Hold Fast to the Love of God

[Rich]

Hold Fast to the Love of God

"Real love of God will not be in you if the love of the world prevails
in you. Hold fast rather to the love of God, so that as God is eternal
you too will live forever. For each of us is such as our love is.

Do you love the world? Then you will be the earth. Do you love God?
What shall I say? That you will be a god? I dare not say this on my
own authority, and so let us hear Holy Scripture: 'I have said: you
are gods and all of you children of the Most High.'"
--St. Augustine--Sermon on John 2, 8

Prayer: Lord, teach me what I should teach, teach me what I should hold fast.
--St. Augustine--Letter 166, 10

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26 January - Our Lady of Atocha/Our Lady of Long Fields
Madrid, Spain

(1261)
For a long time part of Madrid was nothing but a field of matreeds
(tules) particularly in the district of Atocha. Here is a shrine to
Our Lady of Atocha, a Spanish contraction for “Theotokos”, meaning
“Mother of God,” or a simplification of “Antiocha” which, in the 12th
Century under this title, was already ancient and beloved. Today the
statue stands in a business centre, a dark little Madonna with an
enigmatic smile on her face. Nobody knows where she came from but
everyone, from gold-braided officer, to the ragged street urchins, pay
her the most polite respect and give her most unqualified love.

Our Lady of Atocha was in Madrid when there was only a field of reeds
and a hermitage. The Moor and the Moslem came – they respected her and
left her alone. When Toledo was sacked in 1170, she remained there
calm and accessible, watching over her children. In 1525 Charles V
brought her his bride and asked her blessing upon their marriage; Don
Juan of Austria, departing for the Battle of Lepanto, knelt at her
feet and pledged his sword to her; after his victory, he sent in
thanksgiving, his sword to her along with the captured Moorish
banners.
Despite all these trappings of the high and wealthy, she still remains
Our Lady of all the people, beloved of kings and farmers, such as St
Isidore.

Our Lady of Atocha is Madrid’s royal shrine: there is not a Spaniard
of public importance for a thousand years who would not kneel to ask
her help. Her gowns are made from the bridal gowns of queens; yet no
shrine better demonstrates how little it matters where we rank in the
world, or what we do for a living. One of her supplicants asks her for
victory for his armies, one for rain for his thirsty fields; Our Lady
of Atocha answers all, impartially and lovingly.

In the year 1554 the Spanish Missionaries brought Our Lady of Atocha
to Mexico with them. She was brought to a sanctuary called The
Santuario De Plateros, which is a church about 30 minutes from the
small town of Fresnillo. There were many miracles that occurred after
the arrival of the famous statue.

After the first miracle was reported, the Infant of Atocha was
separated from the rest of the statue. He was seated instead by
Himself in a splendid crystal niche on the main altar, and He can
still be seen there today. In His left hand He holds a jug, which for
centuries was used by pilgrims to carry their liquids for drinking. In
His right hand is a small basket of food. The face of the Infant is
dark and bright. He has long curls and wears a small hat trimmed with
gold and feathers on the side. His clothing is velvet, with exquisite
embroidering and has the initials JHS. Finally, on his feet he wears
solid gold sandals.

The Holy Infant is so small and attractive He is like a magnet to
everyone. He is actually a figure of admiration to the faithful. He
grants them the favours they ask for and gives grace instantly. He
usually works during the night visiting the sick and the poor,
therefore, He is also known as The Night Walking Infant of Atocha. It
is not unusual to see HIs little chair empty while He is out on a
mission. In the morning when He returns the sisters dust off His
sandals after His all night journeys.

Pilgrimages are daily occurrences at the Santuario De Plateros.
Thousands of pilgrims go to the Santuario on their knees, singing and
praying. The pilgrims come for miles away on foot carrying flowers.
The children come also and the little infants are carried in the
mother’s shawl.

It is impossible to count the testimonials that cover the walls.
Pictures, wheel chairs, crutches, braids of hair, have been brought in
by those who received miraculous cures. All testimonials are framed
with a picture of The Little Infant of Atocha, a picture of the moment
of the miracle and they also indicate time, date and place.


Bible Quote:
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to
all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. [James 1:5]

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( "A Year with the Saints". January - Perfection)

St. Vincent de Paul was not contented, as so many are, with knowing
and loving virtues, but he applied himself continually to the practice
of them. It was his maxim that labor and patience are the best means
of acquiring and planting them firmly in our hearts and that virtues
acquired without effort or difficulty can be easily lost, while those
which have been beaten by the storms of temptation and practiced amid
the difficulties and repugnances of nature, sink their roots deep into
the heart. And so, on such occasions, instead of being sad he appeared
unusually cheerful. When a certain person was lamenting a mischance
which had recently occurred as likely to give bad opinion of his
community and give rise to comments injurious to himself, he replied,
"This is good, for it will give us a more favorable occasion to
practice virtue."

By this same sentiment, St. Philip Neri encouraged his penitents not
to grieve when they suffer temptations and trials, telling them that
when the Lord intends to confer on anyone some particular virtue, He
is accustomed to permit him to be first assailed by the contrary vice.

St. Francis de Sales illustrated the firmness of virtue in this
manner: "if’ said he, "the world comes to attack me, I will treat it
as I would a viper: I will trample it underfoot, and obey none of its
suggestions. If Satan arms his powers, I will not fear them at all. I
am stronger than he. God is my Father, and He will have compassion on
me, and will fight for me." Here is a fine example of virtue, and of
the way to exercise it.

[Rich]

Hold Fast to the Love of God

"Real love of God will not be in you if the love of the world prevails
in you. Hold fast rather to the love of God, so that as God is eternal
you too will live forever. For each of us is such as our love is.

Do you love the world? Then you will be the earth. Do you love God?
What shall I say? That you will be a god? I dare not say this on my
own authority, and so let us hear Holy Scripture: 'I have said: you
are gods and all of you children of the Most High.'"
--St. Augustine--Sermon on John 2, 8

Prayer: Lord, teach me what I should teach, teach me what I should hold fast.
--St. Augustine--Letter 166, 10

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5 February – St Adelaide of Guelders

(c 970–1015)
Abbess, Apostle of Charity, Miracle-worker, Reformer, Counsellor to
the Archbishop of Cologne. She is also known as Adelaide of Vilich,
Adelaide of Bellich, Alice, Adelheid, Adalheide. Born in c970 in
Geldern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and died on 5 February 1015
at Our Lady of the Capitol convent at Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia,
Germany of natural causes.

When Adelaide was still very young, she entered the convent of St
Ursula, Our Lady of the Capitol, founded by her parents in Cologne,
where the Rule of St Jerome was followed. About 980, her parents
founded the convent of Villich. Adelaide was “redeemed” from the
Ursulione convent by exchange with a parcel of land and became abbess
of this new convent, initially established as an unusually late
example of a community of canonesses. Canons were attached to the
convent in order that Mass might be said. Here, Adelaide introduced
the stricter Benedictine rule. She insisted that the nuns under her
care learn to read Latin, that they might understand the Mass.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia “the fame of her sanctity and
of her gift of working miracles soon attracted the attention of Saint
Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne”, who could scarcely have ignored an
abbess of her high connections. He appointed her abbess of the convent
of St Maria im Kapitol, Cologne, to succeed her sister Bertha, who
died about 1000. Emperor Otto III reaffirmed Vilich’s immunities from
ecclesiastical interference and the right to appoint its own abbess, a
title that remained only briefly in the founding family. She died at
her convent in Cologne in the year 1015 but was buried at Vilich,
where her feast was solemnly celebrated on 5 February and rapidly
attracted pilgrims.
A hagiography, Vita Adelheidis, provides some information regarding her family.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia “the fame of her sanctity and
of her gift of working miracles soon attracted the attention of Saint
Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne”, who could scarcely have ignored an
abbess of her high connections. He appointed her abbess of the convent
of St Maria im Kapitol, Cologne, to succeed her sister Bertha, who
died about 1000. Emperor Otto III reaffirmed Vilich’s immunities from
ecclesiastical interference and the right to appoint its own abbess, a
title that remained only briefly in the founding family. She died at
her convent in Cologne in the year 1015 but was buried at Vilich,
where her feast was solemnly celebrated on 5 February and rapidly
attracted pilgrims.
A hagiography, Vita Adelheidis, provides some information regarding her family.

https://anastpaul.com/2019/02/05/



“Love alone makes heavy burdens light
and bears in equal balance,
things pleasing and displeasing.
Love bears a heavy burden
and does not feel it
and love, makes bitter things,
tasteful and sweet.”

“Without labour there is no rest,
nor without fighting,
can the victory be won.”

“You shall rest sweetly,
if your heart condemns you not.”
--Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471)

Bible Quote:
"Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again
of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"
(John 3:5)


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OFFERING OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

Eternal Father,
we offer Thee the precious Blood of Jesus,
shed for us through exceeding love,
and with exceeding pain
from the wound of His right hand;
through the merits and virtues of which,
we beseech Thy divine Majesty
to bestow on us Thy sacred benediction,
that by its efficacy
we may be protected from our enemies,
and delivered from every evil.
For this purpose we say:
May the blessing of Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
descend upon us,
and remain always with us. Amen.

