TWENTY-SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

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

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

On this special feast day, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Gregory the Great, we humbly pray for the safety and well-being of all students and teachers. We pray for all musicians, the Clergy, and all those who proclaim the Gospel. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the poor and those in need, for persecuted Christians, for those who fight for truth, peace and justice.

We continue to pray for our children and children all over the world. With special intention through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and the Saints, we pray for their safety and well-being, especially those beginning the new school year. May God grant them the courage to face new challenges and wisdom to make good choices. We pray for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and for God’s guidance and protection upon them during this school year and always. We pray for safe travels, to and from school. We also pray for all teachers, staff and parents, and guardians. May the good Lord provide for those in need. And we continue to pray for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world. May God keep us all safe and well. Amen 🙏

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” ~ James 1:5

On this day, we particularly pray for our loved ones who have recently died and 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 & the Holy Spirit forever & ever. Amen🙏

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

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

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

Pray “The Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song”| September 3, 2024 |

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

Memorare Chaplet | Prayer in Difficult Times (Powerful Prayer) | https://youtu.be/vVc782kcDds

Today’s Bible Readings: Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Reading 1, First Corinthians 2:10-16
Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 145:8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 13-14
Gospel, Luke 4:31-37

SAINTS OF THE DAY: MEMORIAL OF SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH ~ FEAST DAY: SEPTEMBER 3RD: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Gregory the Great on this feast day, we humbly pray for the safety and well-being of all students and teachers. We pray for all musicians and those who proclaim the Gospel. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the repose of the souls of the faithful departed, for all widows and widowers and all those who mourn. We pray for the safety and well-being of all those who are affected by the storm. We also pray for the poor and needy and for peace, love, and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Bishops, 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.🙏

SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH: Pope Gregory I, commonly known as Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604 A.D.) was Bishop of Rome from September 3, 590 to his death. He is one of the great Popes, a great servant of God and reformer, who dedicated himself to the greater glory of God. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregorian Mission, to convert the then largely pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Pope St. Gregory the Great reformed the Church in many different ways, reformed the Roman clergy and also influenced the greater Church community, purifying them from the excesses and corruptions of the world, enforcing a new and more rigorous practice and discipline in the Christian community. Pope St. Gregory the Great also spent his time and effort in expanding the reach of the Church and the Christian faith, sending out many missionaries to spread the Good News of God to more and more people all around the world.

Pope St. Gregory the Great was born near the middle of the sixth century at Rome, Italy in 540 into a noble Roman family. He was the son of a wealthy Roman senator, Gordianus, who later renounced the world and became one of the seven deacons of Rome. His mother, Saint Silvia, a canonized saint and two of his aunts are also saints, which provided him with a strong and devout religious upbringing and formation. St. Gregory received a classical education in liberal arts and the law. His skill in grammar and rhetoric were exceptional, and he followed in his father’s political footsteps by serving in public office as the prefect of Rome. After St. Gregory had acquired the usual thorough education, Emperor Justin the Younger appointed him, in 574, Chief Magistrate of Rome, though he was only thirty-four years of age. He was successively senator and prefect of Rome before the age of 30. After five years he resigned and became a monk. Discerning a call to the religious life, he sold all of his possessions and converted his own home into a Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrew. Here he himself assumed the monastic habit in 575, at the age of thirty-five. He used his liquidated assets to build six other Monasteries. After three years of strict monastic life, he was called personally by the Pope to assume the office of a deacon in Rome. From Rome, he was dispatched to Constantinople, to seek aid from the emperor for Rome’s civic troubles, and to aid in resolving the Eastern church’s theological controversies. He returned to Rome in 586, after six years of service as the Papal representative to the eastern Church and empire. Rome faced a series of disasters caused by flooding in 589, followed by the death of Pope Pelagius II the next year. St. Gregory, then serving as abbot in a monastery, reluctantly accepted his election to replace him as the Bishop of Rome. At the age of 50 he was elected pope, serving from 590 to 604. Because of his talent and intelligence he was unanimously chosen to become the Roman Pontiff, the first monk to become Pope. Despite this initial reluctance, however, Pope Gregory began working tirelessly to reform and solidify the Roman liturgy, the disciplines of the Church, the military and economic security of Rome, and the Church’s spreading influence in western Europe. In 14 years he accomplished much for the Mystical Body of Christ. During his lifetime Rome was sacked by invading barbarian hordes, and the city also suffered severe damage from floods and pestilence, causing his pontificate to be an important one.

