Sunday Sermon: HOW TO IMPROVE
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 09, 2025 at 05:00AM in Sunday Sermons
"He Who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it." PHIL. i. 6.
1. Everything good in us is from God.
2. It is for us to treasure and work with His graces.
3. Practically, we must do all-with a good intention, with exactitude, with fervor.
4. And God will perfect the good work.
SURELY we are all wise enough and humble enough to know and confess that there is nothing good in us from ourselves. We have learned that from sad experience of our many failings and infidelities. We are full of love of self, and of ease and comfort; we are uncharitable, cowardly, ungrateful, and yet within us there is something good. Ah! that is from God. He gives us this desire for something better; this remembrance of His gracious goodness, how He has given us the faith; implanted the hope of heaven in our heart; and made us conscious that He himself, the great God, is asking and longing for our love. He hath begun the good work in us.
It is for us to treasure those graces. We must not receive them like an ungracious child, and never say a word of thanks to our Father. How many of His favors, His forgivenesses, and opportunities for good have we sinfully wasted in the past! The proof of gratitude for graces is to make use of them and work with them. To receive blessings and favors is only the beginning: the work of our life is to correspond to them.
Then what does Almighty God expect from us? First to refer everything to Him. By a pure and holy intention to offer Him all our thoughts, words, actions, and sufferings. They may be poor things indeed, but coming from a child they are accepted and blessed by our Father. And this good intention would certainly keep us from anything unworthy and sinful, for how could we dare to offer that to our heavenly Father! Thus we see we have to renew this pure intention and offering to God many a time, for how often do sudden gusts of temper, of temptation sweep us from the path of perfection! But we must never despond. What God loves is that we should at once begin again, trusting that He will help us.
Another thing that God expects from us is that all we do for Him should be done with exactitude and promptness. Our work for God must not be done slovenly. Our self-respect would forbid us to act thus to our betters, even to one another: then how dare we treat God with disrespect! Duties have their fixed hours, and duties to God, then, must not be put off or curtailed. And punctuality is true politeness; then to Whom should we be polite if not to the Almighty? How many of our prayers and Mass attendances have been so spoiled by want of exactitude and punctuality! Promptitude shows a good and willing heart.
To persevere in acting up to grace requires, then, a pure intention, exactitude, and finally fervor. This is a devout disposition of heart, which enables us to offer to God our thoughts and our prayers with earnestness, zeal, and love. One devout Hail Mary from the heart is of more worth than a rosary hastily slurred over with a distracted mind. And here again, the good intention comes to our help. A moment's thought! and we should remember Whom we are addressing, and in Whose presence we are. We may be on our knees, but our hearts are not worshiping. The thought of our great needs and necessities; the thought that the great God in heaven is listening to us, the thought that we are supplicating help through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who died for us, Who purchased these blessings that we are imploring, and Who, perhaps, is present on the altar before us—this thought should make us reverent and fervent.
We have help, too, given us by our Blessed Savior, to keep us fervent and to increase our devotion. One such help that should spur us on is to remember purgatory. There all the penalties for remissness and carelessness have to be purged away in sufferings far greater than we can picture to ourselves here on earth. What a dreadful store of punishment are we, perhaps, accumulating for ourselves now! God knows. But would not this thought check us in our tepidity and sloth? Would it not spur us on to do our very utmost, praying and working, with zeal and generosity of heart?
Another and a more consoling help is to call on our Mother Mary," our life, our sweetness, and our hope." We offer up our prayers through her: surely, then, we should offer her of our best. And how transformed our poor prayers will be when they have passed through the hands of Mary Immaculate! She will not despise our petitions. She lovingly accepts every little prayer. And more than that: she prompts us to pray, and blesses our hearts with fervor and persevering love.
This life is the time for tilling and sowing the seed; the harvest-time comes later, when God perfects the good work. Look forward to that time, and we shall be strong and manly in acting up to God's graces and blessings. The wonder to us will be that our little efforts, our poor, faulty prayers, our beginning again at once after every failure, have been received and blessed by God; that day after day He has led us on to persevere, perfecting the good work, making us "sincere and without offense" until the day of recompense shall come. Our pure intention—all for God, our careful exactitude, our fervor have led us on safely to persevere "through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey (Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost)
Ninth Day: The Pain of Fire in Purgatory
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 09, 2025 at 04:00AM in Purgatory Month Meditations
"The Church has given no decision regarding the word "fire" in relation to Purgatory; but, according to Theologians and Doctors of the Church, we are to understand a material fire. Concerning this, Bishop Colmar of Mayence, a great friend of the holy souls, writes: "Besides being deprived of the vision of God, the souls in Purgatory must endure the torture of a fire, the effects of which are so much more painful because it is an instrument in the avenging hand of God"; a fire, as St. Augustine says, in comparison to which our material fire is as nothing; a fire that entirely penetrates the soul, in whatever manner this may be accomplished.
How, and to what extent this is done, we know not, but may draw our conclusion from similar instances. St. Gregory the Great says: "As the fallen angels, although pure spirits, are tormented by the material fire of Hell, so may a similar fire torture the souls of the departed in Purgatory." The justice of God can punish a spirit by means of a material substance as well as He can in His omnipotence give life to a body by the agency of a spirit. According to the holy Fathers, the fire of Purgatory does not differ from the fire of Hell, except in point of duration. "It is the same fire," says St. Thomas, "that torments the reprobates in Hell, and the just in Purgatory. The least pain in Purgatory," he adds, "surpasses the greatest sufferings of this life." Nothing but eternal duration makes the fire of Hell more forcible than that of Purgatory."
Prayer: Refresh, O Lord, the suffering souls in Purgatory, with the dew of Thy grace, that their pains may be relieved, and, in Thy mercy, hasten the moment of their deliverance, that they may meet Thee in Heaven where no fire but that of Thy holy love shall consume them. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Prayer for Priests in Purgatory: My Jesus, by the sorrows Thou didst suffer in Thine Agony in the Garden, in Thy Scourging and Crowning with thorns, in the Way to Calvary, in Thy Crucifixion and Death, have mercy on the souls of priests in Purgatory, especially those most forgotten and who have no one else to pray for them. I wish to remember all those priests who ministered to me, the priests my heart has never forgotten, and for those that I no longer recall due to my frailty of memory. Do Thou deliver them from the dire torments they endure; call them and admit them to Thy most sweet embrace in Paradise.
Pope Saint Pius X and Saint John Vianney, pray for us and especially for our priests. Amen
Special Intercession: Pray for all the souls in Purgatory, particularly for those who are forgotten by their relatives.
Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)
Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!
Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907St. Theodorus Tyro (St. Theodore the Recruit) A.D. 306
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 09, 2025 at 03:00AM in Saints
RESOLUTION AND STEADFASTNESS. Theodorus, who had been recently enrolled in the army, was stationed with his legion at Amasius, when the edicts of persecution were published by Galerian and Maximian. "As for me, I am a Christian!" exclaimed the youthful warrior, " and will not sacrifice to the gods." Although not bruiting abroad his faith ostentatiously, he did not shrink from avowing it. "I know nothing of your gods," he said to the magistrates; "I am a Christian; do with me what you like!" They released him, that he might have time for reflection; but, as soon as he was at liberty, he snatched up a torch and proceeded to set the temple of Cybele on fire. "The temple was of wood," he exclaimed, with a smile, "and the deity was of stone; the one is reduced to ashes and the other to lime. Is the misfortune, then, very great?" In the midst of the most horrible tortures, Theodorus displayed the most inflexible courage; while the iron was rending his flesh, he calmly chanted some verses of the Psalms. At last the judge, utterly subdued and at a loss for further expedients of cruelty, sentenced him to the stake, on the 17th of February, in the year 306.
MORAL REFLECTION.-"Let him that asketh in faith waver not, for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord." (Jas. i. 6.)
Source: Pictorial Half hour with the saints by Abbe Lecanu
The Holy Mass
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 09, 2025 at 12:00AM in Books
The daily celebration of the Mass over the whole Christian world fulfills the prophecy contained in the first chapter of Malachias V.11.
"For from the rising of the sun, even to the going down, My Name is great among the Gentiles" (i.e., among those who were to form the present Christian world); "and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My Name a clean oblation; for My Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of Hosts."
The Mass is this fore-told sacrifice, and clean oblation. It is offered from the rising to the going down of the sun; and it is the self-same sacrifice as that offered once in a bloody manner upon the Cross, but now in an unbloody manner on every Catholic altar. The self-same Christ is at once the High-Priest and the Victim.
The Sacrifice of the Mass is not inconsistent with the truths that, firstly, there is but One Sacrifice; secondly, that the merits of the Sacrifice of the Cross are all-sufficient; and, thirdly, that Christ, having once died, can do so no more. The Mass and the Oblation on Calvary are one, because there is the same Divine victim, Jesus Christ, in each case. It is not held to create new merits by adding to those gained on the Cross, but only apply daily those so gained.
Christ does not die on the Altar, yet remains a perfect victim. Death is not essential for a sacrifice, as we learn by the old anti-type of the offering of Mass, when the Scape-Goat, being offered up as a sacrifice to God, was afterwards allowed to go free into the wilderness. (Lev. xvi, 10.)
Sacrifice has always been the one supreme from of Divine worship, and nothing more perfectly shows forth the death of the Lord, till he come (i. Cor. xi, 26), and so well obeys the Divine injunction on this matter, as the offering of the Holy Mass.
The Holy Eucharist is at the same time a sacrifice in itself and also a memorial of the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Sacrifice of the Mass does not lose its rightful claim to be a sacrifice because it is at the same time commemorative of another sacrifice. "The action of the Last Supper looked forward to that action on Calvary, as the action of the Holy Mass looks backwards upon it. As the shadow is cast by the rising sun towards the west, and as the shadow is cast by the setting sun towards the east, so the Holy Mass is, I may say, the shadow of Calvary, but it is also the reality: (Cardinal Manning - Glories of the Sacred Heart).
The words of the Mass were not primarily intended to be recited or even followed by the people. The Congregation only assist at the action, priests alone being set apart to sacrifice by the reception of the powers conferred in the Sacrament of Holy Orders; and non-Catholics, if uninformed, are naturally surprised to find a priest celebrating Mass recite much of it in silence. As a proof of the former proposition, there is a portion of the Mass still called the Secret; and in ancient times a screen was drawn between the priest and the laity, so that the latter were not permitted even to see the act, yet were considered as duly participating in all its merits by their mere presence. Today the laity are rather recommended to follow the words, and these are set down in all their prayer-books in English and Latin; yet every one assisting at Mass is free to use any private form of prayer and meditation.
We have strong confirmation of the antiquity of the Mass in the writings of the pagan Romans, whose calumnies show that the Mass was always the one principal service of the early Christians. These writers refer to the slanderous stories of their times, that the Christians killed an infant and ate its flesh at their religious meetings. Such misrepresentations were very common, and prove that the primitive Christians did sacrifice and receive the Body and Blood of our Lord in their Holy Communions. Those pagan tales with their half-truths are evidently founded on the celebration of the Holy Mass wherein Christ is sacrificed.
The words of the Mass are almost solely derived from Scripture, and could the Catholic Church more practically and more publicly venerate its Divine inspiration than in this full use of the Bible in its greatest act of worship?
Source: Guide to a Catholic Church: for non-Catholic Visitors, by Fox, WL and O'Gorman, RA. 1904
Dedication of the Church of Our Savior, Called St. John Lateran
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 09, 2025 at 12:00AM in Tradition
"A DAY in memory of a famous church at Rome, built by the Emperor Constantine the Great, and dedicated to St. John Baptist, in honour of our Blessed Saviour, by the holy pope St. Sylvester. It stood upon the spot of the palace of Lateran, which gave name to that part of the hill, and was partly built with its materials. Constantine built a chapel within the church, which was dedicated to St. John Baptist. This chapel having always been a place of great fame and devotion, the whole church, though dedicated to our Saviour, has been generally called St. John Lateran.
