Wednesday of week 25 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Our Lady of Ransom) (St Stephanie) Very little is known about St Stephanie who was martyred at Denderah in Egypt in the fourth century. Stephanie, who was only 18 years old, suffered death together with about 500 Christians who were accused of preferring Christ to the local gods. Their faith and courage are a great challenge for us today.(Our Lady of Walsingham) The lady of the manor of Walsingham in Norfolk, Richeldis de Faverches, was instructed by a vision of the Virgin Mary to build in her village an exact replica of the house in Nazareth in which the Annunciation had taken place. The vision occurred, according to tradition, in 1061, though a more likely date for the construction of the shrine is a hundred years later. This feast celebrates the shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Walsingham, one of the great pilgrimage centres of medieval times. The original house was destroyed at the Reformation, but the Shrine was re-established at King’s Lynn in 1897 and the Slipper Chapel became the National Shrine in 1943. The Shrine was raised to the rank of Minor Basilica by Pope Francis in 2015.East Anglian Ordo (Blessed Émilie Tavernier-Gamelin (1800 - 1851)) She was born at Montréal on 19 February 1800. She married in 1823 but was widowed four years later and devoted her life, and her fortune, to charitable works.Inspired by her, Bishop Ignace Bourget founded a new religious congregation, which he named the Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor, and Émilie Tavernier-Gamelin became its first Superior. The congregation grew and grew, serving the poor, the sick, the old and the insane. The congregation is generally known as the Sisters of Providence and it now serves in nine countries: Canada, the United States, Chile, Philippines, Argentina, El Salvador, Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt.Mother Émilie Gamelin was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 18 December 2000.(Saint Rupert, Bishop) (Blessed Anton Martin Slomšek, Bishop)

Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, MartyrsOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassPope St Cornelius ( - 253) Cornelius was made bishop of the church in Rome in the year 251. He fought against the Novatian schismatics, and established his authority with the aid of Cyprian.The emperor Gallus sent him into exile, and he died at Civitavecchia in June 253. He is buried in Rome.See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.St Cyprian (210 - 258) He was born in Carthage and spent most of his life in the practice of the law. He was converted to Christianity, and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. He steered the church through troubled times, including the persecution of the emperor Decius, when he went into hiding so as to be able to continue looking after the church. In 258 the persecution of the emperor Valerian began. Cyprian was first exiled and then, on the 14th of September, executed, after a trial notable for the calm and courtesy shown by both sides.Cyprian’s many letters and treatises shed much light on a formative period in the Church’s history, and are valuable both for their doctrine and for the picture they paint of a group of people in constant peril of their lives but still determined to keep the faith.See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(St Ninian (c.360 - 432)) He was born in Cumbria and was ordained bishop in Rome in 394. He landed at Whithorn in Galloway in 397 and built a white-painted stone church there which was called Candida Casa, “White House.” From this centre he preached the Gospel in Scotland.

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio), PriestOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Pio of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) He was born in the small village of Pietrelcina in southern Italy, and joined the Capuchin friars at the age of 16. He became a priest seven years later, and spent fifty years at the monastery of San Giovanni Rotondo, where he was very much sought after as a spiritual advisor, confessor, and intercessor. Many miracles were popularly ascribed to him during his lifetime. He died a few days after the fiftieth anniversary of his receiving the stigmata, and over 100,000 people attended his funeral.(Saint Adomnan of Iona (627/8 - 704)) (His name is written as Adamnan or Adomnan and anglicised as Eunan). He was educated by the Columban monks of his native place, subsequently becoming a novice at Iona in 650. In 679 he succeeded to the abbacy of Iona, which position he held up to his death. He was also president-general of all the Columban houses in Ireland. During his rule he paid three lengthy visits to Ireland, one of which is memorable for his success in introducing the Roman dating and celebration of Easter. On his third visit (697) he assisted at the Synod of Tara, when the Cain Adamnain, or Canon of Adamnan (the “Law of Innocents”) was adopted, which freed women and children from the evils inseparable from war, forbidding them to be killed or made captive in times of strife. He is famous for his Life of St Columba, written some time after 688, which has been praised as the best and most complete biography written in Europe for many centuries.

Monday of week 25 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Maurice and the Theban Legion (d. 287)) Maurice (a name which means ‘black’) was a native of Thebes in Upper Egypt. When he was young, he was conscripted into the Roman army together with many youths of his area, and sent, for military service, to Switzerland. Before battle, the emperor ordered his soldiers to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods but the Theban Legion, headed by Maurice, refused. They remained steadfast even after being asked several times to apostatize, in loyalty to the emperor. Their allegiance to Christ earned them the crown of martyrdom in the year 287.

