St. Helena

"O his accession to the imperial throne, Constantine the Great declared himself in favor of Christianity. It was not, however, until after his miraculous victory over Maxentius that he actually embraced the faith and induced his mother Helen to do likewise. Helen was then far advanced in years, but the precious seed fell upon good soil, and the august princess set to work with inconceivable ardor. She was nearly eighty years old when she journeyed to the Holy Land, sought and discovered the Cross of our Redeemer; and there erected monuments worthy of God and the empire. She founded churches, monasteries, and hospitals, and lent aid to every enterprise favorable to the interests of religion. Humble as fervent, she mingled unobtrusively with the crowds assisting at the public services, and afforded a salutary example to all the faithful. St. Helen died in 328, bequeathing to her imperial son the precious legacy of a mother's wise counsels.

When our souls shall leave this dwelling,
The glory of one fair and virtuous action
Is above all the 'scutcheons on our tomb,
Or silken banners over us.

JAMES SHIRLEY.

Favorite Practice: Devotion to the Passion and the Holy Cross of our Lord

Source: Short Lives of the Saints By Eleanor Cecilia Donnelly

The Pharisee and Publican, Jacques Tissot

“O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”—LUKE Xviii. 13.

1. One prayed and offended God; the other prayed and was justified. Why?

2. Not that we are as bad as the Pharisee; but it would be better for us to be more like the Publican.

    3. Perhaps we resent being classed with him, a sinner. 4. How did the saints pray?

How many of us at times have wondered why our Blessed Lord spoke only of two kinds of prayer, the Pharisee's and the Publican's. Where do we come in —we ordinary, everyday kind of Catholics? Surely we are scarcely as proud and presumptuous as the Pharisee, whose very prayer was turned into sin and offended God; and, on the other hand, perhaps in our own hearts, we almost resent being classed with the Publican. And yet our Lord, divine truth and wisdom, made no reference to such as we think we are --not so bad as either.

Let us not be too complacent. Our Lord describes a man who was well instructed, outwardly irreproachable, a model man as he thought himself, and yet he knew not how to pray. He mistook vainglory, boastfulness, attitudinizing, as prayer; he disdains his neighbour, he praised himself instead of the Almighty! Whereas the other, humble in the consciousness of his sinfulness and frailty, besought the mercy of God. Short was his prayer, but it was from the heart. He found mercy and was justified. It was mercy that he needed; mercy that he longed for and prayed for; and mercy that was granted him.

"ST. HYACINTH was born in Poland; and his parents diligently cultivated his natural disposition to virtue. He preserved an unspotted innocence of manners through the dangerous paths of youth. Being employed by his bishop as his assistant in the administration of his diocese, he shewed great prudence, capacity, and zeal. After some time, he was admitted into the Order of the Dominicans by the holy founder himself; where his sole occupation was the study and practice of humility, patience, abstinence, and piety. His austerity was great, in giving little rest to his body. His prayer was what St. Paul advises, without ceasing. His charity was extraordinary, in endeavoring to reclaim all from vice, both by word and example. Having lived in this method nearly forty years, he made a happy end in the year 1257.

Pray for some degrees of his holy spirit. Examine into your present method, as to eating, sleeping, and praying. Consider your excesses, and beg pardon. Pray for the gift of temperance and moderation. If you cannot approve of rigors, yet see that you flatter not yourself in all your inclinations. Endeavor to be easily pleased, and avoid niceness, for it is the effect of self love, and self-love has no title to heaven. If your temper be,to be out of humor and displeased, if every thing be not according to your will, see that you be as exact in doing the will of God, as you expect others should be in doing yours: otherwise, the exactness you demand from others, will be the condemnation of your neglects in regard of God. Give good example to all. It is a kind of spiritual alms, of which all are capable. For this, it is not enough not to scandalize your neighbor by what is sinful, but you are to suppress all your passions and ill-humors. For these being contagious, are so far from edifying, that they may easily injure those, who are witnesses of them. Pray that you may be exact in all duties, and endeavor to be so. Such a life is the best preparation for a happy death." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

