Catholic Culture
Collect: O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
o Apple Dowdy
o Summer Apple Cake
o Weather Saints
o Collect for the Feast of Sts. Processus and Martinian
· Ordinary Time: July 2nd
· Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Old Calendar: Visitation; Sts. Processus and Martinian, martyrs; St. Swithin (Hist); St. Otto, bishop (Hist); St. Bernardino Realino, priest (Hist)
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in the Ordinary Form has been transferred to May 31.
It is also the commemoration of Sts. Processus and Martinian whose bodies lie in a chapel at St. Peter's in Rome. During the time when Sts. Peter and Paul were prisoners in the Mamertine, legend says that these two jailors together with forty others were converted through the prayers and miracles of the holy apostles. They were baptized with water that suddenly sprang out from a rock. The jailors then wished to help the apostles make their escape. Both died as martyrs for the faith (about 67 A.D.).
The Roman Martyrology also includes St. Swithin, bishop, from England on this day. The Anglican Church celebrates his feast on July 15, known as "St. Swithin's Day."
Traditionally today is the feast of St. Otto, bishop of Bamberg and St. Bernardino Realino a member of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.
Sts. Processus & Marinian
The Holy Martyrs Processus and Martinian were pagans and they served as guards at the Mamertine prison in Rome.
State criminals were held in this prison, among them some Christians. Watching the Christian prisoners and listening to their preaching, Processus and Martinian gradually came to the knowledge of the Savior. When the holy Apostle Peter was locked up at the Mamertine prison, Processus and Martinian came to believe in Christ. They accepted holy Baptism from the apostle and released him from prison.
The jailer Paulinus learned about this, and he demanded that Sts Processus and Martinian renounce Christ. But they fearlessly confessed Christ, and they spat at the golden statue of Jupiter. Paulinus ordered that they be slapped on the face, and then seeing the resolute stance of the holy martyrs, he subjected them to torture. The martyrs were beaten with iron rods, scorched with fire, and finally, thrown into prison.
A certain illustrious and pious woman, by the name of Lucina, visited them in prison and gave them help and encouragement. The torturer Paulinus was soon punished by God. He fell blind and died three days later. The son of Paulinus went to the city ruler demanding that the martyrs be put to death. Sts Processus and Martinian were beheaded by the sword (+ ca. 67).
Lucina buried the bodies of the martyrs. Today their tomb is in the south transept of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Excerpted from the Orthodox Church in America
St. Swithin (also known as St. Swithun)
St Swithun died in 862 as bishop of Winchester. It is not known when he was born, but he was a secular clerk with something of a reputation for virtue and learning. He was attached to the West Saxon court and was one of King Egbert's principal advisers. He was given the king's son, Ethelwulf, the father of Alfred the Great, to educate; and to him must go some of the credit for the strongly religious tone of the West Saxon court under Ethelwulf and his sons.
He was consecrated bishop of Winchester in 852, and as bishop was something of a builder. He may also have been one of the first contributors to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. A number of agreeably humble miracles were attributed to him - he was said to have restored a basket of eggs dropped by an old market woman when crossing a bridge. His great reputation for sanctity is, however, largely owing to the cult which sprang up at Winchester a hundred years after his death, in the time of St Ethelwold and the monastic reformation, when his body was translated. His shrine was splendid, but when it was looted by Henry VIII in 1538 its gold and jewels were found to be false.
When he died he was buried at his own request in the churchyard, in order that the passers-by would walk over his grave and the rain fall upon it. It is always said that if it rains on his feast day, it will rain for forty days after, but it is not known how St. Swithun came to be associated with the weather. Similar stories are told of SS Medard, Gervase and Protase in France.
—The Saints, edited by John Coulson
The Roman Martyrology mentions St. Swithin, Bishop of Winchester, England. His holiness was made known by miracles. He died on July 2, but "St. Swithin's Day" is held on July 15 in England, the day his relics were transferred. He is another of the "weather saints" — if it rains on July 15, it will rain forty more days. If no rain, it will be fair for forty more days, as the old rhyme says:
St. Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St. Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days ‘twill rain nae mair.
This weather patronage traces back to July 15, 871 when the monks were translating his body (relics) from the outdoor grave to an indoor shrine in the Cathedral. The saint apparently did not approve, as it rained for 40 days afterward.
Patron: drought relief; Stavenger, England; Winchester, England.
Symbols: cross; rain cloud and rain; crosier and closed book.
St. Otto
On July 2, the Church celebrates the life and work of St. Otto. He was born in 1060 in Swabia, and died on June 30, 1139. He was the Bishop of Bamberg, an indefatigable evangelizer, and the apostle of the Pomeranians.
