Saint Timothy, Bishop and Martyr
by VP
Posted on Friday January 24, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
Martyrdom of Saint Timothy. Pictorial Lives of the Saints: With Reflections for Every Day of the Year edited by John Dawson Gilmary Shea
"He was the beloved disciple and companion of St. Paul. His father was a Gentile, but his mother a Jewess. St. Augustine extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately forsaking his country, his house, and parents, to follow this apostle, and share in his poverty and sufferings. St. Paul regarded him not only as his disciple and most dear son, but as his brother and the companion of his labours. He calls him a man of God; and tells the Philippians that he found no one so truly united to him in heart and sentiments.
St. Timothy was ordained bishop by a prophecy, and a particular order of the Holy Ghost; and is always named the first bishop of Ephesus. Pray for all the bishops of Christ's Church; that as they receive their charge by succession from the apostles, they may faithfully acquit themselves in every part with the spirit of the apostles.
St. Timothy endeavoured with great zeal to withdraw the people from their abominable idolatry in offering sacrifices to Diana. But their obstinate blindness rendered his endeavours fruitless; and they rewarded his charity by stoning him to death. Pray to be delivered from all obstinacy and blindness: for these make the grossest errors appear as reasonable as truth; and nothing but the light of heaven, joined with an humble spirit, can prevent or remedy this evil. Pray therefore for both; that you may never unhappily mistake the charity of those who would be your best friends. If you cannot bear those who put you in mind of your faults, remember that these evils are at the root. It is something of the spirit of the Ephesians, and not a Christian spirit. Pray for a better. And if you feel resentment at such charity, consider it well, and you will see it to be akin to those stones which were thrown at St. Timothy. It is for fear of these that few have courage enough to run the hazard of them." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
"REFLECTION.-St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, a faithful and well-tried servant of God, and a bishop now getting on in years, addresses him as a child, and seems most anxious about his perseverance in faith and piety. The letters abound in minute personal instructions for this end. It is therefore remarkable what great stress the apostle lays on the avoiding of idle talk, and on the application to holy reading. These are his chief topics. Over and over again he exhorts his son Timothy to "avoid tattlers and busy bodies; to give no heed to novelties; to shun profane and vain babblings; but to hold the form of sound words; to be an example in word and conversation; to attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine." Pictorial Lives of the Saints: With Reflections for Every Day of the Year edited by John Dawson Gilmary Shea"The Church reads without ceasing the counsels which the Apostle gave to you and to all pastors through you for the election and the conduct of the clergy: pray that the Church may be blessed with Bishops, Priests and Deacons endowed with all those qualifications which he requires from the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Lastly, we beseech you, who ascended to Heaven decked with the aureola of martyrdom, encourage us who are also soldiers of Christ that we may throw aside our cowardice and win that kingdom, where our Emmanuel welcomes and crowns His elect for all eternity." Dom Gueranger, The liturgical Year
Fast for the Church
by VP
Posted on Friday January 24, 2025 at 12:00AM in Quotes
"Today is a Friday, traditionally a day of fasting and abstinence from meat. Fasting is Apostolic, it expands our ability to love, it casts out demons and brings peace to Holy Church. Fast for the Holy Father, for the bishops, for your pastor, for vocations, for unity, for the dying, the sick, for victims of abuse, for the troubled, for peace, for those suffering through natural disasters. FAST!" Monsignor Ferrari
Prayer:
Remember, O most loving Heart of Jesus,
that they for whom I pray are those for whom You prayed so earnestly the
night before Your death. These are they to whom You look to continue
with You in Your sorrows when others forsake You, who share Your griefs
and have inherited your persecutions, according to Your word: That the
servant is not greater than his Lord.
Remember, O Heart of
Jesus, that they are the objects of the worldʼs hatred and Satanʼs
deadliest snares. Keep them then, 0 Jesus, in the safe citadel of Your
Sacred Heart and there let them be sanctified in truth. May they
be one with you and one among themselves, and grant that multitudes may
be brought through their word to believe in You and love You. Amen.