Give thanks for the liberty and peace at that time granted to Christians, after three hundred years of persecution. Learn to make a good use both of persecution and liberty, as God shall grant it in your time. He alone knows what is best for us, we do not. See that you abuse neither. Let the zeal of this emperor, changing his palace into a church, be your instruction to study devotion and reverence in all that belongs to the worship of God. It is a shame to observe how solicitous many are in consulting what may be convenient and honourable for themselves; and yet how little that which regards the service of God falls within their care. David observing his own palace to be magnificent, while the ark of God was covered only with skins, reproached himself, saying: "I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is lodged within skins." (2 Kings vii. 2.) And upon this he resolved on building a temple. It would be well if some Christians would make the same reflection; and not let God be cast so much beneath themselves in all that belongs to his worship. Adore God in his temple, as becomes his infinite majesty; serve him there, as becomes slaves, who have been redeemed by his divine Son; and manifest your love to him there, as becomes his children, who have received innumerable blessings from this loving and tender father." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Eighth Day: Pain of Helplessness and Desolation
by VP
Posted on Saturday November 08, 2025 at 04:00AM in Meditations
"The souls in Purgatory have entered into the realm of Divine Justice. The penance and satisfaction due for their faults must be made, either by the pain of Purgatory itself, or by the suffrages of the faithful, consisting in prayer, good works and the spiritual treasure of indulgences bestowed upon them; for the suffering souls can no longer merit and are entirely unable to assist themselves. A sick man and a beggar have a tongue to ask for help, and the very sight of their misery will move others to compassion. The suffering souls, however, have no resource but that of patience, resignation and hope. To all their moans there is but one answer, "the night hath come, in which no man can work."
Hence in their extreme desolation and distress, they incessantly cry out to us for relief and assistance. But since they cannot do this in a manner perceptible to us, holy Church does it for them by instituting many touching devotions in their behalf. Can we, then, be cold and heartless towards these souls? "A hard heart will fare evil at the last." Be not, then, indifferent to your own interests."
Prayer: Have mercy, O Lord, upon the suffering souls in Purgatory, in their helplessness and desolation. Comfort them by the prayers and petitions of the just in Heaven and upon earth; shorten the time of their suffering, and reward them with joys eternal. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen
Prayer for Priests in Purgatory: My Jesus, by the sorrows Thou didst suffer in Thine Agony in the Garden, in Thy Scourging and Crowning with thorns, in the Way to Calvary, in Thy Crucifixion and Death, have mercy on the souls of priests in Purgatory, especially those most forgotten and who have no one else to pray for them. I wish to remember all those priests who ministered to me, the priests my heart has never forgotten, and for those that I no longer recall due to my frailty of memory. Do Thou deliver them from the dire torments they endure; call them and admit them to Thy most sweet embrace in Paradise.
Pope Saint Pius X and Saint John Vianney, pray for us and especially for our priests. Amen
Special Intercession: Pray for the most forsaken and helpless souls.
Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)
Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!
Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907The Four Crowned Martyrs
by VP
Posted on Saturday November 08, 2025 at 04:00AM in Saints
MAN PROPOSES, GOD DISPOSES. Four brothers, named Severus, Severian, Carpophorus, and Victorius, invested with high civil offices in the town of Rome, underwent martyrdom in the year 304, during the persecution of Dioclesian, and were interred on the boundary of the Lavican Way. A church was raised upon their remains as soon as the persecution had ceased; but the memory of the spot where their relics reposed, and even their very names had died out, and there remained but the general designation of the four crowned martyrs, by which they were known. Paul II., having had the church rebuilt, the precious relics as well as the names of the glorious martyrs, were discovered in a crypt beneath the altar, where they lay enshrined in urns of porphyry. The persecutors imagined that they could trample out the faith by shedding the blood of the faithful; but what was the result ? Those who suffered converted the very executioners by their example; they who apostatized returned subsequently to the faith; and those who betook themselves to flight spread the knowledge of the Gospel abroad.
MORAL REFLECTION. - "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," saith the Lord; "but my word shall accomplish that which I please." (Isa. lv. 8.) Source: Pictorial Half Hour with the Saints by Abbe Auguste Lecanu
- "The rage of tyrants who were masters of the world, spread the faith which they vainly endeavored by fighting against heaven to extinguish. The martyrs who died for it, sealed it with their blood, and gave a testimony to Jesus Christ, which was, of all others, the strongest and most persuasive. Other Christians who fled, became the apostles of the countries whither they went. Whence St. Austin compares them to torches, which, if you attempt to put them our by shaking them, are kindled, and flame so much the more. The martyrs, by the meekness and fervor of their lives, and their constancy in resisting evil to death, converted an infidel world, and disarmed the obstinacy of the most implacable enemies of the truth. But what judgments must await those Christians who, by the scandal of their sloth and worldly spirit, dishonor their religion, blaspheme Christ, withdraw even the faithful from the practice of the gospel, and tempt a Christian world to turn infidel?" The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal saints, Vol 11. Rev. Fr. Alban Butler 1821
Seventh Day: Pain or Sorrow for Sin
by VP
Posted on Friday November 07, 2025 at 04:00AM in Purgatory Month Meditations
"The soul departed, before the judgment set of God, is enlightened with a perfect knowledge of the purity and sanctity of her Divine Judge, clearly perceiving the stains with which she is sullied, and her extreme unworthiness of union with God, the thought that I have offended God who is eternal beauty and perfection; I am not yet worthy to appear before the face of the Lord, who is infinitely holy, not worthy to take possession of my dwelling place in Heaven, is the greatest sorrow of the suffering souls. Much more clearly than during their earthly lives do these holy souls comprehend the perfections of God and love Him above all things; therefore, the thought of having offended Him is a piercing sorrow which surpasses all their other sufferings.
St. Ambrose tells us, there is no greater agony than remorse of conscience caused by sin. There are examples on record of men who died from the effects of this vehement sorrow. yet how much more intense must be the contrition of the suffering souls, who fully understand the great malice of sin! We know by our own experience that the depth of sorrow for having offended a person is equal to the love we bear him. The holy souls in Purgatory, being inflamed with a perfect love of God, their perfect contrition for sin is their greatest sorrow."
Payer: O God, Father of
grace and mercy, graciously regard the deep sorrow of the suffering
souls in Purgatory. Deign to accept their love and grant them remission
of their punishment, that, united with Thee, they may praise Thy
goodness forever. Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Prayer for Priests in Purgatory: My Jesus, by the sorrows Thou didst suffer in Thine Agony in the Garden, in Thy Scourging and Crowning with thorns, in the Way to Calvary, in Thy Crucifixion and Death, have mercy on the souls of priests in Purgatory, especially those most forgotten and who have no one else to pray for them. I wish to remember all those priests who ministered to me, the priests my heart has never forgotten, and for those that I no longer recall due to my frailty of memory. Do Thou deliver them from the dire torments they endure; call them and admit them to Thy most sweet embrace in Paradise.
Pope Saint Pius X and Saint John Vianney, pray for us and especially for our priests. Amen
Special Intercession: Pray for those who while on earth, loved God most ardently.
Lord grant them eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. (three times)
Invocation: My Jesus, mercy!
Source: Manual of the Purgatorian Society, Redemptorist Fathers. 1907St. Willibrod, Bishop, A.D. 738
by VP
Posted on Friday November 07, 2025 at 04:00AM in Saints
Saint Willibrord after Abraham Bloemaert
TWO KINDS OF VICTORY. Charles Martel, carrying his corquests northwards, had succeeded in subduing the Frieslanders. This proud and warlike race were only longing, however, for the moment when they might, by sheer force, break down the yoke that had been imposed. They were still idolaters, and, consequently, inimical to the Christian race who had, by force of arms, become their masters. Wilbrod had been consecrated bishop of Utrecht, but was unable, under such circumstances, to display the zeal with which he was animated; he applied for aid to Pepin the Short, the son of Charles Martel, that he might after his own manner win back the nations that had been subdued after another fashion. Being protected by the Frankish prince, who allowed him to preach everywhere without restraint, he journeyed through Friesland, Holland, and Zeeland; the inhabitants, to whom this new conquest cost neither tears, blood, nor terror, eagerly corresponding with his wishes. He converted the three provinces, and, by the most lasting bonds, connected them with the great family of Jesus Christ; for, though they have ceased to belong to France, they have not the less remained Christians. St. Wilbrod died towards the year 738.
MORAL REFLECTION. "The king shall extend his dominion from sea to sea, even to the ends of the earth," says the Prophet. Who does not recognize herein the sweet sway of Jesus Christ and the Gospel? -(Zach. ix. 20.) Source; Pictorial Half Hour with the Saints by Abbe Auguste Lecanu
St. Leonard of Noblac, Limoges, Hermit and Abbot A.D. 559
by VP
Posted on Thursday November 06, 2025 at 04:00AM in Saints
THE BONDAGE OF SIN. - Leonard, one of the chief personages of the court of Clovis, and to whom this monarch had become sponsor in baptism, was so moved by the discourse and example of St. Remigius, that he relinquished the world in order to lead a more perfect life. The bishop of Rheims having trained Leonard in virtue, he became the apostle of such of the Franks as remained still pagans; but fearful lest he might be summoned to the court on account of his repute for sanctity, he withdrew secretly to the monastery of Micy, near Orleans, and subsequently to the solitude of Noblac, near Limoges. His charity not allowing him to remain inactive while there was so much good to be done, he undertook the work of comforting prisoners, making them understand that the captivity of sin, which they did not bemoan, was more terrible than any mere bodily constraint. He won over a great many of these unfortunate persons, which gained for him many disciples, in whose behoof he founded a new monastery. St. Leonard died towards the year 550.
MORAL REFLECTION.- "The wicked shall be taken with his own iniquities, and shall be held by the cords of his own sins."(Ργου. ν. 22.) Source: Pictorial Half hour with the Saints by Abbe Auguste Lecanu
ST. Leonard was born in France of noble parents; he was baptized by St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims; Clovis, the first Christian King of France, was his god-father. Clovis offered him, at the proper age, a position of high honor, but Leonard had set his heart on something higher still. He was ordained a priest by Remigius, and passing through the provinces of the broad lands of France, preached of Christ the Crucified to the people, who for the most part worshiped idols. The miracles which he worked, added such force to his words, that thousands and thousands were converted to the faith. He was one day journeying through a thick forest in which the king and his queen were hunting, when the queen was suddenly taken ill. Help was urgently needed. At this very moment, through God's providence, Leonard came to the place where the queen was, and as soon as he saw the sad circumstances, threw himself on his knees in prayer, while the queen gave birth to a finely formed prince. Highly pleased the king, wished to reward Leonard in a princely manner for his prayers. The saint implored the king to give his gifts as alms to the poor; this the king promised, only insisting that Leonard should, at least, accept the forest as a present. But he would take only that part of it, in which the queen so unexpectedly found help, and where he could built huts for himself and his companions, together with a chapel to be dedicated to the Queen of heaven, Mary. The king soon bad one built for him, and thus was commenced the afterwards famous Monastery of St. Leonard at Noblac.
The miraculous power which God gave to the saint, drew the farmers of the neighborhood around him; they came to obtain help from him in all their necessities and no one ever left his presence unaided and unconsoled. The king granted him at times the favor to release prisoners, for whom Leonard had always the greatest compassion. Thus it often happened, that by the saint's aid poor prisoners found the beloved liberty. Others prayed, that God would help them to be released through the merits of His servant St. Leonard, and suddenly the chains fell from their hands and feet, the doors of the prisons opened of itself, and they were free. Many thus freed brought their bonds and chains to the saint, thanking him. But he surprised, humbled himself before God, and used the opportunity to give them touching admonitions to penance, that they might be also loosed from the bonds of sin. They who were sincerely converted and loved solitude, he received into his monastery.
Living in strict penance and in the continual practice of works in honor of God, Leonard reached an advanced age, and had the happiness of seeing the best fruits ripen from the seed which he had planted. Where idolatry, ignorance, coarseness, and horrible vices had their previously own way, there now reigned the pure law of the gospel. The Monastery of Noblac spread its blessings far around, and many who would have been lost in the world, found in it peace for their souls, and a happy death.
Leonard now weary of live, and longing to see the face of Christ, at last received this grace. God called him to Himself by a quiet death in the year 559.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. May the intercession, O Lord, of Thy blessed servant St. Leonard commend us to Thee, that those things which we cannot hope for through our own merits, we may obtain by his prayers. Through Christ...
Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays, Holidays By Rev. Leonard Goffiné
