Wednesday of week 34 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Leonard of Porto Maurizio (1676 - 1751)) Leonard was born in Porto Maurizio in 1676, the son of a master mariner. He joined the Franciscan order and for forty-seven years preached, wrote letters and sermons, and travelled the whole length of Italy. The popularity of the Stations of the Cross is much due to the impetus he gave to the devotion. He died at Rome in 1751.(Saint John Berchmans (1599-1621)) John Berchmans was born in Diest, Belgium. He joined the Jesuit novitiate when he was seventeen. Sent to Rome to study philosophy at the Roman College in 1619, he surprised both masters and classmates: he joined an exquisite charity and friendliness to a brilliant intelligence and great emotional maturity. His spiritual diary also reveals the depth of his interior life, which bespeaks a true mystical union with God. His health suffered from the effort he put into studying for his final examination, and he became steadily weaker as he prepared for the disputation. On July 8 1621, he passed his final examination brilliantly, but soon after he fell seriously ill with dysentery and died on 13 August 1621.

Tuesday of week 34 in Ordinary Time, or Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin, Martyr Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Catherine of Alexandria (d. 305)) Legends coming from a number of sources say that St Catherine was very outspoken at the time of the persecutions of Christians. She even protested openly to the emperor Maxentius who had her arrested, tortured on the wheel and decapitated in 305. St Catherine’s courage is a great challenge to all African Christians in their struggle for justice and peace. The witness of her life and her readiness to die for the faith encourages us to be brave witnesses to the Lord and to speak out on behalf of all those who suffer.(Blessed Niels Stensen (1638-86)) Niels Steensen was born as the son of a Copenhagen goldsmith. After studying medicine in Copenhagen, he went on a European study trip, where in the Netherlands he encountered a religious and philosophical diversity that brought him into a religious crisis. He overcame the crisis and found a fervent faith in God’s providence, but he could no longer find the Protestant faith of his homeland convincing. After a series of anatomical discoveries and a stay in Copenhagen, he set out in 1664 on a new study trip, and in Florence he found friends and well-wishers. There he converted to the Catholic Church in 1667 and in the following years made a number of further anatomical and geological discoveries. After a stay in Copenhagen 1672-74, he gave up science and was ordained a priest in 1675 to devote himself to pastoral care among foreign travellers in Tuscany. In 1677 he was made a bishop and sent to Northern Germany, where he worked in Hanover, Münster, Hamburg and finally Schwerin, where he died in the reputation of sanctity. His mortal remains were taken to Florence and today lie in the Medici burial church of San Lorenzo. In 1988 he was beatified by Pope John Paul II. He is loved not only for his pastoral zeal, his deep spirituality and his love for poverty and the poor, but also as an example of the cohesion of natural science and religious knowledge.(Saint Colman of Cloyne (522 - 600)) He was a royal bard who in later life became a bishop. He founded several churches, including the church at Cloyne: he is patron saint of the diocese. See the article in Wikipedia.(Blessed Mother Mary of the Good Shepherd) (Saint Alnoth, Hermit, Martyr)

Saints Andrew Dũng-Lạc and his Companions, MartyrsOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSaints Andrew Dũng-Lạc and his Companions The evangelization of Vietnam began in the 16th century and was formally established with the setting up of two Vicariates Apostolic in 1659. There are now about 6 million Catholics in Vietnam, some 10% of the population.This growth comes partly from the fact that since the earliest times the seed of the Faith has been watered by the blood of the martyrs of Vietnam – the missionary clergy, the local clergy and the ordinary Christian people. They have all shared the labour of apostolic work and have together faced death to bear witness to the truth of the Gospel. In the course of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries no less than 53 decrees, signed by the lords and emperors of the country from 1625 to 1886, launched one persecution of Christians after another, each one more savage than the last. Over the whole territory of Vietnam about 130,000 Christians were killed in these persecutions. Over the centuries the names of most of them have been lost, but their memory is still alive in the Catholic community.Since the beginning of the 20th century 117 of these heroes (those whose sufferings were cruellest and best documented) were beatified, in four groups. They were all canonized together by Pope John Paul II on 19 June 1988.Each one of them was a soul individually created and loved by God, with a life and gifts uniquely his or her own; but with such a huge crowd one can only classify. By nationality, there were 96 Vietnamese, 11 Spanish and 10 French. By status, there were 8 bishops, 50 priests, and 59 laymen and women. By mode of death, 75 were beheaded, 22 strangled, 6 burned alive, 5 torn to pieces while still alive, and 9 died of torture in prison.A description in French or Spanish can be found on the Vatican web site. An interesting and detailed history of the Catholic Church in Vietnam can be found in this blog entry. It includes an English translation of the Vatican text.