As Pope, St. Gregory brought his political experience at Rome and Constantinople to bear, in the task of preventing the Catholic Church from becoming subservient to any of the various groups struggling for control of the former imperial capital. As the former abbot of a monastery, he strongly supported the Benedictine movement as a bedrock of the western Church. After seeing English children being sold as slaves in Rome, he sent 40 monks, including St. Augustine of Canterbury, from his own monastery to make “the Angles angels.” He sent missionaries to England, and is given much of the credit for the nation’s conversion. England owes her conversion to him. At a period when the invasion of the barbarian Lombards created a new situation in Europe, he played a great part in winning them for Christ. When Rome itself was under attack, he personally went to interview the Lombard King. At the same time he watched equally over the holiness of the clergy and the maintenance of Church discipline, the temporal interests of his people of Rome and the spiritual interests of all Christendom. He removed unworthy priests from office, forbade taking money for many services, and emptied the papal treasury to ransom prisoners of the Lombards and to care for persecuted Jews and victims of plague and famine. These deeds and others made him, in the words of an antiphon in his office, “the Father of the City, the joy of the World.” In undertaking these works, Pope Gregory saw himself as the “servant of the servants of God.” He was the first of the Bishops of Rome to popularize the now-traditional Papal title, which referred to Christ’s command that those in the highest position of leadership should be “the last of all and the servant of all.”

St. Gregory reformed the liturgy, and it still contains several of his most beautiful prayers. He is most commonly known for promoting and standardizing the sacred music of liturgical worship, now called “Gregorian Chant.” This recalls this great Pope’s work in the development of the Church’s music. His commentaries on Holy Scripture exercised a considerable influence on Christian thought in the Middle Ages. He regulated the liturgy into a more synchronous form, and also brought the Church liturgy both in the West and the East to be more coordinated and laid the foundations of what today would become the Holy Mass as well as the Divine Liturgy in the Eastern Church. Pope St. Gregory wrote extensively in various letters and also other works, in opposing the various heresies of the day and in helping to guide the members of the faithful to turn back towards the Lord with faith. St. Gregory brought stability and order to the Church in a time of great societal and cultural upheaval. His profound influence on the doctrine, organization, and discipline of the Church cannot be underestimated, thus earning him the title “The Great” which he shares with only two other popes. His zeal extended over the entire known world, he was in contact with all the Churches of Christendom, and, in spite of his bodily sufferings and innumerable labors, he found time to compose a great number of works. Known above all for his magnificent contributions to the Liturgy of the Mass and Office. For his abundant doctrinal and spiritual writings he is also considered to be one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Even as he undertook to consolidate Papal power and shore up the crumbling Roman west, St. Gregory the Great maintained a humble sense of his mission as a servant and pastor of souls, from the time of his election until his death. Pope St. Gregory died on March 12, 604. His body lies at St. Peter’s in Rome. Pope St. Gregory the Great is the Patron Saint of choir boys; educators; gout; masons; music; musicians; choirs; singers; stonecutters; teachers; popes; students; scholars; against plague; against gout; against fever; England; West Indies  His feast day is September 3rd.

QUOTES OF SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT: ☆”The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” ☆”Act in such a way that your humility may not be weakness, nor your authority be severity. Justice must be accompanied by humility, that humility may render justice lovable.” ☆“The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind’s eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection.”

