Happy Feast of St George and St Gianna!
Join us in praying the following Novenas & save the date for the Feast of St Joseph!
With the death of Pope Francis and forthcoming conclave, join us in praying these two critical Novenas for the intercession of St Catherine of Siena, Co-Patroness of Rome and Europe whose Feast Day is on April 30th, and St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church, in anticipation of his Feast of St Joseph the Worker on May 1st.
Please join us in praying for the following intentions:
The repose of the soul of Jorge Mario Bergoglio
The election of a Holy Pope who neither fears the powerful of this world nor compromises with the spirit of the age
The election of a Holy Pope who preserves, strengthens, and defends the Catholic Faith unto the shedding of their blood
The election of a Holy Pope who observes, protects, and hands on the Traditional Roman Rite of the Holy Catholic Church
Novena to Saint Catherine of Siena
Pray this novena starting on 22 April and ending on 30 April, the eve of the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena on 30 April.
Catherine, fairest and most glorious of the daughters of St. Dominic, by that spirit of prayer, which was your delight from your infancy, obtain for us the love and practice of prayer, and the grace so to converse with God as to become daily more pleasing to Him.
Pray a Gloria
By that especial love which you, O great saint, bore to the virtue of purity, consecrating yourself at eight years of age to the Lord by an irrevocable vow, and afterwards by rejecting the most honorable offers of marriage: obtain for us, we pray you, the grace to be always pure in mind and heart, and to detest and abhor everything which could offend in the smallest degree against a virtue so sublime that it raises men to the rank of angels, and makes them most beloved by God.
Pray a Gloria
By that spirit of retirement which made you, O great saint, desire to behold no one but your Jesus, Who when you were distracted by continual employment in your family, taught you to build a solitude in your heart and keep it at all times filled with thoughts of heaven: obtain for us, we pray, the grace so to love solitude and retirement, however the world may invite us to share its pleasures and its pomps, that our hearts may always turn to God amidst the most dissipating cares which may come upon us in our state of life.
Pray a Gloria
By the spirit of penance which taught you to inflict upon yourself, even in your earliest years, the most painful mortifications: obtain for us the grace to bear with patience whatever afflictions God may be pleased to order for our good, and to mortify voluntarily all the perverse inclinations of our hearts, and all the unruly desires of our senses, that we may become, in some measure, like our crucified model, Jesus.
Pray a Gloria
By that heroic charity which led you, O great saint, to attend and minister with your own hands to the poor sick who had been abandoned by all others in disgust, and for which you were repaid only by insult, rudeness, and persecution: obtain of the Lord for us the grace to be, at all times, equally ready to assist our neighbor in his necessities, and to pardon him generously when he returns only insults for the benefits we confer on him, that we may merit the blessedness promised in this life and the next to meekness and true mercy.
Pray a Gloria
By that supernatural light with which you, O great saint, were miraculously enabled to counsel the Roman Pontiff, who came in person to consult you, when you obtained for him a reconciliation with his adversaries, and his return to Rome: obtain for us of the Lord the grace to know, in all our doubts, that which is most conformable to the will of God, and most conducive to the salvation of souls, that in all our actions we may promote the honor of God and the welfare of our neighbor.
Pray a Gloria
By that especial devotion which you, O great saint, had to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, Who sometimes communicated you with His own hands: obtain for us, we pray you, the grace to feel toward the Blessed Sacrament the most fervent devotion, that we may rejoice to converse with Jesus and receive Him into our bosoms to His honor and glory, and for the salvation of our souls.
Pray a Gloria
St. Catherine, pray for us, that we may obtain what we desire through this novena, if what we ask be pleasing to God and conducive to our eternal salvation. May the will of God be done. Amen.1
Unfailing Novena to St. Joseph
This prayer, it is said, has “has never been known to fail, provided that the request is for one’s spiritual benefit or for those whom we are praying for.” Pray it for nine mornings.
O St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God, I place in you all my interest and desires.
O St. Joseph, do assist me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine Son all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.
O St. Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you, and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him close in my name and kiss His fine head for me and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls, pray for me. Amen.
1 And after these things the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: and he sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come. 2 And he said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send labourers into his harvest. 3 Go: Behold I send you as lambs among wolves.2
Faithful servant of God and invincible martyr, Saint George; favored by God with the gift of faith, and inflamed with an ardent love of Christ, thou didst fight valiantly against the dragon of pride, falsehood, and deceit. Neither pain nor torture, sword nor death could part thee from the love of Christ. I fervently implore thee for the sake of this love to help me by thy intercession to overcome the temptations that surround me, and to bear bravely the trials that oppress me, so that I may patiently carry the cross which is placed upon me; and let neither distress nor difficulties separate me from the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Valiant champion of the Faith, assist me in the combat against evil, that I may win the crown promised to them that persevere unto the end.