25th Sunday in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist) He was born in Capernaum, and was working as a tax-collector when Jesus called him. He is thought by some scholars to have written an early version of his gospel in Aramaic, a precursor to the Greek version we now have. He is also said to have preached in the East.See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Saints Andrew Kim Taegon, Priest, and Paul Chong Hasang, and their Companions, MartyrsOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Andrew Kim Taegǒn, Paul Chong Hasang, and companions For centuries, Korea was closed to all outside influences, and all contact with foreigners was forbidden. No missionaries went there. Nevertheless, a number of laymen sought to find out all that they could about the outside world, through the annual embassy to Peking. Some books about Christianity fell into their hands, and they were converted. Because of the secrecy involved, it is impossible to date the origin of Christianity in Korea with any precision: it may have started in the early 17th century, but the first known baptism is that of Ni-Seoung-Houn, who was baptized under the name of Peter when he visited Peking in 1784.The first known martyrs are Paul Youn and James Kouen, who in 1791 refused to offer sacrifice on the death of their relatives. Over the next century, over ten thousand Korean Christians were executed, with great cruelty; and many others perished.For most of this period the church in Korea had no priests and was an entirely lay phenomenon. In 1794 the first priest to visit Korea, a Chinese, found a community of 4,000 Catholics who had never seen a priest. He was executed in 1801. Two further Chinese priests, sent at the request of the Korean Church, had a similarly brief ministry. Some thirty years later, at the request of the Korean Catholics, Pope Leo XII established the Prefecture Apostolic of Korea, and a new missionary phase began. The first of these missionaries, a French priest from the Paris Foreign Mission Society, entered the country in 1836 and was beheaded three years later. Many others followed. Andrew Kim Taegǒn, the first Korean priest, was secretly trained in Macao, entered Korea in 1845 and was executed in 1846, together with his father. A lay apostle, St Paul Chong Hasang, and many others perished at the same time. A further major persecution occurred in 1866.In all, 103 of the Korean martyrs are celebrated today: they are mostly lay men and women: some married, some not; some old, some young, some even children. “The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by laypeople. This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these many martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today’s splendid flowering of the Church in Korea. Even today their undying spirit sustains the Christians of the Church of Silence in the north of this tragically divided land.” – Pope John Paul II at the canonization of the Korean Martyrs, May 6, 1984.

Friday of week 24 in Ordinary Time, or Saint Januarius, Bishop, Martyr Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Januarius) Nothing is really known about St Januarius. The tradition is that he was a bishop of Benevento who was martyred at Puteoli in the early fourth century, but no historical records exist. His body lies in Naples, where his cult is taken very seriously indeed.See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(St Theodore of Tarsus (601 - 690)) He was born in Tarsus, in modern Turkey. A Greek by birth, he became a monk in Italy. He was not ordained priest until at the age of 65 he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian. He arrived in England in 669 and spent the rest of his life reorganising and reforming the life of the Church throughout the country, holding visitations and synods, establishing new dioceses and a great school at Canterbury, and reconciling divisions between the Celtic and Roman ecclesiastical traditions. He died at Canterbury on 19 September 690. He is remembered for his scholarship and for bringing unity and organisation to a divided church.(Our Lady of La Salette)

Thursday of week 24 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Edith of Kemsing (961 - 984)) She is also known as Edith of Wilton.She was the daughter of King Edgar, who abducted Wulfthryth, her mother, from her convent at Wilton, in Wiltshire. (For this act St Dunstan imposed on him the penance of not wearing his crown for seven years). Wulfthryth returned to her cell as soon as she could escape, and Edith was born there. She became a nun with Edgar’s consent, and refused his offers of the abbacy of three different communities, remaining in the cloister under her mother, now Abbess of Wilton.In 978, after the murder of her half-brother, Edward the Martyr, certain magnates wished her to become Queen, but she refused. She was conspicuous for her personal service of the poor and fondness for wild animals. She had a church of St Denis built at Wilton, and died, at the age of 23, three weeks after its dedication.See also the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.(Saint Stanisław Kostka (1550-1568)) Stanisław Kostka (1550-1568) was born into a noble family in Poland. In 1567 he was sent to the Jesuit college in Vienna to complete his studies. Soon after, he expressed the desire to enter the Society of Jesus. The local Jesuit authorities, fearing the negative reaction of his father, hesitated to receive him. Stanisław, quickly grasping the difficulty raised by the opposition of his family, walked the 500 miles to Germany, from where with the encouragement and blessing of Saint Peter Canisius, the provincial superior, he went on to Rome. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus there. In the novitiate, Stanisław was blessed with mystical experiences. He died of illness on August 15, 1568.(Saint Juan Macias, Religious)

Wednesday of week 24 in Ordinary Time, or Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop, Doctor , or Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin, Doctor Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Robert Bellarmine (1542 - 1621)) He was born in Montepulciano, in Tuscany, and became a Jesuit. He taught theology in Rome, and was active in disputation against the Protestants, where his effectiveness was increased by his charity and moderation. He was a moderating influence in the Galileo affair, and gave Galileo much friendly advice. In due course he was nominated a cardinal and archbishop of Capua; but it is for his writings that he is chiefly known. He did not only write controversial works: he also wrote two catechisms and some devotional commentaries on the Psalms and on the Seven Last Words.See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)) Hildegard was born in Bermersheim in Germany in 1098, and in 1115 she entered the Benedictine abbey at the Disbodenberg. Around 1150 she founded the monastery at Rupertsberg, near Bingen, which she ruled as abbess.She was expert both in natural science and in music. In her contemplative prayer she received mystical revelations which she communicated in very many written works, directed at clergy and laity alike. She preached penitence and disproved doctrinal errors, so that even princes and Popes turned to her for advice. She died of an illness in 1179.(St Albert of Jerusalem (c.1150-1214)) St Albert of Jerusalem, as Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote the foundational document that constitutes the Carmelite Rule in the early thirteenth century, and is honoured as the rule or lawgiver of the Carmelites.Albert Avogadro was born in Castel Gualetri, Italy, during the middle of the twelfth century. He was educated in theology and law, and entered the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross at Mortara in 1180. Albert, gifted in leadership, was named Bishop of Bobbio in 1184, then Bishop of Vercelli in 1185, and then Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1205. In each of these roles he is noted for his pastoral leadership and skill as a conciliator and peace maker. While he was Patriarch of Jerusalem (1206-1214), Albert wrote a formula vitae, or way of life, for the hermits living on Mount Carmel, the founding community of the Carmelite Order. Often referred to as the Rule of St Albert, the document reveals a deep familiarity with Scripture and an authentic understanding and expression of Christian spirituality. On the 14th September 1214, Albert was attacked and killed during a procession of the Feast of the Holy Cross, in Acre, Israel.MT

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.