St. Pantaenus, PD

"Philosophy and religion: St. Pantaenus, gifted with the nobles qualities of mind and heart, had devoted himself to the study and practice of the Stoic philosophy, which was held in high esteem amongst the ancients. But when he had arrived at the knowledge of Christianity, he at once understood that philosophy was as naught in comparison with the Gospel. Having become a Christian, he was charged with the direction of the school of Christian philosophy, instituted at Alexandria by the disciples of St. Mark. He was directing it with as much talent as true learning, when the bishop of Alexandria sent him to the Indies in order to combat the doctrines of the Brahmins, and revivify the faith. With the result of his labors we are unacquainted; it is only known that he returned after an interval of some years, bringing back with him a copy, in Hebrew, of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, which must have been taken thither by St. Bartholomew. The illustrious St. Cyril, of Alexandria, is to be reckoned among his disciples. St. Pantaenus died the death of the saints at Alexandria about the year 215, after having taught his followers to sanctify their lives rather than to indulge in subtle discussions.

Moral Reflection: "Have a care that none lead you astray by a vain philosophy," says the Apostle; for philosophy, indeed, apart from religion, is a vain thing. ( Colos. 2. 8.) Pictorial half hours with the saints By Abbe Auguste François Lecanu 1865

St. Goar

For Zealous Priests

Sanctify to Thyself, O my Lord, the hearts of Thy priests, that, by the merits of Thy sacred humanity, they may become living images of Thee, children of Mary, and full of the fire of the Holy Ghost, that they may guard Thy house, and defend Thy glory, and that through their ministry the face of the earth may be renewed, and they may save those souls which have costs Thee all Thy blood. Amen

Queen of the Apostles, pray thy Son, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers into His harvest, and to spare His people.

The Prayer Book. Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch
Archbishop of Chicago, May 10, 1954.

Forum Catholique St. Anthony Zaccaria and the devotion of the forty hours

"Absorbed in meditating on the great Sacrifice and his heart burning with love for God, he went to the foot of the altar. A profound and religious silence prevailed among those present, and all eyes were turned on him, a sign of the great event about to take place. At the solemn moment of consecration, a marvelous light encircled him and a multitude of Angels descended, and surrounding him, assisted reverently at the Mass. This heavenly vision lasted until the end of Communion." Source: Barnabite Fathers

GOD'S FRIENDS AND OURS: ST. ANTHONY VERSUS LUTHER ( The Catholic Transcript, Volume LXIII, Number 9, 30 June 1960)

"In 1528 the apostate priest Martin Luther preached in Wittenberg the three sermons he was later to compile into his two catechisms: The Little Catechism for Children and Simple Folk and The Large Catechism. In the preface of the former, he charged the Church with neglecting the teaching of Christian doctrine to the poor and unlettered masses.

Hundreds of miles from Germany, in the same year, one of the many men whose lives emphatically contradicted Luther's allegation received the power of the priesthood. Today he is venerated as St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria Founder of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, his feast falls on July 5. 

He had been practicing medicine in his native Cremona for some years before he came to the realization, as the editors of Butler's Lives put it, “that his vocation was to heal souls as well as bodies " A few years after ordination, he moved on to Milan, where, in 1530, he organized a new congregation "to regenerate and revive the love of divine worship, and a properly Christian way of life by frequent preaching and faithful ministering of the sacraments." A band of his priests stood ever ready to preach at any time and in any place; in the public square, in the fields, in small chapels, in the very streets of the city. Special care was shown for the poor. 

Despite the fullness of his life, Anthony Zaccaria was only thirty-seven years old when he died in 1539. His congregation (popularly called “the Barnabites" from the Church of St. Barnabas, its Milanese center) never achieved widespread fame or grew to large numbers. Like the saint himself, its members still burn out their lives quietly instructing the uninformed and indigent. 

ST. Anthony Zaccaria's history provides a dramatic contrast to Martin Luther's. Both men saw the same problem: countless baptized Christians who remained theologically illiterate throughout their lives. 

Open Revolution against the Church of Christ was Luther's solution. Reformation within the Church was Anthony's answer. 

The Church itself, the latter knew, can never be in error. When abuses exist, they can only arise from the deficiencies or bad faith of its members. Christ guaranteed that Peter's bark is the only sure bark to salvation. But He did not guarantee that the captain, crew and passengers would necessarily avoid all personal mistakes and scandals.