Because of the aforementioned victory in 1096, St. George is also the patron Saint of the former Kingdom of Aragon, now simply "Aragon," in northwest Spain; April 23 there is known as "El Día de Aragón," and is a legal holiday. He is patron as well of Ethiopia, Palestine, and Georgia. All over the world, his feast day is remembered in various ways (in the Bavarian parts of Germany, horses and their wagons are decorated and paraded in an event called Georgiritt --"George's Ride").
But it's England that is most associated with St. George.
St. George is also the patron of the once wonderful institution of Scouting (may it be restored!), begun in 1908 by Robert Baden-Powell, a Lieutenant General in the British Army. The Scouting laws are laws every boy should honor. They can be summarized with the sentence: "A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent." Teach your children about the cardinal virtues that the Scouts at least once used to try to acquire, and that St. George exemplified!
You may find a plethora of information about St. George and his Feast Day by visiting the embedded link.
From a sermon by Saint Peter Damian, bishop
(Sermon 3, De sancto Georgio)
Dear brothers, our joy in today’s feast is heightened by our joy in the glory of Easter, just as the splendor of a precious jewel enhances the beauty of its gold setting.
Saint George was a man who abandoned one army for another: he gave up the rank of tribune to enlist as a soldier for Christ. Eager to encounter the enemy, he first stripped away his worldly wealth by giving all he had to the poor. Then, free and unencumbered, bearing the shield of faith, he plunged into the thick of the battle, an ardent soldier for Christ.
Clearly what he did serves to teach us a valuable lesson: if we are afraid to strip ourselves of our worldly possessions, then we are unfit to make a strong defense of the faith.
As for Saint George, he was consumed with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Armed with the invincible standard of the cross, he did battle with an evil king and acquitted himself so well that, in vanquishing the king, he overcame the prince of all wicked spirits, and encouraged other soldiers of Christ to perform brave deeds in his cause.
Of course, the supreme invisible arbiter was there, who sometimes permits evil men to prevail so that his will may be accomplished. And although he surrendered the body of his martyr into the hands of murderers, yet he continued to take care of his soul, which was supported by the unshakable defense of its faith.
Dear brothers, let us not only admire the courage of this fighter in heaven’s army but follow his example. Let us be inspired to strive for the reward of heavenly glory, keeping in mind his example, so that we will not be swayed from our path, though the world seduce us with its smiles or try to terrify us with naked threats of its trials and tribulations.
We must now cleanse ourselves, as Saint Paul tells us, from all defilement of body and spirit, so that one day we too may deserve to enter that temple of blessedness to which we now aspire.
Anyone who wishes to offer himself to God in the tent of Christ, which is the Church, must first bathe in the spring of holy baptism; then he must put on the various garments of the virtues. As it says in the Scriptures, Let your priests be clothed in justice. He who is reborn in baptism is a new man. He may no longer wear the things that signify mortality. He has discarded the old self and must put on the new. He must live continually renewed in his commitment to a holy sojourn in this world.
Truly we must be cleansed of the stains of our past sins and be resplendent in the virtue of our new way of life. Then we can be confident of celebrating Easter worthily and of truly following the example of the blessed martyrs.3
In his homily on the occasion of her beatification on April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II offered Gianna Beretta Molla as a model for all mothers: “By holding up this woman as an exemplar of Christian perfection, we would like to extol all those high-spirited mothers of families who give themselves completely to their family, who suffer in giving birth, who are prepared for every labor and every kind of sacrifice, so that the best they have can be given to others.” Gianna was canonized on May 16, 2004.
Saint Gianna understood the realities of being a wife, doctor, and working mother. She believed deeply in the holiness of the family and in the sanctity of human life. It was this deep belief that gave her the courage to entrust herself and her family to God’s loving hands.4
Finally, please save the aforementioned date for our Annual Celebration of the Feast of St Joseph the Worker on Thursday, May 1st at Epiphany of Our Lord Church in Tampa, FL! This is a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the Easter season and the Patron of Fathers, Families, Workers, and the Universal Church.
Our presenting speaker is Joshua Charles of Eternal Christendom!
https://fisheaters.com/novenas.html#siena
https://www.drbo.org/cgi-bin/d?b=drb&=&bk=49&=&ch=10&=&l=18
https://fisheaters.com/feastofstgeorge.html
https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-gianna-beretta-molla/