Saint Denis, Saint Rustique et Saint Éleuthère (Louvre)

"Of all the Roman missionaries sent into Gaul, St. Dionysius carried the faith the farthest into the country, fixing his see at Paris. He built a church at Paris, and converted great numbers to the faith. A glorious martyrdom crowned his labours for the salvation of souls, and the exaltation of the name of Christ He seems to have suffered in the persecution of Valerian in 272. After a long and cruel imprisonment, he was beheaded for the faith, together with Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon.

Pray for all, whose function obliges them to preach the faith; that zeal and courage may make them faithful to what they have undertaken. Pray for the people of the East, that the severity of God's scourge on them may be the correction of all vice and error Let their sufferings make you fearful of the divine anger, and solicitous to prevent its falling on you. Pray for all that are in persecution or other trouble, that the divine grace may be their support, and that by patience in temporal suffering, they may escape that which is eternal. Encourage and comfort the afflicted, not only as occasions shall offer, but even on set purpose going to such as you have reason to think are in want of comfort. Such visits are the best you can make, and truly becoming Christians, as being the exercise of that charity, humility, and self-denial which they profess, but will avail nothing, if not practised in this spirit. Is it not earnestly to be desired that those who have money and time at their disposal, would remember the frequent opportunities which they have of doing good to others and themselves, and not let gaming, idle conversation, and amusements, run away with all their leisure hours? By this method, they would treasure up to themselves heavenly comforts against the day of their trouble, and find the good effects of it in everlasting rewards." Source: The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

"ST. BRIDGET was born in Sweden, and so piously educated, that at ten years of age she was sensibly moved with the thoughts of our Savior's passion, made that the subject of her meditation, and could never speak of it but with tears. Being married by her parents to a nobleman, she faithfully discharged all the duties of a good wife and a good mother; and by her powerful example obliged both her husband and children to a virtuous life. Her husband, with her consent, undertaking a monastic life, she likewise was called by Christ to a stricter engagement with him. After the death of her husband, she renounced her rank in the world, divided her estates among her children, and practiced incredible austerities. Having received very particular favors from Heaven, she instituted a religious Order of nuns, for God's greater glory, and the good of souls, in which she has had many followers. Going afterwards to Rome, and then to Jerusalem, the example of her virtue shone forth with great lustre; and in Palestine she watered with her pious tears the chief places which Christ had sanctified by his divine steps and precious blood. She was favored with many revelations, chiefly concerning the sufferings of our Blessed Savior: but she always humbly submitted her revelations to the pastors of the Church; and so far from glorying in these favors, she only increased in humility and the love of God. After a whole year's sickness, she died in the year 1373.

In this saint, young people have an instruction to seek God by an early application of their thoughts to Him; and the method of those is reproved, who give those first and better years to vanity and the love of the world. Parents are taught to be just in all family duties; husband and wife to each other, to their children and servants. Widows are taught to turn their thoughts to heaven; and religious, to be strict in all the duties of their state. Pray for all degrees, that the grace of God may attend them, for all good." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

Thus speaks the great Pontiff who, in the universal sorrow of these days, has again pointed out the means of salvation more than once experienced by our fathers. Leo XIII, in his encyclicals, has consecrated the present month to this devotion so dear to heaven; he has honored our Lady in her litanies with a new title, Queen of the most holy rosary; and he has given the final development to the solemnity of this day, by raising it to the rank of a second class feast, and by enriching it with a proper Office explaining its permanent object. Besides all this, the feast is a memorial of glorious victories, which do honor to the Christian name.

Soliman II, the greatest of the Sultans, taking advantage of the confusion caused in the west by Luther, had filled the sixteenth century with terror by his exploits. He left to his son, Selim II, the prospect of being able at length to carry out the ambition of his race: to subjugate Rome and Vienna, the Pope and the emperor, to the power of the crescent. The Turkish fleet had already mastered the greater part of the Mediterranean, and was threatening Italy, when, on October 7, 1571, it came into action, in the Gulf of Lepanto, with the pontifical galleys supported by the fleets of Spain and Venice. It was Sunday; throughout the world the confraternities of the rosary were engaged in their work of intercession. Supernaturally enlightened, St. Pius V watched from the Vatican the battle undertaken by the leader he had chosen, Don John of Austria, against the three hundred vessels of Islam. The illustrious Pontiff, whose life's work was now completed, did not survive to celebrate the anniversary of the triumph; but he perpetuated the memory of it by an annual commemoration of our Lady of Victory. His successor, Gregory XIII, altered this title to our Lady of the rosary, and appointed the first Sunday of October for the new feast, authorizing its celebration in those churches which possessed an altar under that invocation." The Liturgical Year: Time after Pentecost ) By Dom Prosper Guéranger

"Still her (the Church) enemies arise anew to taunt her in the modern day. She is called on by modern religion to come down from her supernatural viewpoint and become humanitarian; she is called by modern morality to come down from her high standards of celibacy and virginity, of indissoluble marriage, of marriageʼs sanctity; she is called upon by modern skepticism and unbelief to come down from her belief in such a thing as Truth, the existence of God and the Divinity of Christ. All together call upon the Catholic Church to come down and mingle as one among many and change her standards to suit the modern mind. And they threaten that is as she will not come down, then she must die." Bishop William J. Hafey of Raleigh, N.C. Easter Sermon 1932

"THE SCANDALS OF THE WORLD.- When the Church is about to encounter great dangers on the part of enemies of the Faith, God raises up to her noble champions; and whenever great scandals grow to a head, they are compensated for by lofty examples of virtue. Therefore was it that Bruno felt himself led into solitude. In the eleventh century ignorance had generated laxness and immorality; faith was rife enough, but morality was not in acceptance.

Bruno, canon and chancellor of the cathedral of Rheims, out of love with the world by reason of the scandals he there witnessed, formed the project, together with certain of his friends, of relinquishing it altogether. Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, to whom he unfolded his purpose, pointed out to them, as suitable for the end in view, the "Chartreuse," a rugged solitude not far distant. They there constructed for themselves separate cells, and began to lead a life of poverty and labor, as forbidding even as their chosen desert. Numerous companions soon thronged to join them, and the great ones of the world followed, to draw edification from the sight of their austere virtues. Thus was founded, in 1084, the most edifying and rigorous order that has ever existed. St. Bruno died in 1101.

MORAL REFLECTION.-"It is necessary," for the sanctification of the just, "that scandals should come; and yet woe unto him through whom scandal cometh."-(Matt. xviii. 7.)"

•  Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost The Church's Year by Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine

"The prophets had announced the coming of the Redeemer. The Jewish nation expected Him, and yet, when He came, what reception did they give Him? They disbelieved in Him; they rejected Him. He challenged them, "What think you of Christ ?" If you believe not My words, acknowledge the deeds that I have done in your midst. The evil spirits, that He had cast out of those possessed, cried out, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God!" But " He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Had they not taunted Him that He was a Samaritan and had a devil? How different was that noble answer that Peter gave Him, when our Lord had asked, "But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. xvi. 15, 16).

This same question has been demanded of the world, age after age. And as Christ our Lord triumphed in suffering, so the most glorious answers have been given in the days of persecution. Not a verbal answer merely, but with their lives, amidst all manners of torments, unterrified by the rack, the scourgings, the fires, the wild beasts in the Coliseum, the martyrs gave their answer, professed Christ the Son of God; gloried in being the followers of the Crucified one, and gladly gave up their lives to seal their faith. How crowds of holy witnesses rise up before our memories-children, maidens, mothers, old men, rich and poor for three hundred years by their death proclaimed their faith in "Christ, the Son of the living God."

And when peace dawned and the Church was allowed to extend and propagate, alas! heresies sprung up. What then did men think of Christ? Arius denied His Divinity. His heresy spread like a devastating plague, and the world "groaned to find itself Arian." Other heresies followed, each with its false assertions in their answer to " What think you of Christ ?" And yet the truth prevailed. The Gospel tidings were received by nation after nation converted to the Faith, and through successive centuries up to the Reformation, the world at large gave the one universal answer, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."

Though the powers of hell cannot prevail against Christ and His Church, yet the insidious warfare continues unremittingly, and a nation here, a nation there, falls away and denies its Redeemer, for a time leading astray and ruining the souls of men. "What think you of Christ?" Some years ago an atheistic catechism answered: Christ was a working man, and a socialist. And Unitarians deny that He is God, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. And at the present time how mistaken is the faith of those who openly declare that Christ's teaching is obsolete, that it needs reforming and bringing up to date! Man daring to aspire to improve the work of the Eternal God! Man, the creature of a passing hour, to sit in judgment on the doctrine of eternal truth!

"ST. PLACIDUS was a disciple of St. Benedict. St. Gregory relates, that having fallen into a lake, as he was fetching some water, St. Benedict, who was in the monastery, knew of the accident, and calling Maurus, said to him, "Brother, run, make haste; the child is fallen into the water." Maurus, having begged his blessing, ran to the lake, and walked upon the water to some distance from the land, to the place where Placidus was floating, and taking hold of him by the hair, returned with the same speed. St. Benedict ascribed this miracle to the disciple's obedience. St. Placidus advanced daily in holy wisdom, and the exercise of all virtues, so that his life seemed a true copy of that of his holy master, St. Benedict. Being sent by him into Sicily, he there founded a church and monastery, near the port of Messina. Having lived there with thirty monks, in wonderful sanctity, a Pagan barbarian, with a fleet of pirates from Africa, landed in Sicily, and out of hatred to the Christian name, put them all to the sword for their faith in Christ, which he could not persuade them to renounce, in the year 546.

Pray for all who suffer; and in particular for those, who lie under temptation of renouncing their faith, on account of preferment, interest, or other temporal conveniences. See if some of these considerations do not prevail on you to pass the bounds of duty to the creed or commandments. Great grace is necessary to keep you steady. Make provision therefore against the time of temptation. Christians have to subdue corruption, and live by the spirit of Christ. They must open their breasts to this holy spirit; and put their whole hearts so under its conduct, that all other motions being suppressed, their thoughts, desires, affections, words, and actions may be regulated by this divine guest, and they may do in all things, not now what they will, but what God wills in them. This is the only way to give their lives to Christ, and the only way to die for Him." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother