St. Praxedes

St. Praxedes - July 21st


This Roman maiden came from a family of saints who had been converted by the great Apostles Peter and Paul. When she and her sister, St. Pudentiana, were left with a huge fortune by their holy father, Senator Pudens, they used it all for God. Together they prayed, read sacred books, helped the poor, and comforted the Christians suffering in prison for the Faith.


When St. Pudentiana died, Praxedes continued doing the same good deeds alone. Although the Christians were being persecuted terribly and she helped them in every way she could, the Saint herself was never arrested. Perhaps because she came hid Christians in her home, gave all her money away, and even buried the bodies of the martyrs.


Her heart broke to see how the Christians had to suffer, especially when she had nothing left to give away. It was then that she asked God to take her to Heaven, since she could not be of any service any more.


Today I will offer to Our Lord a few little sacrifices for the persecuted Christians in different parts of the world.

Padre Pio and America

Padre Pio and America

By: Frank M. Rega

First titled, The Holy Man on the Mountain, this book tells the fascinating life story of Padre Pio, with emphasis on his life as a seminarian, young priest and his early decades at San Giovanni Rotondo. Incredible is the number of times the Capuchins sent him home sick unto death while a seminarian and young priest and how he was finally sent to remote San Giovanni Rotondo “for a couple of weeks of mountain air”. He never left. But from this small, remote mountain friary, he became world famous and exercised unbelievable influence on the entire world–though early on, he was forbidden by his superiors to preach, to write or to correspond. A few clerics developed enmity toward Padre Pio, resulting several times in orders from his superiors that he be moved. It is simply hilarious to learn why he never was–though being under obedience, he was entirely willing to do so.

The author also weaves in the Saint’s early work with L’Americana, Mary Pyle, his “foreign ambassadress,” and then with the American GI’s who came to visit him during WWII, when San Giovanni Rotondo was liberated from the Germans. Padre Pio developed a special love for Americans and America–to the point that he wished that all Americans would become his spiritual children.

This book demonstrates Padre Pio’s great love for his parents, his amazing sense of humor, his abstemious eating, his uncanny knowledge of people (even before they visited), and his profound supernatural awareness. In sum, Padre Pio and America is an inspiring book that will instill a profound awe in readers because it shows the impact a truly saintly priest can have on all who come into contact with him–and in Padre Pio’s case, even on the whole world!

To order this book, go to:

https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/page/shop:flypage_gr/product_id/686/

Meaning of the Ceremonies at The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

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The Meaning of the Ceremonies at

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

Adapted from

Fr. John Young’s (SSPX) Sermon

1. The priest going into the sanctuary with the acolytes and praying at the foot of the altar represents Christ praying in the Garden of Olives with His selected Apostles.

2. The priest bowing low during the Confiteor represents Christ prostrating Himself on the ground and sweating blood.

3. The priest ascending and kissing the altar represents Judas betraying Our Lord with a kiss.

4. The priest reading the Introit represents Our Lord asking the Romans: “Whom do you seek?”

5. The thrice repeated Kyrie Eleison represents Peter’s threefold denial of Our Lord.

6. The Gloria in Excelsis Deo represents Christ telling Pilate that He is a King.

7. The first Dominus Vobiscum represents Christ looking at Peter and converting him.

8. The reading of the Epistle represents Christ questioned by Pilate.

9. The reading of the Gospel represents Christ being questioned by Herod.

10.The reading of the Creed represents Christ telling Pilate that He is the only-begotten of God and that He shall come again in the clouds to judge the world.

11.The uncovering of the chalice represents Christ being stripped of His garments.

12.The offering of the host represents Christ being scourged.

13. The offering of the chalice represents Christ being crowned with thorns.

14.The washing of the priest’s fingers represents Pilate washing his hands before the people and proclaiming that he is innocent of the blood of this just Man.

15. The priest turning and saying: “Orate Fratres” represents Pilate taking Christ before the crowd saying: “Behold the Man”.

16. The priest reading the Preface represents the death sentence of Christ read by Pilate.

17. The silent recitation of the Canon represents Christ’s silence when interrogated by Pilate.

18. The priest extending his hands over the chalice at the Hanc Igitur represents Simon of Cyrene extending his hand to help Jesus carry His Cross.

19. The consecration of the host represents Christ being nailed to and elevated on the Cross.

20. The consecration of the wine represents Christ’s blood flowing from the Cross.

21. The priest breaking the silence of the Canon with the words “Nobis quoque peccatoribus” represents the good thief asking to be remembered by Our Lord.

22. The priest reciting the Our Father represents the Seven Last Words on the Cross.

23. The breaking of the Host represents Christ’s death upon the Cross and the earthquake that followed.

24. The dropping of the piece of Host into the chalice represents Christ’s soul going down to Limbo.

25. The Agnus Dei represents the conversion of the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Christ.

26. The “Domine non sum dignus” represents the bystanders beating their breasts and confessing that this Man is the Son of God.

27. The priest receiving Communion represents Our Lady receiving the Body of Jesus into her arms.

28. The Communion of the faithful represents the Apostles putting the Body of Jesus into the sepulcher.

29. The priest cleansing the chalice represents Christ being anointed by the holy women.

30. The priest cleansing the chalice represents Christ being anointed by the holy women.

31. The priest saying the Ite Missa Est represents Christ telling His Apostles to go preach the Gospel.

32. The final blessing represents Christ blessing His Apostles before His Ascension.

33. The Last Gospel represents the Apostles preaching the Gospel to the whole world.

St. Jerome Emiliani

St. Jerome Emiliani - Patron of Orphans and Abandoned Children - July 20th

Jerome was the son of a noble family of Venice, Italy. He was a good soldier and was put in command of a fortress high in the mountains. While defending this post, he was taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon. Chained in that miserable prison, he began to regret the careless way he had been living. He was sorry that he had thought so little about God. Jerome promised the Blessed Mother that he would live a better life is she would help him. His prayers were answered and he escaped to safety.

With a grateful heart, he went straight to a church and hung up his chains in front of Mary’s alter. Later Jerome became a priest and devoted himself to works of charity. His special love was for the many homeless orphan children he found in the streets. He rented a house for them, gave them clothes and food, and taught them the catechism.

St. Jerome started a Congregation of men to take care of the poor, especially orphans, and to teach youth. He did all he could for the poor peasants, too. He would work with them in the fields and talk to them of God’s goodness while he worked.

The Pope named St. Jerome Emiliani the patron saint of orphans and homeless children.

Let us respect our companions and let us try to give them good example.

St. Vincent de Paul

St. Vincent de Paul - Patron of Charitable Institutions - July 19th

Vincent was the son of poor French peasants. When he grew up and became famous, he loved to tell people how he had taken care of his father’s pigs. Because he showed himself to be very intelligent his father sent him to school. And after finishing his studies Vincent became a priest.

At first, he was given an important position as the teacher of rich children, and he lived rather comfortably. Then one day, he was called to the side of a dying peasant, and in front of many people, this man declared that all his past confessions had been bad ones, all sacrileges! Suddenly Vincent realized how badly the poor people of France needed spiritual help. When he began to preach to them, crowds went to confession, and he finally decided to found a congregation of priests to work especially among the poor.

The charities of St. Vincent de Paul were so many that it seems impossible for one man to have done so much. He took care of criminals who were made to labor in the sailing ships. He founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity with St. Louise de Marillac. He opened hospitals and homes of money for poor areas, sent missionaries to many countries, and bought back prisoners from the Mohammedans. So charitable a man, however, humbly admitted that he was not so by nature. “I would have been hard, rough and ill-tempered,” he said, “were it not for God’s grace.”

Am I selfish? Jesus asks me to be good to others, especially to those who suffer. He says to me, too, “Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me”.

St. Camillus de Lellis

St. Camillus de Lellis - Patron of Sick and Hospitals - July 18th

This Italian Saint’s life for twenty-five years was not one to be imitated, because he was a rough-and-ready soldier with a terrible love of gambling and temper that got him into trouble all the time.

