the 'hail Mary' the first half of it was given to us by the angel Gabriel [Luke 1:26-28].

The Holy Spirit will speak to your heart while you are praying the Rosary and then you will say just like the disciples on the way to Emmaus "Did not our hearts burn within us as He talked to us on the road and explained the scripture to us? [Luke 24:32]

St Teresa of Avila

St Teresa of Avila [1515 - 1582] foundress of the Discalced Carmelites, and Doctor of the Church.  Teresa was born in Spain of a noble Castillian family.
Teresa loved reading the lives of the saints.  After the death of her mother Teresa decided to become a nun.  At that time the discipline in the convent was very lax.  After a series of visions St Teresa founded  in 1561 a reformed convent involving strict enclosure, perpetual silence, and poverty in Avila.

From 1568 onwards Teresa collaborated with St John of the Cross in the establishment of reformed friars.  Her book on comtemplative prayer the "Interior Castle" is excellent.

MY OTHER SELF

Greetings to you all, Glory here.  About 20 years ago my sister gave me an extract from a book called "My Other Self" the author is Clarence J Enzler [1910 -1976].  I dont know much about Clarence only that he was American and he wrote other books one of which was "Everyone's way of the Cross". I haven't even read "My other self".  But this extract really speaks to the heart I just think it is wonderful. [I am sure if you are interested you could get the book on Amazon].

In this extract Clarence is letting Jesus speak heart to heart to the individual soul.

MY  OTHER  SELF [by Clarence J. Enzler]

My dear friend, My greatest desire is that you be happy.  Believe that I am goodness itself.  Believe that I want your happiness far more that you yourself want it.

Try to realise that I see all your thoughts and emotions.  All your troubles and desires.  I know you far more intimately than you know yourself.  I know you not only as you are, but as you have been, and as you will be; and I know all of this NOW.

There is no past or future with Me; there is only the eternal now. If, then, I hold you and all things in existence by my will, no one thing can happen without my permission.  You cannot move, talk, listen, feel, see, or think without my concurrence.  Of yourself you cannot raise your finger, blink your eye; your heart cannot beat your lungs expand.  You cannot think a single thought without My doing much more of the work than you do yourself.  Literally you can do nothing, neither good or evil, without Me. I am in all that you do; all that you do, you can do only in, with, and through My power.  Whatever I send you or permit to happen to you is, under the circumstances, the best that could be.  For those who love Me, all things work together for good.  They must.  I will have it no other way.

This is My power.  Realize it.  Ponder it. Meditate, and understand how foolhardy it is not to trust in Me.  How foolish to resist My will, when no one can alter My decrees.  I am your refuge and your strength, Abandon yourself to Me.  Do not doubt Me, My friend, Do not be irritated at your pain, your losses, your sickness, your enemies. View them as the means by which I guide you to Myself.

If opposition and affliction were not the food of your spiritual growth, I would never allow them to approach you, much less touch you.  I send you nothing that is too heavy for you to bear.  Everything is fitted precisely to your strength.  If you realized My love for you, you would surely have confidence in Me.  Before the world was made, I loved you.  When there was no earth, no sun, no angels, I knew you were to be, when you would appear, what place you would have in My plan, how long you would live, what thoughts you would think and what prayers you would pray - and I loved you.

Time never was when I did not love you.  My making you was the expression of My infinite, eternal love, I love you far more than you love yourself, do not be afraid to abandon yourself wholly to Me.  Is there anything that I have not done, and that I can do, to win your complete confidence?  Tell Me and I will do it.  Remember I died for you.  Cling to Me with all your heart, with all your will, and I will make you a Saint.  The love of a mother, even the love of My Mother for Me, is nothing to My love for you.

"Just as the Father loves Me, so I love you".  I willingly died for you centuries before you were conceived in your mother's womb.  And I would die for you again, as often as might be necessary, if by dying I could win your love and your salvation.  What ever I do, whatever I send to you, should delight you.  A thousand times a day I smooth your way and strengthen you with My grace.  I see you always and I love you always.  Have confidence then, as a little child.  As you hope and trust, so shall you receive.  Never fear that you ask too much of Me.  Such humility is not humility, but lack of trust.  I say to you as to My Apostles, "Why are you so timid? How is it that you are still without faith?"

THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS

Greetings all Glory here.  The most Holy Name of Jesus is awesome; It is a great weapon in the battle against our enemies - the world, the flesh, and the devil.  If the devil rises up against you do not be afraid, but call on Jesus - " In My Name they will cast out demons"[mark 16:17] "Holy and awesome is His Name"[psalm 110:9]

Call upon the Holy Name of JESUS!
He himself has said "he shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in distress"[psalm 90:15]

When you feel suffering, you or your family, without neglecting natural remedies, call on the name of Jesus. "He saved them for His Name's sake, to make known His power [psalm 105:7-8]

The most Holy Name of Jesus is a great light, it is the torch of the word of God.  Each time you say Jesus
you increase in your soul the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Whenever you hear the Holy Name pronounced, bow your head; do so likewise everytime you say His Sacred Name.

Blessed Titus Brandsma Poem

Dear Lord, when looking up to Thee, I see Thy loving eyes on me;

Love overflows my humble heart, knowing what faithful friend Thou art.

A cup of sorrow I forsee, which I accept for love of Thee, the painful way I wish to go, the only way to God I know.

My soul is full of peace and light; although in pain this light shines bright, for here Thou keepest to Thy breast my longing heart, to find there rest.

Leave me here freely alone, in cell where never sunlight shone; should
no one ever speak to me, this golden silence makes me free!

For though alone I have no fear; never were Thou O Lord, so near.
Sweet Jesus please abide with me; my deepest peace I find in Thee.

[Blessed Titus Brandsma wrote this poem in Scheveningen prison]

PAIN OF CHRIST

In the universality of His Love and His pity, Christ shared the sorrow and pain of every human being through the long story of mankind:  He knew in his own heart every cry of pain and agony that had ever risen or should ever rise from the valley of human tears.  But there is more than that.  St. Paul tells us He was made sin for our sake: and we are to understand, not indeed that He became a sinner, but that He knew in his heart the ultimate torment of the sinner; the agony of emptiness and horror that is final separation from God.

God so loved the world that he empied Himself of His Divine Nature and died on the cross so mankind could be saved.

"My Soul is Sorrowful even unto death......Not My will but Thine be Done....

One of my favourite saints

St Martin de Porres is one of my favourite saints.
He had such a great love of God and all His creatures both human and animal. He had the ability [grace from God] to get a dog, cat, and a rat to eat from the same dish.  He also possessed great spiritual wisdom, resolving theological problems for his order and for bishops. He was a close friend of St Rose of Lima, St Martin died on November 3rd 1639.  He was canonized on May 6th 1962.

St. Patrick

St Patrick our patron saint was born about 389 near Dunbarton on the Clyde.  His father's name was Calpurnius, he was a deacon and a Municipal official.  His Mother Conchessa was a near relative of the famous St Martin of Tours.

When Patrick was about 16 he was captured by pirates and taken to Ireland.  They landed on the coast of Antrim, and Patrick was sold as a slave to Milchu who was a high Druid.  Patrick was sent to look after sheep out on the mountain slopes.  What a terrible change for poor Patrick! Far away from all his loved ones in a strange land.  Patrick tells us about this time in his Confession [His Autobiography] "I did not indeed know the true God, and I was taken into captivity in Ireland and there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my faults and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, and He watched over me before I knew Him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and He protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son".  "When I was with the flock each day I used to pray many times a day.  More and more the love of God and faith increased in me.  I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill or cold because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time".

After 6 long years, Patrick escaped and after much hardship and suffering returned to his family.  After some time Patrick had a dream in which he saw the Irish people saying to him"We beg you holy youth, that you shall come and walk again among us".  Patrick was ordained priest and Bishop and returned to Ireland where he laboured until his death to bring the faith to the Irish people.  Patrick died on 17th March 461 in Saul, in Co.Down, where he had built his first church.

The little flower St. Therese

St Therese was born in Normandy France in 1873.  At the age of fifteen she entered the Carmelite order in Lisieux, and on September 30th 1897 she died there.
Fortunately for us, the story of those nine years is told in her autobiography "Story of a Soul".
Therese took for her motto the words of St John of the Cross "Love is repaid by love alone"
Love of God as a Father, expressed in childlike simplicity and trust, and a deep understanding of the mystery of the Cross were the basic principles of her "little way".
Therese is now one of the most popular saints of modern times, and her story of a soul has been translated into many languages, and is now a spiritual classic read by millions around the world.