Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord.
by VP
Posted on Wednesday August 06, 2025 at 12:00AM in Tradition
The Transfiguration by James Tissot
"AN ancient festival of the Church, in memory of the glorious transfiguration of Christ on mount Thabor, in presence of three of his
apostles, when a voice was heard from heaven saying: "This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him." Pray for a true
sense of this mystery; that as Christ's apostles, by this foretaste of glory, were prepared to suffer, and to regard all troubles of this life as inconsiderable, in comparison of the eternal weight of glory to be purchased by them; so you may conceive this day so true an idea of future happiness, as not to value all the difficulties of this life, so that you may but secure your portion with the blessed. Pray for this heartily; for if you had a true sense of the goods
to come, you would be more diligent in all duties, and less concerned
in all troubles. All your neglect, sloth, and impatience proceed from
this root: and you love this world, because you take no pains to know the next. Endeavor therefore to form a lively idea of that glorious state, which God has prepared for those that serve him, where souls shall be brought to the presence of their God, where they shall be filled with the glory of his majesty, penetrated with the sweetness of his adorable mercy, overflow with the transporting love of his goodness, and see themselves so encompassed with unspeakable comforts and joys on every side, as to be out of all danger of interruption, change or end. If your soul is penetrated with a vigorous and quickening faith of this goodness and mercy of God, and his love to man, this faith will so prepare you for the trials of this life, as to think no suffering hard, which is the way to this happiness. O God, when will the thoughts of future glory so possess our souls, as to make us despise all the goods and evils of this life? Thabor is our encouragement; but Calvary is the way of bliss. Offer yourself with indifference to both; and beseech God to confirm you in this spirit." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Dedication of the Church of Our Lady of the Snow
by VP
Posted on Tuesday August 05, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
The Blessed Virgin Mary overlooking Pope Liberius scrapes the outline of the foundation of the basilica into the snow.
By Italian artist Masolino da Panicale, circa 15th century, Museo di Capodimonte.
"A FEAST in memory of a church built and dedicated to Almighty God, in honor of the Blessed Virgin by a special revelation. The church is called St. Mary Major, or the Greater, because it is the oldest and most important of those dedicated in honor of our Blessed Lady. It is also called St. Mary ad Nives, or at the Snow, from a popular tradition that the Mother of God chose this place for a church under her invocation, by a miraculous snow, which fell upon this spot on this day, when the heat is greatest at Rome, and by a vision in which she appeared to a patrician named John, who munificently founded and endowed this church in the time of Pope Liberius, in 385.
Give thanks to God for all his wonders, and recommend yourself to the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, whom God was pleased to honor this day with so signal a miracle. Pray that her innocence and virtue may be the model of your life. The greatest honor which you can shew her, is in the imitation of her sanctity: and without this, all other acknowledgments are vain. On this dedication, examine your behavior in the house of God. See whether it be always with that decency and reverence which becomes the presence of God. Can you expect blessings from his hands, if you are there affronting him to his face? And what else is your talking and idle gazing about in that holy place? His awful majesty fills the church, and so it ought to do your heart, as long as you are there. If your thoughts or eyes are fixed on any other, is it God whom you then adore? Or may you not fear that you have other gods besides him? Be severe with yourself in this point: banish all manner of levity and disrespect: let a true sense of God command your whole behavior. Be there as a criminal before his judge, as a poor helpless creature before his sovereign Lord. Thus you will honor your God, and render him propitious in hearing and granting your petitions." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
DEVOTION TO BLESSED MARY. - The chief of all the sanctuaries throughout the Christian world dedicated in honour of Blessed Mary, is beyond doubt the church in Rome, bearing the name of St. Mary Major. The tradition relating to its foundation is as follows:-" In the fourth century, during the pontificate of Pope Liberius, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a pious Christian, bearing the name of John, and belonging to one of the first families of Rome, and directed him to build a church in a spot which she pointed out, signifying, as a proof of the reality of the revelation, that on the night following, which was the 5th of August, snow would cover the spot. The church was founded, and bears the name of "Our Lady of Snows.” The devotion of the faithful, upheld by the frequent miracles wrought there, had rendered it, long antecedently to the erection of that of "Our Lady of Loretto," the privileged sanctuary under Her special invocation. In this church is moreover preserved the cradle wherein the Infant Jesus slumbered. This hallowed object had, from the same epoch, attracted the veneration of the most learned and holy personages of the Christian world, among whom may be mentioned the learned St. Jerome.
MORAL REFLECTION.-How comforting is it to the heart of the true Christian to call to mind that this homage paid to the "Mother of pure love and holy hope" is a traditional dogma co-extensive with the Church, and time-honoured as Christianity itself!—(Eccles. xxiv. 24.) Pictorial Half Hours with the Saints, by Fr. Lecanu
St. Dominic, Confessor, A.D. 1221.
by VP
Posted on Monday August 04, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"A HOLY man, born in Spain, who having applied to learning, was first made a canon, and afterwards became the founder of the Order of Preachers,
from him called Dominicans. He was eminent for his zealous labours in
reclaiming those who had been misled into error or vice; and by himself and his followers he had great success in reviving the spirit of the gospel, and establishing the faithful in the love of virtue and truth. Having for many years been an example to his disciples of charity, humility, and poverty, and to the world a rule of innocence and piety, he departed this life in the year 1221.
Pray for all the religious of this holy Order, that the spirit of their founder may be their rule; that they may edify all by their regularity and strict discipline, and be as so many lights to the world. Pray that you may be exact in all the observances of a Christian life. Living amidst the disorders and solicitude of the world, you have much greater difficulties to overcome than religious, who by retiring from the world, are freed from a great part of the dangers to which you are daily exposed. Ought not then your care and watchfulness to be proportioned to your dangers, and your labours to the difficulties of your life? How can you otherwise hope to overcome? The world is a torrent, and you are bound to stand against it. This cannot be done without perpetual resistance, which must cost you trouble and pains. Be therefore constant in your prayers, watchful over all your inclinations, resolute in self-denials, exact in all discipline. Learn to contemn the goods of this life, and to be solicitous for those of the next. This is the life of religious; and this must be yours, if you expect your portion with them. A life of sloth, self-love, and ease becomes not the followers of Christ and his saints. They are called forth into the field of battle; they have many enemies to overcome, many temptations to resist, and many great duties to perform." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
DEVOTION TO BLESSED MARY.- St. Dominic, born at Osma in 1170, was destined by Almighty God to convert a vast multitude of sinners, as well by his own labours as through the agency of the Order that bears his name. The first efforts of his zeal were displayed in Languedoc, which was then beset by a vast number of heretics, known as the Albigenses. There it was and on that account that he founded the Order of Dominicans, specially charged with preaching in Christian countries, and also with the seeking out or inquisition of heretics, with the view to lead them back to God. The superadding of torture which was subsequently resorted to against such as did not yield to conversion, was in nowise the work of St. Dominic; the Church has never allowed any means to be availed of more urgent than simple persuasion. To his zeal for the conversion of sinners and a great love for the poor, Dominic united a tender piety to the Blessed Virgin. It was he who instituted the devotion of the Rosary, and the custom of saluting Blessed Mary at the beginning of the sermon. He died at Rome in 1221, illustrious for miracles.
MORAL REFLECTION.- It is to the whole human race in the person of the beloved disciple that the Son of God said, in speaking of Mary: "Son! behold thy mother." - (John xix. 27.) Pictorial Half Hour with the Saints by Fr. Lecanu
Saint John Vianney Feast Day
by VP
Posted on Monday August 04, 2025 at 12:00AM in Documents
"Through the character of Sacred Orders, God willed to ratify that eternal covenant of love, by which He loves His priests above all others; and they are obliged to repay God for this special love with holiness of life... So a cleric should be considered as a man chosen and set apart from the midst of the people, and blessed in a very special way with heavenly gifts—a sharer in divine power, and, to put it briefly, another Christ... He is no longer supposed to live for himself; nor can he devote himself to the interests of just his own relatives, or friends or native land... He must be aflame with charity toward everyone. Not even his thoughts, his will, his feelings belong to him, for they are rather those of Jesus Christ who is his life." -- Encyclical of Pope John XXIII on St. John Vianney ( August 1, 1959 )
Prayer for a Pastor and His Parish to St. John Vianney
Saint John Vianney, we pray you to bless
and help our pastor so that he may love dearly in this life and be
richly rewarded in the next. Obtain for him the grace always to be kind
and generous, self-sacrificing and zealous. Watch over the people of our
parish, and keep them free from all evils. Help them to be loyal and
generous in the support of our pastor.
Help us particularly
always to give him the respect and honor due him as a priest. Except for
him we should not have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or Your presence
among us, or the other sacraments that we so dearly love and need.
From
his anointed hands we receive the food of our souls, the most precious
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ from his lips we hear the word
of God. By the power given to him our sins are forgiven, and we are
given all blessings and it is he who will anoint us when we are dying,
and will offer the Holy Sacrifice for us when we are dead.
Help us, dear Saint, to see Christ in him, and to cooperate with him in all his work for the good of our souls. Amen
Sons of God
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 03, 2025 at 12:00AM in Sunday Sermons
Le Pater, Jacques Tissot
"Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."-ROM. 8. 14.
1. This glorious title "sons of God" fails to touch so many hearts.
2. They prefer the world, which is the enemy of God.
3. They object to being "led": fatal mistake.
4. What follows from being sons? Heirs also.
"WHAT joy and enthusiasm should be enkindled in our souls by the announcement of this truth, that St. Paul declares to us, that we are destined to be "the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also; co-heirs with Christ." But, alas! this announcement awakens no echo in the souls of so many. They are in this world; they raise their eyes to nothing beyond, but find occupation, pleasure, contentment in the fleeting joys of the present. What a misfortune to disregard the glorious destiny to which they are called, and to content themselves with the world" which passeth away." They give no heed to the warnings of the Scripture: "Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world" (1 John ii. 15); and that other, “The friendship of this world is the enemy of God; whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world becometh an enemy of God' (Jas. ii. 4).
An enemy of God! and they are called to be the sons of God. It is all-important, then, that we watch ourselves, and do not make the fatal mistake of becoming an enemy, whereas we are called to be sons. And it is easy and natural to make this mistake, deluded and misguided by self-love and self-sufficiency. Witness those of whom our Blessed Lord speaks, as claiming heaven because they have prayed and done miracles in His name: but they had been ruled by self, and not led by the Spirit of God. Therefore the gospel continues, "And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you that work iniquity" (Matt. 8. 23).
How can we explain this? Alas! in all that they had done, it had not been the Will of God they had sought to do, but their own will. They had not been "led by the Spirit of God." This is the test by which we make sure of our calling. "Whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." It is the word "led" that is the stumbling-block! A man has faculties and intelligence: he determines to go by them, imagining that they are all-sufficing. He forgets their limits; of how much he is ignorant; how prone he is to evil; the insidious enemies around him. He chooses his own way.
A fatal mistake, indeed, to imagine we can choose our own way and be independent. Our own way! Blind men choosing their own way, and refusing assistance and guidance. Our own way! Forgetting that we are prone to evil; that we have deceitful enemies around us, leading us to destruction-enemies, who craftily conceal the dangers and the evils under the guise of pleasure and freedom and independence. Our own way! And yet we cannot shake ourselves free from the thraldom, for we are slaves to our sins. Such a man forfeits the grace and help of the Spirit, and is powerless of himself. For instance, some Sunday he may hear some word of our Lord in the Gospel that is a rebuke to him; he knows that he should change and repent, but no, he clings to his own opinion or to the habit he has formed. He thinks he is free and independent, yet in reality he is a slave, enthralled in his evil ways. Warnings are given; even a bad conscience can be stricken by fear of some evil that seems impending. He is powerless to change, though he dreads the consequences. Aided by the tempter, he stifles the voice of conscience, and remains a miserable slave of sin. Thus, from the practices of a good Christian life, he is led astray and, sooner or later, the tempter leads him from the Faith... Good practices he has abandoned; next some doctrine or precept of the Church annoys him, persistently rebukes him. Will he be humble enough to obey, or rebel and choose his own way and cling to his own will? Alas! he thus falls from the Faith! For what is a heretic, but a chooser, as the meaning of the word implies; and one that clings obstinately to his own opinion in defiance of the Church? He becomes one of those of whom the prophet speaks: "They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart" (Jer. vii. 24).
