SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER
SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: MAY 15, 2024
MEMORIAL OF SAINT ISIDORE, THE FARMER AND SAINTS PETER, ANDREW, PAUL AND DENISE (DIONYSIA), MARTYRS
NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT ~ DAY SIX: Prayed in preparation for Pentecost. Beginning, Friday, May 10-18, 2024 (link below)
Greetings beloved family. Happy Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter!
Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary | EWTN | May 15, 2024 |
Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | May 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” | May 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | May 15, 2024 |
Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | May 15, 2024 |
Pray “Holy Rosary ALL 20 Mysteriels VIRTUAL🌹JOYFUL🌹LUMINOUS🌹SORROWFUL🌹GLORIOUS” on YouTube |
Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |
Today’s Bible Readings: Wednesday, May 15, 2024
Reading 1, Acts 20:28-38
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 68:29-30, 33-35, 35-36
Gospel, John 17:11-19
NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: Prayed in preparation for Pentecost. DAY SIX – Beginning, Friday, May 10, 2024 (link below): Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts | EWTN | The novena – May 10-18, 2024 | https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-the-holy-spirit-for-the-seven-gifts-309
[This Novena begins on the day after the Solemnity of the Ascension, Friday of the 6th Week of Easter, even if the Solemnity of the Ascension is transferred to the 7th Sunday of Easter]
NOVENA TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
Prayed in preparation for Pentecost
DAY SIX: May 15, 2024, Wednesday, 7th Week of Easter
If Thou take Thy grace away, nothing pure in man will stay, All his good is turn’d to ill.
THE GIFT OF UNDERSTANDING: Understanding, as a gift of the Holy Spirit, helps us to grasp the meaning of the truths of our holy religion. By faith we know them, but by Understanding we learn to appreciate and relish them. It enables us to penetrate the inner meaning of revealed truths and through them to be quickened to newness of life. Our faith ceases to be sterile and inactive, but inspires a mode of life that bears eloquent testimony to the faith that is in us; we begin to ‘walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, and increasing in the knowledge of God.’
PRAYER: Come, O Spirit of Understanding, and enlighten our minds, that we may know and believe all the mysteries of salvation; and may merit at last to see the eternal light in Thy Light; and in the light of glory to have a clear vision of Thee and the Father and the Son. Amen🙏
Our Father and Hail Mary ONCE; Glory be to the Father SEVEN TIMES
ACT OF CONSECRATION TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and grant that I may always watch for Your light, and listen to Your voice, and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself to You and ask You, by Your compassion to watch over me in my weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five Wounds, and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my infirmity, to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against You. Give me grace, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of the Father and the Son to say to You always and everywhere, ‘Speak Lord for Your servant heareth.’ Amen🙏
PRAYER FOR THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen🙏
PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Let us pray: O God, Who did instruct the hearts of Thy faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise, and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Christ, our Lord. Amen🙏
Novena to the Holy Spirit: Prayed in preparation for Pentecost (link below)
Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts | EWTN: https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-the-holy-spirit-for-the-seven-gifts-309
MEMORIAL OF SAINT ISIDORE, THE FARMER AND SAINTS PETER, ANDREW, PAUL AND DENISE (DIONYSIA), MARTYRS ~ FEAST DAY: MAY 15TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Isidore, the Farmer and Saints Peter, Andrew, Paul and Denise (Dionysia), Martyrs. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from terminal diseases and those with cancer. We also pray for the safety and well-being of all farmers, the poor and the needy all over the world. We continue to pray for peace in our families and throughout our world, for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world🙏
SAINT ISIDORE, THE FARMER: St. Isidore (c. 1070 – May 15, 1130), also known as Isidore the Farm Laborer; Saint Isidore of Madrid or Saint Isidore the Farmer, a perennially popular Saint in Spain was born Isidro de Merlo y Quintana near Madrid of very poor but very Christian parents, who early inspired in him love for God and horror of sin. He was christened Isidore from the name of their patron, St. Isidore of Seville. His education was accomplished entirely by the Holy Spirit who taught him, without books, the science of salvation. Isidore spent his life as a hired hand in the service of the wealthy Madrilenian landowner Juan de Vargas on a farm in the city’s vicinity. He shared what he had, even his meals, with the poor. Juan de Vargas would later make him bailiff of his entire estate of Lower Caramanca. St. Isidore married a wife rich in virtue, Maria Torribia, known as Santa María de la Cabeza in Spain (she has never been canonized, pending confirmation by Pope Francis. There is currently in process the cause for her sainthood within the Congregation for the Causes of Saints). St. Isidore and his wife were always willing to help their neighbors and worked with the poor in the city slums. God blessed them with a son whom they brought up in the sentiments of their own piety. On one occasion, their son fell into a deep well and, at the prayers of his parents, the water of the well is said to have risen miraculously to the level of the ground, bringing the child with it full of life and good health. In thanksgiving Isidore and Maria then vowed sexual abstinence and lived in separate houses in perpetual continence. Their son later died in his youth. Saint Isidore’s wife became a hermit like himself; Maria, too, performed miracles and merited after her death the name of Santa Maria de la Cabeza, meaning Head, because her head, conserved in a reliquary and carried in procession, has often brought down rain from heaven for the afflicted countryside. Her remains are honored by all of Spain by pilgrimages and processions at Torrelaguna, where they were transferred in 1615. Saint Isidore himself was a day-laborer on a farm near Madrid, but every day found him at Mass in one of the churches of the city before he set out for his daily task. His employer desired to verify whether he was wasting time during his work, and one day saw two mysterious personages helping the holy worker to guide his plow; Isidore himself told him they were Angels. Afterwards the wealthy owner became still more convinced that piety was useful in all occupations. For not only did his worker bring back to life one of his horses, which he very much needed; when his daughter, too, died, she was resurrected by the Saint. A fountain of water which the Saint caused to surge up by striking the ground still exists.
Saint Isidore, though poor, shared all he had with the poor; and one day, when no provisions were left, his cupboard was found well furnished when still another beggar arrived. Saint Isidore died some time after his wife; he died on May 15, 1130, at his birthplace close to Madrid, although the only official source places his death in the year 1172. The number of miracles attributed to him has been counted as 438. The only original source of hagiography on him is a fourteenth century codex called Códice de Juan Diácono which relates five of his miracles: The pigeons and the grain; The angels ploughing; The saving of his donkey, through prayer, from a wolf attack; The account of his wife’s pot of food and A similar account of his feeding the brotherhood. The codex also attests to the incorruptible state of his body, stating it was exhumed 40 years after his death, his relics were taken into the Church of Saint Andrew and re-interred there; miracles have been countless, and celestial music has often been heard at his tomb. He has protected the city of Seville, making himself visible occasionally; and the kings of Spain themselves urged his canonization. St. Isidore was beatified in Rome on May 2, 1619, by Pope Paul V. He was canonized nearly three years later by Pope Gregory XV, along with Saints Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Ávila and Philip Neri, on March 12, 1622. He is an example of a laborer who values both prayer and work. In 1947, he was proclaimed the patron of the National Rural Conference in the United States. He’s the Patron Saint of Farmers; farm workers; ranchers; rural communities; Madrid, Spain; National Catholic Rural Life Conference in the United States; death of children; for rain; livestock. His feast day is May 15th.
PRAYER: O Lord, all creation is Yours, and You call us to serve You by caring for the gifts that surround us. May the example of St. Isidore urge us to share our food with the hungry and to work for the salvation of mankind. God, through the intercession of St. Isidore, the holy Farmer, grant that we may overcome all feelings of pride. May we always serve You with that humility which pleases You, through his merits and example ~ Amen🙏
SAINTS PETER, ANDREW, PAUL AND DENISE (DIONYSIA), MARTYRS: Sts. Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise (Dionisia, Dionysia) are venerated as martyrs by the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. They were killed in the 3rd century at Lampsacus, Mysia (in present-day Turkey) on the Hellespont, under the Emperor Decius (~ A.D. 250). They seem to have been stoned by the heathen rabble, with the consent of the magistrates, before whom they had bravely confessed their Faith in Christ.
According to tradition, Denise was martyred during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Decius, along with three men named Andrew, Paul, and Nichomachus. Nichomachus, “presumptuous and over-confident”, denied that he was a Christian after he was tortured and was asked to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods. However, as he was about to perform this task, he suffered a convulsion and fell dead. Andrew and Paul refused to apostatize and were tortured on the rack and then imprisoned. Denise was a sixteen-year-old Christian girl who vocalized her unhappiness regarding Nichomachus’ apostasy. She was brought before the proconsul Optimus, and refused to abjure her faith. Optimus condemned her to be raped by several soldiers; however, according to tradition, she was “subjected to the approaches of three libertines, but was protected by an angel.” Paul and Andrew were finally led to their execution, and were stoned to death in the local arena. Denise managed to escape from prison and locate the bodies of the two men. She publicly expressed her desire to share their martyrdom, was carried away by force, and was promptly ordered to be beheaded by Optimus.
The relics attributed to Denise were brought to the Abbey of Flône in Belgium in 1922, and placed within a statue of wax; the relics included a vase associated that contains her crystallized blood. A second vase contains earth said to have been drenched with the blood of Christian martyrs. On the sarcophagus is embedded a marble tablet said to come from Roman catacombs; it carries the inscription: DIONISE, V.M..I.IN.P VIX. AN. XXIX. (“Denise, celebrated virgin martyr rests in peace. She lived 29 years”). The relics are visible through small openings. Saint Denise is invoked for the protection against bicycle and motorcycle accidents and headaches.
Saints Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Denise, Martyrs ~ Pray for us🙏
SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:
Bible Readings for today, Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading
Gospel Reading ~ John 17:11b-19
“May they be one just as we are one”
“Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus prays for His disciples on the night before He died. This prayer really transcends that particular moment in time. It is also the prayer of the risen Lord for His disciples today, for all of us. What is Jesus’ prayer on our behalf? In the words of the Gospel reading, He prays that we may be true to God’s name and that God would protect us from the evil one. This prayer of Jesus for us reflects one of the petitions in the prayer that Jesus asked us to pray for ourselves, the prayer that has become known as the Lord’s Prayer. In that prayer we pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’. This must be a prayer that is very close to the heart of Jesus if He prays it for us and asks us to pray it for ourselves, the prayer that we be delivered from, protected from, the evil one, the prayer that we remain true or faithful to God’s name, to who God is and what God desires for us. Jesus prays this prayer in the knowledge that our faithfulness will be put to the test by what the Gospel reading calls the ‘world’. The Gospel reading today assures us that in such testing times the Lord is praying for us, and His prayer combined with our own prayer will ultimately keep us faithful to Him and to His Father.
In our first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul gave a farewell message to the assembled faithful in Ephesus, before he was to embark on his final journey, his final mission by heading willingly to Jerusalem. St. Paul knew, by the wisdom and knowledge given to him from the Holy Spirit, that this trip to Jerusalem would be the beginning of his final mission, as he would be arrested and tried by the forces of the Sanhedrin, or the Jewish High Council, and set off the chain of events that would lead to his martyrdom in Rome. St. Paul was not deterred by the challenges, trials and sufferings that he might have to face. He has suffered quite a few times earlier on as he faced rejection and opposition by quite a few of those who refused to believe in God, the Jewish authorities and their supporters as one of the many examples. Of course he also encountered a lot of successes as well, that due to his tireless works and ministry, he had managed to spread the word of God, His Good News and truth, to more and more people, establishing firm foundations of the Church and faith in numerous places, including that of Ephesus, which we heard of today.
As we reflect on the words of the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded that we must always live our lives well and worthily as God’s holy and chosen people, as Christians, those whom God had blessed and embraced to be His own adopted children. This is because all of us are ourselves expected to be good and worthy role models for everyone around us, through our exemplary lives, actions and deeds. We must be always genuine in our every actions, words and deeds, living our whole existence to glorify the Lord and to proclaim His truth and love at all times. We must strive to be full of God’s love and truth, to abandon all sorts of wickedness and evils in our hearts and minds, so that we may truly serve Him wholeheartedly as His disciples and followers in our world today. Let us all continue to strive to keep the focus of our lives and existence in the Lord, to put Him at the very heart and the forefront of our daily living and actions, in all of the words and deeds we commit, and in every interactions we made so that by our exemplary living and our good and worthy actions, words and deeds, we will be good and shining role models of our Christian life and faith for everyone around us. Each and every one of us must always bear witness to the Lord and to His truth, teachings and love, or else, we may in fact even scandalise Him and His Holy Name if in case our actions, words and deeds are contrary to what we believe in and what the Lord Himself had taught us. Then in that case, we will be held fully accountable for our actions, just as those heretics and false leaders likely had faced their just consequences from God. Let us all henceforth renew our commitment to live our lives ever more faithfully to the Lord, to listen to Him and to obey His will at all times, and to become ever closer and more connected to Him through our prayerful life and through our greater love, commitment and devotion to Him. Let us all continue to glorify Him by our exemplary lives and be the good and worthy role models and inspirations for one another, both for our fellow Christians and also for all those others who have not yet known the Lord and His salvation, His truth and love, that through us, they may come to know Him and believe in Him as well. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us His grace and may He be with us always and bless us in our every good endeavours, now and forevermore. Amen🙏
DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF MAY: MONTH OF OUR LADY: In addition to the myriad feast days honoring Our Lady under her many titles and virtues, the entire month of May is especially given to her praise. In the words of Pope Paul VI, May is “a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God … For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God’s merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother’s throne.”
THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF MAY – FOR THE FORMATION OF RELIGIOUS AND SEMINARIANS: We pray that religious women and men, and seminarians, grow in their own vocations through their human, pastoral, spiritual and community formation, leading them to be credible witnesses to the Gospel.🙏
https://www.usccb.org/prayers/popes-monthly-intentions-2024
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/
PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this season of Easter, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and all the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we pray for their health, safety and well-being, we particularly pray for those who have no one to care for them and those who are terminally ill, we pray for God’s Divine healing upon them. 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 soul of our beloved family members who recently passed away and the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. 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 Vocation to the Priesthood and Religious life. We particularly pray for all Youths and all Seminarians, with special intention for those Seminarians who will be ordained into Priesthood. 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🙏
Let us pray:
My all-powerful Lord, You have conquered the evil one and provide all the grace I need to overcome his lies and deceptions. Open my mind to discern Your voice and give clarity to the voice of the evil one so that I may choose You with my whole heart and reject all that the evil one tries to say to me. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen🙏
Save Us, Savior of the World. Our Blessed Mother Mary, Saint Isidore, the Farmer and Saints Peter, Andrew, Paul and Denise (Dionysia), Martyrs ~ Pray for us🙏
Thanking God for the gift of this day 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 and for vocations to priesthood and consecrated life. Have a blessed, safe, grace-filled and fruitful Seventh Week of Easter!🙏
Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