MEMORIAL OF SAINT MARCELLUS I, POPE AND MARTYR; SAINT HONORATUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARLES AND BLESSED STEPHANIE QUINZANI, VIRGIN

SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Bible Readings for today, Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ JANUARY 16, 2024

Greetings, beloved family, and Happy Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time!

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy | Tuesday, January 16, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy | Tuesday, January 16, 2024 |

Pray “Chaplet of the Divine Mercy from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy | Tuesday, January 16, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary Novena From Lourdes” | January 16, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteries VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |

Today’s Bible Readings: Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Reading 1, First Samuel 16:1-13
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 89:20, 21-22, 27-28
Gospel, Mark 2:23-28

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF JANUARY – MONTH OF THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS: The month of January is traditionally dedicated to the Holy Name of Jesus. After the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Angel Gabriel appeared to St. Joseph and told him that the Child’s name should be called Jesus, meaning “God Saves.” According to Jewish law, on the 8th day after his birth a male child was to be circumcised, receive his name, and become a full member of God’s covenant people. According to the old Roman liturgical calendar, the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus was celebrated on January 1st, eight days after Christmas, the same day that He was given His sacred name. Currently we celebrate the Solemnity of the Mother of God on January 1st and honor the Holy Name of Jesus on January 3rd. For Catholics, Jesus’ sacred name is the object of a special devotion symbolized by the monogram “IHS,” (sometimes called a Christogram), which is the first three letters of the Greek spelling of His name.

On this feast day, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we particularly pray for the sick and dying and we continue to remember our beloved late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the first memorial anniversary of his death. We pray for the repose of his gentle soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon them. May the gentle soul of Pope Benedict XVI and souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… Amen 🙏 ✝️🕯✝️🕯✝️🕯

Please let us continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in the Middle East, for an end to the current war in Israel-Palestine, and the Ukraine-Russia conflicts and for peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Amen 🙏

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD: In your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life, you embraced them with your tender love; deliver them now from every evil, and bid them eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome them into paradise, where there will be no sorrow, no weeping or pain, but fullness of peace and joy with your Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen🙏

A PRAYER FOR PEACE: Lord Jesus Christ, You are the true King of peace. In You alone is found freedom. Please free our world from conflict. Bring unity to troubled nations. Let Your glorious peace reign in every heart. Dispel all darkness and evil. Protect the dignity of every human life. Replace hatred with Your love. Give wisdom to world leaders. Free them from selfish ambition. Eliminate all violence and war. Glorious Virgin Mary, Saint Michael the Archangel, Every Angel and Saint: Please pray for peace. Pray for unity amongst nations. Pray for unity amongst all people. Pray for the most vulnerable. Pray for those suffering. Pray for the fearful. Pray for those most in need. Pray for us all. Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us. Jesus, hear our prayers. Jesus, I trust in You! Amen 🙏

Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/

Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Marcellus I, Pope and Martyr; Saint Honoratus, Archbishop of Arles and Blessed Stephanie Quinzani, Virgin.

SAINT MARCELLUS I, POPE AND MARTYR: Pope Marcellus I (6 January 255 – 16 January 309) was elected bishop of Rome from May or June 308 to his death. He succeeded Marcellinus after a considerable interval. He became Pope at the end of the persecutions of Diocletian in aound 308-309. The persecutions had disrupted the Church so much that there had been a gap of over a year with no Pope. Once he was elected, he faced several challenges, including reconsituting the clergy, which had been decimated and whose remnant had practiced their vocation only covertly and with the expectation of martyrdom. He worked hard to recover and welcome back all who had denied the faith in order to keep from being murdered.

When a group of the apostacized, known as the Lapsi, refused to do penance, Marcellus refused to allow their return to the Church. The Lapsi had a bit of political pull, and some members caused such civil disruption that emperor Maxentius exiled the Pope in order to settle the matter. Legend says that Marcellus was forced to work as a stable slave as punishment, but this appears to be fiction, however we do know that he died of the terrible conditions he suffered in exile, he died on January 16,  309 as a result of privations and is considered a martyr because of that. He was initially buried in the cemetery of Saint Priscilla in Rome, but his relics were later transferred to beneath the altar of San Marcello al Corso Church in Rome where they remain today.

PRAYER: Almighty and eternal God, You willed to sent St. Marcellus over Your entire people and to go before them in word and example. By his intercession keep the pastors of Your Church together with their flocks and guide them in the way of eternal salvation. Amen🙏

SAINT HONORATUS, ARCHBISHOP OF ARLES: St Honoratus was of a consular Roman family that had settled in Gaul. In his youth he renounced the worship of idols and gained his elder brother, Venantius, to Christ. The two brothers, convinced of the hollowness of the things of this world, desired to renounce it with all its pleasures, but a fond pagan father put continual obstacles in their way. At length, taking with them for their director Saint Caprais, a holy hermit, they sailed from Marseilles to Greece, intending to live there unknown in a desert. Venantius soon died happily at Methone, and Honoratus, who was ill, was obliged to return to Gaul with his guide.

