Category Archives: Saint Of The Day

St. Matthias was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot.  He had been companion of Jesus ever since his baptism from St. John.  It is said that after Matthias was chosen the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples.  St. Matthias taught that mortifying the flesh with its irregular passions and desires was a necessity.  St. Matthias was martyred in Colchis (Ethiopia) a district of Asia Minor.

FEAST DAY:  May 14

PATRON OF:  Alcoholism, carpenters

SPANISH/ESPANOL BOOKS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

The Lord will give him a seat with the leaders of his people.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(c)  The existence of snakes

Today’s Question

From whom do we learn what it means to be fully human and truly happy?

 

 FEAST DAY:  May 13

STATUE           DVD

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

All you nations, praise the Lord.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(a)  To be stewards of creation

Today’s Question

What is not a consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve?

(a)  labor of childbirth     (b) toil by the sweat of one’s brow     (c) the existence of snakes

According to Pope St. Damasus, the three were Roman soldiers who became Christians.  They laid down their arms and refused to remain in the service.  They were martyred and buried in the cemetery of Domitilla on the Via Ardeatina.  On the other hand, legend has it that they were servants of Flavia Domitilla, a niece of the Emperoir Titus and Doimitian, who became a Christian.  She was banished to the island Pontia and was martyred at Terracina together with Nereus and Achilleus.  St. Pancras was a Phrygian of noble birth and was baptized at age 14.  He gave all his possessions to the poor which drew attention from the authorities.  When he refused to renounce his Christianity, he too, was martyred.

 FEAST DAY:  May 12

BOOKS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Athirst is my soul for the living God.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

False

Today’s Question

When God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it,” God intended for humanity ____________

(a) to be stewards of creation      (b) to plant fruit trees      (c) to war against the animals

In 1642 at the age of 16, Francis entered the clerical state in his home town of Taranto, Italy.  He completed his education for the priesthood in Naples.  Francis taught in the Jesuit College of Nobles in Naples and was highly regarded by the students.  After four years he joined the Society of Jesus and led the life of a rural missionary working on the outskirts of Naples for the last forty years of his life.  He was a powerful and spell-binding preacher.  He was surrounded by people wherever he went.  They streamed to his confessional.  He converted countless sinners.  It is said that he brought back to God at least 400 hardened sinners every year.  He sought people everywhere, along back streets, country roads, brothels, and prisons.  He had the reputation as a wonderworker.  Throngs of people gathered round his coffin at his death in 1716.

FEAST DAY:  May 11

MEDALS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

Preside at the Eucharist or celebrate the Mass.

Today’s Question

Men and women can be ordained deacons in the Roman Catholic Church.

St. Damien was born at Tremeloo, Belgium on January 3, 1840.  He attended the College of Braine-le-Comte.  St. Damien joined the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1860, and he took the name Damien.  He was sent as a missionary to Hawaii at his request in 1864.  He was ordained in Honolulu that same year.  For nine years he worked to evangelize the peoples of Puno and Kohala.  Again at his request, in 1873, he went to the leper colony at Molokai, and he spent his life ministering to the lepers.  He contracted the disease in 1885, but St. Damien continued to live and work with and aid the lepers until his death on April 15.  His lifetime of holiness and dedication were quickly recognized after his death though he was slandered during his lifetime.  Robert Louis Stevenson wrote an impassioned defense of his character in 1905.  Pope Paul VI declared him Venerable in 1977.

 FEAST DAY:  May 10 

DVD       BOOKS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

 How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me?

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(a) Ordination

Today’s Question

What is another way of saying that priests offer the sacrifice of the Mass?

Born to St. Gregory Nazianzen the Elder and St. Nonna in Cappadocia.  He became acquainted with St. Basil at the rhetorical school at Caesarea, Palestine.  Then he went to Athens for ten years where both Basil and the future Emperor Julian the Apostate were also studying.   At about the age of 30 he went to Pontus to live a life of a solitary.  Two years later he returned home to assist his elderly father.  He was ordained by his father and around 372 was named Bishop of Sasima.  He never went to Sasima but remained with his father.  After his father’s death, he suffered a breakdown.  Later he was invited to Constantinople by a group of bishops to help revitalize the church in the East.  His preaching brought floods of converts.  He was abused and persecuted by the Arians, Apollinarists, and Maximus who tried to depose him.  Gregory prevailed and was made Archbishop of Constantinople.  During a controversy over his election, he resigned now that orthodoxy had been restored.  He lived a private life in great austerity and died January 25.   

