SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: APRIL 13, 2024
MEMORIAL OF SAINT MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR; SAINT HERMENEGILD, MARTYR AND BLESSED MARGARET OF CASTELLO, RELIGIOUS
Greetings, beloved family and Happy Saturday of the Second Week of Easter!
We continue to celebrate and rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God’s grace and mercy be with us all during this Easter season and always🙏
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Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | April 13, 2024 |
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Today’s Bible Readings: Saturday, April 13, 2024
Reading 1, Acts 6:1-7
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
Gospel, John 6:16-21
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF APRIL – MONTH OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST: The month of April is traditionally dedicated to devotion to Jesus in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Catholic Church teaches that the Blessed Sacrament is the real and living presence of Christ—His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—received into our souls with every reception of Holy Communion. Our Eucharistic Lord is the source and summit of our Christian life, the ultimate proof of His infinite love for us.
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL – FOR THE ROLE OF WOMEN: We pray that the dignity and immense value of women be recognized in every culture, and for the end of discrimination that they experience in different parts of the world. 🙏
PRAYER FOR PEACE ~ POPE FRANCIS:
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen🙏
During this Easter season, please let us all continue to pray for peace all over the world, particularly in Africa, 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 🙏
On this special feast day, as we continue to celebrate our risen Lord, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we pray for the Clergy and religious as they serve in the Lord’s Vineyard. We also pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to remember our beloved, we pray for the repose of their gentle souls 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 their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in perfect peace with our Lord Jesus Christ… 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🙏
Prayers for Peace | https://mycatholic.life/catholic-prayers/prayers-for-peace/
As we continue to rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr and defender of Church doctrine; Saint Hermenegild, Martyr, who was converted from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity and Blessed Margaret of Castello, Religious (Patron Saint of Pro-life movements, against poverty, and of the disabled, handicapped, blind people and unwanted). Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the Church, for persecuted christians and the conversion of sinners and for all Christians. We ask for the grace to pray for those who hurt us, frustrate us, or persecute us as St. Martin I, one of the last popes to be martyred, did for his persecutors.
SAINT MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR: St. Martin I, was Pope, Martyr and defender of Church doctrine. Saint Martin I, pope from 649 to 653 and died of abuse and starvation in 655 as a result of his defense of the church against heresy. He was the last pope to be martyred for defending the faith. Saint Martin I was considered a man of great intelligence, piety, and charity. A member of Roman clergy, St. Martin was sent to Constantinople. Upon the death of Pope Theodore he was elected to succeed him, in the year 649. In the following October he held a Council in the Lateran Church in which he condemned the leaders of the heresy of the Monothelites, a modification of that of the Eutychians. A document emanating from the Emperor Constans was also censured. This incensed the Emperor, and he sent Olympus, his chamberlain, to Italy with orders to cause the Pope to be put to death, or to send him to the East as a prisoner. An attempt on the Saint’s life in the Church of St. Mary Major was miraculously frustrated. Olympus now bcame reconciled to the Pope and went over to Sicily.
The Emperor then sent Calliopas and Pellurus to Rome, with orders to seize St. Martin. The Pope, who lay sick, was seized, carried down the Tiber at midnight, and conveyed to the East. After three months he arrived at the island of Naxos, where his guards kept him a whole year and subjected him to many indignities. In 654, Martin reached Constantinople, and for three months he was confined in a dungeon. His suffering were extreme, but like St. Stephen, he hoped that his persecutors would be brought to repentance. He was banished to Chersonesus in 655, while a terrible famine raged in that region. In his exile, Martin’s sorrow was the greater because he regarded the Church as having abandoned him by electing a new Pope. Nonetheless, he prayed constantly for his successor, Eugene I. Martin died in 656, and is the last Pope to be venerated as a Martyr.
Quotes of Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr:
“The Lord is near. Why then am I anxious? I put my hope indeed in his mercies that the Lord will not delay to bring my course to an end in whatever way he has commanded.”
“If anyone in word and mind does not properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers all even to the last portion that which has been handed down and preached in the holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God…let him be anathema.”
“If anyone does not in accord with the Holy Fathers acknowledge the holy and ever virgin and immaculate Mary was really and truly the Mother of God, inasmuch as she, in the fullness of time,and without seed, conceived by the Holy Spirit, God in the Word Himself, who before all time was born of God the Father, and without loss of integrity brought Him forth, and after His birth preserved her virginity inviolate, let him be condemned.”
