4th Sunday in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Brigid (451? - 525)) She was born in 451 or 452 at Faughart, near Dundalk, in Ireland. Her name is that of the pagan goddess of fire. She converted to Christanity, inspired by the preaching of St Patrick. She founded a double monastery, of monks and nuns, at Kildare, the first women’s monastic community in Ireland, and she died there in 525. See the articles in Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(St Henry Morse (1595-1645)) Henry Morse was born into a Church of England family in 1595 at Brome, Suffolk. He converted to Catholicism, studied for the priesthood in Rome and was sent on the English mission in 1620. He was almost immediately arrested and imprisoned in York Castle. He had already declared that he wished to become a Jesuit, and spent the three years he was then in prison as his novitiate. On his release he was banished and went to Flanders for a while before returning to England. He worked as a covert priest in London, and among plague victims in 1636, when he caught the plague himself though soon recovered. He was again arrested and exiled but within two years had returned to England. For a time he ministered in the south of the country, then after a brief ministry in the north he was arrested in Cumberland and although he escaped he was soon rearrested and taken to London, where he was convicted for practising as a Catholic priest and condemned to death. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered on 1 February 1645 at Tyburn, London.DK (Blessed Benedict Daswa (1946-1990)) Tshimangadzo Samuel Benedict Daswa was born on 16th June 1946 in the village of Mbahe near Thohoyandou in the province of Limpopo, South Africa. He belonged to the small Lemba tribe who claim Jewish ancestry and observe some Jewish customs, mainly around diet. They live mostly among the Venda people and speak the Venda language. Tshimangadzo was the eldest in a family of four sons and one daughter. They grew up in the traditional animism (ancestor veneration) religion of their parents, and at the age of seventeen Benedict was baptized and received into the Catholic Church. He was strongly influenced by Benedict Risimati, a local teacher who instructed him in preparation for baptism. This voluntary catechist was a very committed member of the Church and spoke to his catechumens about St. Benedict and other Saints as role models. This led Tshimangadzo to choose Benedict as his baptismal name. He also took the Saint’s motto, ora et labora (“pray and work”) as his own, in living out his baptismal promises. Inspired by this great Saint, Blessed Benedict led an exemplary Christian life with an intense love for the Lord and His Blessed Mother. He grew steadily in the faith nourished by daily prayer, the reading of the bible, the Eucharist, frequent confession and helping the poor by charitable deeds.As a devoted husband and loving father, Bl. Benedict Daswa is a real role model for Christian families. He built up his family as a little domestic church where the bible was read and where they all prayed together with a special devotion to the Bl. Virgin Mary our spiritual mother. There in the heart of a loving family Benedict made sure that the basic truths of the faith, as well as the commandments of God and the sacraments of the Church, were taught and explained to the children. Blessed Benedict knew that this was the way for Christian families to initiate the next generation into the Christian way of life and give them a strong Catholic identity. Blessed Benedict was an active member of the local Catholic community, as a voluntary catechist and an effective youth leader. When no priest was available for Sunday mass, he frequently conducted the Sunday service for his own community and also for other Catholic communities in the district. Blessed Benedict was a dedicated school principal and was also active in promoting the welfare of his local village community. On becoming a Catholic he realized he had to make a complete break with the prevailing practices of witchcraft and sorcery in his traditional African culture. He was well aware of all the fear and violence leading at times to the death of innocent people, which were associated with these practices. He took a public stand against them and this was resented by some members of the community. He was fully aware that this public witness involved risks for himself and for his family. On the 2nd of February 1990 as he was driving home in the evening, he was ambushed and attacked by a mob of young people who stoned and clubbed him to death. He was survived by his wife and seven young children – his eighth child was born a few months after his death. He was beatified as a martyr for the faith on 13 September 2015. Blessed Benedict Daswa, a humble son of Africa, is good role model for all believers as a courageous witness to the faith and a true apostle of life and family.Bishop-Emeritus Hugh Slattery msc (Bl Candelaria of St Joseph (1863-1940)) Blessed Candelaria was born Susanna Paz Castillo Ramirez in 1863 at Altagracia de Orituco, south-east of Caracas, Venuzuela. Susanna learnt from her parents that the good things that she had were a blessing from God and should be shared with others, as Jesus had done. When Susanna was twenty-four her mother died and she quickly took up the care of the household and her extended family.In 1899, Venezuela was thrust into a regime of cruelty and corruption when General Cipriano Castro seized power. An ensuing rebellion in Altagracia, left many dead and wounded which caused a rapid spread of disease. With no relief agencies or medical services Susanna saw a clear duty to aid the suffering. She took many wounded into her own home, as well as setting up a makeshift hospital in an unused building next to her home. In the midst of the devastation of the war, Susanna provided love and care for the suffering. Her work expanded and in 1910 Susanna and five other women took religious vows and established a congregation, supported by the local bishop, called the “Little Sisters of the Poor of Altagracia”. Susanna took the religious name Candelaria of St Joseph because of her particular personal devotion to the feast of the Presentation (Candlemas).Word and reputation of Madre Candelaria’s work spread to surrounding towns, particularly the reputation of the sisters’ love and concern toward the sick and the poor. Other towns pleaded for their help and four more communities and hospitals were established between 1915 and 1922. Much of the work was financially supported by Candelaria’s own extended begging excursions, who travelled the length and breadth of Venezuela asking people directly for their support. She insisted that she wasn’t ashamed to beg for money, since helping the poorest of the poor was a beautiful thing, and everyone should be welcomed to help, even if only a little. Her solution to even the most difficult patients was: to love them back to health, as Jesus had done.In 1922, Mother Candelaria approached the Carmelites friars who were founding missions in Venezuela and with the approval of the local Bishop, the congregation became the Third Order Regular Carmelite Sisters of Venezuela.When Candelaria could no longer travel or work actively, she remained an inspiration to her sisters, encouraging them in an awareness of God’s ever present healing kindness. After a full life of prayerful service she died in 1940 and was beatified in 2008.MT

Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop, DoctorOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622) He was born near Annecy, in Savoy, studied the law, and was ordained to the priesthood despite the opposition of his father. His first mission was to re-evangelize the people of his home district (the Chablais), who had gone over to Calvinism. Always in danger of his life from hostile Calvinists, he preached with such effectiveness that after four years most of the people had returned to the Church. He was then appointed bishop of Geneva, and spent the rest of his life reforming and reorganising the diocese, and in caring for the souls of his people by preaching and spiritual guidance.St Francis taught that we can all attain a devout and spiritual life, whatever our position in society: holiness is not reserved for monks and hermits alone. He wrote that “religious devotion does not destroy: it perfects,” and his spiritual counsel is dedicated to making people more holy by making them more themselves. In his preaching against Calvinism he was driven by love rather than a desire to win: so much so, that it was a Calvinist minister who said “if we honoured anyone as a saint, I know of no-one since the days of the Apostles more worthy of it than this man.”St Francis is the patron saint of writers and journalists, who would do well to imitate his love and his moderation: as he said, “whoever wants to preach effectively must preach with love.”

Saint John Bosco, PriestOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt John Bosco (1815 - 1888) He was born in Piedmont of a peasant family, and he was brought up by his widowed mother. He became a priest, and his particular concern was for the young. He settled in Turin, where, as in so many cities in the 19th century, the industrial revolution was bringing enormous movements of population and consequent social problems, especially for the young men who came there to work. John Bosco devoted himself to the care of the young, first of all by means of evening classes, to which hundreds came, and then by setting up a boarding-house for apprentices, and then workshops for their training and education. Despite many difficulties, caused both by the anti-clerical civil authorities and by the opposition of some senior people within the Church, his enterprise grew, and by 1868 over 800 boys and young men were under his care. To ensure the continuation of his work, he founded a congregation, which he named after St Francis de Sales (a saint for whom he had great admiration), and today the Salesians continue his work all over the world.(Saint Alban Roe) He was born in East Anglia of Church of England parents as Bartholomew Roe, July 20, 1583. He studied for a time at Cambridge where he first met a number of Catholics and began to have doubts about the faith in which he had been brought up. For some time he wrestled with his doubts until it became clear to him that he was in conscience bound to become a Catholic. He studied first of all at Douai but after a year he was sent back to England, on the grounds that he had disturbed the peace and order of the College (he was apparently an ebullient character, a characteristic which stayed with him all his life). Having left he was accepted into the Benedictine community at Dieulouard (from which the monastery at Ampleforth is descended), was professed as Bro Alban in 1614, and was ordained priest a year later. Very soon he was sent to England. After working for three years as a priest in London he was arrested and taken to the Fleet prison. He spent three years in the Fleet when the Spanish ambassador obtained his release, conditional on his leaving the country for good. However he soon returned, spent a further three years working in London, was again arrested and was this time first imprisoned in St Alban’s (a particularly harsh prison) and then transferred to the Fleet where he stayed for many years. In 1641 he was transferred to Newgate to face trial, when he was found guilty of treason. On 21 January 1642 he died on the scaffold, being allowed to hang until he was dead. According to a contemporary source, in his death he showed “joy, contentment, constancy, fortitude and valour”. The feast is on 31 January according to the modern Gregorian calendar, already in use on the Continent: this corresponds to 21 January in the previous Julian calendar, which England was still using at that time.DK (Saint Thomas Green (c.1560-1642)) Thomas Green (also known as Reynolds), was over eighty when he was executed. He was probably descended from the Greens of Great Milton in Oxfordshire, and the Reynolds of Old Stratford in Warwickshire. He was ordained deacon at Reims in 1590, and priest at Seville. He came to England early in the 1600s and spent nearly fifty years working on the English mission. He was arrested in 1628 and spent the next fourteen years in prison under sentence of death for having worked as a priest. He was executed without fresh trial. He was somewhat frail and was much encouraged by his companion Alban Roe, to whom he said, “glad I am to have for my comrade in death a man of your undoubted courage.” The two of them were drawn on the same hurdle, where they heard each other’s confessions, and were hanged simultaneously on the same gibbet on January 21 1642, amidst great demonstrations of popular sympathy.DK

