THE  FEAST OF FINDING OF SAINT STEPHEN’S RELICS; MEMORIAL OF SAINT LYDIA PURPURARIA; BLESSED AUGUSTINE GAZOTICH, BISHOP AND MARTYRS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

SAINTS OF THE DAY ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 3, 2024

Greetings, beloved family and Happy Saturday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time! 

On this special feast day, with special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and the Saints, we humbly pray for justice, peace and unity in our families and our divided and conflicted world. We pray for the sick and dying. We especially pray for our loved ones who have recently died and we continue to 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 & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏

Watch “Holy Mass and Holy Rosary on EWTN on YouTube | August 3, 2024 |

Watch “Holy Mass from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 3, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from Lourdes, France” |August 3, 2024 |

Pray “Holy Rosary from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 3, 2024 |

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy | from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy” | August 3, 2024 |

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

Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) |

Today’s Bible Readings: Saturday, August 3, 2024
Reading 1, Jeremiah 26:11-16, 24
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 69:15-16, 30-31, 33-34
Gospel, Matthew 14:1-12

SAINTS OF THE DAY: THE  FEAST OF FINDING OF SAINT STEPHEN’S RELICS; MEMORIAL OF SAINT LYDIA PURPURARIA; BLESSED AUGUSTINE GAZOTICH, BISHOP AND MARTYRS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR ~ FEAST DAY: AUGUST 3RD: Today, we celebrate the Feast of The Finding of Saint Stephen’s Relics; Memorial of Saint Lydia. Purpuraria; Blessed Augustine Gazotich, Bishop and Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for our Holy Father,  Pope Francis, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We also pray for those going through difficulties especially during these challenging times, for the poor and the needy. And we continue to pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world.🙏

THE FINDING OF SAINT STEPHEN’S RELICS: Today is the feast of the Finding of the Body of St. Stephen, the first martyr. The second festival in honor of the holy protomartyr St. Stephen was instituted by the Church on the occasion of the discovery of his precious remains in 415 just outside Jerusalem. His body lay long concealed, under the ruins of an old tomb, in a place twenty miles from Jerusalem, called Caphargamala, where stood a church which was served by a venerable priest named Lucian. It was translated to Constantinople in 439 by the Empress Eudoxia, but part of the remains were taken to Rome to the Church of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls where they lie beside those of the great Roman deacon.

In the year 415, on Friday, the 3d of December, about nine o’clock at night, Lucian was sleeping in his bed in the baptistery, where he commonly lay in order to guard the sacred vessels of the church. Being half awake, he saw a tall, comely old man of a venerable aspect, who approached him, and, calling him thrice by his name, bid him go to Jerusalem and tell Bishop John to come and open the tombs in which his remains and those of certain other servants of Christ lay, that through their means God might open to many the gates of His clemency. This vision was repeated twice. After the second time, Lucian went to Jerusalem and laid the whole affair before Bishop John, who bade him go and search for the relics, which, the Bishop concluded, would be found under a heap of small stones which lay in a field near his church. In digging up the earth here, three coffins or chests were found. Lucian sent immediately to acquaint Bishop John with this. He was then at the Council of Diospolis, and, taking along with him Eutonius, Bishop of Sebaste, and Eleutherius, Bishop of Jericho, came to the place.

Upon the opening of St. Stephen’s coffin the earth shook, and there came out of the coffin such an agreeable odor that no one remembered to have ever smelled anything like it. There was a vast multitude of people assembled in that place, among whom were many persons afflicted with divers distempers, of whom seventy-three recovered their health upon the spot. They kissed the holy relics, and then shut them up. The Bishop consented to leave a small portion of them at Caphargamala; the rest were carried in the coffin with singing of psalms and hymns, to the Church of Sion at Jerusalem. The translation was performed on the 26th of December, on which day the Church has ever since honored the memory of St. Stephen, commemorating the discovery of his relics on the 3rd of August probably on account of the dedication of some church in his honor.

Saint Stephen, the first martyr ~ Pray for us 🙏

SAINT LYDIA PURPURARIA: St. Lydia Purpuraria, also called Lydia of Thyatira (1st. c), a native of Thyatira, in a city in Asia Minor was a pious and wealthy woman involved in the textile trade in Philippi, Macedonia. She was famous for its dye-works, whence Lydia’s trade — purple seller. She and her husband manufactured and traded in the lucrative business of purple dyes and fabrics, a luxury for the elite. She was at Philippi in Macedonia when she became St. Paul’s first convert in Europe and afterward his hostess. She is regarded as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe as mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. After her family was baptized, Lydia invited Paul and his companion, St. Timothy, to stay in her home. St. Lydia served the Lord through her gift of hospitality, and her home became a meeting place for the early Christians. After Paul and Silas were released from prison, it was to St. Lydia’s home that they first went to meet and encourage the believers gathered there.

According to Acts of the Apostles: “On the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate along the river where we thought there would be a place of prayer. We sat and spoke with the women who had gathered there. One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us. ~ Acts 16:13-15.

St. Lydia was a woman of hospitality, a woman of faith. She served the Lord through her gift of hospitality by welcoming others into her home. She’s Patron Saint of Dyers. St. Lydia’s feast day is August 3.

Saint Lydia Purpuraria ~ Pray for us 🙏

BLESSED AUGUSTINE GAZOTICH, BISHOP: Bl. Augustine Gazotich O.P. (1262-1323) also known as Augustin Kazotic was  born in 1262 at Trau, Dalmatia to a  wealthy family at Trau, Dalmatia. Blessed Augustine was a Dalmatian-Croatian Prelate and professed member from the Order of Preachers who served as the Bishop of Lucera from 1322 until his death. St. Augustine joined the Dominican Order at eighteen and was sent to Hungary. There his fine spiritual qualities brought him to the attention of the legate Cardinal Niccolo Boccasino, a fellow Dominican. Upon the latter’s elevation to the Papacy as Benedict XI in 1303, Bl.  Augustine was made Bishop of Zagreb. He was a humanist and orator who had served first as the Bishop of Zagreb from 1303 until 1322. 

He studied in Paris before returning to his homeland where he began working in the missions and preaching in modern Bosnia. He was one of the first humanist figures to appear in southern Croatia, a great Apostle of Charity. He was also noted for being the guide for Dante Aligheri as the poet travelled through Croatia. He had the gift of healing. His reputation for personal holiness remained noted long after his death; this resulted in Pope Innocent XII confirming the late bishop’s beatification in 1700. The new Bishop reformed the clergy, completed building the cathedral, and diligently brought about the spiritual renewal of the diocese and its people–while fending off the attacks of the hostile King of Dalmatia. In time, Bl. Augustine was transferred to the See of Lucera in Sicily, where he continued his work of spiritual renewal, aided by his gift of healing. The Bishop also defended his flock from attacks against the Faith. He cared for the poor and needy and fostered devotion to Sts. Dominic, Thomas Aquinas, and Peter Martyr. Bl. Dominic died on August 3, 1323 at Lucera, Foggia, Italy of natural causes in the odor of sanctity. In 1702, Pope Clement XI reconfirmed his cults.

PRAYER: God, You made your Bishop, Blessed Augustine, an outstanding minister of Your Church by his prayer and pastoral zeal. Through his prayers grant that Your faithful flock may always find pastors after Your heart and salutary pastures. Amen 🙏

MARTYRS OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War is the name given by the Catholic Church to the people who were killed by Republicans during the war, because of their faith. During this Civil War of 1936 – 1939, and especially in the early months of the conflict, individual clergymen were executed while entire religious communities were persecuted, leading to a death toll of 13 bishops, 4,172 diocesan priests and seminarians, 2,364 monks and friars and 283 nuns, for a total of 6,832 clerical victims, as part of what is referred to as Spain’s Red Terror, besides the numerous laity. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to beatify a large number of martyrs from the Spanish Civil War. Pope Benedict XVI beatified 498 more Spanish martyrs in October 2007, in the largest beatification ceremony in the history of the Catholic Church. Among the 498 martyrs beatified in October 2007, figure Mother Manuela Arriola and companions – the 23 Martyrs Adorers. Four more Adorers are in the process of being beatified. Thus the Congregation of Sisters Adorers is honoured with 27 Martyrs, being true to the desire of our Holy Foundress, St Maria Micaela, who wanted the candidates who wished to follow the Adorers’ life-style to have the vocation to martyrdom. The two years prior to the Nationalist Movement were, as we know, years of general calamities for the whole of Spain. Madrid was razed by hunger and misery, so much so that if one had not experienced it from close ranges, its description could appear as a fable or a fiction.

On the 28th of July, 1936, the spacious convent at no.7, Duke of Osuna street, the headquarters of the general government of Sisters Adorers was confiscated by the government to designate it as a blood hospital. The militiamen, rifle in their hands in cars aided by them drove the sisters as they considered convenient. It was a common belief that it would take only a few days until the situation would be normalized. How unaware they were of the sad reality that was approaching. The Superior General of the Sisters Adorers very earnestly looked for ways and means to protect the sisters from the dangers to which they would be exposed. She found several flats where the sisters from the Generalate house were accommodated and those who came to Madrid and several other cities where they faced the same risk. A group of 23 sisters settled themselves in the flat rented at No.15 Constanilla de Los Angeles Street. On November 9, 1936, by mid-afternoon, a terrible bombarding started near the house. As customary in such moments, they went down to the mezzanine floor, where the owner of the house sheltered them. A group of militiamen entered the porch screaming ‘The nuns! Where are the nuns? And by pushing and pulling they put them all into a truck. Everything took place in a span of a few hours. They were arrested and taken to the nearest jail. At the dawn of November 10th, the 27 Sisters Adorers were shot dead, because of their unwavering Christian faith. Their life was not taken away from them, it was given up willingly, without hiding themselves or escaping when faced with danger. All of them knew that martyrdom awaited them and they welcomed it as His Handmaids The martyrs are models of what Christians, armed by the grace of God, can be. They rise above themselves, their infirmities, and the vicissitudes of history to escape the gravity of the world. In so doing, they provide us with an example that we can ignore only at our peril. 

They incarnated the words they spoke…… “Let us eagerly await death, for love of God” “With trust placed in God we will move forward”. “Lord, what do you want from us? Are you happy with your Handmaids?” “Lord, we trust that you will not give us more than what we can endure.” ‘Good-bye, until we meet in heaven…”

Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War ~ Pray for us 🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS:

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

Gospel Reading ~ Matthew 14:1-12

“Herod had John beheaded; John’s disciples came and told Jesus”

“Herod the tetrarch heard of the reputation of Jesus and said to his servants, “This man is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.” Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although he wanted to kill him, he feared the people, for they regarded him as a prophet. But at a birthday celebration for Herod, the daughter of Herodias performed a dance before the guests and delighted Herod so much that he swore to give her whatever she might ask for. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests who were present, he ordered that it be given, and he had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who took it to her mother. His disciples came and took away the corpse and buried him; and they went and told Jesus.”

In today’s Gospel reading, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, had married the wife of his brother Philip. While the Jewish laws and customs did allow a brother to take his own brother’s wife as his own wife, this had strict conditions that the aforementioned brother must be deceased and without a child of his own. Therefore, what King Herod had done at that time constituted an adultery, and adultery is a great sin before God, which was why St. John the Baptist criticised and rebuked the king for his behaviour and immoral attitude as someone who was supposed to be righteous and just as a ruler of the people of God. St. John the Baptist confronted Herod Antipas for marrying in contravention of the Jewish Law, much to the annoyance of Herod and to the even greater annoyance of his wife, Herodias. Herod had John the Baptist arrested and imprisoned because John’s preaching was not to his liking and, in particular, was not to the liking of his wife Herodias. During the celebrations for Herod’s birthday, the daughter of Herodias from a previous marriage so beguiled Herod that he made a rash promise to her in public. She could have anything she asked. When, at her mother’s prompting, she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a dish, Herod felt obliged to honour his public promise. Yet, the Gospel reading says that it distressed Herod to grant her request. The Gospels suggest that there was something about John that appealed to Herod’s better nature. He heard some call in John’s preaching. However, he silenced that call rather than bring down dishonour on himself by refusing to keep his publicly made promise. His need to protect his honour led him to shed innocent blood. The dilemma of Herod is a very human one. The Lord calls out to what is best in us but we don’t always allow ourselves to hear his call or respond to it. Other more self-regarding concerns can have greater influence over us, such as the concern to protect our honour, how we appear to others. Yet, the Lord’s call never goes away. The Lord never gives up on our response even though we may seem deaf to it. The Lord keeps pursuing us in his love, appealing to what is deepest and best in us.

According to the Gospel, John the Baptist’s faithful proclamation of the Jewish Law, even to the mighty and powerful, caused him to be imprisoned and, eventually, beheaded on Herod’s orders. When the disciples of John the Baptist had buried their master, they went off to tell Jesus. When Jesus heard this news, He must have had a premonition of His own fate. Jesus proclaimed an even more radical version of God’s will than John the Baptist. He was already in the process of making enemies among the powerful in the land. As John the Baptist was executed in Galilee by a client king of Rome, Herod Antipas, Jesus would be executed in Jerusalem by the governor of Rome. The Gospel story as a whole and today’s Gospel reading especially indicates that the proclamation of God’s word is not always well received, especially when it challenges our self-centredness, our desire to protect ourselves and all we are attached to. It is in the nature of the Lord’s word that it will both comfort us and unsettle us. It will both build up and tear down. We need to keep holding ourselves open to both sides of the Lord’s word.