"ST. JOACHIM was father of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A day for all parents to offer up their prayers to Almighty God, that they may be faithful in the discharge of their duties towards their children, in giving them good instruction, good example, and due correction. God requires these at their hands; and to be wanting in any one part is not consistent with a good conscience, but may easily come to be the loss of their children's souls. Failing in these duties, is one of the great occasions of so general a corruption of youth; whilst parents, whose care ought to be to cultivate their yet tender souls, train them up in the corrupt maxims of the world, put them forward in those things which promote liberty, vanity, pride, and sensuality, and give them an early knowledge of what they must either unlearn, or else perish in practising. This unhappy method St. John Chrysostom long ago lamented; and after having considered the solicitude of parents in procuring for their children what is superfluous and unprofitable, and neglecting what is necessary, condemns such parents as the greatest enemies of their children, and contrivers, not only of their temporal, but eternal misfortunes. If you have any part in this guilt, seek timely remedies, if it be yet in your power. Let not weak nature be now your rule, but solid reason and religion: and ever force inclination to bend to these. Study not to gain your children's love by what is likely to make them miserable, and be one day the punishment of your own indiscretion. Their inclinations and desires are naturally corrupt, and they apprehend not the mischievous effects of them. Therefore are parents put over them, prudently to moderate and overrule them. If you do not this, you pervert the order which God has established; instead of governing, permitting yourself to be governed by them; and in this depriving them of all the benefits designed them in their parent's care; and exposing them to the ill consequences of their own weakness, follies, and passions. Pray for remedy against this crying evil; and if you have no part in it, pray at least for those who have; for it is a point that deserves universal charity." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

The Assumption of the B. V Mary.

"THIS solemnity is in memory of the happy passage of the Blessed Virgin out of this life into the kingdom of her Son. Pray for a happy death; prepare for it, and be assured that the best preparation for it is a holy life.

It is to celebrate that happy privilege, which by a pious tradition we have received, of her being assumed into heaven, and glorified both in body and soul. Adore the wonderful goodness of God, and bless Him for all the privileges of grace and glory bestowed on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her soul magnified our Lord: join with her in giving praise to Him, who is the author of every good gift.

Though the general resurrection is the time appointed for our souls to be again united to our bodies, yet it is in the power of God to exempt some from this general decree. This power He has certainly manifested in those, who at Christ's resurrection took up their bodies, and appeared to their friends in Jerusalem. He dispensed with Enoch and Elias, as to the general sentence of death at the usual time; and these He dispensed with in the anticipation of the general resurrection. For it is easy for that power, which makes a decree, to privilege some with an exemption, and to do to some only, from particular motives, what He could have done to all, if He had so pleased. The power admits of no dispute; and that the Blessed Virgin had a part in this privilege may be easily allowed. For this is not so particular as those other privileges, which were granted to her, in being Mother of God, in being both mother and virgin. And this more especially since we know how great was her humility, who being raised to the highest dignity, considered herself the meanest of God's servants. We need not doubt that God has exalted her in proportion to her humility: and that as she reputed herself the lowest of all, so he, who regarded her humility, has raised her above all. This none of the faithful can question: but whether this has been as to her soul only, or both in body and soul, the Church has not positively declared. It is plain, however, that she inclines to the pious belief that the Blessed Virgin was assumed both body and soul; and will not the faithful do well to believe the same? But however this maybe, the joy of this festival is still the same. For as we honor world, so we have the departure of other saints out of this reason to honor and rejoice on this day, when the Blessed Virgin, who had been chosen Mother of Christ, left this world, and entered into the possession of those joys, which her divine son had prepared for her. It was a day of joy and glory to her; it ought to be a day of joy and thanksgiving to us. In these holy transports our souls ought to pour themselves forth before God; and then turning back our thoughts upon ourselves, we are to consider whether, as we are created for the same happiness, we are in so holy a disposition, as to hope that the day of our departure will be to us a day of joy, in opening us a passage into bliss.

"POWER OF MEEKNESS.- Eusebius was a priest, and possessed in an eminent degree the Christian and sacerdotal virtues. Having been denounced to Maxentius, the governor of Palestine, as a Christian, he replied with so much gentleness, although with unwavering firmness, that the judge, being moved, did not venture to condemn him, and transferred him to the tribunal of the Emperor Maximian, who was then in Palestine. Maximian was of a ferocious disposition, and had been duly warned against allowing himself to be gained over by the powerful influence exerted by Eusebius. But his ferocity and prejudice alike subsided in presence of that venerable countenance, all radiant with happiness and serenity, despite the torments to which he had been subjected. On hearing those calm and gentle tones, the tyrant did not venture to pass sentence himself, and sent back the accused to Maxentius, telling him to judge him according to the rules of equity. Maxentius employed all the means in his power to save him; but the holy priest would have accounted himself too unfortunate to escape from martyrdom; he was too eminently a Christian to allow of the matter being even dissembled. He was eventually beheaded.

MORAL REFLECTION.-“Admonish them to be subject to princes and powers, showing all mildness to all men." (Tit. iii. 1.)" Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints by Abbe Lecanu

MORAL REFLECTION.- "For it doth not become our age to dissemble," said the holy old man Simeon, "lest through my dissimulation many should be deceived."-(2 Mach. vi. 24.)

"ST. CLARE was born at Assisium in Italy, and moved by the example of St. Francis, gave all that she had to the poor.Before the altar of the Blessed Virgin she put off her fine clothes, and St. Francis cut off her hair, and gave her his penitential habit, which was no other than a piece of sackcloth tied round with a cord. She afterwards instituted a religious Order of nuns, called from her, poor Clares; obliging them to great austerity, in perpetual abstinence from flesh meat, using no soft beds, nor linen, and going barefoot. Her esteem of holy poverty was admirable. She looked upon it as the retrenchment of the most dangerous objects of the passions, and as the great school of patience and mortification, Frayer was her spiritual comfort and strength, and she seemed scarcely ever to interrupt that holy exercise. Having lived with her religious above forty years, being at length exhausted with fasting, prayer, and watching, she surrendered her soul to God, in 1253. Pray for all the religious of this Order; and praise God for that wonderful spirit of sanctity, which is still preserved among them. Wonder at the zeal of so many tender virgins, who renouncing all the softness, superfluity, and vanity of their education, engage and persevere in a life of so much hardship and severity. Let this be a reproach to you of all your contrary methods. Learn from them how little is sufficient for nature; and see how much you have wasted. You may pity them for being deprived of so many satisfactions which you enjoy: but consider whether they are unhappy in the want, or you in the enjoyment of them. They deprive themselves of that only which is superfluous and dangerous; and by thus seeking yourself, put your salvation to the hazard. Which then has chosen the better part?" The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother

Prayer to St. Clare:

O blessed saint, who didst give thyself so early to Jesus, grant that I may imitate thy blessed example, as far as my state in life will permit, and that I may never prove a hindrance, either in word or deed, to any who desire to consecrate themselves to God, as you did. Oh! dear saint, whose very name is light, and whose heart was ever full of such tender love to Jesus crucified, obtain for me the grace of Divine light and guidance in all my undertakings, and of such ardent love of my adorable Savior that I may be willing, nay rather that I may prefer to endure any suffering sooner than offend Him, even by a wilful imperfection. And as thou wast conducted to heaven by the Blessed and Immaculate Mother of God, oh! intercede with her for me that I may SO love and serve her in life as to be worthy to be received into her maternal arms in the hour of my death, and to be presented by her to Jesus. Amen.