But how different all is, thank God, for those who lovingly yield themselves to be "led by the Spirit of God." They are “partakers of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit dwells within them, as St. Paul tells us, and securely in His strength and under His guidance they tread the path of life. Their faith, received at Baptism, strengthened within them at Confirmation, beams down upon their path of life, enlightening them day by day to fulfil their duties to God and man. Walking in the light of this divine Faith, there is no hesitancy, no doubt, no difficulties in following the road that leads to eternal life. Faith points out the way; hope sustains them in the journey, both the gift of that divine Spirit by Whom they are led. The hope that they are thus the sons of God inspires them with courage to bear their cross, to dare and do whatever the Spirit bids them. This hope bids them also remember that, if they are the sons of God, they are "heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Let us pray, then, for the Holy Spirit to endow us with wisdom and understanding to give ourselves to be led by Him, and not by the false maxims of the world, of self, of the evil one. Pray that He may teach us to set a right value on the means to salvation; to relish the things of God; to be ever ready to follow His leading and His guidance, for then we shall be "the sons of God."
Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr. Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (8th Sunday after Pentecost)
Finding of the Body of St. Stephen, THE FIRST MARTYR, A.D. 415.
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 03, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
"A FESTIVAL in memory of that day, when by divine revelation the body of St. Stephen, the first martyr, mentioned in the Acts, was found at Jerusalem, together with the bodies of Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and his son Abibas, in the year 415, under the Emperor Honorius. Upon the opening of St. Stephen's coffin, the earth shook, and there came from it so agreeable an odor, that no one remembered any thing like it. Seventy-three persons, afflicted with various distempers, recovered their health upon the spot. The sacred relics were removed with great solemnity by the Christians into the church of Sion; afterwards to Constantinople, under Theodosius the younger; and at length to Rome, in the time of Pelagius I. At the removal of this sacred body, God was pleased to work many miracles, by giving sight to the blind, and health to the sick, as recorded by St. Augustin in his book Of the City of God, and by other writers of those primitive times. Bless God in his saints, for all his graces bestowed on them, and for all his wonders wrought by them. Revive this day in your mind the virtues of St. Stephen, his great zeal for the faith of Christ, his patience in suffering, and wonderful charity in praying for his enemies, even those who stoned him. Pray that on this day of miracles, God would work one more o you, by changing your obstinate and rebellious heart, and subjecting it entirely to the impression of his grace and the accomplishment of his holy will. Pray for the zeal, patience, and charity of this saint. Offer yourself to do and suffer whatever your profession of a Christian, and the obligations of your state call you to; for this is the manifest will of God Pardon all your enemies, and pray for them. Depart not from your prayers, till this perfect charity be wrought in you. Admit of no false coloring or pretexts to disguise your passion. Resolve to speak freely to those who seem averse to you, and never permit yourself in discourse, to express any resentments, or dislike of them, If this be hard, the difficulty is from the corruption and pride of your heart: pray for remedy." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Novena for Priests to St. John Vianney Day 9
by VP
Posted on Sunday August 03, 2025 at 12:00AM in Prayers
John Vianney, Good and Holy Priest O holy Priest of Ars, you lived in an
age of much upheaval, in a time when men turned their backs on God.
Your bishop told of a parish to which he wished to send you where there
was no love. He assigned you to Ars and said that you would be the
Priest who would enable the people to know the love of God. Not only did
you draw these people back to God, but your saintly reputation soon
spread and many people were converted to a life of holiness. You said
that a good Priest, a Priest after Christʼs own heart is the greatest
treasure that God can give a parish. Give us such Priests!
O great St. John Vianney, once again we are living in day of upheaval.
There is much evil in the word.