Friday of week 3 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Aedan of Ferns (c.550 - 632)) He was the son of an Irish tribal chieftain and studied under St Finian and St David. He was the first bishop of Ferns, in Ireland, and founded many churches and monasteries. See the article in Wikipedia.

Thursday of week 3 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Blessed Bolesława Maria Lament, Virgin) (Bl Archangela Girlani (1460-1495)) Blessed Archangela Girlani was born Eleanor Girlani in 1460 at Trino, in northern Italy, to a noble family. At age seventeen, she, along with her two sisters, Maria and Frances, took the Carmelite habit in the monastery at Parma. Eleanor took the religious name Archangela. She later become prioress of the monastery at Parma, and then prioress at a new foundation at Mantua in 1492. She died at Mantua in January 1495 in her third year as prioress there. Apart from her role of service to the monasteries in which she was prioress, Archangela’s Carmelite life is remembered as one permeated by strivings in the mystical life of prayer. Her frequent prayer was “Jesus, my Love.”MT (Bl. Villana de' Botti OP (1332 - 1361)) Lay Dominican and Wife.Blessed Villana, the daughter of a rich merchant, was born at Florence in 1332. She married the wealthy Pietro Benitendo and together with her husband lived a worldly life which their wealth sustained. Realizing the emptiness of her life, Villana went to the friars of Santa Maria Novella to confess her sins and ask for the habit of the sisters of Penance of St. Dominic. She took up the study of scripture and the contemplation of Christ crucified and drew other women to follow her example. She died on January 29, 1361.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest, DoctorOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274) He was born of a noble family in southern Italy, and was educated by the Benedictines. In the normal course of events he would have joined that order and taken up a position suitable to his rank; but he decided to become a Dominican instead. His family were so scandalised by this disreputable plan that they kidnapped him and kept him prisoner for over a year; but he was more obstinate than they were, and he had his way at last.He studied in Paris and in Cologne under the great philosopher St Albert the Great. It was a time of great philosophical ferment. The writings of Aristotle, the greatest philosopher of the ancient world, had been newly rediscovered, and were becoming available to people in the West for the first time in a thousand years. Many feared that Aristotelianism was flatly contradictory to Christianity, and the teaching of Aristotle was banned in many universities at this time – the fact that Aristotle’s works were coming to the West from mostly Muslim sources did nothing to help matters.Into this chaos Thomas brought simple, straightforward sense. Truth cannot contradict truth: if Aristotle (the great, infallible pagan philosopher) appears to contradict Christianity (which we know by faith to be true), then either Aristotle is wrong or the contradiction is in fact illusory. And so Thomas studied, and taught, and argued, and eventually the simple, common-sense philosophy that he worked out brought an end to the controversy. Out of his work came many writings on philosophy and theology, including the Summa Theologiae, a standard textbook for many centuries and still an irreplaceable resource today. Out of his depth of learning came, also, the dazzling poetry of the liturgy for Corpus Christi. And out of his sanctity came the day when, celebrating Mass, he had a vision that, he said, made all his writings seem like so much straw; and he wrote no more.Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to inspire us, like St Thomas, to love God with our minds as well as our hearts; and if we come across a fact or a teaching that seems to us to contradict our faith, let us not reject it but investigate it: for the truth that it contains can never contradict the truth that is God.