PRAYER: Almighty God, help us to bear worldly adversities with an unconquerable spirit. For You did not let St. Martin Your Pope and Martyr be terrified by threats or conquered by pains. Amen🙏
SAINT HERMENEGILD, MARTYR: St. Hermenegild was converted from Arianism to Chalcedonian Christianity. When St. Hermenegild refused to accept Arianism he was tortured and subsequently beheaded on April 13 in the year 586. Leovigild, Arian King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who were reigning conjointly with him. All were Arians, but Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France, and by her holy example was converted to the faith. His father, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor, and marched to seize his person. Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain in his defense, but they were too weak to make any stand; and after a two years’ fruitless struggle, Hermenegild surrendered on the assurance of a free pardon. Once he was safely in the royal camp, the king had him loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville. Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith, but Hermenegild wrote to his father that he regarded the crown as nothing, and preferred to lose scepter and life rather than betray the truth of God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and promised him his father’s pardon if he would receive Communion from his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejected the offer, and knelt with joy for his death-stroke, praying for his persecutors. The same night a light streaming from his cell told the Christians keeping vigil nearby that the martyr had won his crown and was celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord with the Saints in glory.
King Leovigild, on his death-bed, was changed interiorly. He had been witness to the miracles that had occurred after his son’s cruel death, and he told his son and successor Recared to seek out Saint Leander, whom he himself had persecuted. Recared should follow Hermenegild’s example, said the king, and be received by the bishop into the Church. Recared did so; and although his father himself had not had the courage to renounce the false faith publicly, after his father’s death the new king labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. Nor is it to be wondered, says Saint Gregory, that he came thus to be a preacher of the true faith, since he was the brother of a martyr, whose merits helped him to bring so many into the haven of God’s Church. St. Hermenegild was beheaded on April 13, 586. He is the Patron Saint of Converts, Seville, Spain.
PRAYER: O God, You taught blessed Hermenegild, Your martyr, to value the kingdom of Heaven more than an earthly throne; grant, we pray you, that, following his example, we may despise all transitory things and seek those that are eternal… Amen🙏
BLESSED MARGARET OF CASTELLO, RELIGIOUS: Bl. Margaret of Castello (1287–1320) was an Italian Roman Catholic and professed member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. She was born 1287 at Castello della Metola, Papal States to noble Italian parents who were awaiting the birth of the child of their dreams. Instead, they bore a daughter who was blind, dwarfed, lame, and hunchbacked. Bl. Margaret’s parents were horrified by the physical appearance of their newborn child, so they hid her and kept her existence secret. A servant had her baptized and named her Margaret, meaning, “Pearl.” When she was six years of age she was nearly discovered, so that her father confined her to a cell inside the wall of a church with her necessities given through a window. The parish priest took it upon himself to educate Margaret. She lived in this way until age sixteen, when her parents took her on pilgrimage to a shrine famous for miraculous healings. There they prayed earnestly for their daughter to be cured of her deformities, which they loathed. When no cure came, her parents abandoned her in the streets and returned home, never to see her again.
Bl. Margaret begged for food and was helped by the town’s poor who took turns sheltering her in their homes. Nuns later offered her a home at their convent but soon came to detest her presence and cast her out, prompting the town’s poor to once again take her in and care for her. But she met with Dominican friars and was accepted as a secular member in their third order; she became a Dominican Tertiary and took up the work of serving the sick, dying, and imprisoned. She started a school for children to teach them in the faith and often took care of children while their parents were out at work. Bl. Margaret was known for her great joy, sanctity, and profound mystical experiences. She died at the age of 33 on April 13, 1320 at Città di Castello, Papal States and hundreds of miracles were credited to her intercession both before and after her death. Her body is incorrupt. Bl. Margaret’s holiness was apparent to all in her life that people lobbied for her to be buried in the local church which was an honor reserved for few – this was a clear demonstration people believed in her holiness. Her beatification received approval from Pope Paul V on 19 October 19, 1609 at Saint Peter’s Basilica, Papal States. Pope Francis later declared her a s
Saint through equipollent canonization on April 24, 2021 at Apostolic Palace, Vatican City. She is the Patron Saint of Pro-life movements, against poverty, and of the disabled, handicapped, blind people and unwanted. Her feast day is April 13th.
Blessed Margaret of Castello, Religious ~ 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 during this Easter Season. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying. We particularly pray for sick children, those who are sick with convulsive disorder, mental illness, strokes, heart diseases, and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. May God restore them to good health and grant them His Divine healing and intervention. May our Mother Mary comfort them, may the Angels and Saints watch over them and may the Holy Spirit guide them in peace and comfort during this challenging time. We pray for the safety and well-being of us all and our families, for peace, love and unity in our families, our marriages and our divided and conflicted world. Every life is a gift. We pray for God’s deliverance from impossible causes or situations. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the gentle 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 their gentle souls through the mercy of God rest in peace with our Lord Jesus Christ Amen. 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. 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, Saturday of the Second Week of Easter | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ John 6:16-21
“They saw Jesus, walking on the sea”
“When it was evening, the disciples of Jesus went down to the sea, embarked in a boat, and went across the sea to Capernaum. It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid. But He said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” They wanted to take Him into the boat, but the boat immediately arrived at the shore to which they were heading.”
