The Shepherds' Visit
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 30, 2025 at 11:00PM in Meditations for Christmas
Gerard van Honthorst (1592–1656) Adoration of the Shepherds (c. 1622). Pomerania State Museum
"The first who came to pay their homage to the new-born King were the shepherds who were watching in the fields of Bethlehem, and to whom an angel had announced the birth of Christ the Lord. They received this honor because:
1. They were poor, and therefore were well suited to gather round the King Who came to live in poverty on earth. The Eternal Father chose poverty for His well-beloved Son, and therefore poverty must be better than riches. The poor are to be envied rather than pitied so long as their poverty is not due to their own sin or folly. How many who have saved their souls in poverty would have lost them if they had been rich ! Hence, if you are poor, do not regret your poverty, but rather rejoice in it.
2. They were simple of heart, untainted by the world's deceits. None but good, simple men would have thus come in the darkness of the night, to the stable of Bethlehem, to find their Savior and their King. God loves simplicity. "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be light-some," says Our Lord, and He thereby describes the happy lot of those whose one aim is to do their work with simplicity for God alone. Is this my spirit?
3. They were shepherds. The occupation is one which God seems to love. The man after God's own heart was a shepherd. Our Lord calls Himself the Good Shepherd. The apostles' dignity lies in the fact that they were shepherds of the flock. Every Christian is a shepherd, in that some sheep or lands are committed to his care. Am I a zealous shepherd of the sheep of Christ ?"
Meditations for Christmas . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891
Disorderly Christians
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 30, 2025 at 11:00PM in Quotes
"From the commencement of the fifth century, the number of disorderly Christians were so great, that St. Augustine believed himself obliged to warn those pagans of it who wished to become converts, that they might be less surprised and scandalized. The general laxity had crept even among the clergy. St. Jerome says of the ecclesiastics of Rome: "There are among them those who solicit the priesthood or deaconship that they may be able to approach women more freely; all their care consists in adorning their persons with costly and elegant apparel; they use perfumes and curl their hair with irons; rings glitter on their fingers, they walk with an affected gait; you would think them young bridegrooms rather than clergymen."
Source: The United States Catholic Magazine and Monthly Review, Volume 3
St. Sabinus and companions, Martyrs, A.D, 304.
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 30, 2025 at 03:00AM in Saints
"St. Sabinus was bishop of Spoletum, and in the persecution of Maximian was seized by Venustianus, president of the city, and for breaking an image of Jupiter, which he was commanded to adore, had his hands immediately cut off, and then was cast into prison, where he was supported by the charity of a pious widow. His two deacons, Marcellus and Exuperantius, were scourged, beaten with clubs, and torn with iron nails or broad tenter hooks, under which torments they both expired. Venustianus, being afterwards miraculously healed of a violent distemper in his eyes, by the holy bishop, became a Christian; and being baptized with his wife and children, they were soon after put to death by the emperor's order, and Sabinus beaten with staves till he expired.
Thus are you encouraged to suffer in the service of your God. If you have not the persecutor to threaten you with the sword,
you have an enemy at least, who offers you idols to adore. He offers
many; and while you express your abhorrence against some, is there not
any one to which you are more favourable? To adore only one, is enough to be an
idolater. What if it be company, drink, or money? What if a sensual friend, the courted world, or our own admired self? There may be idolatry enough in any one of these; and it is too likely to be so with you, if, like this prelate, you do not violence to the idol, or to yourself, if not by breaking, at least by separation. See what it cost him: think not of escaping, if you expect to do so without pain or trouble: you will never be a conqueror, if you are afraid of hurting yourself. How powerfully do the martyrs
cry out to us by their example, exhorting us to despise a false and
wicked world! A soul can find no rest in creatures. How long then shall
we suffer ourselves to be seduced by them? Let the light of heaven, and the truths of the gospel shine upon us, and the illusions of the world and our senses will disappear." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