PRAYER: God, You look upon Your people with compassion and rule them with love. Through the intercession of Pope St. Gregory, fill us with the Spirit of wisdom so that Your people may grow in holiness and that both pastors and flock may obtain eternal joy. Amen 🙏

SCRIPTURE REFLECTIONS

Bible Readings for today, Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time | Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church | USCCB | https://bible.usccb.org/daily-bible-reading

Gospel Reading ~ Luke 4:31-37

“I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”

“Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. They were all amazed and said to one another, “What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” And news of him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus encounters great hostility from a man who is described as ‘possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil’. The hostility takes the form of shouting at Jesus, asking Him an aggressive question, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?’ When we encounter aggressive hostility in others we tend either to respond in kind, showing our own aggression, or else we retreat from what we perceive as a danger. Jesus did not respond in either way. He initially sought to quieten the man’s agitation, ‘Be quiet!’ and then He delivered the man of the cause of his aggression and hostility, ‘Come out of him!’ The Gospel reading suggests that the Lord does not respond to us in the way we tend to respond to one another. Rather than taking flight from us or relating to us as we relate to Him, He works to bring us whatever is lacking in our lives. The man in the Gospel reading lacked peace; he was not at peace with himself or with others. We can come to the Lord as we are, in the assurance that we will always find a compassionate and healing presence. This is the life-giving and liberating authority which so impressed the on-lookers in today’s Gospel reading. The reaction of the people of Capernaum to what Jesus said and did in their synagogue was one of astonishment. The Gospel reading says, ‘Astonishment seized them’, and they were saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out’. The authority of Jesus’ teaching that so astounded the people of Capernaum was the authority of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had announced in the synagogue of Nazareth, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me’. The authority of the Spirit is a liberating authority; it frees people from all that oppresses them and binds them. In our first reading today, Saint Paul tells us that we have all ‘received the Spirit that comes from God’. We have been given a share in the Lord’s own Spirit. In so far as our hearts are open to the Spirit we have received, we too will possess something of that liberating authority that characterized the life of Jesus. The Spirit will work through us to bring healing where there is brokenness, strength where there is weakness, a sense of communion where there is isolation, life where there is death. We can experience the Lord’s life-giving authority for ourselves, and as we do so we can become channels of it to others. That is our baptismal calling.

According to the Gospel, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus announced that He had come to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. We find Jesus revealing God’s favor to someone who was deeply disturbed and troubled in the synagogue of Capernaum. The power of God’s favor at work through Jesus calmed the raging storm within this disturbed man. Someone who had initially related to Jesus in a very aggressive way was restored to God’s favor because of Jesus’ authority and power, the authority and power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God’s love. God’s favor at work through Jesus overcame the man’s hostility, aggression and resistance. As a result of the power of God’s favor working through Jesus in this dramatic way, astonishment seized all who witnessed what happened. There are times in all our lives when we find ourselves disturbed and troubled, when storms rage within us. It is above all then that we need to come before the Lord in prayer and open ourselves to the power of God’s favor that He brings to us, a favor that can bring calm where there is turmoil. As we receive the Lord’s peace and calm we can then go forth as His peacemakers, bringing the Lord’s favor to those who need it, bringing His calming and healing presence to those who are disturbed and broken. That again, is our baptismal calling.

Our first reading today from the Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Church and the faithful in the city and region of Corinth, continues the series of discourses by the Apostle to the Corinthians. The Lord had sent His Spirit into our midst, revealing to us His Wisdom, and through this Wisdom, showing us all the things that we need to do in order to follow the Lord most faithfully and genuinely. However, many of the people chose to trust in their own power and judgment and hence, they remained oblivious and unwilling to accept the truth, the reality and the teachings which the Lord Himself has presented before each and every one of them. That is because they chose to depend on their own wisdom and power instead of trusting in God. The Lord has shown us all His Wisdom, and passed them to us through His Church, and as Christians, each and every one of us as God’s holy and beloved people like that of the Corinthians are reminded again and again that we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by the temptations of worldly glory and ambitions, by our pride and ego, especially if we think that we know it better than others. We must not let the temptations of our worldly knowledge and wisdom to lead us astray, bringing us down the wrong path in life as we choose to side with the flawed and mistaken ways of the world rather than to trust in the Lord and His ever patient guidance and help. All of us should strive to continue to be open-minded and to be willing to listen to the Lord speaking to us, giving us His Wisdom and guidance in all things.

As we reflect on the words of the Sacred Scriptures today, we are all reminded that we should always put our trust in the Wisdom of God which He has imparted to us through His Holy Spirit, the Advocate, Whom He has sent to us to dwell within us and to empower us all, through His Church and Apostles, through their successors, our Bishops and the Priests whom He has called and chosen to serve Him and His people, that is all of us. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord has sent His guidance to us all so that all of us may come towards Him, embracing Him and His love, His path and His truth, that we are no longer lost from Him, and are worthy to receive from Him the assurance of eternal life and glory. We should always allow ourselves to be guided and led by Him, and not by our earthly desires. As we reflect on the inspiring stories and sacrifices of the Saints and Holy men and women, particularly the great story and examples showed by Pope St. Gregory the Great, who we celebrate today. Let us all therefore do our best to live our lives with full trust in the Lord and His Wisdom just as Pope St. Gregory the Great and many other holy men and women, saints of God had done before us. Let our lives be truly faithful and committed to the Lord in all things, and let us continue to do God’s will as much as possible in our daily living and actions, now and always, being good and worthy inspiration to one another. May God in His infinite grace and mercy, grant us the grace to give priority to the needs of others. May the Lord be with us always and may He empower each one of us to live ever more faithfully in His presence, now and always, forevermore. Amen 🙏

DEVOTION OF THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER:

MONTH OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS:
September is the Month of Our Lady of Sorrows, also known as our Mother of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa)! Since the 16th century, Catholic piety has assigned entire months to special devotions. The Church dedicates the month of September to Our Lady of Sorrows, whose memorial the Church celebrates on September 15th.  Devotion to the sorrows of the Virgin Mary dates from the twelfth century, when it made its appearance in monastic circles under the influence of St. Anselm and St. Bernard.

This devotion recalls the Blessed Virgin Mary’s spiritual martyrdom in virtue of her perfect union with the Passion of Christ. This was her role in salvation history and what merited her place as the spiritual Mother of all Christians. This is symbolized by a single sword, or seven swords, piercing Mary’s suffering heart, as foretold in Simeon’s prophecy. Traditionally the Church meditates on the “Seven Sorrows” of our Blessed Mother: the prophecy of Simeon; the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt; the loss of the Child Jesus for three days; the meeting of Mary and Jesus as He carried His cross; Jesus’ crucifixion and death; Jesus’ sacred body taken down from the cross; and Jesus’ burial. All the sorrows of Mary (the prophecy of Simeon, the three days’ loss, etc.) are merged in the supreme suffering at the Passion. In the Passion, Mary suffered a martyrdom of the heart because of Our Lord’s torments and the greatness of her love for Him. “She it was,” says Pope Pius XII, “who immune from all sin, personal or inherited, and ever more closely united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and motherly love. As a new Eve, she made this offering for all the children of Adam contaminated through his unhappy fall. Thus, she, who was the mother of our Head according to the flesh, became by a new title of sorrow and glory the spiritual mother of all His members.” The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa) is September 15th.

INVOCATIONS: Mary most sorrowful, Mother of Christians, pray for us. Virgin most sorrowful, pray for us 🙏🏾

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=762

THE POPE’S MONTHLY INTENTIONS FOR 2024: FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER – FOR THE CRY OF THE EARTH: We pray that each one of us will hear and take to heart the cry of the Earth and of victims of natural disasters and climactic change, and that all will undertake to personally care for the world in which we live.

