Fight with all courage

[Weedy]

Fight with all courage

"If the Lord delays granting you full victory over your enemies and
puts it off to the last day of your life, you must know that He does
this for your own good; so long as you do not retreat or cease to
struggle wholeheartedly. Even if you are wounded in battle, do not lay
down your arms and turn to flight. Keep only one thing in your mind
and intention - to fight with all courage and ardor, since it is
unavoidable. No man can escape this warfare, either in life or in
death. And he who does not fight to overcome his passions and his
enemies will inevitably be taken prisoner, either here or yonder, and
delivered to death."
--Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli. priest and author of the book, 'The Spiritual Combat'

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11 August – St Philomena

(c 291 – 304)
“The Wonder Worker” , Virgin, Martyr. Patronages – • against
barrenness, infertility, sterility • against bodily ills • against
mental illness • against sickness, sick people • babies, infants,
newborns, toddlers • children, young people, youth • Children of Mary
• desperate, forgotten, lost or impossible causes • Living Rosary •
orphans • poor people • priests • prisoners • students • test takers.

The tomb of this virgin and martyr, unknown until the first years of
the 19th century, was providentially discovered in 1802 in the
catacombs of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, Rome, Italy. It was covered
by stones, the symbols on which indicated that the body was a martyr
named Saint Philomena. The bones were exhumed, catalogued and
effectively forgotten since there was so little known about the
person.

In 1805 Canon Francis de Lucia of Mugnano, Italy was in the Treasury
of the Rare Collection of Christian Antiquity (Treasury of Relics) in
the Vatican. When he reached the relics of Saint Philomena he was
suddenly struck with a spiritual joy and requested that he be allowed
to enshrine them in a chapel in Mugnano. After some disagreements,
settled by the cure of Canon Francis following prayers to Philomena,
he was allowed to translate the relics to Mugnano. Miracles began to
be reported at the shrine including cures of cancer, healing of wounds
and the Miracle of Mugnano in which Venerable Pauline Jaricot was
cured a severe heart ailment overnight. Philomena became the only
person recognised as a Saint solely on the basis of miraculous
intercession as nothing historical was known of her except her name
and the evidence of her martyrdom.

God, by many miracles, made the discovery of Saint Philomena’s body
famous and the cult of the young Saint spread everywhere with an
extraordinary rapidity. She received such exceptional homage, that she
deserves to be placed in the first ranks of the virgin martyrs, whom
the Church venerates. The Holy Curé of Ars called her his dear little
Saint and performed wonders himself by his prayers to her.

Certain revelations having the character of authenticity say that
Saint Philomena was the daughter of a Greek prince, who accompanied
her parents to Rome on a journey and that her glorious martyrdom
occurred there under Diocletian in the third century. The two arrows
engraved on her tombstone in opposite directions referred to the
efforts of the persecutor to slay her with a volley of arrows, after
Angels preserved her from death by drowning; the arrows turned
against the archers. Finally she was beheaded, like so many other
miraculously protected heroes and heroines of Christ. This opinion,
which certain circumstances attending the translation of her relics in
1805 to the city of Mugnano appeared to verify, has prevailed. In that
city, devotion to her has been extraordinary and remains so to this
day, miracles have multiplied both there and elsewhere for those who
invoke her.

Other very serious studies, maintain that she was a child of the Roman
people, immolated in the first century for Jesus Christ, at the age of
twelve or thirteen years. An examination of her bones permitted her
age to be estimated and the vial of dried blood in her tomb clearly
indicated her martyrdom. The instruments of torture painted on the
terra cotta plaque which enclosed her tomb — an arrow, an anchor, a
torch — show us what sort of tortures she bore, all of which are known
to us through other martyrdoms of the same early centuries. The
inscription: Peace be with you, Philomena, reveals her name.

What is beyond doubt is that this Saint responds unfailingly to the
faith of those who invoke her. Invoked everywhere with wonderful
success, she was entitled the wonder-worker of the 19th century. She
has shown herself to be the protectress, in particular, of small
children. A mother whose young son died despite her prayers, placed a
picture of the Saint on his corpse, begging that he be returned to
her. And the child rose as though from sleep, stood up beside his bed
and had no more symptoms of any sickness whatsoever. A little girl who
had put out her eye playing with a pair of scissors, which injury was
declared irreparable by physicians, had her eye restored when she
washed her face in oil taken from the Saint’s lamp and this eye seemed
to everyone more vivid and bright than the other.

Many doubts remain about this little Saint, however, although she is
no longer anywhere on the Church’s calendar, devotion to her has never
floundered or diminished. Personal devotion to any saint and we know
ourselves, that there are many unknown saints around us and when they
leave this earth, we ask them for their prayers of intercession and
therefore, the faithful continue without doubt to venerate St
Philomena.

Popes loved her and they were joined in fervour by some of the era’s
greatest saints. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, called Philomena the
True Light of the Church Militant. He built a basilica in her honour,
where he installed the relic he had been given by the Venerable
Pauline Jaricot, foundress of the Society for the Propagation of the
Faith. (Innumerable “pagan babies” were given the name Philomena in
honour of the foundress’s favourite saint, as I recall.) Father Damien
dedicated the first leper chapel on Molokai in her honour. The
American missionary saints John Neumann and Frances Cabrini spread
devotion to Philomena throughout the Catholic United States. St Peter
Julian Eymard was a great devotee as was St Anthony Mary Claret.
Padre Pio, himself no mean wonder-worker, once silenced critics of her
cult by snarling, “For the love of God! It might well be that her
name is not Philomena but this Saint has performed many miracles and
it is not the name that did them.”

https://anastpaul.com/2018/08/11/


“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.
If we love things, we become a thing.
If we love nothing, we become nothing.
Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ,
rather it means becoming the image of the beloved,
an image disclosed through transformation.
This means we are to become vessels of God’s
compassionate love for others.”
--St Clare’s second letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague

“Gaze upon Him, consider Him, contemplate Him,
as you desire to imitate Him.
….Totally love Him, Who gave Himself totally for your love.”
“They say that we are too poor
but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?
We should remember this miracle of the Blessed Sacrament when in Church.
Then we will pray with great Faith to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist:
‘Save me, O Lord, from every evil – of soul and body.’”
--St Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)


Bible Quote:
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who
refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we
turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: (Hebrews 12:25)


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Come Holy Ghost

COME, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them
the fire of Thy love.
V. Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created;
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let Us Pray
O God, Who hast instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of
the Holy Ghost, grant that by the same Spirit we may be always truly
wise, and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.