[Rich]

Hold Fast to the Love of God

"Real love of God will not be in you if the love of the world prevails
in you. Hold fast rather to the love of God, so that as God is eternal
you too will live forever. For each of us is such as our love is.

Do you love the world? Then you will be the earth. Do you love God?
What shall I say? That you will be a god? I dare not say this on my
own authority, and so let us hear Holy Scripture: 'I have said: you
are gods and all of you children of the Most High.'"
--St. Augustine--Sermon on John 2, 8

Prayer: Lord, teach me what I should teach, teach me what I should hold fast.
--St. Augustine--Letter 166, 10

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11 February – Saint Gobnata

(6th Century)
Abbess, Founder of a Convent and ‘Order’ of Sisters, miracle-worker,
Apostle of the sick. Patronage – of bees, beekeepers. Also known as –
Abigail, Albina, Deborah, Gobnat, Gobnet, Gobnait.

Gobnait was born in County Clare in the 5th or 6th Century and is said
to have been the sister of Saint Abban. She fled a family feud, taking
refuge in Inis Óir in the Aran Islands. Here an Angel appeared and
told her that this was “not the place of her resurrection” and that
she should look for a place where she would find nine white deer
grazing. She found the deer at the place now known as St. Gobnet’s
Wood. Saint Abban is said to have worked with her on the foundation of
the Convent and to have placed Saint Gobnait over it as Abbess.

Gobnait is said to have added beekeeping to her life’s work,
developing a lifelong affinity with them. She started a religious
Order and dedicated her days to helping the sick. It has been
speculated that she used honey as a medicinal aid. She is credited
with being the intercessor who assisted and saved the people at
Ballyvourney from the plague. One story tells of how she drove off a
brigand by sending a swarm of bees after him and making him restore
the cattle he had stolen.

St Gobnait’s well (also known as St Debora’s, Deriola’s or Abigail’s
well) is situated to the North of Ballyagran in a high field to the
left of the road to Castletown. Pilgrimages have consistently,
throughout the Centuries, been held to the well. The well has now
dried up but the site is still known. It is said that a white deer or
stag is sometimes seen at the well.

In 1601 Pope Clement VIII granted a special indulgence to those who,
on Gobnata’s feast day, visited the Parish Church, went to Confession
and Communion and who prayed for peace among ‘Christian princes’, the
expulsion of heresy and the exaltation of the Church.

https://anastpaul.com/2022/02/11/


The Love of Our Neighbour

“But who really loves his neighbour as if he were himself?
Only the Saints.
Jesus loved us, not only as much as He loved Himself but much more
than this because He gave His life and His own Precious Blood for
salvation.
The Saints who lived the life of Christ and followed His example, saw
Jesus in all their fellowmen.
Therefore, they loved them as themselves and even more than themselves.
One could cite thousands of instances of heroic charity in the lives
of the Saints.
The example of St Paul will suffice, however.
He said that his life was so much the life of Christ, that it was not
he himself, who was living any longer but Christ in him. (Rom 9:3).
Do we possess this sincere and active love of our neighbour?
Let us examine ourselves in this regard.
Let us remember that if we are lacking in this charity towards our
brothers in Jesus, we are not genuine Christians!”
--Antonio Cardinal Bacci


“Today humanity, in all the radiance
of her Immaculate nobility,
receives its ancient beauty.
The shame of sin
had darkened the splendour
and attraction of human nature
but when the Mother
of the Fair One par excellence,
is born, this nature again,
regains in her person,
its ancient privileges
and is fashioned according to a perfect model,
truly worthy of God….
The reform of our nature begins today
and the aged world,
subjected to a wholly divine transformation,
receives the first fruits of the second creation.”
--St Andrew of Crete (c 650-c 740)
Bishop, Theologian, Hymnist

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Invocations to Our Lady of Lourdes

O EVER Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, health of the sick, refuge
of sinners, comfort of the afflicted, you know my wants, my troubles,
my sufferings; deign to cast upon me a look of mercy. By appearing in
the Grotto of Lourdes, thou wert pleased to make it a privileged
sanctuary, whence thou dispenses thy favors, and already many
sufferers have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual
and corporal. I come, therefore, with unbounded confidence, to implore
thy maternal intercession. Obtain, O loving Mother, the grant of my
requests. I will endeavor to imitate thy virtues, that I may one day
share thy glory, and bless thee in eternity. Amen.

O MARY, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O BLESSED be the Holy and Immaculate Conception of the most blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of God.

HOLY Virgin Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our Mother,
speak thou for us to the Heart of Jesus, Who is thy Son and our Brother.

OUR Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

MY Mother, deliver me from mortal sin!