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Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Rev. Fr.  Francis Paulinus Hickey OSB 1922 (8th Sunday after Pentecost)

St. John Vianney, Lover of Penance and Mortification O holy Priest of Ars, you led a life of detachment from worldly pleasures. Your meals consisted of a boiled potato each day; you slept a few hours each night. But you did all of this so that you would be able to serve God to the best of your ability. Your life was portrayed by the saying: We complain when we suffer. We have much more reason to complain when we do not suffer, since nothing likens us to our Lord as the bearing of His cross.

O great St. John Vianney, in these days when we are surrounded by so many comforts and pleasures, it can be so difficult for us to do penance for our sins and live a life of detachment. I resolve to offer some sacrifice today for the expiation of Father ___’s sins and the sins of all mankind. Assist Father in accepting the cross God chooses to send him. May he embrace the life of sacrifice to which Priests are called. May he willingly offer his whole life to God! Obtain for Father ___ the grace to imitate the life of Christ by the bearing of His cross.

Novena Prayer:
O holy Priest of Ars, St. John Marie Vianney, you loved God and served Him faithfully as His Priest. Now you see God face to face in heaven. You never despaired but persevered in your faith until you died. Remember now the dangers, fears and anxieties that surround Father ___ and intercede for him in all his needs and troubles especially console him in his most difficult moments, grant him serenity in the midst of crisis, and protect him from evil. O St. John Vianney, I have confidence in your intercession.
Pray for Father ___ in a special way during this novena.

Mary as Mother of Priests is in the Dominican Priory Church of the Holy Cross in Leicester. by Lawrence OP

"Listen to what our Holy Father, Pope Pius XI, says: " God in heaven and I on earth, we desire nothing more ardently than prayer and sacrifice for priests...Let us beg God that He may give holy priests! If we have this, all else will follow; but if this be wanting, all else will avail nothing." It was from this trend of thought that the idea of the Priest's Saturday" took its origin, which idea the Superior General of the Salvatorian Fathers placed before the Holy Father in special private audience on November 21, 1934. His Holiness was much pleased with the plan and said, in conclusion: "We heartily praise and bless the work....We repeat, the thing pleases Us, We praise and bless it heartily."

What is the plan?

The Priest's Saturday:

It is something quite simple and easy, yet immeasurable great in its results. You should make it a point to offer the Saturday after the First Friday of each month to your Savior, through the hands of Mary, the great mediatrix of all graces, for the sanctification of all the priests and students for the priesthood throughout the whole world. For this purpose you should give the Saturday wholly and entirely to Him, that is to say, Holy Mass, Holy Communion, all prayers, labors, sacrifices, joys and sorrows. Whatever you cannot do on this day (Holy Mass and Holy Communion) you ought to supply immediately on Sunday. So there is really nothing new for you to do. You merely offer up this Saturday (or even every Saturday or some other day) for the sanctification of priests. It is not a case of any sodality of fraternity or anything like that. Like the First Friday in honor of the Sacred Heart, the Priest's Saturday seeks to become something religiously observed by all the Catholics of the world.

(...) Concern about the holiness of priests is the concern of the Heart of the Divine Savior and of His blessed Mother. Therefore, you also should be sure to take part in this "apostolate to the apostles. " The Holy Father, all bishops, all priests, all students for the priesthood, and especially also your own pastor, earnestly beg of you thus to participate."

Source: Priest's Saturday Series, #2 Prayers and Devotions for Priest's Day. used with permission

Priests' First Saturday. Prayer:

Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, Who hast entrusted the whole work of Thy redemption, the welfare and salvation of the world, to priests as Thy representatives, through the hands of Thy most holy Mother and for the sanctification of Thy priests and candidates for the priesthood I offer Thee this present day wholly and entirely, with all its prayers, works, sacrifices, joys, and sorrows.

Give truly holy priests who, inflamed with the fire of Thy divine love, seek nothing but Thy greater glory and the salvation of our souls.