In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord came to His disciples as they were struggling with a strong wind and a rough sea and brought them to a safe haven. At the end of yesterday’s Gospel reading, Jesus, having fed the multitude in the wilderness, withdrew to the mountain by Himself. The evangelist, John, suggests that Jesus needed to be alone with God the Father who had sent Him into the world. While Jesus was alone, the disciples set out to cross the sea of Galilee without Jesus. In His absence they found themselves struggling with a strong wind and a rough sea. Even after evening had given way to night they had rowed only three to four miles. They seemed lost without Jesus. It was then that they saw Jesus coming towards them, speaking words of reassurance, ‘It is I. Do not be afraid’. Almost immediately, they arrived at their destination that they had just been struggling to reach. The Gospel reading is suggesting that if we are to reach our destination, we cannot do it on our own. We need the Lord’s help. A little later in this same Gospel, Jesus will say to His disciples, ‘those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing’. The Gospel reading is suggesting to us that on our own journey, our journey of faith, we depend on the Lord to reach our destination. We depend on Him especially when the wind is against us and the waters of life get stormy. Today’s Gospel reading assures us that the Lord comes to us in those difficult and threatening moments. If we are open to His coming and receptive to His presence we will move on through the storms that come our way and reach our destination. The Lord’s presence to us and our awareness of His presence always makes the journey to the other side, the far shore, seem that bit shorter. Like Saint Paul, we can find ourselves saying, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’.
Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles shows some tension in the church of Jerusalem. Something of a storm was brewing in this young church, which became the mother church, because it was from the church in Jerusalem that the other churches were founded. The Hellenists, Greek speaking believers, were complaining about the Hebrews, Aramaic speaking believers, because the Hellenists felt that their widows were not being as well provided for as the widows of the Hebrews. The leaders of the Jerusalem church, the Twelve, realized that this problem would not be resolved unless they drew other members of the church into this ministry of providing for all the widows and the other vulnerable people in the church. The Twelve could not do everything; they had to prioritize. They declared to the other members of the church that as the leaders they should be devoting themselves to prayer and to the service of God’s word. As a result, they invited the members of the church to choose people of wisdom and of the Spirit who could attend to this important work of providing for the most vulnerable. Seven suitable people were chosen, allowing the Twelve to focus on what was important in their calling. Here at the very early days of the church we have a good example of how the church must function in every age. No one group within the church can do everything. There is a need for different groups of people to take responsibility for different ministries. This is how the Spirit continues to shape the life of the church. There will always be the kind of tensions or storms within the church that we find in today’s first reading. However, such stormy moments can be times of grace, opportunities for the Spirit in work in new ways in the church. As the Lord came to His disciples as they were struggling with a strong wind and a rough sea and brought them to a safe haven, so is the Lord always with His church in the various storms that will assail it. His presence at the heart of the storm can help to ensure that moments of crisis in the church can also be times of new life.
As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all called to continue following the Lord, to be faithful to Him and His commandments, doing our best to serve Him and to walk in the path that He has shown us so that each and every one of us may come to His Holy Presence and be fully reconciled and reunited with Him. The Lord has sent His Holy Spirit to strengthen to guide us all within His Church, to help and lead us down the right path as He continued to lead us through the path of righteousness, helping and guiding us in our Christian living and existence to be the beacons of His light and truth, to be the bearers of His love and compassion into this world, and therefore, all of us as Christians should spend our time and effort in doing what the Lord has called on all of us to do. Each and every one of us should follow the good examples set by our holy predecessors, the saints and the followers of the Lord as presented to us in our Sacred Scriptures. May the Risen Lord continue to help and guide us in our journey of faith through life, and may He empower each and every one of us so that we may continue to strive and persevere through the many challenges and trials that we may have to endure as faithful disciples and followers of the Lord. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and be with us always and may He bless our every efforts and endeavours, our every good works for the greater glory of His Name. May all of us have a most blessed and wonderful Easter season, have a most fruitful time in our obedience to the Lord. Amen🙏
Let us pray:
Jesus, my Redeemer, I thank You for coming into this world to save us. Thank You for the gift of the Redemption of the world. When I am tempted to fear and turn my eyes to the difficulties of the world, give me the grace I need to turn to You in hope and trust. Enter the storms of my life, dear Lord, and lift my burden of fear. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr; Saint Hermenegild, Martyr and Blessed Margaret of Castello ~ Pray for us🙏
Thanking God for the gift of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ and praying for us all as we celebrate the resurrection of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Have a blessed, safe and joyous second week of Easter and relaxing weekend!🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