• "St Anthony is also known for popularising and renewing, the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, known as the Forty-hour devotion. He also is said to have originated the ringing of church bells at 3:00 p.m. on Fridays, in recognition of the hour of the crucifixion of Christ." Anaspaul

Saint Junipero Serra

"Twenty-five leagues from Monterey he (Junipero) came upon a little stream which watered a lovely oak-studded valley inclosed by rugged mountains. The beauty of this wild and lonely place charmed him. He decided to found the mission here. The bells were accordingly unpacked and suspended from the branch of a great oak. Junipero seized the ropes and shouted with a kind of delirious rapture, "Hear, Gentiles, come, come, to the Holy Church, come, come, to receive the faith of Jesus Christ."

One of the friars, Fray Miguel Pieras, remonstrated with him. "Why do you tire yourself in this way?" he demanded. "There are no Indians in sight; it is a waste of time to ring the bells.""I would like these bells to be heard by all the world," exclaimed Junípero, " or at least by all the Gentiles who live in the mountains."  Junípero Serra; the Man and His Work By Abigail Hetzel Fitch

"With no less carefulness did this servant of God try to draw his children toward the worship of the most Holy Sacrament. He instructed them to prepare and decorate arches in the road where the procession of Corpus Christi would pass. Four chapels were placed along the way with their respective altars where our Crucified Lord might rest, and after the singing in each one of them of the corresponding anthem, verse and prayer, an Indian stood up (generally a little boy) and recited a praise to the Divine Sacrament, of which two were in Spanish and two in the Pame dialect, which were very touching and increased the devotion of all. When they had returned to the church a Mass was sung and a sermon preached on this most Holy Mystery. With the same carefulness he consecrated himself to encourage in all devotion to our Lady Mary, and especially to her Most Immaculate Conception, preparing for this celebration with a Novena at which all the people were present. On the great day of the feast Mass was sung, a sermon was preached, and afterwards they chanted The Joys of the Most Immaculate Conception. Every Sunday afternoon they recited the Crown of Our Mother of Mercy, finishing it with a Hymn of Praise and the Hymn of Joy, which were sung. In order to make this the more attractive the Venerable Father had had sent out from Mexico a sculptured image of our most Sweet Lady which was put upon a platform and taken out in procession through the town every Saturday night, the illumination being made with lanterns, and with the accompaniment of the singing of the Rosary. After coming back again into the church they sang the hymn, “Tota pulchra es Maria," which our beloved servant translated into Spanish and which the Indians learned by heart and chanted with great solemnity, producing in all who heard it the greatest tenderness, especially that verse which says: "Thou art the honor of our people" and by means of which a most ardent devotion was kindled toward our Most Merciful Mother.

In the same way he tried to impress upon their plastic hearts devotion to Saint Michael, Archangel, to the Most Holy Patriarch, Saint Joseph; to our Holy Father, Saint Francis, and to the other Saints in such a fashion that the whole people were as well instructed as if they were Spaniards and had been brought up Catholics, all this being due to the very fervent zeal of our Venerable Fr. Junípero. In view of the most laborious service of this model Prelate his subordinates were set to imitate him, as well as were also the friars of the other four Missions, and through these means the whole of the five towns became as thoroughly Christian as if they had always been such." Francisco Palou's Life and Apostolic Labors of the Venerable Father Junípero By Francisco Palóu 1913

Saint Paul, Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Raleigh NC. 

  Prayer to Saint Paul: O Glorious Saint Paul, after persecuting the Church you became by God's grace its most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our divine Savior, to the uttermost parts of the earth you joyfully endured prison, scourgings, stonings, and shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.

May your example inspire our parish priests today to be zealous in their service to God's people. Obtain for our priests the grace to labor strenuously to bring the faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come their way. Help them to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after they have finished their course they may join you in praising him in heaven for all eternity. Amen.

Saint Irénée ; Vitraux de Lucien Bégule (1901), Église Saint-Irénée.

"This  Saint  was  born  about  the  year  120.  He  was  a  Grecian, probably  a  native  of  Lesser  Asia.  •  His  parents,  who  were Christians,  placed  him  under  the  care  of  the  great  St.  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna.  It  was  in  so  holy  a  school  that  he learned  that  sacred  science  which  rendered  him  afterward  a  great ornament  of  the  Church  and  the  terror  of  her  enemies.  St.  Polycarp  cultivated  his  rising  genius,  and  formed  his  mind  to  piety  by precepts  and  example;  and  the  zealous  scholar  was  careful  to reap  all  the  advantages  which  were  offered  him  by  the  happiness of  such  a  master.  Such  was  his  veneration  for  his  tutor's  sanctity that  he  observed  every  action  and  whatever  he  saw  in  that  holy  man, the  better  to  copy  his  example  and  learn  his  spirit.  He  listened to his  instructions  with  an  insatiable  ardor,  and  so  deeply  did  he engrave  them  on  his  heart  that  the  impressions  remained  most lively  even  to  his  old  age.  In  order  to  confute  the  heresies  of  his age,  this  father  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  most  absurd conceits  of  their  philosophers,  by  which  means  he  was  qualified to  trace  up  every  error  to  its  sources  and  set  it  in  its  full  light.
St.  Polycarp  sent  St.  Irenaeus  into  Gaul,  in  company  with  some priest ;  he  was  himself  ordained  priest  of  the  Church  of  Lyons  by St.  Pothinus.  St.  Pothinus  having  glorified  God  by  his  happy death,  in  the  year  177,  our  Saint  was  chosen  the  second  Bishop  of Lyons.  By  his  preaching,  he  in  a  short  time  converted  almost that  whole  country  to  the  faith.    He  wrote  several  works  against heresy,  and  at  last,  with  many  others,  suffered  martyrdom  about the  year  202,  under  the  Emperor  Severus,  at  Lyons. (Pictorial lives of the saints : with reflections for every day of the year, by Shea, John Gilmary, 1824-1892)

"For where is the Church is, there likewise is the Spirit of God. And where the Spirit of God is, there likewise is the Church, there all grace." Against Heresies 3:24:1 St.  Irenaeus

"Woe to them who alienate themselves from her! They suck not in life from the nourishing breasts to which their Mother invites them, they slake not their thirst at the limpid Fount of the Lord's Body: but, afar from the rock of unity, they drink the muddy waters of cisterns dug in fetid slime where there is not a drop of water of truth." The Liturgical Year: Time after Pentecost (v. 11, 3rd ed.) By Prosper Gueranger

"O God, who didst vouchsafe unto blessed Irenaeus, Thy martyr and bishop, by his strenuous teaching of the truth, utterly to confute heresies, and happily to establish peace in Thy Church: grant unto us Thy people, we beseech Thee, to be steadfast in the practice of our holy religion, and in all our days to enjoy that peace which is from Thee."

 God, the author and lover of peace, to know Whom is to live, and to serve Whom is to reign, protect us Thy suppliants from all assaults, that we, who trust in Thy defense, by the intercession of blessed Irenaeus, Thy martyr and bishop, may not fear the arms of any of our foes. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever."

Collect and Post Communion,

"Two brothers, bred up in the court of Constantine the Great, and by him appointed to serve his daughter Constantia. They were afterwards invited by Julian the Apostate to accept of places under him: but refusing to serve a prince, who had renounced his faith, they were apprehended. Detesting the idols, which they were commanded to worship, their constancy was rewarded with the crown of martyrdom, they being both beheaded in their own house. These saints glorified God by a double victory: they despised the honours of the world, and triumphed over its threats and torments. They saw many wicked men prosper; but they were not dazzled by their example. Pray for those, whose hearts are opened to all the dangers of the court; that amidst the powerful delusions of that state, they may continue faithful to their God. As strict a guard is necessary for keeping a good conscience there, as for the safety of the sovereign. Learn from these saints, not to hazard your soul for interest, or preferment. A private life, with peace of mind, is much more comfortable and Christian, than exposing conscience for the purchase of honour and revenues. It is better to hazard starving than burning. All the evils of this life are much more tolerable than an eternal separation from God. Therefore, in placing out children, or seeking employment or service for yourself or others, consider not only the temporal advantage, but the eternal also; and refuse all offers where there is not as fair a prospect of gaining the next world, as of succeeding in this. How many are eternally lost by tempting God in this way, in putting themselves in circumstances, where having no convenience of performing the duties of their religion, they come by insensible degrees, into a total forgetfulness of God, and thus live on, till death carries them away? It is a misery to be lamented, and one that requires your charity. Pray for remedy, and be watchful that it never comes to be your case." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother