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Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, St. Francis of Paola

"From his youth he seemed inflamed with the Holy Spirit; for, retiring into a desert, he spent six years in great austerity, with almost continued prayer and divine contemplation. Pray especially for young persons, that God would diminish in them excessive fondness for the world and themselves, and give them a true sense of their eternal state, that they may not admire and adore vanity, but God alone. And if any are under your care, reflect on your obligation both to God and them. See that they want no instruction, keep them to their hours of prayer and reading, teach them to employ themselves, oblige them to order and discipline, examine their company and conversation, study to make them easy in a regular life, allow them innocent diversions, but see that they are not fond of what is vain, extravagant, and foolish. By these degrees you may teach them to love God, to have a true esteem for virtue, and to live as becomes Christians. But by following a contrary method, in giving them liberty to gratify corrupt nature, you will concur to their ruin, and find too late their flattered innocence to end in professed vice.

St. Francis being prevailed upon to leave his solitude, for the encouragement of many who desired to follow his example, procured a church to be built near Faula, in Calabria, the place of his birth, and there laid the first foundation of a religious order. He obliged his followers to perpetual abstinence, to go barefoot, and to lie on the ground. And that they might be ever mindful of that humility, which, above all, he recommended to them as the ground of all Christian virtues, he called them Minims, that is the least and most contemptible of all the servants of God. In this method he lived to the ninety-first year of his age, and made a happy end in the year 1508.

Pray for all of this holy Order, that they may truly practice what they profess; that they may keep up the spirit of their founder, and be an example to all others of the true spirit of the Gospel. Learn something of it for yourself. The corruption of your nature can have no better remedy than in a discreet abstinence from such things as are too favorable to it, in being either vicious, or disposing that way. Learn never to despise others, but judge yourself the least and most contemptible of all." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother

St. Mary of Egypt by Jusepe de Ribera

"She was born in Egypt; and having left her father's house at the age of twelve years, she went to Alexandria, where she abandoned herself to all the liberties of a sinful life. But after some years, being touched by a wonderful grace of God, she resolved upon a new life, and doing penance for her sins. For this end, she retired into the desert beyond the river Jordan, with three loaves, and lived there in prayer and penance seven and forty years, without seeing any person in all that time. She was then discovered by a holy monk and priest, named Zosimus, to whom she gave an account of her life, and begged a share in his prayers. She desired him to return to the same place the following year on Maunday Thursday, and to bring with him the sacred Body and Blood of our Lord, and wait for her on the banks of the river. He did so; and at night she appeared on the other side, and making the sign of the cross over the river, she walked over as if it had been dry land. She received the Blessed Sacrament, and desired him to return the following Lent to the place where he first saw her. On his arrival at the appointed time, he found her dead; and being miraculously assisted by a lion, he dug a grave and buried her.

"HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US."-The im pious Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, was spreading his false doctrine through the world. According to his teaching, Jesus Christ possessed a twofold personality. It was needful to distinguish, in God made man, the person divine and the person human; and Mary, although Mother of Christ, was not Mother of God, because she had only given birth to the person human. St. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, who was already renowned for the greatness of his intellect and his zeal for, the faith, was charged by Pope Celestine I. to refute these baneful errors. He accomplished this to the great contentment of the universal Church; and the two councils, of Rome in 430, and of Ephesus in 431, confirmed his doctrine, which was withal that which the Church had ever taught. The town of Ephesus, on this occasion, gave free course to its abounding joy and holy enthusiasm. The fathers of the council were borne aloft in triumph, amid the exclamations of the inhabitants: "Blessed be ye who have restored to us our Mother." Cyril died in peace at Alexandria, in 444.