Christ the KingOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassChrist the King The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, the sixteenth centenary of the Council of Nicaea at which the doctrine of the consubstantiality of Christ with the Father was defined. Its eschatological character was confirmed by its move, in the calendar reforms of the Second Vatican Council, to the final Sunday of the liturgical year.The Pope asserted that the most effective defence against the destructive forces of the age is the recognition of the kingship of Christ; and, furthermore, a feast which is celebrated every year by everyone is a far better way of deploying that defence than any number of books written by learned people. First, we do; then we come to understand what it is that we are doing.Each of us has been anointed with holy oil at baptism, as priest, prophet and king. The feast of Christ the King is thus a good moment to reflect on our kingship and on what “king” means and how to be one. Understanding the feast makes us understand our own call better.One possible point of entry is in Genesis, where Adam sits in state and God brings him all the animals for him to give them names. To give names to one’s subjects is the act of a king. The responsibility of a king is then to care for his subjects, which is why we are obliged to act as custodians of creation: something no other creature is. How far that responsibility takes one can then be seen in the King of the Universe, who is simultaneously the ruler of all and the servant of all. He rules in triumph; and he rules from the Cross. Perhaps a way into a meditation on all this would be to ask, “Over whom am I, personally, king?” and hence “Whom am I called to serve?”(Pope St Clement I) Clement was Bishop of Rome after Peter, Linus and Cletus. He lived towards the end of the first century, but nothing is known for certain about his life. Clement’s letter to the Corinthian church has survived. It is the first known Patristic document, and exhorts them to peace and brotherly harmony.(Saint Columbanus, Abbot (540? - 615)) He was born in Ireland before the middle of the sixth century. He was a monk from his youth and was learned in both sacred and secular literature. At the age of 45 he left Ireland and went to Europe, where he founded three monasteries in what is now France. His monastic rule was strict, based on Irish practice.King Thierry II of Burgundy had a veneration for Columbanus and often visited him. Columbanus’s criticisms of Thierry’s debauched living and practice of concubinage enraged the king’s grandmother Brunhild, and eventually Columbanus and all other Irish-born monks were ordered to be deported to Ireland. They eluded their captors, and after an unsuccessful attempt to evangelize the pagan tribes near modern-day Zürich they reached Italy, where Columbanus founded the monastery at Bobbio. He died there in 615.The Rule of St Columbanus was eventually superseded by the milder Rule of St Benedict. Columbanus’s writings are among the earliest evidence of Irish knowledge of Latin. Some of what he wrote related to ecclesiastical controversies of the time and is no longer read, but several extracts from his “Instructions” are still part of the Office of Readings. His style combines an underlying passion with a strong and rhythmic rhetorical structure.(Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro (1891 - 1927)) He was born into a mining family in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. He joined the Jesuits in 1911. Government persecution forced the Jesuits to flee to California in 1914, from where he went to study at Granada in Spain. He left there in 1919 and taught in Nicaragua until 1922. Because of his mining background and his natural ability to get on with people, he was sent to Enghien in Belgium to study Catholic labour movements. After his ordination in 1925 he worked among the miners in Charleroi.He returned to Mexico in 1926 because it was thought that his health (which was always poor) would improve in the warm climate. At this time the Church was being severely persecuted. Under the Mexican constitution religious education was banned, and priests were forbidden to wear clerical clothes, speak in public, or vote. In some Mexican states all churches had been closed, many priests had been killed, and the few remaining ones had to work underground at the risk of their lives.Pro celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and administered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics. He was arrested once in October 1926, and then in November 1927 he was falsely accused of an assassination attempt on the ex-president and executed without trial. Detailed photographs of his execution were widely published in Mexican newspapers to intimidate Mexican Catholics, but they were treated as holy pictures by the faithful and had the opposite effect.See also the detailed article in Wikipedia.

Saint Cecilia, Virgin, MartyrOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Cecilia Devotion to St Cecilia, in whose honour a basilica was constructed in Rome in the fifth century, has spread far and wide because of the Passion of Saint Cecilia, which holds her up as a perfect example of a Christian woman, who embraced virginity and suffered martyrdom for the love of Christ.As with early martyrs, nothing much is known about Cecilia except her existence and her name; with the additional complication that so many stories have grown up round her that any remaining historical facts are obscured. No-one knows quite why she should suddenly have become popular in the middle of the sixth century, some 200 years after her death, and her association with music is also a mystery. It may be real, or it may come from the description in the Passion of Cecilia singing to God “in her heart” while the musicians were playing on her wedding day, or it may come from a linguistic confusion: where the Passion describes her being stifled to death candentibus organis, “with the pipes glowing red-hot,” this could have been misread as cantantibus organis, “with the organ playing.”See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin MaryOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassThe Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary In unity with Eastern Christianity, and commemorating the dedication in 543 of the New Basilica of Saint Mary, built next to the Temple at Jerusalem, this feast celebrates Mary’s “dedication” of herself to God from her infancy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, whose grace had filled her ever since her immaculate conception.

