Dedication of the Churches of Ss. Peter and Paul, Apostles
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 18, 2025 at 05:00AM in Tradition
"A FEAST in memory of that day, when Constantine the Great, having laid the foundation of St. Peter's church at Rome, it was consecrated by the Pope St. Sylvester, and has been ever since visited by great numbers of Christians in honour of the glorious Apostles SS. Peter and Paul, whose bodies partly lie there, and partly in the church of St. Paul, on the Ostian Road. The tombs of the great conquerors and lords of the world have been long since destroyed and for gotten; but those of the glorious apostles are still venerated by the faithful. Give thanks for the peace then restored to Christians, after three hundred years of persecution. Remember that all places appointed for the worship of God are holy; and see that you never profane them by any kind of irreverence.
Be therefore mindful in whose presence you are, as often as you go to
prayer; and if your there expect blessings, provoke not that hand, from
which they had to come. How miserable are you, if instead of mercy, you draw down judgments on your own head! Have a great respect likewise for all holy things, especially for the Holy Scripture; and never make any part of that the subject of your diversion, or jests. Leave such profanation to infidels and apostates; for it cannot be a Christian's part to trample under foot the bread of life. Pray that Almighty God would in His mercy remember this nation, and grant that the faithful
may reform all abuses, as often as they meet to pay homage to their
God. That as often as they come into His holy place, they may remember
in whose presence they are, call to mind His infinite majesty and their
wants; and as these demand, so regulate their outward and inward man.
That they may have so much faith and seriousness, as to be afraid of provoking
Him there, where they come to ask His blessings; but rather make their
petitions with an attention and solicitude answerable to their
necessities." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
Eighteenth Day: The Efficacy of Holy Mass for the Departed
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 18, 2025 at 04:00AM in Purgatory Month Meditations
"The Sacrifice of the Mass is the great devotion of the Catholic Church. And of all means to assist the souls in Purgatory none is more valuable or meritorious. For there Jesus Christ offers Himself with His infinite merits to His Heavenly Father, by the hands of the priest, in behalf of the suffering souls. The unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass does not essentially differ from the Sacrifice of the Cross, but only accidentally as to the manner of offering. And no limit can be place to the effect of this great Sacrifice, which contains in itself all grace.
From this inestimable efficacy, however, we may not infer that the offering of one Mass is sufficient to release the souls we love. For, though the Sacrifice on Calvary was infinite we cannot conclude that the application of it through the Mass must also be infinite. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us, it was not the intention of Jesus Christ to bestow the full efficacy of His suffering and death, which is commemorated in every Mass, upon us. His merits are applied according to His Adorable Will, for the ways of God are often inscrutable.
It is very salutary therefore, to have the Holy Sacrifice offered frequently for the repose of a soul. Should the souls who are dear to us and for whom we intercede in this manner, be already in the enjoyment of eternal bliss, Divine Wisdom and Goodness will bestow the merit of the Masses offered on other suffering souls."
Prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst institute the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass in commemoration of Thy Sacrifice upon the Cross, we beseech Thee, bestow the merits of this Holy Sacrifice upon the souls in Purgatory, that they may soon be released from their pains. Thou Who livest and reignest, world without end. 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 souls of those who were the most zealous to assist at Mass.
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. Odo of Cluny
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 18, 2025 at 04:00AM in Saints
St. Odo of Cluny" On Christmas-eve, A.D. 877, a noble of Aquitaine implored Our Lady to grant him a son. His prayer was heard; Odo was born, and his grateful father offered him to St. Martin. Odo grew in wisdom and in virtue, and his father longed to see him shine at court. But the attraction of grace was too strong. Odo's heart was sad and his health failed, until he forsook the world and sought refuge under the shadow of St. Martin at Tours. Later on he took the habit of St. Benedict at Baume, and was compelled to become abbot of the great abbey of Cluny, which was then building. He ruled it with the hand of a master and the winningness of a Saint. The Pope sent for him often to aot as peacemaker between contending princes, and it was on one of those missions of mercy that he was taken ill at Rome. At his urgent entreaty he was borne back to Tours, where he died at the feet of "his own St. Martin," A.D. 942.
Reflection." It needs only," says Father Newman, "for a Catholic to show devotion to any-Saint, in order to receive special benefits from his intercession."
"The Mass" says St. Odo, Abbot of Cluny, "is the act on which is based the salvation of the World." The Holy Mass: The Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead, by Rev. Fr Michael Müller 1875 p 288.
"When and how was this yearly commemoration of the
departed introduced? The time of the introduction of this commemoration
cannot be determined; for as easily as the time of Tertullian he
mentions that the Christians of his day held a yearly commemoration of
the dead. Towards the end of the tenth century St. Odo, abbot of the
Benedictines, at Cluny, directed this feast to be celebrated yearly, on
the 2nd of November in all the convents of his Order, which usage was
afterwards enjoined upon the whole Christian world by Pope John XVI. The
feast of this day was probably established in order that, after having
on day before rejoiced over the glory of the saints in heaven, we should
this day remember in love those who are sighing in purgatory for
deliverance.
Prayer: O God, the Creator and Redeemer of
all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants departed the
remission of all their sins, that, by our pious supplications, they may
obtain the pardon which they have always desires. Who livest and
reignest,etc. All Souls' Day. p456 Devout Instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and Holydays Front Cover Leonhard Goffiné Benziger, 1896
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin nun 1769- 1852 (4th American Saint)
by VP
Posted on Tuesday November 18, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
Saint Rose-Philippine Duchesne, sister of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founderess of the congregation first house in America (1818)
"Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin, foundress, in America, of the first houses of the Society of the Sacred Heart.
Born at Grenoble, France, August 29, 1769, she was educated by the Visitation Nuns, entered that Order, saw its dispersion during the Reign of Terror and vainly attempted the reestablishment of the convent of Sainte-Marie d'en-Haut, near Grenoble. Finally, in 1804, she accepted the offer of Mother Barat, to incorporate her community into the Society of the Sacred Heart. In 1818 Mother Duchesne set out with four companions for the missions of America. Bishop Dubourg welcomed her to New Orleans, whence she sailed up the Mississippi to St. Louis, finally settling her little community at St. Charles. Cold, hunger and illness, opposition, ingratitude and calumny served only to fire her lofty and indomitable spirit with new zeal. Having founded the new houses at Florissant, Grand Coteau, New Orleans, St. Louis and St. Michel, La., she yearned to teach the poor Indians. Old and broken as she was, she went to labor amongst the Pottowatomies at Sugar Creek, Kansas. But one year later she returned to St. Charles and died October 18, 1852. Preliminary steps for her beatification have been taken. " BAUNARD, Histoire de Mme. Duchesne, Paris, 1878.
"At Bordeaux, for example, Robespierre had ordered the construction of a huge guillotine having four blades, thus to make short work of the execution of the twelve hundred priests imprisoned there. Four days before that fearful decree was to be carried into effect, Robespierre met his own death by the knife of another guillotine.
Some few of the faithful priests escaped deportation and wandered through France, giving the Last Sacraments to the sick and dying, saying Mass in hiding wherever they might and encouraging the faithful to persevere. So Philippine became a "priest-hunter." She seemed to have an intuition for recognizing those who could give her sick poor what would be their only comfort in their last hours. When she had failed to find one of these outlawed priests, she would pray beside the dying, exhorting them to contrition and to confidence. One day she carried a woman to her own lodging, placed her in the bed which she shared with another Dame de la Miséricorde, and prayed beside her all the night until she died. Fear seemed unknown to Philippine. Danger was evident, even to her, but she scorned the thought of it if there were hope of saving souls. In those years of terror, she would go at any hour of the night to visit the sick in the hovels they called home and, if she left them before dawn, it was to find her way to some secluded spot where Mass was to be said.
At last there came a respite when with the death of Robespierre in 1794 the application of the laws against the loyal clergy was relaxed. Some of the clerical prisoners were set free and so many exiled priests returned, that the Convention in alarm gave them a month in which to quit France once more. Vacillation was, in most cases, the characteristic of the Convention, which revoked, renewed, and withdrew the renewal of the decrees which it had made." Mother Philippine Duchesne By Marjory Erskine
"The hard soil about them was but a type of the harder soil in the population of the new land which they came to serve. Souls neglected, hardened, arrogant, ignorant, filled with self-conceit, devoted to ease and pleasure and self-indulgence, gave little encouragement for the future. Yet the good nuns struggled on. But in one year they had to leave the placeanother instance of the constant disappointment that was to be Mother Duchesne's earthly portion. "One day the Sacred Heart was to return to that place, and to gather in the harvest she had prepared. This was always her part of the work in our Lord's vineyard. Others reaped where she had conquered the soil inch by inch. She opened the way amidst brambles and briers. She was in the desert the pioneer of Christ." Catholic World, Volume 65 Mother Duchesne BY S. L. EMERY. p 687
