CAPG's Blog 

"He was bred up a physician in Antioch, and generally believed to be one of the seventy-two disciples. He wrote the Gospel, as he had received it from the apostles, but particularly from St. Paul. He was his faithful companion in all his persecutions; so that while many others forsook him, St. Luke did not: Only Luke is with me. (2 Tim. iv. 11.) For this reason, he is often commended by St. Paul in his epistles; and not only for his constancy, but for his being a true disciple of Christ crucified: He always bore about in his body the dying of Jesus. (2 Cor. iv. 10.) He wrote likewise the Acts of the Apostles. History says that he was at length put to death in Achaia, whence his relics, together with those of St. Andrew, were translated to Constantinople, under the Emperor Constantius.

Read the Gospel, and Read the Gospel, and pray for grace to be faithful in the practice of it; and that no corrupt maxims of the world may take place of it in your heart.

Pray for the constancy of this saint, that no sort of persecution or trouble, no power of convenience or interest, may prevail on you to forsake the commandments or the creed. Let his example teach you to be a comfort to such as are in trouble. To be friendly to persons in power and plenty, is to be suspected of self-love: but to be a friend to the poor and oppressed, is the effect of charity. Keep up your correspondence with these, give them no occasion of scandal, by forsaking those in their trouble, whom you have courted in their prosperity.

Ask for grace to become a true follower of Christ crucified. Examine of what spirit you are. If you admire and follow the world, with its vanities, you have not yet learnt to be a disciple of Christ. Beseech God to protect you by his heavenly grace, and not suffer you to follow any other spirit than that of his gospel: that as it was His Holy Spirit that assisted the evangelists in writing the Gospel, the same Divine Helper may assist you also to follow it." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church by Rev. John GOTHER

"She was born in Moravia, piously educated, and married by her parents to Henry, duke of Poland. In this state, she acquitted herself faithfully of all her respective duties to God, her husband, and her family; making it her study in all things to please God, and to sanctify her own soul and her household. After some time, that she might more entirely give herself to God, she engaged her husband to agree to a mutual vow of perpetual continence; from which time they never met but in public places. St. Hedwig had many crosses to endure, by which she learned more bitterly to deplore the miseries and blindness of the world, and more perfectly to disengage her heart from its slavery. Whether in prosperity or adversity, her whole comfort was in God, and the exercises of religion. The simplicity which she observed in her dress, shewed that she was an enemy to all vanity. The love of dress banishes the spirit of Christ and his gospel, cherishes the root of many vices, and cannot find place in one whose conduct is regulated by a true Christian spirit. She fasted every day except Sunday and great festivals. Her tears and piety were extraordinary, when she approached to the Holy Communion; and she heard Mass with a devotion which astonished all who beheld her. After the death of her husband, she entered into a religious house of Bernardine nuns; where, in the exercise of prayer, humility, mortification, and wonderful charity, she ended her days, in the year 1243.

Here are lessons, first, for young persons not to promise themselves in marriage, without the approbation and consent of their parents. It is a state which requires great grace to go well through its duties and difficulties; and to engage unduly in it, is not the way to obtain that grace. Secondly, for married persons to be very faithful in the arduous duties of their state. Thirdly, for widows, teaching them to make use of the opportunity which God puts into their hands, of working out their salvation in all the exercises of piety and charity. Pray for all states, and be faithful in your own, whatever it be." The Catholic Year; Or Daily Lessons on the Feasts of the Church By Fr. John GOTHER

At the age of eighteen, she obtained leave of her father to take the habit of the Carmelite nuns; and being professed, she became an example to the rest in the exercises of humility, patience, prayer, and 'mortification. Here God was pleased to try her with violent temptations and tedious sickness for above twenty years. In all which time she remitted nothing of her usual devotions or austerities; being always accustomed to say: Either suffer, or die!

She undertook to reform the Order of the Carmelites, and bring it to its primitive austerity; and though she met with great opposition, and many jealousies, she accomplished her design, and saw two-and-thirty monasteries built of this institution. Having finished this work, she endeavored to approach still nearer to God in prayer and penance; making a vow of doing whatever she judged to be most perfect; ever lamenting the blindness of infidels and sinners, but above all, her own misery, in being at so great a distance from God.

Her writings discover what her spirit was, which God was likewise pleased to evidence by many miracles; though of all these, her life was the greatest. She exchanged this for a better, in the year 1582.

Learn from this saint to accustom yourself and those under your care to the reading of good books; and to be careful in the choice of company. Good conversation edifies, but that which is evil and worldly, makes ill impressions, and corrupts the soul. If you have youth under your charge, be still more solicitous in this point; and never expose them to bad company on any pretext of education, preferment, or the like.

Learn not to be discouraged with sickness, temptations, troubles, or opposition. These are often the effects of God's greatest mercy and means for the greater perfection of those who sincerely seek him. Learn to be diligent in humility, charity, prayer, and penance. Pray that you may practice these holy lessons; and pray in particular for all the religious who follow the holy institution of St. Teresa." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John GOTHER

First landing of Columbus on the shores of the New World: at San Salvador, W.I., Oct. 12th 1492

"Catholics all the world over should take a pride in sharing in the glory and honors of the Columbian Celebration; because where American civilization was first planted by Columbus, in 1493, the Catholic Church reared its first altar on this soil four hundred years ago. The story of this church is the golden chain that links the landing of the Spanish cavaliers with the great achievements of 1893. Christianity and civilization were born in the same cradle and at the same moment, in the western hemisphere.

It is a fact not often commented upon in American history, that the first house built by Columbus in the New World was a Catholic church. Its remains still exist; and it is the story of the discovery of the ruins of this first church that we are specially concerned with in this article. The story is not long. It was in the fall of 1493 that Columbus set sail on his second voyage of discovery, with seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men to establish his first permanent settlement. Horses and domestic animals of all kinds, every sort of seed and agricultural implement, were gathered on board. Among the crew were cavaliers, hidalgos, soldiers, sailors, and artisans. A group of twelve ecclesiastics under a Benedictine monk, Father Bernard Boyle, who had also been named Vicar-Apostolic of the New World, accompanied the expedition. A prosperous voyage brought them off the north coast of the island of Santo Domingo about the latter part of November, 1493.

When the admiral prepared to make his first settlement, he nominated a commission composed of two engineers, an architect, and a ship-builder, under the presidency of Melchor Maldonado, to make a topographical survey, and report to him the most suitable site for a city. After a careful examination they reported a place about eight miles from where Cape Isabella now is. It was provided with an excellent port, and was near two rivers, watering a soil that was exceedingly fertile. A short distance away were stones fit for building. The plateau on which they proposed to locate was described at length by Dr. Chanca,the physician of the fleet, in a letter to the authorities of Seville which is still extant.

Says the chronicler: "In his estimation, the service of God surpassing all other considerations, the first edifice that was erected should be the church. It was pushed with such activity that, on the sixth of January, 1494, the anniversary of the entrance of the sovereigns into Granada, High Mass was solemnly celebrated in it by the Vicar-Apostolic, assisted by Father Juan Perez de Marchena and the twelve religious who accompanied Father Boyl" (sic)." Catholic World, Volume 57 Paulist Fathers, 1893

King Edward the Confessor, holding a ring and a sceptre. Engraving by J. Smith, 1732.

Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

"PIETY AND GRANDEUR OF SOUL.-In the estimation of worldlings the word "piety" denotes littleness of mind; but this betokens littleness of judgment on their part, for religion shows forth the contrary by illustrious examples. No man was ever more pious, mortified, chaste, and charitable than St. Edward, king of England; but side by side with these purely Christian qualities he displayed a grandeur of soul worthy of the throne. He established a wisely-planned code, which still forms the groundwork of public law in England, and organized an administration so complete that the nation seemed to govern itself as of its own free will; and he proved himself fully able to repel his enemies by armed force whenever it was found needful to engage in war. His subjects loved him like a father. Providence seemed to have singled him out to repair the disasters resulting from forty years of invasion, and to restore his country. He died in 1066, after having founded the abbey of Westminster. "Weep not," he said to his queen Editha; "I am not about to die, but am beginning to live eternally."

MORAL REFLECTION.-"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and thereby "a wise man will increase his wisdom."(Prov. i. 5, 7.) Pictorial half hours with the saints. By Rev. Fr. Auguste François Lecanu