Jan 24. Conversion of the Jews (Church Unity Octave Prayer)
by VP
Posted on Friday January 24, 2025 at 12:00AM in Tradition
"Those Sinai's thunders startled - thine Own race-
Who heard thy Prophets -saw thy miracles,
Who nailed thee to the Cross - despised thy grace:
From their veiled eyes, O Lord, remove the scales;
The Wandering Jew who owned thee not - now claim!
And Israel bend the knee to Jesus' Name.
"Ut omnes unum sint," O lord, we pray
That all be drawn within thy one, true fold,
Back to thy Church - from which the wand'rers stray
And the true Faith she keeps like saints of Old.
O bring them back, Good Shepherd of the sheep;
And rouse the heathen nations from their sleep. Amen"
Source: Catholic Hymns for the People, James Martin Raker 1919 -
Prayer intention: The Conversion of the Jews
- Ant. That they all may be one, as
Thou, Father, in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that
the world may believe that Thou has sent me.
℣. I say to thee, that thou art Peter,
℟. And upon this rock I will build my Church.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst say to Thine Apostles: peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, look not upon my sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church; and vouchsafe unto Her that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will: Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen.
Reflection:
This intention must appeal to Our Lady in a special way, for she, no less than her Divine Son, was a member of the Jewish race. She knew the hopes and desires of her people of their longing for the Savior who would grant them freedom. Mary's pure lips could utter words that no other creature dared to say: "My soul doth magnify the Lord...all nations shall call me blessed because He that is mighty hath done great things unto me."
One of the most poignant scenes from the Gospels shows Mary and Joseph seeking their lost Son who had wandered from them when they began their trip home from Jerusalem. Both thought the Child was with the other, or with relatives. Then came the tragic realization that He was with neither. Back to Jerusalem they hurried and sought Him in the jungle of the dark narrow streets, heedless of fatigue or hunger or of any need whatever - except that of finding Christ.
On the third day they found Him in the temple. In its pillared halls the teaches sat on low stools, while round them gathered those desiring to hear the lectures. In the center was the Child, listening to their statements and answering questions. Surprised and relieved, Mary asked simply: "Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."
"...I have sought thee sorrowing." How aptly the words apply to the members of the Jewish race of which Mary was the purest flower. Mary is not only the Lily of Israel in the sense of being the fairest of the chosen people, Immaculate, but because she bears a special relationship to the Israelites and seeks with all a Mother's love to bring them to the Church of her Son.
There is a story told of a Jewish woman in Vienna who used to visit the Catholic Church, but only because of its art; she was especially attracted to a picture of the Sorrowful Mother. during the Nazi reign of terror in 1938 she was forced to clean a house occupied but the Storm Troopers. Locked in a room she had to scrub the floor with lye and steel wool. Soon her hands began to smart and then to bleed. Suddenly she heard a piercing scream, such a shriek as she never heard before - a creature crying for freedom. At once she understood the meaning of that image of the Sorrowful Mother: "I have sought thee sorrowing." She saw that in all who are united to Christ, His life and Passion are reflected and repeated so that all suffering borne of love makes the soul Christ-like and serves in His redemptive work. The woman's hands were bleeding, but her heart was full of joy. Grace had struck with marvelous force. The next day she went to the Church of the Sorrowful Mother and asked to become a Catholic.
The same glorious Mother of God, standing by the Cross of Christ and interceding for the unity of all men, gives hope and courage to all the world. Mary worked a miracle with blinding light upon Alphonse Ratisbonne in Rome in the Church of Saint Andrea Della Fratte in 1842 and brought him to his knees and to the priesthood of Jesus. Though Our Lady does not work a miracle to remove the walled obstacles to her love, still her influence is most effective. Mary is the Mother of the Jewish people and with her there is neither bond nor free, neither Jew nor gentile - all are one." The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 130, Herman Joseph Heuser Catholic University of America Press, 1954