At last he had gambled away every penny he had, plus his gun, and even the shirt he was wearing. To earn some money, he took a job with builders putting up a new monastery for the Capuchin monks. The Superior there urged Camillus to change his ways, and his words had a good effect. Camillus kept thinking about them until he finally fell to his knees and begged God for mercy. Then he entered the Capuchin monastery, but a bad sore on his leg made it impossible for him to stay.

St. Camillus went to a hospital in Rome, and though his leg pained him all his life, it healed enough to let him work there tending the sick. In each person, Camillus felt he was serving Jesus Himself, and people were amazed to see how gentle and tender this tall, husky man was with his poor patients. In those days, hospitals did not have regular nurses, and very often rough, careless servants made the patients suffer greatly. So St. Camillus founded a congregation of devoted servants of the sick.

Even when he was very sick, the Saint dragged himself out of his bed to ask the patients if they wanted anything. Once, one sick man begged him to make his bed a little more comfortable. “You beg me!” exclaimed Camillus. “Don’t you know yet that you have to give me orders, for I am your servant?”

Let us visit the poor and the sick to help them. One day Jesus will tell us, “I was hungry and you fed Me; I was sick and you visited Me”.

Our Lady’s Message at La Salette

Our Lady’s Message at La Salette

Compiled by CFN (Catholic Family News)

“And so, My children, you will pass this on to all My people.”
Words of Our Lady of La Salette to Melanie and Maximin - Sept. 19, 1846

Editor’s Note: We present for the purpose of wide distribution a portion of the message of Our Lady of La Salette. This is taken from the booklet “Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at La Salette” and carries the 1879 Imprimatur of Bishop Zola of Lecce. What follows is a transcript, without commentary, of the original 1879 edition.

“Melanie, what I am about to tell you now will not always be a secret. You may make it public in 1858.

“The priests, ministers of My Son, the priests by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors - and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and now vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives are crucifying My Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call or vengeance, and now is at their door, for there no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one worthy of offering a stainless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world.

“God will strike in an unprecedented way. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together.

“The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars, which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishment which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years.

“The Society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and gravest events. Men must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.

“May the curate of My Son, Pope Pius IX never leave Rome again after 1859; may he, however be steadfast and noble, may he fight with the weapons of faith and love. I will be at his side. May he be on guard against Napoleon, he is two-faced and wishes to be Pope as well as Emperor, God will soon draw back from him. He is the mastermind who, always wanting to ascend further, will fall on the sword he wished to use to force his people to be raised up.

“Italy will be punished for her ambition in wanting to throw off the yoke of the Lord of Lords. And so she will be left to fight in war; blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die cruel death. Several will abandon the faith; and a great deal of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops.

“May the Pope guard against the performers of miracles. For the time has come when the most astonishing wonders will take place on the earth and in the air.

“In the year 1864, Lucifer together with a large number of demons will be unloosed from hell; they will put an end to faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of hell; several religious institutions will lose all faith and will lose many souls.

“Evil books will be abundant on the earth, and the spirits of darkness will spread a universal slackening in all that concerns the service of God. They will have great power over nature; there will be churches built to serve these spirits. People will be transported from one place to another by these evil spirits, even priests, for they have not been guided by the good spirit of the Gospel which is a spirit of humility, charity and zeal for the glory of God. On occasions, the dead and the righteous will be brought back to life.1

“Everywhere there will be extraordinary wonders, as the true Faith has faded and false light brightens the people. Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches to protect their authority and to dominate with pride.

“The Vicar of My Son will suffer a great deal, because for a while the Church will yield to large persecution and a time of darkness, and the Church will witness a frightful crisis.

“The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be on his own and be superior to people of the same identity, they will abolish civil rights as well as ecclesiastical, all order and justice will be trampled down under-foot and only homicides, hate, jealous, lies and dissension would be seen without love for country or family.