And thou, Mary, good Mother of priests, protect all priests in the dangers of their holy vocation and, with the loving hand of a Mother, also lead back to the Good Shepherd those poor priests who have become unfaithful to their exalted vocation and have gone astray. Amen

In addition to the above make it a point also to recite frequently the following:

Divine Savior, Jesus Christ, Who Hast entrusted the weal and woes of Thy Holy Church to priests, with all the fervor of my heart I recommend to Thee the wants of my pastor and all priests. Enrich them more and more with true priestly sanctity. Give them generous, all embracing, apostolic hearts, full of love for Thee and for all Thy souls, so that they, being themselves sanctified in Thee, may sanctify us who are confided to their care, and may lead us safely to heaven. Bestow upon them in rich abundance all Thy priestly graces!

Let them ever give us a glowing example of love and fidelity towards Holy Mother Church, towards the Pope, and bishops, and grant that by word and example they may shine as models of every virtue.

Most loving Jesus, bless all their priestly labors and sacrifices! Bless all their prayers and words at the altar and in the confessional, in the pulpit, and in school, in confraternities, and at the bedside of the sick!
Protect and preserve them in all dangers from within and from without.

Divine Savior, give to Thy Church priests who abound in true holiness! Call many good boys and young men to the priestly and religious state! Aid and sanctify all those who are to become Thy priests! And to the souls of departed priests grant everlasting rest.

But to me give a true spirit of faith and humble obedience, in order that in my pastor I may ever behold the representative of God and willingly follow all his teachings. Amen

Saint Alphonsus Liguori

" If Priests and Religious did all recite the Office as it ought to be recited, the Church would not behold herself in the miserable state to which she is reduced. How many sinners would be delivered from the slavery of the devil, and how many souls would love God with much greater fervor! And how would priests themselves not find themselves ever the same, imperfect, irritable, jealous, attached to their own interests, and led away by vanities! Our Lord has promised to hear every one who prays to him. (Luke xi. 10).

And how comes it that a priest offering up so many prayers in a day, were it only in the Office which he recites, is yet never heard? He is always the same, as weak and prone as ever to fall not only into slight sins (to which he is habituated, and takes neither pains nor care to correct himself of them,) but into grievous sins against charity, justice, or chastity; hence when he recites the Office, he pronounces sentence of condemnation against himself, in these words: Maledicti qui declinant a mandatis tuis. And what is still worse, he feels little remorse, excusing himself as being of the same flesh and blood as other men, and not able to restrain himself.

But if he said the Office with fewer distractions and less negligence, accompanying with his heart the many prayers which he offers to God in reciting it, he certainly would not be so weak but would acquire fortitude and strength to resist all temptations, and to lead a holy life, such as becometh a Priest of God." Source: Sacerdos sanctificatus; or, Discourses on the Mass and Office by Saint Alphonse de Liguori

Biography: "He was born near Naples in the year 1696. His mother instilled into him a tender piety, and particularly a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and great zeal for the glory of God. He embraced the profession of the law, and soon rose to great eminence. But he ever preserved the strictest justice, and practiced the most exemplary virtue. He heard Mass every morning before going into court, and punctually observed the fasts and other precepts of the Church. He approached to the Sacraments every week, and made a spiritual retreat every year.

St. Alphonsus was advancing to the highest degree of professional eminence, when he determined to abandon all his temporal prospects, and embrace the ecclesiastical state. From the moment that he was ordained priest, his life became a continual exhortation to virtue. In the year 1732, he founded the congregation of our most Holy Redeemer, whose members were to employ themselves in preaching to the poor, and affording the comforts of religion to those deprived of them. He surpassed all his companions in the exact observance of rule; and it was a wonder how he could live considering his severe fasts and mortification. He wore continually rough hair shirts with small iron chains, and a girdle of camel's hair. He rose early to meditation, and his prayer was unceasing. He consecrated all his actions to the glory of God, to whom he often turned by fervent ejaculations and aspirations. His whole demeanor breathed devotion and edification.

Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Anthony of Padua NC

Devotion for the Month of August: Blessed Sacrament and the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Virtue for the month of August: Diligence

What is diligence? Diligence is a virtue which enables us to serve God readily and cheerfully, to promote His honor as much as lies in our power, and faithfully to perform all our duties.

