3rd Sunday of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St John of God (1495 - 1550)) He was born to a poor but devout family in Portugal in 1495. After serving as a soldier under the Emperor Charles V he devoted his life wholly to the service of the poor and the sick. He founded a hospital in Granada and a circle of disciples formed round him, which later became the Order of Hospitallers. He died on 8 March 1550, his 55th birthday. See the articles in Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopaedia.(Saint Senan, Bishop (488 - 544)) He is one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He was born in County Clare, and having travelled and studied in Europe he returned to Ireland, where he established a church and monastery at Inniscarra, in Cork. He then moved back to his native district and eventually founded a monastery (with an exceptionally austere rule) at Scattery, an island off Kilrush, where he died. See the article by Clare Library.(Saint Duthac (1000-1065)) He was born in Tain, in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. He was educated in Ireland, and was Bishop of Ross.(St Felix (7th century)) A native of Burgundy, Felix became a bishop in Gaul and offered himself to work for the conversion of the East Angles. In 630 Sigebert, their king, came back from exile and work began.Felix undertook the mission with the approval of Honorius of Canterbury, and placed his episcopal see at Dunwich, now washed away by the sea. He preached with great success in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.East Anglian Ordo

Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent, (commemoration of Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs) Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saints Perpetua and Felicity (- 203)) They were martyred at Carthage in 203 during the persecution of Septimius Severus. With so many martyrs of the third and fourth centuries we have to say “they were martyred but nothing else is known about them.” That is not the case here. We have a detailed contemporary account of their arrest, trial, sufferings and martyrdom, written partly by the saints themselves and partly by an eye-witness. Devotion to them spread rapidly and they are mentioned in the Roman Canon of the Mass. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article contains links to the original account of their martyrdom.

Friday of the 2nd week of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Kyneburgha (- c.680)) She was the eldest daughter of Penda, the pagan King of Mercia. She married King Ealhfrith, co-regent of Northumbria, but later left him and established an abbey at Castor, near Peterborough, of which she became the first abbess. She was buried in her church: her remains were later removed to the abbey in Peterborough, where she was venerated as a saint by the monastic community.East Anglian Ordo

Saturday of the 1st week of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Oswald (-992)) Oswald received his formation as a Benedictine monk in the Abbey of Fleury-sur-Loire in France and became Bishop of Worcester in 961. With St Dunstan and St Ethelwold he worked hard at reviving monastic life in Anglo-Saxon England after the disruption of the Danish invasions. He was noted for his attractive and accessible character and for the exemplary way in which he celebrated the liturgy. He had a special love of the poor; in Lent he would wash the feet of twelve poor men every day. In 972 he became Archbishop of York and administered the two dioceses. He died at Worcester on 28 February 992.Birmingham Ordo

Thursday of the 2nd week of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Kieran) Kieran, or Ciarán of Saighir, was an Irish monk and bishop, active in the fifth or sixth century, and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is the patron saint of the diocese of Ossory. See the article in Wikipedia.(Saint Piran, Abbot) (St Lucius I, Pope and Martyr)

Wednesday of the 2nd week of Lent, (commemoration of Saint Casimir) Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Casimir (1458 - 1484)) He was the second son of King Casimir IV of Poland. He assiduously cultivated the Christian virtues, especially chastity and generosity to the poor. Zealous in faith, he had a particular devotion to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary. For several years, while his father was away in Lithuania (the Kings of Poland at this time were also Grand Dukes of Lithuania), he ruled Poland with great prudence and justice. He died of tuberculosis on 4 March 1484. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.

Tuesday of the 2nd week of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St Katharine Drexel (1858 - 1955)) She was born in Philadelphia to a rich banking family. In 1891, at the age of 33, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, an order dedicated to mission work among Indians and black people. (A survey of the situation in the United States at this time described “250,000 Indians neglected, if not practically abandoned, and over nine million of negroes still struggling through the aftermath of slavery”). She spent her entire life and her entire fortune to this work, opening schools, founding a university, and funding many chapels, convents and monasteries. She died on 3 March 1955, by which time there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the United States. See the article in Wikipedia. The Catholic Encyclopaedia has articles on her father and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.(St Vignal (c.460 - 532)) Vignal is a patois corruption of the Latin Guingualeus, itself a translation of the French Guénolé or Guignole, from the Anglo-Saxon Winwaloe / Winwallus / Winwalloc. There are some fifty variants of his name, which survives in the dedication of some churches in Brittany, Cornwall and Monmouthshire.St Vignal was born about the year 460, possibly in Plouguin, to Fracan, a prince of Dumnonia [Brittany] and his wife Gwen Teirbron [“Gwen the Triple-Breasted”]. He became the first Abbot founder of the Abbey of Landévennec, just south of Brest, and died there on 3 March 532.He is supposed to have assisted St Sampson and St Magloire in evangelising the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes Alderney, in the 6th century. Some relics were preserved at Montreuil-sur-Mer and in St Peter’s, Ghent, and until the 19th century his tomb was visible in the church at Landévennec.Portsmouth Ordo

Monday of the 2nd week of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(Saint Chad (-672)) Chad was born in Northumbria, one of four brothers, all of whom became priests. He was educated partly at Lindisfarne under St Aidan and partly in Ireland. He succeeded his brother St Cedd as Abbot of Lastingham in Yorkshire in 664. He became Bishop of Mercia in 669 and Wulfhere, first Christian King of Mercia, gave him land to establish his see at Lichfield. Chad was outstanding for his humility and simplicity of life. He died of the plague on 2 March 672. He was at once venerated as a saint and his shrine in the Cathedral of Lichfield was a place of pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages. At the Reformation, some of his bones were preserved and handed down by recusant families in the Midlands: in 1841 they were enshrined in the new Cathedral consecrated in Birmingham in that year and dedicated to Saint Chad.Birmingham Ordo (Blessed Charles the Good, Count of Flanders)

2nd Sunday of LentOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(St David (520 - 589)) The earliest life of St David dates from five centuries after his death, probably in 589. He became eminent as abbot and bishop at the site now known as St David’s, but formerly Mynyw, from which the present diocese of Cardiff-Menevia is named. He is credited with a monastic rule based on the example of the Eastern Fathers, and also with a Penitentiary. He was invited to preside at the synod of Llandewibrefi. Monks trained at his monastery evangelized South Wales and made foundations in Cornwall, Brittany and Ireland. St David is said to have sent a Mass rite to Ireland. At his death his contemporary St Kentigern, founder of St Asaph’s in North Wales, witnessed in vision his joyful entrance into the joy of his Lord. His holy relics have been found hidden in the fabric of St David’s Cathedral, where they are carefully preserved. He was canonized by Pope Callistus II in 1123. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia/

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.