MORAL REFLECTION.-In all our troubles, temptations, and dangers, let us have often on our lips, and pronounce with confidence, faith, and love, the pious invocation of the Church: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us!" Half Hour with the Saints by Abbe Le Canu

" These were many holy priests, deacons, and laymen, who when the city of Alexandria, for its sins, lay under the scourge of a most severe plague, in the third century, exposed their lives for the service and comfort of those who were infected. There was not a single house in that great city which entirely escaped the pestilence, or had not to mourn for some dead. All places were filled with groans, and the living appeared almost dead with fear. This sickness was the greatest of calamities to the Pagans, but an exercise and trial to the Christians, who shewed on that occasion, how contrary the spirit of charity is to the interested spirit of self-love. In the time of this public calamity, most of them, regardless of their own lives, visited, relieved, and attended the sick, and comforted the dying. They closed their eyes, and buried them; and the charity of many of them being rewarded by death, the Church has thought proper to honour their memory, making but little difference between so glorious a death, and that of the martyrs. Thus," adds St. Dionysius, "the best of our brethren have departed this life; some of the most valuable both of priests, deacons, and laics; and it is thought that this kind of death is nothing different from martyrdom."

Alexander of Alexandria, patriarch and bishop (313-326)

"He was a man of apostolic doctrine and life, exceedingly charitable to the poor, and full of faith, zeal, and fervour. His promotion to the see of Alexandria so exasperated Arius, then a priest of that church, and reader of scripture, that he ever made an interest against him. As the saint's life and conduct were irreproachable, all his endeavours to oppose him were levelled at his doctrine, in opposition to which, Arius denied the divinity of Christ. Hence that grievous heresy had its first rise; which afterwards brought so much confusion to the Church. By the zeal of St. Alexander, Arius was condemned in a council assembled by him at Alexandria; and the saint had the comfort to see his sentence confirmed by the general council of Nice. Arius solicited still to be received again into the communion of the Church: but the holy bishop, who knew his dissimulation, defended his flock against this wolf. St. Alexander, after the triumph of the faith at the council of Nice, returned to Alexandria; where, having recommended St. Athanasius for his successor, he died in 326, on the 26th of February.

Saint Mathias

THE WILL OF GOD. When the arch-traitor Judas had put an end to his days by self-inflicted death, and while the apostles were awaiting the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost, they bethought themselves of replacing him who had accounted himself unworthy to live, to the end that the mysterious and hallowed number established by the Saviour might remain undiminished. But might they arrogate to themselves the right of making an apostle? They could not bring themselves to think so, and hence reserved to God this high prerogative. They selected, then, from among the disciples the two most worthy, and, after having besought the Lord to mark out His own choice, they drew lots: the lot fell upon Mathias, who thenceforth took the rank of apostle. St. Mathias is believed to have preached the faith in Palestine and Ethiopia. According to the unvarying traditions of the Church, his apostolic career was crowned by martyrdom. The Greek Church holds his festival on the 9th of August, and the Latin Church on the 24th of February.

MORAL REFLECTION. From this example let us learn to consult God in all our undertakings. Our own will may lead astray and deceive us; but God will give us this light if we utter, with a perfect heart, "Our Father, who art in Heaven...... may Thy will be done."(Matt. vi. 9.)" Half Hour with the Saints by Abbe Auguste Lecanu

"He was an apostle: pray for all that are called to that holy function. And as he was chosen by heaven, pray that all of that character may be the choice of heaven.

He was chosen to fill the place of Judas. Conceive an humble distrust of yourself, and tremble at the fall of an apostle. Pray for heavenly strength, that by it you may be secured against the sad effects of human weakness.

Judas having fallen from the apostleship, one is to be chosen to fill his place. Two are proposed, Joseph called Barsabas, surnamed the just, and Mathias. The apostles join in prayer, and beg of God to determine the person; and the lot fell upon Mathias, who was numbered among the eleven An excellent method and direction left to all succeeding ages, for the choice of persons to ecclesiastical functions, and for all places of trust. What wonder that there are so many abuses in all public employments both in church and state, when justice and duty are so generally neglected, God so commonly forgotten, and all things managed by the direction of private gain and interest?

And because there is a like danger in all other christian duties; and there is no security, as St. Bernard observes, either in heaven, or paradise, or on earth; since the angels fell from heaven, Adam from paradise, and Judas from the very school of Christ; let the memory of this day inspire all with a salutary distrust of themselves. Let it put them upon working out their salvation with fear and trembling; and most earnestly on importuning Him to come to their assistance, whose grace alone is able to secure them against the dangers of their own weakness, and of all snares set before them. 0 Lord, save us, or we perish. Thus let this day's devotion be concluded with acts of most profound humility and fear, and an entire confidence in God." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother