This Day in the Church.
St. Justin, apologist and martyr, was one of the most important Christian writers of the second century. He himself tells how his study of all the schools of philosophy led him to Christianity, and how he dedicated his life to the defense of the Christian faith as “the one certain and profitable philosophy.”
St. Philip Neri (1515-1595) was born in Florence and died in Rome. He lived a spotless childhood in Florence. Later he came to Rome and after living for fifteen years as a pilgrim and hermit was ordained a priest. He gradually gathered around him a group of priests and established the Congregation of the Oratory. He was a man of original character and of a happy, genial and winning disposition. A great educator of youth, he spent whole nights in prayer, had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and burned with an unbounded love for mankind. He died on the feast of Corpus Christi.
In her motherly concern, the Blessed Virgin came here to Fatima… It is a mother’s sorrow that compels her to speak; the destiny of her children is at stake. For this reason, she asks the little shepherds: “Pray, pray much and make sacrifices for sinners.” —St. John Paul II
Catherine Benincasa, born in Siena at a date that remains uncertain, was favored with visions from the age of seven. Becoming a tertiary of the Dominican Order, she acquired great influence by her life of prayer and extraordinary mortifications as well as by the spread of her spiritual writings. Her continual appeals for civil peace and reform of the Church make her one of the leading figures of the fourteenth century. Worn out by her mortifications and negotiations she died in Rome on April 29, 1380.
The devotion to our Lady of Good Counsel originated at Gennazzano, a village in the neighborhood of Rome, where an Augustinian church, in which is enshrined a miraculous picture of our Lady, had been for centuries a place of popular pilgrimage. This feast is observed in Canada.
Historically today is the feast of St. Apollonius, the Apologist, a martyr whose Apologia, or defense of the faith, is called one of the most priceless documents of the early Church. Apollonius was a Roman senator who was denounced as a Christian by one of his slaves. The Praetorian Prefect, Sextus Tigidius Perennis, arrested him, also putting the slave to death as an informer. Perennis demanded that Apollonius denounce the faith, and when he refuesed, the case was remanded to the Roman senate. There a debate took place between Perennis and Apollonius that clearly outlines the beauty and the value of Christianity. Despite his eloquent defense, Apollonius was condemned and beheaded.
Today is a day filled with silence. Those who loved and followed Jesus were mourning because their
Saviour had died. It seemed as if death had the final word as they saw the sealed tomb. Today we can
enter into the mourning, the silence, the stillness.
As we know, death marks the end of a life on earth. There is a finality to it that can be scary to think
about—and often we choose not to. Today, let us spend some time thinking about Jesus in the tomb,
lifeless and still. Contemplate how death was the final word on our life before the resurrection. If we’re
able to grasp the finality of death, then we can start to ponder the great power the Lord has to
overcome it. Where there was death, He brought life
According to the Roman Martyrology, today is the feast of St. Julius, a Roman who was chosen Pope on the 6th of February in 337. He ruled the Church until 352 and received the appeal from St. Athanasius, whom he defended against his Arian accusers. The letter he wrote to the East on this occasion is one of the most momentous pronouncements of the Roman See. He built several churches in Rome and ranks as one of the most distinguished occupants of the Holy See.
Magdalena of Canossa believed in the love of the Lord Jesus. Sent by the Holy Spirit among those most in need, she served them with a Mother’s heart and an Apostle’s zeal.
Today is a day filled with silence. Those who loved and followed Jesus were mourning because their
Saviour had died. It seemed as if death had the final word as they saw the sealed tomb. Today we can
enter into the mourning, the silence, the stillness.
As we know, death marks the end of a life on earth. There is a finality to it that can be scary to think
about—and often we choose not to. Today, let us spend some time thinking about Jesus in the tomb,
lifeless and still. Contemplate how death was the final word on our life before the resurrection. If we’re
able to grasp the finality of death, then we can start to ponder the great power the Lord has to
overcome it. Where there was death, He brought life