Tuesday of week 3 in Ordinary Time, or Saint Angela Merici, Virgin Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Angela Merici (1470 - 1540)) She was born in Desenziano, in Lombardy, in about 1470. She became a Franciscan tertiary and set up a school to instruct girls in Christianity and good works. In 1535 she founded the Ursulines, an order of nuns devoted to giving a Christian education to girls from poor families. She died in 1540. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.(Blessed Jerzy Matulewicz, Bishop) (Blessed Edward Oldcorne (1561-1606)) Edward Oldcorne was born in the City of York in 1561, the son of a bricklayer. He studied abroad from 1581, first at Rheims, then at the Venerable English College, Rome, where he was ordained in 1587. While in Rome, he joined the Society of Jesus. Once back in England, he worked in Worcestershire for eighteen years with great success in reconciling men and women to the Church. At the time of the Gunpowder Plot he was captured at Hindlip House on 27 January 1606, taken to London and racked. His trial for treason took place at Worcester, where he was executed on 7 April 1606 on Red Hill. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929; his memorial is kept on the day of his capture.Birmingham Ordo (St Henry de Osso (1840-1896)) Saint Henry de Osso y Cervello was born on 16 October 1840, the last of three children born to Jamie de Osso and Micaela Cervello. In 1852 he was apprenticed to his uncle who worked in the textile trade. His growing desire to serve in ordained ministry later led him to begin seminary studies in 1854 in Barcelona. Henry was later ordained to the priesthood on 21 September 1867. During his ministry he proved to be an able catechist and was particularly noted for supporting the education of women. This skill led him to found the Society of Saint Teresa of Jesus (in whom he found spiritual inspiration) for the education of women, in Tarragona in 1876. Later he also founded the mass-movement Hermanadad Teresiana Universal and a Josephine congregation for women and men. Henry died suddenly during his work on 27 January 1896 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1993.MT (Bl. Marcolino of Forli OP (1317 - 1397)) Dominican Friar and Priest.Blessed Marcolino was born in Forli, Italy, in 1317 and entered the Dominican Order as a youth. He loved silence and solitude and was noted for his devotion to the Virgin Mother of God. He supported the reform efforts of Raymond of Capua, faithfully carried out his priestly ministry and performed works of charity. He was a counselor for many. especially of the sick. He died on January 24, 1397.

Saints Timothy and Titus, BishopsOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSaints Timothy and Titus Timothy and Titus were converted to Christianity by St Paul, and became his companions and helpers. Paul entrusted Timothy with the care of the Christians in Ephesus, and sent Titus to Crete to look after the Christians there. He wrote them the so-called “pastoral” epistles, giving advice for pastors and people alike.(Australia Day)

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Sunday of the Word of God)Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSunday of the Word of God ‘…At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I proposed setting aside “a Sunday given over entirely to the word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people”. Devoting a specific Sunday of the liturgical year to the word of God can enable the Church to experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world…‘Consequently, I hereby declare that the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time is to be devoted to the celebration, study and dissemination of the word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus be a fitting part of that time of the year when we are encouraged to strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity. This is more than a temporal coincidence: the celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God has ecumenical value, since the Scriptures point out, for those who listen, the path to authentic and firm unity.‘The various communities will find their own ways to mark this Sunday with a certain solemnity. It is important, however, that in the Eucharistic celebration the sacred text be enthroned, in order to focus the attention of the assembly on the normative value of God’s word. On this Sunday, it would be particularly appropriate to highlight the proclamation of the word of the Lord and to emphasize in the homily the honour that it is due. Bishops could celebrate the Rite of Installation of Lectors or a similar commissioning of readers, in order to bring out the importance of the proclamation of God’s word in the liturgy. In this regard, renewed efforts should be made to provide members of the faithful with the training needed to be genuine proclaimers of the word, as is already the practice in the case of acolytes or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion. Pastors can also find ways of giving a Bible, or one of its books, to the entire assembly as a way of showing the importance of learning how to read, appreciate and pray daily with sacred Scripture, especially through the practice of lectio divina.’The Apostolic Letter "Aperuit Illis" of Pope Francis (The Conversion of Saint Paul) Saul, the young man who looked after the cloaks of the men who were stoning St Stephen, grew into a dedicated and efficient persecutor of Christians. Today’s feast celebrates the day that Christ appeared to him in a vision as he was on the way to Damascus, reproached him for his persecutions and converted him to the true faith.

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.