“The Holy Father will suffer a great deal. I will be with him until the end and receive his sacrifice.

“The mischievous would attempt his life several times to do harm and shorten his days but neither him nor his successor will see the triumph of the Church of God.

“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds.

"In the year 1865, there will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself King of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the earth.

“France, Italy, Spain and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchmen will fight Frenchmen, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their own homes.

“At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the heavens. Paris will burn and Marseille will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy.

“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for My help and intercession. And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the church of Jesus Christ and all those given over to sin will perish and the earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in It’s poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in the faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God.

“This peace among men will be short-lived. Twenty-five years of plentiful harvests will make them forget that the sins of men are the cause of all the troubles on this earth.

“A forerunner of the Antichrist, with his troops gathered from several nations, will fight against the true Christ, the only Savoir of the world. He will shed much blood and will want to annihilate the worship of God to make himself looked upon as a God.

“The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be widespread). There will be a series of wars until the last war, which will then be fought by the ten Kings of the Antichrist, all of whom will have one and the same plan and will be the only rulers of the world. Before this comes to pass, there will be a kind of false peace in the world. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin. But the children of the holy Church, the children of My faith, My true followers, they will grow in their love of God and in all the virtues most precious to Me. Blessed are the souls humbly guided by the Holy Ghost! I shall fight at their side until they reach a fullness of years.

“Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles with dread at what must happen to the earth stained with crime. Tremble, earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves, tremble for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the gazing grounds of Asmodeas and his like. It will be during this time that the Antichrist will be born of a false Hebrew nun, a false virgin who will communicate with the old serpent, the master of impurity, his father will be B. At birth, he will spew out blasphemy; he will have teeth, in a word, he will be the devil incarnate. He will scream horribly, he will feed on nothing but impurity. He will have brothers who, although not devils incarnate like him, will be children of evil. At the age of twelve, they will draw attention upon themselves by the gallant victories they will have won; soon they will each lead armies, aided by the legions of hell.

“The seasons will be altered, the earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motions, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc…

“Rome will lose the faith and become the seat of the Antichrist.

“The demons of the air together with the Antichrist will perform great wonders on earth and in the atmosphere, and men will become more and more perverted. God will take care of his faithful servants and men of good will. The Gospel will be preached everywhere, and all get to know the truth.

“I make an urgent appeal to the earth. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven; I call upon the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men; I call on My children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to Me so that I may lead them to My Divine Son, those whom I carry in My arms, so to speak, those who have lived on My spirit. Finally, I call upon the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world. It is time they came out and filled the world with light. Go and reveal yourselves to be My cherished children. I am at your side and within you, provided your faith is the light that shines upon you in these unhappy days. May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ. Fight, children of the light, you, the few who can see. For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends.

“The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great steps forward through the virtue of the Holy Ghost and will condemn the devilish lapses of the Antichrist. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test? All the blood, the tears and the prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Eli will be put to death. Pagan Rome will disappear. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be led astray because they have not worshipped the true Christ who lives among them. It is time; the sun is darkening; only faith will survive.

“Now is the time; the abyss is opening. Here is the King of Kings of darkness, here is the Beast with his subjects, calling himself the savior of the world. He will rise proudly into the air to go to heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continuous series of evolutions for three days, will open up its fiery bowels; and he will have plunged for eternity with all his followers into the everlasting chasm of hell. And then the water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men’s pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified.”

Note: 1. In a letter to Father Combe, dated October 7, 1899, Melanie corrects these words in parenthesis which are her own, she says, and which she judges to be unclear and inaccurate. “That it to say”, she writes, “that in those days, which only seem like twenty years ago, some perverted people (Italian: malvages) had given themselves over to devotion to the demon of magic. These people would cause to appear in the eyes of the curious, acquainted and theirs who had not led a Christian way of life. These supposedly resurrected individuals appeared in heavenly glory. People known to have lived in the fear of God appeared to be in horrible suffering and urged their friends and acquaintances not to follow in their footsteps, and they preached a Gospel opposed to that of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that these bizarre occurrences may be out down to the fashion for spiritualistic evocations and demoniac practices which no doubt will one day be brought to light through a thorough examination of Luciferian archives of Freemasonry.” - In the same letter, Melanie takes care to explain that where it is said that people will be transported from one place to another, it must be understood as to be in rare cases only.