Application: Unless you perseveringly struggle with your wicked inclinations, you will never acquire the Christian Virtues; therefore fight faithfully until death, and God will give you the crown of life. (Apoc.ii.10) A Full Catechism of the Catholic Faith by Fr. Joseph Deharbe SJ 1883

Sloth is a laziness of soul, by which persons neglect to begin, or to perform, such things as are necessary for salvation; for, as one of the deadly sins, it means spiritual sloth. The more this sloth is indulged, the more burdensome it becomes. The slothful Christian has indeed faith; but is is a dead faith; because he neglects to keep it alive by good works. We are sent into the world, not to live at our ease, but to work our our salvation; and to succeed in this work, we must bot only be resolute in "declining from evil;" but diligent also in "doing good." (example of the five foolish Virgins; and also of the slothful servant.)

Diligence or spiritual fervor is a virtue by which we are zealous in laboring for the service of God, and the salvation of our soul: it makes the duties of Religion appear, not burdensome or tedious, but easy and agreeable; - it keeps the lamp of our faith burning with the oil of good works; and so causes us to be always ready, like the give wise Virgins; and, having made us rich in good works, it will entitle us, at our entrance into eternity, to hear from our Lord these consoling words: "Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Chains of St. Peters

The Courage of a Mother, one of Gustave Doré's illustrations for La Grande Bible de Tours, 1866.

• Relics from the biblical Maccabees are housed in Cologne Church
• Books of the Maccabees, Knox Bible

On the Solemnity of the Maccabee Martyrs, St. Augustine

(Sermon 300) 

The people of God was Christian before Christ, in fact if not in name. 
1. The glory of the Maccabees has made this day into a very special feast day for us; when the marvelous account of their sufferings was read to us, we not only heard about them, but could practically see them as spectators. These things happened a long time ago, before the incarnation, before the passion of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. These martyrs emerged in that first people, which produced the prophets who foretold these present realities. Nor should anyone suppose that before there was a Christian people, God had no people. On the contrary, if I may so put it, as is indeed really the case, though it’s not the usual way of talking, the people of that time too was Christian. 

I mean, it wasn’t only after his passion that Christ began to have his people; his too was the people born of Abraham, to whom the Lord himself bore witness when he said, Abraham longed to see my day; he saw it and rejoiced (Jn 8:56). So it was from Abraham that that people was born, which was enslaved in Egypt, and which was delivered from the house of bondage with a mighty arm through Moses, God’s servant, was led through the Red Sea as the waves sank away, tried and tested in the desert, subjected to the law, established in the kingdom. From that people, as I said, arose the prophets, from there these martyrs blossomed. Christ indeed had not yet died; but Christ who was going to die made them martyrs, witnesses to himself. 

These martyrs were Christians, though they suffered for the law of Moses in the way that the later martyrs suffered for the name of Christ. 
2. So the first thing I must impress upon your graces is that when you are admiring these martyrs, you shouldn’t think they weren't Christians. They were Christians; but with their deeds they anticipated the name Christian that was publicized much later on. But yes, it’s true, as though it wasn’t Christ they were confessing, they were not being forced by the godless king and persecutor to deny Christ, which the later martyrs were forced to do, and didn’t, and so obtained a similar glory. Subsequent persecutors of the Christian people, you see, were compelling those they persecuted to deny the name of Christ; those who persisted most steadfastly in the name of Christ suffered the same sort of things as we heard that these did, when the account was read. So those more recent martyrs, by whose blood in their thousands the earth has been empurpled, were being commanded and told by the persecutors, “Deny Christ.” When they didn’t do it, they suffered the same sort of things as these did. These though were being told, “Deny the law of Moses.” They didn’t; they suffered for the law of Moses. Those for the name of Christ, these for the law of Moses. 

The Old Testament is the veiling or concealing of the New,the New Testament is the unveiling or revealing of the Old .
3. Some Jew steps forward and says to us, “How can you reckon these people of ours to be your martyrs? How can you be so unwise’ as to celebrate their memory? Read their confessions; see whether they confessed Christ.” 

To whom we reply, “It’s true, you are one of those who did not believe in Christ, and being broken off from the olive remained withered outside, when the wild olive took your place; what are you going to say, being one of those 
faithless people? They weren’t openly confessing Christ, because the mystery of Christ was still concealed behind a veil. The Old Testament, you see, is the veiling of the New Testament, and the New Testament is the unveiling of the Old Testament. So about the unbelieving Jews, your ancestors, but in evil your brothers, about such as they see what the apostle Paul has to say: All the time Moses is read until now, a veil has been placed over their hearts. Now the same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament, which is not being unveiled, since it is being made void in Christ. When you pass over, he says, to Christ, the veil will be taken away (2 Cor 3:14-16).” 