Our first reading today from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah, details the aftermath of the moment when Jeremiah proclaimed the words of the Lord and His judgment to the people and the kingdom of Judah at the Temple of God in Jerusalem. At that time, many of the people and the priests called out for Jeremiah’s punishment and death, primarily because he had spoken ill about the people and the kingdom, and also prophesied that the city and its Temple, the very Temple and House of God would be destroyed and torn down. This happened shortly before everything that God had told them through Jeremiah would come true, and everything would indeed happen just as Jeremiah had prophesied it. However, many among the people, especially among the priests and the elites, many of whom had not been truly obedient to God and not been observing His Law and commandments, they saw Jeremiah’s words as insults to them, and they took them negatively, as many among them plotted actively against him and even tried to cause harm to the man of God on more than one occasion. However, God was with Jeremiah, His servant and faithful prophet, and He did not let harm befall him, although Jeremiah did have to endure sufferings, difficulties and challenges throughout his entire ministry. According to today reading, many of the people were moved by what Jeremiah said to them, in how he humbled himself before them and told them that everything that he did and said, all were brought to their midst by God’s will, and not by his own volition or accord.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scripture today, in our first reading, the prophet Jeremiah is almost put to death because he spoke God’s word to the people, a word they did not want to hear because it required them to change their ways. In today’s Gospel reading, John the Baptist, another prophet, is put to death because he spoke God’s word to Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, a word he didn’t want to hear, because it would have required him to change his ways. Both readings show that God’s ways are often in conflict with human ways. What God asks of us can sometimes be heard as too demanding from a human point of view. All of us are reminded as we have always been of the reality of our vocation, mission and calling as Christians, as those whom God had called and chosen to be His own. Each and every one of us have been given the various gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities for us to do our part in the missions of the Church, to proclaim the Lord worthily through our own respective exemplary lives and actions through which we can inspire many others around us to live their lives in the way that is also pleasing to God. Amidst all these, we must be prepared to face all sorts of challenges that we may encounter in this path we take as disciples and followers of Christ. We must not allow ourselves to be swayed by fear and all the doubts and uncertainties that the devil and his other evil ones may be sowing in us, in trying to lead us astray from the path of God and His righteousness. Instead, we must be strengthened and encouraged by the examples of our holy and faithful predecessors, reminding ourselves that while we may suffer and endure persecutions in this world, but our deeds, actions and efforts will yield great and bountiful fruits of our faith, and hence we, like our holy predecessors before us, the prophets, servants of God, the Holy Apostles, the many saints and martyrs of the Church, all of us shall bring about so many great and wonderful things, performing the great works of our Lord in the midst of our own respective communities and leading so many more people ever closer towards God. May the Lord, our most loving God and Father, our Creator and Master continue to help and strengthen us all in our journey so that throughout all the trials and challenges that we may encounter in our path and faith, we may always be strong, courageous and capable of facing those trials with faith, that we may continue to live our lives worthily of the Lord, doing whatever we can so that our lives may truly be exemplary and inspirational to everyone around us. May each and every one of us all be ever more committed and faithful as Christians in our respective lives from now on, answering God’s call and doing our best to serve Him, now and always. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to be inspired by the lives of the Saints and Holy men and women, as we keep seeking the Lord, with humility and steadfastness, even when the Lord appears to be silent and distant. Amen🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST:

MONTH OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY: August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary! The Church dedicates the month of August to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Mary is the Immaculate Conception; that is, in preparation for the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in her womb, she was conceived without the corruption of sin through the foreseen and infinite merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. Over the centuries, as saints and theologians reflected on how Mary pondered and treasured the sacred events from the life of Christ in her holy heart, as attested in Scripture, her pure heart was recognized as something to be imitated. Devotion to Our Lady’s purity of heart began to flower—so much so that in the 17th century, St. John Eudes promoted it alongside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The devotion rose to a new level after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, when Mary revealed an image of her Immaculate Heart to Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco.

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST – FOR POLITICAL LEADERS: We pray that political leaders be at the service of their own people, working for integral human development and for the common good, especially caring for the poor and those who have lost their jobs.

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 Ordinary Time, 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 🙏🏾

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

PRAYER INTENTIONS: During this Ordinary Time, please let us pray for the souls of our loved ones who recently passed away and we continue to pray for the repose of the souls of all the faithful departed, may the Lord receive them into the light of Eternal Kingdom. We pray for peace in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the continent of Africa, Nigeria and peace in our families and throughout our divided and conflicted World. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints on this feast day, we humbly pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our world. We also pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases, for the souls of the faithful departed, may God grant them eternal rest. We pray for the poor and the needy and we continue to pray for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the 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🙏

Let us pray:

My merciful Jesus, You desire that all people experience freedom from the sins of the past. You desire to penetrate our hearts and to bring resolution and peace. Please help me to open my mind and heart to You in the areas that still cause pain and regret, and help me to be set free by Your infinite mercy. Jesus, I trust in You ~ Amen 🙏

Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Most Blessed Mother Mary, The Finding of Saint Stephen’s Relics; Saint Lydia Purpuraria; Blessed Augustine Gazotich, Bishop and Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War ~ 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. Have a blessed, safe and relaxing weekend 🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