Thursday of week 33 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Raphael Kalinowski (1835-1907)) Raphael Kalinowski was born to Polish parents in the city of Wilno in 1835. Poland and Lithuania were at that time occupied by the Prussian, Austrian and Russian Empires.He served in the Imperial Russian Army, but when the Poles rose against their oppressors in 1863 he joined them as Minister of War. Arrested by the Russians, he was condemned in 1864 to ten years of forced labour in Siberia. In 1877, he became a Discalced Carmelite and was ordained a priest in 1882. He contributed greatly to the restoration of many Discalced Carmelite communities in Poland that had previously been suppressed under Russian occupation. His life was distinguished by zeal for Church unity and by his unflagging devotion to his ministry as a confessor and spiritual director. He died in Wadowice, Austria-Hungary, in 1907. The town was later to become famous as the birthplace of Pope John Paul II.MT (Saint Edmund (d.869)) He was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia, covering modern Suffolk, Norfolk, and part of Lincolnshire. Very little documentary evidence for the details of his life exists, but it is known that Edmund was captured and killed by the Danish Great Heathen Army, which invaded England in 869, and the tradition is that he died the death of a Christian martyr.Edmund’s body was buried in a wooden chapel near to where he was killed, but was later transferred to Beadoriceworth, where in 925 Athelstan founded a community devoted to the new cult. Thirty years after Edmund’s death, he was venerated by the Vikings of East Anglia, who produced a coinage to commemorate him.In the 11th century a stone church was built at Bury, and Edmund’s remains were translated to it. The shrine at Bury St Edmunds became one of the greatest pilgrimage locations in England and the town retains St Edmund’s name to this day.

Wednesday of week 33 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Roque González and his companions (-1628)) Saint Roque González de Santa Cruz was born in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, on 17 November 1576. He came from a noble Spanish family but also spoke the local language, Guaraní, from an early age.He was ordained priest at the age of 22 and joined the Jesuits in 1609 to work as a missionary. He was the first European to enter the region that is now the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Delicate diplomacy was required to convince the local Indian leaders that he, as a priest, was not there to prepare the way for European settlement of the land.From 1613 onwards he founded several of the Jesuit ‘reductions’ which brought Indians together to learn to live in settlements. The ‘reductions’ later became part of Brazil as a result of a territorial exchange between the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Because of the support the ‘reductions’ gave the Indians as against the colonial authorities, they were one of the reasons for the suppression of the Jesuits by the Portuguese Empire in the mid-18th century.In the region of Iyuí (now in Brazil) he had difficulties with the local chieftain and sorcerer (‘cacique’) Nheçu (Spanish ‘Ñezú’), who had him killed on 15 November 1628, along with his Spanish companions Juan de Castillo and Alfonso Rodríguez.They were beatified in 1934 and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 16 May 1988.(Blessed Salome, Virgin)

Tuesday of week 33 in Ordinary Time, or Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(The Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul) Already in the twelfth century there was being celebrated today the anniversary of the dedication of the basilicas of St Peter at the Vatican and St Paul in the Via Ostiense by Pope St Silvester and Pope St Siricius in the fourth century. More recently this commemoration has been extended to the whole Church, honouring the two greatest apostles of Christ just as the anniversary of the dedication of St Mary Major (5 August) celebrates the motherhood of the Virgin Mother of God.(Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769 - 1852)) She was born to a noble family at Grenoble in France. She joined the Visitation nuns at the age of 18 but the community was abolished by the French Revolution. After several attempts to re-establish it, Philippine with some of her companions joined the recently-founded Religious of the Sacred Heart. She had always dreamt of being a missionary and in 1818 she sailed for the New World. She landed at New Orleans and she and her companions settled at St Charles, Missouri. They founded an orphanage: other foundations followed, and she is credited with saving the Jesuit mission to Missouri from failure, helping them in any way she could and sharing her community’s few resources with them.Philippine longed to spread the gospel among the Indian tribes. At the age of 72 she went with three companions to start a school for Indian girls at Sugar Creek, Kansas. She only stayed there a year, but although she was unable to learn the language her habit of constant prayer was a lasting inspiration to the pupils. She spent the last 10 years of her life back at St Charles, in constant prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.(Blessed Karolina Kózkówna, Virgin, Martyr)

Pope Francis' top diplomats met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on April 19, where the two sides discussed migrants and refugees following months of clashes between U.S. church leaders and the Trump administration over immigration policy and foreign aid.