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, Nigeria, 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 season of the Ordinary Time, 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. We pray for all mothers, wives, those going through challenges in their marriages, Victims of verbal and spousal abuse, and we pray for peace, love and unity in our families and our 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 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 🙏

MEMORIAL OF SAINT PHOEBE, DEACONESS
[Patron Saint of Women Leaders, Women in the Church, and Hospitality]

SAINT PHOEBE, DEACONESS: The name Phoebe (also spelled Feben or Phebe) means “pure”, “radiant”, or “bright”; and was the name of a Titan in Greek mythology. St. Phoebe is Patron Saint of Women Leaders, Women in the Church, and Hospitality. St. Phoebe was a notable first-century Christian woman mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans by the Apostle Paul. In the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul commends St. Phoebe to the church in Rome, introduces her as a deacon (diakonos) of the church at Cenchreae and asks that they “receive her in the Lord” (Romans 16:1-3). St. Phoebe was a deaconess in the church of Cenchreae in Corinth. She held a prominent position within the church of Cenchreae and was entrusted by St. Paul to deliver his letter to the Romans. St. Paul sent St. Phoebe to Rome to gain support for his missionary work. St. Phoebe was a woman of great courage and deep love. She answered God’s call to minister to God’s people during the earliest days of the Church, when persecution against Christians was strong. She earned the trust of St. Paul, who depended on her to handle communications with the ecclesial community in Rome.

In St. Paul’s commendation, St. Phoebe is described as both a “servant” or “deacon” (Greek diakonos) and a helper or patron of many (Greek prostatis), making her the only woman in the New Testament to be specifically referred to with these distinctions. St. Paul introduces St. Phoebe as his emissary to the church in Rome, providing her with credentials due to their lack of acquaintance. The use of the term “deacon” or “deaconess” should not be confused with the modern usage of the word “deacon,” as the ancient understanding was different from the modern.

St. Paul’s letter to the Romans was composed in Corinth between the years 56 and 58 AD, with the intention of garnering support for an upcoming missionary journey to Spain. Despite not having visited Rome, St. Paul would have been familiar with the community through contacts like Priscilla and Aquila, who had previously resided there. Scholars debate whether Chapter 16, containing St. Paul’s commendation of Phoebe was intended for the Roman or Ephesian Christian community. In his letter, St. Paul commends St. Phoebe, as a deacon of the church in Cenchreae, urging the Roman Christians to receive her warmly and assist her as needed, highlighting her beneficence towards many, including himself. His letter reads: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon (servant) of the church in Cenchreae. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.— Paul”

In classical Greek the word prostates (feminine, prostatis) was used to mean either a chief or leader, or a guardian or protector, often in a religious context; it was later used also to translate the Roman concept of a patron. The Apostle Paul’s use indicates that its range of meanings had not changed by New Testament times. This suggests that St. Phoebe was a woman of means, who, among other things, contributed financial support to St. Paul’s apostolate, and probably hosted the house church of Cenchreae in her home, as well as providing shelter and hospitality to St. Paul when in the town. St. Phoebe’s ministry may have extended beyond charitable works to include preaching and evangelization.

The feast day of St. Phoebe is September 3rd and is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod celebrates her on October 25th, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America celebrates her on January 27th. St. Phoebe’s feast day of September 3rd is in the current Roman Martyrology. Her day’s liturgical status is not of a feast or a memorial but that of a “commemoration” (designated a Lesser Feast).

Unfortunately, little else is known of St. Phoebe primarily due to the lack of further mention and the long history that is passed from her time to the present age. Growing her devotion is one way to help restore her memory and instate a liturgy to commemorate her in our tradition. St. Phoebe is considered the Patron Saint of women leaders, women in the church, and hospitality.

PRAYER: Bless us, St. Phoebe, shine on us with hope, joy, and love, and give us any help we may need. In your most holy name, we pray, Amen. St. Phoebe, Deaconess ~ Pray for us 🙏🏾

Save Us, Savior of the World. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Most Precious Blood of Jesus have mercy on us. Our Blessed Mother Virgin Mary; Saint Phoebe, Deaconess ~  Pray for us 🙏

Let us pray:

My most powerful Lord, You and You alone are able to take authority over my life and bring order and peace. Please remove any doubt and stubbornness from my heart so that I can open myself to You and Your grace. Take authority of my life, dear Lord, and lead me into Your most holy will. 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 Blessed Mother Virgin Mary; Saint Gregory the Great ~  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, grace-filled, and fruitful month of September 🙏

Blessings and Love always, Philomena💖