He was born of noble rank and ordained a priest sometime before the age of 30. He joined the service of Emperor Henry IV in 1090 and became his chancellor in 1101. He served Henry IV and his successor, Henry V, loyally, but he disapproved of the latter’s disgraceful treatment of Pope Paschal.
Otto was consecrated a bishop on May 13, 1106, and set to work founding new monasteries, reforming existing ones, building schools and churches, and completing the construction of the cathedral. He lived a poor and simple life, and was called the “Father of the monks” for the concern he showed toward religious orders.
In 1122 Otto was commissioned by the Polish Duke Boleslaw III to convert Pomerania to Christianity, and he set about this mission in 1124. He traveled across Pomerania twice, and won over the people with his holiness, quiet generosity, and gentle, inspiring sermons.
The conversion of Pomerania was his greatest apostolic work. He baptized over 22,000 people and established 11 churches. Many miracles were attributed to him throughout his two journeys, and many more after his death.
Excerpted from Catholic News Agency
St. Bernardino Realino
Bernardino Realino was born into a noble family of Capri, Italy, in 1530. After an excellent Christian education received at home from his mother, he went on to study medicine and law at the University of Bologna, receiving his doctorate in law in 1556.
A brilliant young man, Bernardino was soon on the road to success: at the tender age of 26, he was elected mayor as well as judge of the town of Felizzano.
From there he became head tax collector in Alessandria, then elected mayor of Cassine, followed by his election as mayor of Castellone.
Word of his learning, dedication, and legal brilliance spread throughout Italy, and the marquis of Naples named him superintendent of all his fiefs.
While in Naples, Bernardino, now 34 years old, met some priests of the relatively new Society of Jesus and made an eight-day retreat with them.
During this retreat he felt a strong call to the religious life and asked the Jesuits for admittance into their Society. He was accepted and ordained a priest in 1567.
From that time on Bernardino devoted his life to the care of the poor and sick, to teaching the Faith to young people, and to ministering to galley slaves.
He was appointed novice master while in Naples and remained in that city for ten years until he was sent to the south of Italy to the town of Lecci where he had been requested to found a college.
He spent the rest of his life in Lecci where he was hailed as a saint during his lifetime, not only because of his powerful example as a preacher, confessor, and teacher, but also because of the many miracles he performed by the power of God.
One of the miracles attributed to Bernardino was in regard to a small pitcher of wine which did not give out until everyone present had had their fill.
Six years before his death at the age of 86, Bernardino fell and sustained two wounds which never healed.
During his final illness, blood was taken from one of the leg wounds and placed in glass vials.
After his death, the blood appeared to boil and foam and retained its liquid state until well into the mid-nineteenth century.
So devoted were the people of Lecci to their saint, the magistrates of the town visited Bernardino on his deathbed and formally requested that he take the city under his patronage after his death.
Unable to speak, Bernardino nodded his head, dying soon afterwards with the names of Jesus and Mary on his lips.
He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947 and is to this day considered the Patron of Lecci.
Excerpted from Friar Jeff's Quiet Spot
Vultus Christi
Tuesday, 01 July 2014 20:00
Do Not Tire of Visiting Us
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).
Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
Pope Benedict XVI, 12 May 2010
I found it significant, and moving, that Pope Benedict XVI in his Act of Consecration and Entrustment of Priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 2010, said to Our Lady, “Do not tire of visiting us”. There is no priest who is not in need of being visited by the Mother of God. When Mary visits a priest, she consoles him, sustains him, and delivers him from the dangers that threaten his priesthood. The Holy Father words are echoed in the hymn at Matins.
Singing the Mystery of the Visitation
Every year on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (2 July in the traditional calendar) I rediscover with wonderment the magnificent hymn: Veni, praecelsa Domina. The hymn dates from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Remarkably, each of its six strophes begins with the word, Veni: Come!
The Spirit and the Bride
The first thing that strikes me about this hymn is how deeply it resonates with the liturgical prayers that the Church addresses to the Holy Ghost. Just as, over and over again, we call upon the Holy Ghost, crying Veni — I am thinking of the Veni, Creator Spiritus and of the Golden Sequence the Veni, Sancte Spiritus — so too do we address the Virgin Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, singing Veni today. Here is the text of the hymn as I translated it:
COME, Lady upon the heights;
Mary, visit us,
you who already brought such joy
to the house of your kinswoman.
COME, Help of the World
remove the stains of sin
and, in visiting your people,
take away the threat of punishment.
COME, Star and Light of the Sea,
pour forth a ray of peace;
set straight what is crooked,
give innocence of life.
COME visit us, we pray you,
strengthen our vigor
with the energy of a holy impulse,
lest our soul waver.
COME, Royal Sceptre,
bring back the wave of those in error
to the unity of the faith
by which the citizens of heaven were saved.
COME, that together with you
we may ceaselessly praise the Son,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit;
may they give us their help. Amen.
The Visitation of the Virgin
The work of the Mother of God is closely associated with that of the Holy Ghost. Compare the graces asked of Mary in this lovely hymn with those asked of the Holy Ghost in the Veni Creator and, again, in the Veni Sancte Spiritus. The visitation of the Virgin brings joy, restores purity, sheds light, sets things right, restores innocence, strengthens the weak, quickens the flagging, reconciles the separated, and raises our spirits in praise of the Most Holy Trinity.
An Exhalation of the Holy Spirit
Where the Virgin Mary goes, the Holy Ghost follows. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort says that as soon as the Holy Ghost finds Mary in a soul, He hastens there. We see that clearly in today’s Gospel. No sooner did Mary greet Elizabeth than she was filled with the Holy Ghost (cf. Lk 1:41). Even the infant John in his mother’s womb is quickened by the Holy Ghost and mysteriously sanctified at the sound of the Virgin Mary’s voice (cf. Lk 1:44). The salutation of Holy Mary, full of grace, is an exhalation of the Holy Ghost.
She Salutes Us With Grace
If you would experience the grace of Mary’s salutation, then greet her often. There is in a lovely episode in the life of Saint Bernard that demonstrates this. It took place while he was visiting the Abbey of Afflighem in Belgium. Saint Bernard raised his eyes to an image of the Blessed Virgin, saying, Ave, Maria, and the Mother of God, looking upon him with inexpressible sweetness, said, Ave, Bernarde. Mary’s salutation, says Saint Bonaventure, will always take the form of some grace corresponding to the needs of the person who greets her: “She gladly salutes us with grace, if we joyfully salute her with the Hail Mary.”
Always the Rosary
This is why the repeated salutations of the Rosary are so powerful. The Ave, Maria tirelessly repeated opens the heart to the gentle irrigation of the Holy Spirit, to the living water promised by Jesus to those who believe in Him (cf. Jn 7:38). The Rosary is one of the surest ways of obtaining the gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost. One who invokes the Mother of God invokes the Holy Ghost, for she never visits us apart from the Holy Ghost who overshadowed her at the Annunciation, spoke through her at the Visitation, inspired her at Cana, descended upon her from the mouth of the Crucified on Calvary, and filled her with fire at Pentecost.
It is helpful to meditate those mysteries of the Rosary that reveal the relationship between the Virgin Mary and the Holy Ghost: 1) the Annunciation, 2) the Visitation, 3) the Wedding Feast at Cana, 4) the Death of Jesus on the Cross, 5) the Retreat in the Cenacle and the Outpouring of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.
Veni, Maria!
Today, ask the Mother of God to visit you and to visit those most in need of her motherly presence. Take your inspiration from the prayer of the Church, and repeat over and over again: Veni, veni, veni, Maria! She will come. She will visit you. And with her visitation will come the grace of the Holy Ghost.
28. And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God? are you here to torment us before the time?
30. And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding.
31. So the devils besought him, saying, If you cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
32. And he said to them, Go. And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine and, behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters.
33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils.
34. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that He would depart out of their coasts.
CHRYS; Because there were who thought Christ to be a man, therefore the demons came to proclaim His divinity, that they who had not seen the sea raging and again still, might hear the demons crying; And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there meet him two men having demons.
RABAN; Gerasa is a town of Arabia beyond Jordan, chose to Mount Gilead, which was in the possession of the tribe of Manasseh, not far from the lake of Tiberias, into which the swine were precipitated.
AUG; Whereas Matthew relates that there were two who were afflicted with demons, but Mark and Luke mention only one, you must understand that one of them was a person of note, for whom all that country was in grief, and about whose recovery there was much care, when the fame of this miracle was the more noised abroad.
CHRYS; Or; Luke and Mark chose to speak of one who was more grievously afflicted; whence also they add a further description of his calamity; Luke saying that he broke his bonds and was driven into the desert; Mark telling that he often cut himself with stones. But they neither of them say that there was only one, which would be to contradict Matthew. What is added respecting them that they came from among the tombs, alludes to a mischievous opinion, that the souls of the dead become demons. Thus many soothsayers use to kill children, that they may have their souls to cooperate with them; and demoniacs also often cry out, I am the spirit of such an one. But it is not the soul of the dead man that then cries out, the demon assumes his voice to deceive the hearers. For if the soul of a dead man has power to enter the body of another, much more might it enter its own. And it is more unreasonable to suppose that a soul that has suffered cruelty should cooperate with him that injured it, or that a man should have power to change an incorporeal being into a different kind of substance, such as a human soul into the substance of a demon. For even in material body, this is beyond human power; as, for example, no man can change the body of a man into that of an ass. And it is not reasonable to think that a disembodied spirit should wander to and fro on the earth. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, therefore those of young children must be so, seeing they are not evil. And the souls of sinners are at once conveyed away from hence, as is clear from Lazarus, and the rich man. Because none dared to bring them to Christ because of their fierceness therefore Christ goes to them. This fierceness is intimated when it is added, Exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass that way. So they who hindered all others from passing that way, found one now standing in their way. For they were tortured in an unseen manner, suffering intolerable things from the mere presence of Christ. And, lo they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of David?
JEROME; This is no voluntary confession followed up by a reward to the utterer, but one extorted by thee compulsion of necessity. A runaway slave, when after long time he first beholds his master, thinks only of deprecating the scourge; so the demons, seeing the Lord suddenly moving upon the earth, thought He was come to judge them. Some absurdly suppose, that these demons knew time Son of God, while the Devil knew Him not, because their wickedness was less than his. But all the knowledge of the disciple must be supposed in the Master.
AUG; God was so far known to them as it was His pleasure to be known; and He pleased to be known so far as it was needful. He was known to them therefore not as He is Life eternal, and the Light which enlightens the good, but by certain temporal effects of His excellence, and signs of His hidden presence, which are visible to angelic spirits though evil, rather than to the infirmity of human nature.
JEROME; But both the Devil and the demons may be said to have rather suspected, than known, Jesus to be the Son of God.
PSEUDO-AUG; When the demons fly out, What have we to do with you, Jesus, You Son of God? we must suppose them to have spoken from suspicion rather than knowledge. For had they known him, they never could have suffered the Lord of glory to be crucified,
REMIG; But as often as they were tortured by His excellent power, and saw Him working signs and miracles, they supposed Him to be the Son of God; when they saw Him hungry and thirsty, and suffering such timings, they doubted, and thought Him mere man. It should he considered that even time unbelieving Jews when they said that Christ cast out demons in Beelzebub, and the Arians who said that He was a creature, deserve condemnation not only on God's sentence, but on time confession of the demons, who declare Christ to be the Son of God. Rightly do they say, What have we to do with you, Jesus, You Son of God? that is, our malice and Your grace have nothing in common, according to that time Apostle speaks, There is no fellowship of light with darkness.
CHRYS; That this should not be thought to be flattery, they cry out what they were experiencing, Have You come to torment us before the time?
AUG; Either because that came upon them unexpectedly, which they looked for indeed, but supposed more distant; or because they thought their perdition consisted in this, that when known they would be despised; or because this was before the day of judgment when they should be punished with eternal damnation.
JEROME; For be presence of time Savior is the torment of demons.
CHRYS; They could not say they had not sinned, because Christ had found them doing evil, and marring the workmanship of God; whence they supposed that for their more abundant wickedness the time of the last punishment which shall be at the day of judgment should not be tarried for to punish them.
AUG; Though the words of the demons are variously reported by the three Evangelists, yet this is no difficulty; for they either all convey the same sense, or may be supposed to have been all spoken. Nor again because in Matthew they speak in the plural, in the others in the singular number; because even time other two Evangelists relate that when asked his name, he answered, Legion, showing that the demons were many. Now there was not far from thence a herd of many swine feeding; and the demons prayed Him saying If You cast us out send us into the swine.
GREG; For the Devil knows that of himself he was no power to do anything, because it is not of himself that he exists as a spirit.
REMIG; They did not ask to be sent into men, because they saw Him by whose excellence they were tortured existing in human shape. Nor did they ask to be sent into sheep, because sheep are by God's institution clean animals, and were then offered in the temple of God. But they requested to be sent into the swine rather than into any of the other unclean animals, because this is of all animals the most unclean; whence also it has its name 'porcus,' as being 'spurcus,' filthy, and delighting in filthiness; and demons also delight in the filthiness of sin. They did not pray that they might sent into the air, because of their eager desire of hurting men. And he said to them, Go.
CHRYS; Jesus did not say this, as though persuaded by the demons, but with many designs therein. One, that He might show the mighty power to hurt of these demons, who were in possession of the two men; another, that all might see that they had no power against the swine unless by His sufferance; thirdly, to show that they would have done more grievous hurt to the men, had they not even in their calamities been aided by Divine Providence, for they hate men more than irrational animals. By this it is manifest that there is no man who is not supported by Divine Providence; and if all are not equally supported by it, neither one after one manner of Providence, that it is extended to each man according to his need. Besides the above-mentioned things, we learn also that He cares not only for the whole together, but for each one in particular; which one may see clearly in this demoniac, who would have been long before choked in the deep, had not Divine care reserved them. He also permitted them to go into the herd of swine, so they who dwelt in those parts might know His power. For where He was known to none, there He makes His miracles to shine forth, that He may bring them to a confession of His divinity.
JEROME; The Savior bade them go, not as yielding to their request, but that by the death of the swine, an occasion of man's salvation might be offered. But they went out, (to wit, out of the men,) and went into the swine; and the whole herd rushed violently headlong into the sea, and perished in the waters. Let Manicheus blush; if the souls of men and of beasts be of one substance, and one origin, how should two thousand swine have perished for the sake of the salvation of two men?
CHRYS; The demons destroyed the swine because they are ever striving to bring men into distress, and rejoice in destruction. The greatness of the loss also added to the fame of that which was done; for it was published by many persons; namely, by the men that were healed, by the owners of the swine, and by those that fed them; as it follows, But they that fed them fled, and went into the town, and told all, and concerning them that had the demons; and behold, the whole town went out to meet Jesus. But when they should have adored Him, and wondered at His excellent power, they cast Him from them, as it follows, And when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts. Observe theme clemency of Christ next to His excellent power; when those who had received favors from Him would drive Him away, He resisted not, but departed, and left those who thus pronounced themselves unworthy of His teaching, giving them as teachers those who had been delivered from the demons, and the feeders of the swine.
JEROME; Otherwise; this request may have proceeded from humility as well as pride; like Peter, they may have held themselves unworthy of the Lord's presence, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
RABAN; Geresa is interpreted ' casting out the dweller,' or, 'a stranger approaching;' this is theme Gentile world which cast out the Devil from it; and which was first far off but now made near, after the resurrection being visited by Christ through His preachers.
AMBROSE; The two demoniacs are also a type of the Gentile world; for Noah having three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, Shem's posterity alone was taken into the inheritance of God, while from the other two sprang the nations of the Gentiles.
HILARY; Thus the demons held the two men among the tombs without the town, that is, without the synagogue of the Law and the Prophets; that is, they infested the original seats of the two nations, the abodes of the dead, nicking the way of this present life dangerous to the passers by.
RABAN; it is not without cause that He speaks of them as dwelling among the tombs; for what else are the bodies of the faithless but sepulchers of the dead, in which the word of God dwells not, but there is enclosed the soul dead in sins. He says, So that no man might pass through that way, because before the coming of the Savior the Gentile world was inaccessible. Or, by the two, understand both Jews and Gentiles, who did not abide in the house, that is, did not rest in their conscience. But they abide in the tombs, that is, delighted themselves in dead works, and suffered no man to pass by the way of faith, which way the Jews obstructed.
HILARY; By their coming forth to meet Him is signified the willingness of men flocking to the faith. The demons seeing that there is no longer any place left for them among the Gentiles, pray that they may be suffered to dwell among the heretics; these, seized by them, are drowned in the sea, that is, in worldly desires, by the instigation of the demons, and perish in the unbelief of the rest of the Gentiles.
BEDE; Or the swine are they that delight in filthy manners; for unless one live as a swine, the devils do not receive power over him; or at most, only to try him, not to destroy him. That the swine were sent headlong into the lake, Signifies, that when the people of the Gentiles are delivered from the condemnation of the demons, yet still they who would not believe in Christ, perform their profane rites in secret, drowned in a blind amid deep curiosity. That they that fed the swine, fled and told what was done, signifies that even the leaders of the wicked though they shun the law of Christianity, yet cease not to proclaim the wonderful power of Christ. When struck with terror, they entreat Him to depart from them, they signify a great number who, well satisfied with their ancient life, show themselves willing to honor the Christian law, while they declare themselves unable to perform it.
HILARY; Or the town is a type of the Jewish nation, which having heard of Christ's works goes forth to meet its Lord, to forbid Him to approach their country and town; for they have not received the Gospel.
Catena Aurea Matthew 8