St. Alexis

St. Alexis - Patron of Pilgrims and Beggars - July 17th

Alexis was the only son of a rich Roman senator. From his good Christian parents, he learned great charity for the poor and it made him very happy to give help to beggars. Alexis wanted to give up his wealth and honors but his parents had chosen a rich bride for him. Because it was their will, he married her. Yet right on his wedding day, he obtained her permission to leave her for God. Then, in disguise, he traveled to Syria in the East and lived in great poverty near a church of Our Lady.

One day, after seventeen years, a picture of our Blessed Mother spoke to tell the people that this beggar was very holy. She called him “the man of God.” Alexis became famous, and that was the last thing he wanted, so he fled back to Rome. He came as a beggar to his own home. His parents did not recognize him, but they were very kind to all poor people and so they let him stay there. In a corner under the stairs, Alexis lived for seventeen years. He used to go out only to pray in church and to teach little children about God. The servants were often very mean to him, and though he could have ended all these sufferings just by telling his father who he was, he chose to say nothing. What great courage and strength of will that took!

After Alexis died, his family found a note on his body which told them who he was and how he had lived his life of penance, from the day of his wedding until then, for the love of God.

If God asks you to leave your dear ones for Him, generously obey the call of our heavenly Father.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

- July 16th

Mt. Carmel is a mountain in Palestine. It became famous when the prophet Elias, who lived before Our Lord was born, worked a great miracle there. For many years there had been no rain in that land, and everything was dying. Elias went up Mt. Carmel to beg the Lord to send the rain, and his prayer was answered.


Much later, after Pentecost, some of the Jews who had become Christians decided to build a shrine on Mt. Carmel in honor of Mary, the Mother of God. There, several times a day, they went to pray together. For this reason the people started to call them “friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.” This was the way the Carmelite Order was begun.


Many, many years later, St. Simon Stock, an Englishmen, became Superior of all the Carmelites. Since they were bring persecuted, he prayed with great confidence to Our Lady. In her goodness, she appeared to St. Simon and gave him the brown scapular, promising her protection to all those who would wear the blessed habit. Many miracles proved her words.


St. Pius X said that the same blessings could be had by wearing the scapular medal, which has a picture of Our Lady of the Scapular on one side and the Sacred Heart on the other.


Let us wear the holy scapular or medal. We will be protected by Our Lady in life and helped by her in death. And after death, she will bring us to Heaven.

St. Henry the Emperor

St. Henry the Emperor - Patron of Benedictine Oblates - July 15th

Henry was Duke of Bavaria when one night he had an unusual vision. St. Wolfgang, who had been his beloved teacher when he was a boy, appeared to him and pointed to the words, “After six” written on the wall. What could that mean? Perhaps Henry was to die in six days? With that thought, he prayed with great fervor for six days, only to find himself alive and in perfect health. Perhaps it meant six month? The good Duke devoted himself to doing good more than ever. At the end of six months, he was healthier than before. So he decided he had six years to get ready for a holy death. But instead of dying after that time had passed, he was elected Emperor of Germany, and then he understood what the vision had meant.

As Emperor, Henry worked hard to keep his people happy and at peace. To defend justice he had to fight many wars, but he always won, since before every battle he prayed and made his soldiers pray. He preserved both his purity and his humility, even though as Emperor, he received great honor and power. He and his wife, St. Cunegundes, lived as brother and sister, and when they went to Rome to be crowned Emperor and Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, it is said that Jesus rewarded Henry for his purity and justice with a wonderful vision. The Saint was praying in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, when he saw Our Lord Himself, Jesus the Eternal Priest, offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!

Even when we are very busy, we should stop a few minutes now and then, to say a prayer for the salvation of our souls.