He first led the life of a hermit in the mountains near Frejus. Two small islands lie in the sea near that coast; on the smaller, now known as Saint Honoré, the Saint settled, and when others came to him there, he founded the famous monastery of Lerins, about the year 400. Some of his followers he appointed to live in community; others, who seemed more perfect, in separated cells as anchorites. His rule was borrowed in large part from that of Saint Pachomius.

Nothing can be more amiable than the description Saint Hilary has given of the excellent virtues of this company of saints, especially of the charity, concord, humility, compunction, and devotion which reigned among them under the conduct of their holy Abbot. Saint Honoratus was, by compulsion, consecrated Archbishop of Arles in 426, and died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical labors, in 429. His tomb is shown empty under the high altar of the church which bears his name at Arles; his body having been translated to Lerins in 1391, where the greatest part remains.

Saint Honoratus, Archbishop of Arles ~ Pray for us 🙏

BLESSED STEPHANIE QUINZANI, VIRGIN: Blessed Stephana de Quinzanis (variant spellings include Stephanie, Stefana; also, Quinzani; 1457 — 2 January 1530) was an Italian Dominican tertiary and stigmatic. Stephana was born to pious, but poor, parents of Brescia. She earned her living working as a servant. Her father, Lorenzo Quinzani, became a Dominican tertiary while Stephana was very young. On visits with him to the Dominican convent, she met the stigmatic Blessed Matthew Carrieri, who instructed her in her catechism. He told her that she was to be his spiritual heiress, a statement she did not understand for many years. She began receiving visions of Dominican saints from age seven, at which point she made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and was given a ring, as a token of her espousal to Christ. Carrieri died when Stephana was 14 years old; soon after he appeared to her in a vision, and she received the stigmata.

Stephana continued on in her formation, and at age 15 became a Dominican tertiary at Soncino. her Devotion to the poor and sick led her to found a community of Third Order Sisters in Soncino. She served as its first abbess. Her counsel was allegedly sought by many, including Saint Angela Merici, Blessed Augustine of Biella, and Blessed Osanna of Mantua. She participated in various stages of the Passion of Jesus Christ, which was attested to by 21 witnesses in 1497 in a still extant account.  Sources state that although Stephana was “ugly”, she had magnificent hair. Grudging herself this one beauty, she pulled it out by the roots.

Stephana had a particularly intense devotion to Saint Thomas Aquinas. In fact, to overcome temptation of thought against purity, she once threw herself upon a cartload of thorns in imitation of the Doctor Angelicus. Exhausted from this penance, she prayed to Saint Thomas, and, according to legend, was girded by angels with a cord, which they tied so tightly around her waist that she cried out in pain. Though she had no formal theological  training, she could discuss mystical theology at the most profound level. It is said that she could read the hearts and minds of the people around her, and had the gift of prophesy and healing. She lived in a nearly continuous fast. She accurately predicted the date of her own death. Stephana’s tomb became a pilgrimage site almost immediately. Her intercession was often felt in the convent that she had founded, where the sisters obtained both material and spiritual help through her intercession. Her cult was popularized by Dominicans Bartholomeo of Mantua and Battista of Salò, but their Latin vitae have been lost, and only a later Italian version that combines the two texts has survived. Her cultus was confirmed by Pope Benedict XIV on 14 December 1740.

Blessed Stephanie Quinzani, Virgin ~ Pray for us 🙏

PRAYER INTENTIONS: We thank God for blessing us all with the gift of His precious son, may we be saved by the name of our Savior Jesus Christ! May the Lord grant us His grace as we continue to serve Him in spirit and in truth. We pray for peace, love and unity in our marriages, our families and our world today, as we face these incredibly challenging times. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the sick and dying, especially sick children, those who are mentally and physically ill, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. Ee pray for an end to wars, political and religious unrest. We pray for torture victims, the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed and for all widows and widowers. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, the Clergy and all those who preach the Gospel. We pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for all the innocent who suffer violence due to political or religious unrest, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world… Amen🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

Bible Readings for today, Tuesday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Mark 2:23-28

“The sabbath was made for people, not people for the sabbath”

“As Jesus was passing through a field of grain on the sabbath, his disciples began to make a path while picking the heads of grain. At this the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?” He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry? How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the bread of offering that only the priests could lawfully eat, and shared it with his companions?” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

In today’s Gospel reading, we find a sharp contrast between how the Pharisees interpreted the Jewish Law relating to the Sabbath and how Jesus interpreted that Law. The Pharisees were quite rigid in their interpretation of the Sabbath Law. For the disciples of Jesus to pick ears of corn on the Sabbath as they walked along was a form of reaping and, therefore, forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus, however, gave priority to the disciples’ hunger over this strict interpretation of the Sabbath Law. Jesus was always person centred, not law centred. The needs and well-being of the human person carried much greater weight with him than strict observance of a particular law, even a law as sacred as the Sabbath law. For Jesus, all law, including religious law, is at the service of the total well-being of people and when it works against their well-being it deserves to be ignored. Jesus gives expression to this conviction in that very short and concise saying, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’. The Sabbath Law or any religious law must not be allowed to prevent people from satisfying their basic physical need for food. Jesus’ understanding of the religious law of His time was always shaped by His compassion for those in greatest need. He embodied God’s gracious presence, which made Him master of the Sabbath and of all religious law. To walk in the way of Jesus is always to give greater priority to the total well being of people than to the laws of the institution. Jesus took seriously the human person in all his or her complexity. He came not to serve a set of laws but to serve God’s people, especially those in the greatest material and spiritual need. He came that all people may have life and have it to the full. He understood that law, religious or otherwise, is at the service of that fullness of life for all.

