FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLESRD: Today, we celebrate the Feast of two of the twelve Apostles of Jesus, Saints Philip and James, Apostles. Saints Philip and James are linked on this feast because they shared the patronage of an ancient Roman basilica, known today as the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. Both were martyred in the 1st century. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saints Philip and James, we humbly pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are terminally ill. We pray for all Pharmacists, for the Church, the Clergy, for persecuted Christians, for the conversion of sinners, for all Christians, for the poor and needy and for justice, peace, love and unity in our families and all over the 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 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. 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 🙏🏽
SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES THE LESSER, APOSTLES: Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of not just one but two of the great Apostles of the Lord, namely that of St. Philip and St. James, two of the Twelve Apostles, part of the innermost circle and closest collaborators of our Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry and work. Both of them like that of the other Apostles and disciples of the Lord, went through many hardships and trials, and went from places to places to proclaim the Good News of the Lord, delivering the truth and love of God to more and more people who have not yet heard of Him or known Him. They laboured for many years in distant lands and in foreign places, among foreigners and others so that many more may come close to the salvation in God. Through their efforts and hard work, many have come close to the Lord and found the path to His grace, and not few followed in the footsteps of the Apostles. Sts. Philip and James are linked on this feast because they shared the patronage of an ancient Roman basilica, known today as the Church of the Twelve Apostles in Rome. Both were martyred in the 1st century.
SAINT PHILIP: St. Philip was born in Bethsaida in Galilee and was one of the 12 Apostles that Jesus called the day after St. Peter and St. Andrew. The Apostle Philip was one of Christ’s first disciples, called soon after his Master’s baptism in the Jordan. The fourth Gospel of St. John gives the following detail: “The next day Jesus was about to leave for Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him: Follow Me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets wrote, Jesus the Son of Joseph of Nazareth. And Nathanael said to him: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him: Come and see” (John 1:43ff). After receiving the Holy Spirit, immediately, Philip began to preach the Gospel, in Scythia and Phrygia, converting great numbers to the faith, finding his friend Nathaniel and telling him that Jesus was the one whom Moses and the other prophets had foretold. According to tradition, St. Philip was then a married man, and he had several daughters, three of whom reached eminent sanctity. Like the other Apostles, St. Philip left all things to follow Christ. His name is frequently mentioned in the Holy Gospels.
St. Philip is eighth in the Apostolic list of the Roman Canon; in the Synoptic Gospels he is named after the two groups of brother, Peter and Andrew, James and John (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14). In St. John (I:43-44), we read that he was called after St. Peter to follow Jesus, and the Gospel adds he was of Bethsaida, as were Andrew and Peter. Philip introduced Nathaniel, who we know as the Apostle Bartholomew to Jesus (cf. St. Bartholomew). This same Gospel of St. John mentions Philip once again (John 14:9), in the passage, read at Mass, which serves also as the Antiphon of the Alleluia and for the Communion: “Philip, he that sees Me sees the Father also”; elsewhere (John 12:21) it tells us that certain Gentiles wishing to see Jesus had recourse to Philip, and in chapter 6 Jesus says to Philip, before the multiplication of the loaves, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” These little incidents, though they tell us nothing about St. Philip’s inner life, show us that in the intimate companionship of the Apostles he played a distinct part. The Breviary story tells us that he evangelized Phyrgia, and that, at Hierapolis, he was fastened to a cross, crucified and then stoned at Hierapolis, in Phrygia. It adds that his relics, with those of St. James, were taken to Rome and placed in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles. This church was once one of the most venerated in Rome. It corresponds to the famous church of Byzantium called the Apostoleion or Church of the Apostles. St. Julius I (341-352_ erected it, Pelagius I (556-561) rebuilt it, and finally John III (561-574) dedicated it to the memory of all the Apostles, especially SS. Philip and James, whose relics were enshrined therein. St. Philip is the Patron Saint of pastry chefs, Hatters, jockeys and horsemen, Uruguay, Luxembourg.
PRAYER: O Saint Philip, chosen disciple of the Lord, who brought Nathaniel to Christ, who most zealously preached thy Lord, Jesus Christ, and out of love to Him willingly gave thyself to be nailed to the cross, and put to death, obtain, I beseech thee, for me, and for all men, grace with zeal to bring others to the practice of good works, to have a great desire after God and His truths, and, in hope of the eternal blissful contemplation of God, to bear patiently the adversities and miseries of this life…Amen 🙏🏽
SAINT JAMES THE LESSER: James the Lesser is called “Lesser” because he was younger than the other Apostle by the same name, James the Great. St. James was the son of Alpheus (also known as Cleophas), the brother of Saint Jude. St. James the less was related in some way to Jesus, a cousin of Our Lord, whom he is said to have resembled. His mother Mary was either a sister or a close relative of the Blessed Virgin, and for that reason, according to Jewish custom, he was sometimes called the brother of the Lord. After Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, he became the head of the Church in Jerusalem. He was the first Bishop of Jerusalem. Saint Paul tells us that he was favored by a special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection. (I Corinthians 15:7) On the dispersion of the Apostles among the nations, Saint James remained as Bishop of Jerusalem, where the Jews held in such high veneration his purity, mortification, and prayer, that they named him the Just. He governed that church for 30 years before his martyrdom. Hegesippus, the earliest of the Church’s historians, has handed down many traditions of Saint James’s sanctity.
Saint James was a celibate Nazarite consecrated to God; he drank no wine and wore no sandals. He prostrated himself so long and so often in prayer that the skin of his knees was hardened like a camel’s hoof. It is said that the Jews, out of respect, used to touch the hem of his garment. He was indeed a living proof of his own words, The wisdom that is from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, modest, ready to listen, full of mercy and good fruits. (James 3:17) He sat beside Saint Peter and Saint Paul at the Council of Jerusalem. When Saint Paul at a later time escaped the fury of the Jews by appealing to Caesar, the people took vengeance on James. One day, being requested to preach against Christ, he publicly proclaimed Him to be the Messiah, in Whom men were bound to believe, at which the Jewish priests became so enraged and crying out, The just one has erred! stoned him to death. They threw him down from a pinnacle of the temple, cast stones upon him, and finally killed him outright with a fuller’s rod. During his martyrdom he prayed for his persecutors in the same words pronounced by Jesus: Heavenly Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. He was martyred in the year 62. St. James the Lesser is the Patron Saint of Apothecaries; druggists; dying people; Frascati, Italy; fullers; milliners; Monterotondo, Italy; pharmacists; Uruguay.
PRAYER: O Saint James, who lived so temperately and strictly, who, like thy master, prayed so earnestly and constantly for thy tormentors, I beseech thee that thou wouldst procure us from Jesus grace, after thy example, to live sober and peniteptial lives, and to worship God in spirit and in truth. Obtain for us, therefore, the spirit with which thou didst write thine epistle, that we may follow thy doctrine, be diligent in good works, and, like thee, love and pray for our enemies…Amen 🙏🏽
Lord God, You give us joy every year on the feast of Your Apostles Sts. Philip and James. Through their prayers let us share in the Passion and the Resurrection of Your only-begotten Son and help us merit the eternal vision of Your glory… Amen 🙏🏽