The veil, he says, remains in the reading of the Old Testament, which is not being unveiled, since it is being made void in Christ; not the reading of the Old Testament, but the veil which has been placed there. The reading of the Old Testament, indeed, is not being made void, but is being fulfilled by the one who said, I did not come to abrogate the law, but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17). So the veil is being made void, in order that what was obscure might be understood. This, of course, was still shut away, a closed book, because the key of the cross was not yet available.’ 

How Christ in his passion deliberately fulfilled even minor points of Old Testament prophecy .
4. To clinch the matter, turn your attention to the Lord’s passion, set him before your eyes hanging on the tree, and lying down like a lion when he wished, and in order to slay death, dying not of necessity but as an act of power. Notice this very point; see how he said on the cross, Z thirst (Jn 19:28). And when the Jews,’ ignorant of what was being enacted by means of them, of what was being fulfilled by the hands of the ignorant, bound a sponge with vinegar in it to a reed and gave it to him to suck on, he sipped the vinegar and answered, It is accomplished. And bowing his head he gave up the spirit (Jn 19:30). Does anyone set out on a journey as calmly, as deliberately, as he departed this life? With as much straightforwardness, as much authority as this man who had said, I have the authority to lay down my life, and the authority to take it up again. Nobody can take it from me, but I myself lay it aside from myself, and take it up again (Jn 10:17-18)? Anyone who reflects worthily on his authority as he dies 
will acknowledge his kingship and his kingdom as he lives. 

Now he had already said this to the Jews themselves through the prophet: I myself went to sleep (Ps 3:5). As though to say, “Why do you people pride yourselves on my death? Why do you indulge in vain boasting, as though you had overcome me? J myself went to sleep. I myself have gone to sleep, because I wished to, not because you have raged against me. I myself have fulfilled what I wished; as for you, you have remained in your crime.”! So having received and sipped the vinegar, he said, It is accomplished. 

What is accomplished? 

“What has been written about me.” 

What was written about him? 

They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink 
(Ps 69:21). 

So as he looked round at all the things that had been enacted in the course of his passion: those people had already wagged their heads in front of the cross, already given him gall,  already counted his bones as he was hanging there, stretched out; his garments had already been divided up, and they had cast lots for his indivisible tunic; so having looked round and after a fashion counted up all the things that the prophets had foretold about his passion, he noticed that goodness knows what still remained, some lesser point: And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. In order that this small point that remained might be added to the list, he said, I thirst. And on receiving this lesser thing, he answered, It is accomplished. Having said that, he bowed his head and gave up the spirit (Jn 19:28-30). 

Then the foundations of the earth were shaken, then the rocks were split open and the secrets of the underworld laid bare, then the tombs gave up the dead; and, to state the point which everything I have said has been leading up to, because now was the time for everything that was veiled in the Old Testament to be unveiled and revealed in the mystery of the cross, the veil of the temple was torn away." 


In dying for the law of Moses, these martyrs died for Christ 
5. So from that moment Christ began to be proclaimed quite openly after the resurrection. The things that had been prophetically foretold began to be evidently fulfilled in him;'the martyrs began to confess him with the greatest 
constancy. The martyrs confessed plainly the same one as the Maccabees at that earlier time confessed in a hidden manner; the former died for Christ unveiled in the gospel, while the latter died for the name of Christ veiled in the law. Christ possesses both, Christ came to the aid of both as they fought the good fight, Christ crowned both. Christ has them both in his service, like some Very Important Person traveling along with a troop of attendants, some going in front, others following behind. So fix your gaze on him rather, as he presides in the chariot of the flesh;'° both those who march ahead are attentive to him, and those who follow behind are devoted to him. 

I mean, to show you, and to show you clearly, that those who died for the law of Moses died for Christ, listen to Christ himself, my dear Jew, listen; and may your heart at last be opened, may the veil be lifted from your eyes. If you believed Moses, you would also believe me. Listen to that, accept it if you can. “If the veil has been lifted by me, open your eyes and see.”!” If you believed Moses, he said, you would also believe me; for it was about me that he wrote (In 5:46). If it was about Christ that Moses wrote, those who truly died for the law of Moses laid down their lives for Christ. Jt was about me, he said, that he wrote. He was served by the tongues of those who confessed him, served also by the reed pen of those who wrote the truth about him. How will you people 
be able to understand the reed Moses wrote with, seeing you put vinegar on a reed?'If only you would eventually drink the wine of the one, to whom as an insult you offered vinegar to drink! 