In our first reading today, from the Book of the prophet Samuel, God told Samuel to seek the one chosen by Him to replace Saul as the King and ruler over the people of Israel. At that time, God’s favour had left Saul because of his disobedience and refusal to obey God’s Law which led the people of God into the path of sin, and hence, God chose another person who would be more worthy in his heart and mind than Saul in carrying out His commandments and Law, and in doing His will, namely that of David, the youngest son of Jesse, of Bethlehem in Judah. David was chosen not because of his stature and might, his influence and power, or his intellect and greatness, or his family connections and lineage, but rather, because in him, God saw a true love and dedication which few others have. Samuel went to the house of Jesse and told the man of the tribe of Judah to show his children as one of them had been chosen by God to be His anointed one, and hence king over His people. At first, Samuel thought that the eldest son of Jesse, who had eight sons, namely that of Eliab, must have been the chosen one of God because of his age, stature and appearance. Yet, God told Samuel that He did not choose by appearances, and the same happened for all of the seven elder sons of Jesse. It was David, the youngest of Jesse’s sons, who was still relatively young and lesser in stature that God had chosen to be His new ruler and king over all of His people. This can be contrasted to Saul who was chosen earlier on as king, for Saul was truly tall and was head and shoulders over all the others. This contrast between Saul and David, Saul would have indeed been physically and apparently ideal for kingship and leadership, and yet, it was this same Saul who led the people of God into sin, as he disobeyed the Lord and disrespected Him, choosing to follow his own decisions and did not show humility to God unlike that of David later on. David himself was not perfect as king, as Scriptures showed that he did make mistakes and wrong choices as king, and yet, he showed humility before God, as well as the realisation and understanding that he had sinned against God. While Saul was very proud and arrogant, and did not humble himself before God, continuing to walk down the path of sin, David was humble and willing to seek the Lord’s forgiveness, turning himself back once again on the path of righteousness and virtue. Essentially, this is the contrast between the ones who have chosen to follow their own path, their greed and desire, as compared to those who placed their trust and faith in the Lord. If we allow worldly temptations and ambitions to distract us and to mislead us down the wrong path, then like that of king Saul and many others who had fallen into sin, we too may end up in the path towards our downfall because of our inability to resist the temptations of our greed, desire and ego, and of the various worldly attachments and pleasures out there, all of which are the ways how Satan and all those seeking our destruction sought to bring about our downfall and end. We must remind ourselves not to be tempted and to remain strong in our faith in the Lord, at all times.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded of the calling of David whom God had chosen to be the new king over His beloved and chosen people, Israel. The prophet Samuel was sent to David’s family for him to be chosen and then anointed as the new king of Israel. The Lord’s told Samuel why He has chosen David to be the new king of Israel in replacing Saul, who has disobeyed Him. Then, from our Gospel reading today, it gives the account of the moment when the Pharisees questioned and likely even criticised the Lord because His disciples had been picking the grains of the field on the day of the Sabbath, which according to the very strict interpretation of the Law by the same Pharisees, was forbidden and against the Law. We must not be like those Pharisees and the teachers of the Law who thought that they were better than anyone else, superior and more worthy, and yet, failed to realise and understand the true meaning and purpose of God’s Law, on top of making it difficult and challenging for those who are actually in greatest need of God’s help, love and mercy, by making it so difficult and a great chore indeed in following and obeying God’s Law. Let us all instead do our best so that our lives may truly be attuned to the Lord, and be willing to listen to Him humbly like David, who truly loved the Lord and dedicated himself and his life to serve Him. May all of us be like David and all of our holy predecessors, in how we live our lives in each and every moments, that through us, more and more may come to know the Lord and believe in Him, and this is how we, as Christians, evangelise and spread the Good News of God to the whole world. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to remain faithful and give expression to our faithfulness to the Lord by our faithful love for each other. May God bless us always, and bless our every good works, efforts and endeavours, and inspire us to do more good things in our lives in this world. Amen🙏

Let us pray:

My merciful Judge, give me a heart of compassion and mercy toward all. Remove from my heart all judgmentalness and criticalness. I leave all judgment to You, dear Lord, and seek only to be an instrument of Your love and mercy. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World; Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Our Blessed Mother Mary; Saint Marcellus I; Saint Honoratus and Blessed Stephanie Quinzani ~ Pray for us🙏

Thanking God for the gift of this new year and praying for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and our world and for God’s Divine Mercy and Grace upon us all as we begin this Ordinary Time. Wishing all of us a most blessed, safe, healthy, prosperous and grace-filled New Year! Amen🙏

Blessings and  love always, Philomena💖