Monday 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)

Tuesday 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, and because of the support they 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.(St Raphael Kalinowski (1835-1907))

Wednesday of week 33 in Ordinary TimeOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(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.