A basilica very properly dedicated to the Maccabees in Antioch 
6. So the Maccabees really are martyrs of Christ. That’s why it is not unsuitable, not in the least improper, but on the contrary absolutely right for their day and their solemnity to be celebrated especially by Christians. What do the Jews know about such a celebration? Word is going round” that there is a basilica of the Holy Maccabees in Antioch; in the very city, that is to say, which is called by the name of that persecuting king. They endured the persecution of the wicked king Antiochus, and the memory of their martyrdom is celebrated in Antioch, so that both the name of the one who persecuted and the memory of the one who crowned them are heard together.! This basilica is owned by Christians, was built by Christians. It’s we who keep, we who celebrate their memory; it’s among us that thousands of holy martyrs throughout the world have imitated their sufferings. 

So nobody need hesitate, my brothers and sisters, to imitate the Maccabees, in case while imitating the Maccabees, you should think you weren’t imitating Christians. Of course, of course, we should cherish a fervent desire to imitate them in our hearts. Let men learn how to die for the sake of the truth. Let women learn from the extraordinary patience, the inexpressible courage of that mother; she really did know how to keep and preserve her sons.? She knew how to keep them, because she was not afraid of losing them. Each of them suffered by feeling pain in himself; she, by seeing what was done, suffered in all of them. Becoming the mother of seven martyrs, she was herself seven times a martyr; not separated from her sons as she watched, and added to her sons as she died.” 
She watched them all dying, she loved them all; she endured in her eyes what they all endured in the flesh. Not only was she not terrorized, she even encouraged them. 


The story of the mother's last son 
7. The persecutor Antiochus thought of this woman as a mother like other mothers. “Persuade your son,” he said, “not to perish.” And she said,” “I will certainly persuade my son to live, by encouraging him to die; you, though, want to persuade him to die by sparing himself.” But what a little speech it was, how full of family feeling, how motherly, how evenly balanced between spiritual and carnal considerations! Son, take pity on me. Son, she said, take pity on me, who bore you for nine months in my womb; I gave you milk for three years, and brought you up to this age; take pity on me (2 Mac 7:27). 

They were all expecting words like the following: “Give your consent to the king, don’t abandon your mother.” She on the contrary said, “Give your consent to God, don’t abandon your brothers. If you seem to abandon me, that’s when you don’t abandon me. I will find you there, where I will not have to fear losing you anymore. Christ will keep you for me there, and Antiochus won't take you away from me there.” He feared God, listened to his mother, answered the king, clung to his brothers, drew his mother after him. 

Source: Saint Augustine - Sermons in 11 vols

Sacred Heart, Holy Name Cathedral, Raleigh NC ©CAPG

First Friday Devotions

Prayer for Priests: O Jesus, eternal High Priest, divine Sacrificer, Thou who in an unspeakable burst of love for men, Thy Brethren, didst cause the Christian Priesthood to spring forth from Thy Sacred Heart, vouchsafe to pour forth upon Thy priests continual living streams of infinite love. Live in them, transform them in to Thee; make them, by Thy Grace, fit instruments of Thy mercy; do Thou act in them and through them, and grant, that they may become wholly one with Thee by their faithful imitation of Thy Virtues; and, in Thy name and by the strength of Thy spirit, may they do the works which Thou didst accomplish for the salvation of the world.
Divine Redeemer of souls, behold how great is the multitude of those who still sleep in the darkness of error; reckon up the number of those unfaithful sheep who stray to the edge of the precipice; consider the throngs of the poor, the hungry, the ignorant and the feeble who groan in their abandoned condition.
Return to us in the person of Thy priests; truly live again in them; act through them and pass once more through the world, teaching, forgiving, comforting, sacrificing and renewing the sacred bonds of love between the Heart of God and the heart of man. Amen. St. Pius X (Raccolta 1907, Prayer 614. Rescript in his own hand. March 3, 1905 )

Source: The path to Heaven, a collection of all the devotions in general use, 1866