 FEAST DAY:  May 9

GARDEN STATUES

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(c)  The good shepherd

Today’s Question

The liturgical act or rite by which a person is consecrated a priest is called ___________.

(a) ordination     (b) baptism     (c) confirmation

He was the son of a wealthy couple from Soissons, France, who spent all their time and possessions in helping the poor.  They were a good influence on Desideratus, and his brothers, Desiderius and Deodatus.  All three became saints.  King Clotaire made Desideratus Secretary of State.  He was a holy man and lived a holy life despite the splendors of the royal court.  He was a good influence on the King.  He wanted to retire to a monastery, but the King reminded him to put the peoples welfare before his own.  He became Bishop of Bourges and during that time he was known as a peacemaker and wonderworker.  He was a member of the Fifth Council of Orleans and the Second Council of Auvergne.  He died May 8, 550.

 FEAST DAY:  May 8

CROSSES & CRUCIFIXES

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(a)  The presence of God’s kingdom.

Today’s Answer

What biblical image provides a sense of the bishop’s pastoral service as watching over and guiding his people?

(a) the good Samaritan     (b) the good shepherd     (c) the honest steward

Born July 26, 1030 to noble parents.  He was educated at Gnesen and was ordained. Bishop Lampert Zula gave him a canonry and made him his preacher for which he became noted.  He became a spiritual advisor and was sought after.  His efforts to reform were successful.  In 1072 he was named Bishop of Cracow.  King Boleslaus was a cruel man, even to the point of kidnapping a nobleman’s beautiful wife.  St. Stanislaus incurred the King’s wrath when he denounced his cruelties.  Stanislaus excommunicated the King and stopped services when Boleslaus entered the cathedral.  Boleslaus killed St. Stanislaus while he was saying Mass in a chapel outside the city on April 11.  He was canonized by Pope Innocent IV in 1253.

FEAST DAY:  May 7

PATRON OF:  Cracow

BOOKS FOR MEN

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(b) Illness

Today’s Question

Jesus’ compassion toward the sick is a sign of ____________

(a) the presence of God’s kingdom     (b) God’s interest in medicine     (c) God’s desire to end disease

Said to be one of the seventy disciples.  Tradition says he was ordained and consecrated bishop of Antioch by one of the Apostles, probably Peter.  It is believed that he was the first person to use the word Christian.

FEAST DAY:  May 6

GIFTS

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(c) Illness

Today’s Question

What can have a positive effect in helping us turn toward God and toward what is really important in life?

(a) lightening     (b) illness     (c) the lottery

St. Jutta was born in Sangerhausen, Thuringia.   She was married to a nobleman at age 15.  She won her husband over to her spiritually-motivated life.  He died on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Jutta was desolate and had to raise her children herself.  Their mother’s spiritual example influenced her children to enter the religious life and left her free to follow the vocation to which she had long aspired.  She gave away all her property and spent the few remaining years of her life in religious retirement and cared for the sick.  A dilapidated building about a half mile from Kulmsee is where she settled down.  The Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights was a relative of hers.  Her home was about a half mile from the territory of the military order of the Knights.  She maintained that three things can bring one close to God – painful sickness, exile from home in some remote corner of a foreign country, and poverty voluntarily accepted for God.  She spent her whole life exemplifying this way of approach to God.   She was reported to have had visions, performed miracles, and experienced levitation.   She died in 1260.

FEAST DAY:  May 5

ROSARIES

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

QUIZ

Yesterday’s Answer

(a) Healing and the relief of suffering.

Today’s Question

What reminds us how limited and finite we are as human beings?

(a) health     (b) prosperity     (c) illness