Obtain for Father ___ the grace to persevere in his faith and never to
despair. May he walk
with the Lord and trust in Him all the days of his life. Obtain through
your heavenly intercession, for Father ___ the grace of modeling his
life after that of Jesus Christ, that his people will
know the love of God. More than ever the people need him to be able to
bring the world to Christ.
Pray for Father ___ and all Priests, O great Priest of Ars.
Novena Prayer:
O holy Priest of Ars, St. John Marie Vianney, you loved God and served
Him faithfully as
His Priest. Now you see God face to face in heaven. You never despaired
but persevered in your faith
until you died. Remember now the dangers, fears and anxieties that
surround Father ___ and intercede for him in all his needs and troubles
especially console him in his most difficult moments, grant him serenity
in the midst of crisis, and protect him from evil. O St. John Vianney, I
have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for Father ___ in a special way during this novena.
Novena for Priests to St. John Vianney Day 8
by VP
Posted on Saturday August 02, 2025 at 12:00AM in Prayers
St. John Vianney, Lover of Penance and Mortification O holy Priest of
Ars, you led a life of detachment
from worldly pleasures. Your meals consisted of a boiled potato each
day; you slept a few hours each night. But you did all of this so that
you would be able to serve God to the best of your ability. Your life
was portrayed by the saying: We complain when we suffer. We have much
more reason to complain when we do not suffer, since nothing likens us
to our Lord as the bearing of His cross.
O great St. John Vianney, in these days when we are surrounded by so
many comforts and pleasures, it can be so difficult for us to do penance
for our sins and live a life of detachment. I resolve to offer
some sacrifice today for the expiation of Father ___’s sins and the sins
of all mankind. Assist Father in accepting the cross God chooses to
send him. May he embrace the life of sacrifice to which Priests are
called. May he willingly offer his whole life to God! Obtain for Father
___ the grace to imitate the life of Christ by the bearing of His cross.
Novena Prayer:
O holy Priest of Ars, St. John Marie Vianney, you loved God and served
Him faithfully as
His Priest. Now you see God face to face in heaven. You never despaired
but persevered in your faith
until you died. Remember now the dangers, fears and anxieties that
surround Father ___ and intercede for him in all his needs and troubles
especially console him in his most difficult moments, grant him serenity
in the midst of crisis, and protect him from evil. O St. John Vianney, I
have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for Father ___ in a special way during this novena.
Priests' First Saturday
by VP
Posted on Saturday August 02, 2025 at 12:00AM in Tradition
Mary as Mother of Priests is in the Dominican Priory Church of the Holy Cross in Leicester. by Lawrence OP
"Listen to what our Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, says: " God in heaven and I on earth, we desire nothing more ardently than prayer and sacrifice for priests...Let us beg God that He may give holy priests! If we have this, all else will follow; but if this be wanting, all else will avail nothing." It was from this trend of thought that the idea of the Priest's Saturday" took its origin, which idea the Superior General of the Salvatorian Fathers placed before the Holy Father in special private audience on November 21, 1934. His Holiness was much pleased with the plan and said, in conclusion: "We heartily praise and bless the work....We repeat, the thing pleases Us, We praise and bless it heartily."
What is the plan?
The Priest's Saturday:
It is something quite simple and easy, yet immeasurable great in its results. You should make it a point to offer the Saturday after the First Friday of each month to your Savior, through the hands of Mary, the great mediatrix of all graces, for the sanctification of all the priests and students for the priesthood throughout the whole world. For this purpose you should give the Saturday wholly and entirely to Him, that is to say, Holy Mass, Holy Communion, all prayers, labors, sacrifices, joys and sorrows. Whatever you cannot do on this day (Holy Mass and Holy Communion) you ought to supply immediately on Sunday. So there is really nothing new for you to do. You merely offer up this Saturday (or even every Saturday or some other day) for the sanctification of priests. It is not a case of any sodality of fraternity or anything like that. Like the First Friday in honor of the Sacred Heart, the Priest's Saturday seeks to become something religiously observed by all the Catholics of the world.
(...) Concern about the holiness of priests is the concern of the Heart of the Divine Savior and of His blessed Mother. Therefore, you also should be sure to take part in this "apostolate to the apostles. " The Holy Father, all bishops, all priests, all students for the priesthood, and especially also your own pastor, earnestly beg of you thus to participate."
Source: Priest's Saturday Series, #2 Prayers and Devotions for Priest's Day. used with permission
Priests' First Saturday. Prayer:
Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, Who hast
entrusted the whole work of Thy redemption, the welfare and salvation of
the world, to priests as Thy representatives, through the hands of Thy
most holy Mother and for the sanctification of Thy priests and
candidates for the priesthood I offer Thee this present day wholly and
entirely, with all its prayers, works, sacrifices, joys, and sorrows.
Give truly holy priests who, inflamed with the fire of Thy divine love,
seek nothing but Thy greater glory and the salvation of our souls.
And thou, Mary, good Mother of priests, protect all priests in the
dangers of their holy vocation and, with the loving hand of a Mother,
also lead back to the Good Shepherd those poor priests who have become
unfaithful to their exalted vocation and have gone astray. Amen
In addition to the above make it a point also to recite frequently the following:
Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, Who Hast entrusted the weal and woes of
Thy Holy Church to priests, with all the fervor of my heart I recommend
to Thee the wants of my pastor and all priests. Enrich them more and
more with true priestly sanctity. Give them generous, all embracing,
apostolic hearts, full of love for Thee and for all Thy souls, so that
they, being themselves sanctified in Thee, may sanctify us who are
confided to their care, and may lead us safely to heaven. Bestow upon
them in rich abundance all Thy priestly graces!
Let them ever
give us a glowing example of love and fidelity towards Holy Mother
Church, towards the Pope, and bishops, and grant that by word and
example they may shine as models of every virtue.
Most loving
Jesus, bless all their priestly labors and sacrifices! Bless all their
prayers and words at the altar and in the confessional, in the pulpit,
and in school, in confraternities, and at the bedside of the sick!
Protect and preserve them in all dangers from within and from without.
Divine Savior, give to Thy Church priests who abound in true holiness!
Call many good boys and young men to the priestly and religious state!
Aid and sanctify all those who are to become Thy priests! And to the
souls of departed priests grant everlasting rest.
But to me
give a true spirit of faith and humble obedience, in order that in my
pastor I may ever behold the representative of God and willingly follow
all his teachings. Amen
St. Alphonsus Liguori, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR, A.D. 1787.
by VP
Posted on Saturday August 02, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
" If Priests and Religious did all recite the Office as it ought to be recited, the Church would not behold herself in the miserable state to which she is reduced. How many sinners would be delivered from the slavery of the devil, and how many souls would love God with much greater fervor! And how would priests themselves not find themselves ever the same, imperfect, irritable, jealous, attached to their own interests, and led away by vanities! Our Lord has promised to hear every one who prays to him. (Luke xi. 10).
And how comes it that a priest offering up so many prayers in a day, were it only in the Office which he recites, is yet never heard? He is always the same, as weak and prone as ever to fall not only into slight sins (to which he is habituated, and takes neither pains nor care to correct himself of them,) but into grievous sins against charity, justice, or chastity; hence when he recites the Office, he pronounces sentence of condemnation against himself, in these words: Maledicti qui declinant a mandatis tuis. And what is still worse, he feels little remorse, excusing himself as being of the same flesh and blood as other men, and not able to restrain himself.
But if he said the Office with fewer distractions and less negligence, accompanying with his heart the many prayers which he offers to God in reciting it, he certainly would not be so weak but would acquire fortitude and strength to resist all temptations, and to lead a holy life, such as becometh a Priest of God." Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office by Saint Alphonse de Liguori
Biography: "He was born near Naples in the year 1696. His mother instilled into him a tender piety, and particularly a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and great zeal for the glory of God. He embraced the profession of the law, and soon rose to great eminence. But he ever preserved the strictest justice, and practiced the most exemplary virtue. He heard Mass every morning before going into court, and punctually observed the fasts and other precepts of the Church. He approached to the Sacraments every week, and made a spiritual retreat every year.
St. Alphonsus was advancing to the highest degree of professional eminence, when he determined to abandon all his temporal prospects, and embrace the ecclesiastical state. From the moment that he was ordained priest, his life became a continual exhortation to virtue. In the year 1732, he founded the congregation of our most Holy Redeemer, whose members were to employ themselves in preaching to the poor, and affording the comforts of religion to those deprived of them. He surpassed all his companions in the exact observance of rule; and it was a wonder how he could live considering his severe fasts and mortification. He wore continually rough hair shirts with small iron chains, and a girdle of camel's hair. He rose early to meditation, and his prayer was unceasing. He consecrated all his actions to the glory of God, to whom he often turned by fervent ejaculations and aspirations. His whole demeanor breathed devotion and edification.
His wonderful life and apostolic labors made many dioceses wish to have him for their bishop. He was appointed to the see of St. Agatha of the Goths, and consecrated bishop in 1762. He continued to practice the same rigid poverty. He slept, as before, upon a straw bed, and his rooms were quite unfurnished. His food was of the most inferior kind, and even this he sprinkled with bitter herbs.
It may be easily conceived with what zeal he labored to extirpate scandals from his diocese, and to propagate virtue and piety. He expelled a company of players from his diocese, lest they should corrupt his flock; and he converted many bad women and public sinners. He gave all to the poor, except a small sum for his own support, and other necessary expenses. He suffered much in his bodily health for many years; but persevered in performing all the duties of his office. At length, on account of his declining health, and earnest entreaties, he was permitted by Pope Pius VI. to resign his bishopric, and retired to a house of his order in 1775. There he still preached and instructed the faithful, particularly the poor, and composed many works of theology and piety. After a long and fervent preparation for eternity, he passed to the glory of Jesus, and the peace of the saints, on the 1st of August, 1787, in the ninety-first year of his age." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
- "Unless a Priest esteem the Holy Sacrifice as it deserves, he can never celebrate it with suitable devotion. Assuredly there is no action, which man can perform, so sublime, so sacred, as the celebration of Mass. God Himself could not enable a man to perform anything greater than the celebration of Mass." Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office, St. Alphonsus Liguori 1861
- "The entire Church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces, as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass; for the greatest honor that the whole Church without priests could give to God would consist in offering to Him in sacrifice the lives of all men." Source: St. Alphonsus Liguori (The Dignity and Duties of the Priest)
Holy Name Cathedral, Raleigh NC, TLM Sept 14, 2017
Prayer for Priests (St. Alphonsus Liguori): My God, I believe in the sublime dignity
conferred on Thy ministers by priesthood – the supreme dignity of all,
says St. Ignatius; a divine dignity says St. Denis; a dignity surpassing
that of kings and angels, says St. Ambrose. O my God! Thy priests are
the leaders of Thy people (St. P. Damian), the guardians of Thy Church
(St. Bernard), the light of the world (Matt. V. 14), the dispensers of
the sacraments (St. P. Damian,) the vicars of Jesus Christ (St.
Augustine), and His coadjutors in the work of salvation (1 Cor. iii 9).
I believe, O Lord! That at the very instant when Thy priest
consecrates, the Incarnate Word makes it a duty to obey him by coming
into his hands under the sacramental species; I also believe that at the
moment when the priest gives absolution to a penitent sinner, that
sinner is changed from being an enemy of God and a slave of hell into
being an inheritor of heaven, and that thus the priest may indeed be
rightly named the door-keeper of heaven (St. Prosper).
Grant then, O Lord, to me and to all the faithful, to have the same
respect and submission to the person, words, and counsels of Thy
ministers as for Thine own, since Thou Thyself didst say to them: “He
that heareth you heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me”
(Luke x .26).
Lastly, my God, I ask of Thee for all the priests in the world, and
specially for those who have done any good to my soul, by seeking to
sanctify it, the grace of loving Thee much and making Thee to be loved
by others, so that by their piety, their virtues, and the ardor of their
zeal they may merit a place with Thy apostles and most faithful
servants.
O Mary, Mother of Jesus! Do thou second the efforts of all thy Son’s priests, and sanctify their lives and souls. Amen
St. Alphonsusʼ Prayer Book by Father Edward Saint Omer, Redemptorist. 1888
