St. Adelaide 931-999

St. Adelaide was the daughter of Rudolph of Burgundy. Still a child she was betrothed for political reasons to Lothair of Provence, heir of King Hugh of Italy. Hugh married Adelaide's widowed mother. At the age of sixteen she married Lothair, now Icing of Italy, and a daughter, Emma, was born of the marriage. It was an unhappy union but a short one, for in 950 Lothair died. His successor, Berengar, imprisoned her when Adelaide refused to marry his son. After four months' confinement she escaped in August 951, and when that same year the German Emperor Otto appeared in Italy and proposed marriage, she accepted. Four children were born to them, the future Otto II and three daughters, two of whom became nuns. A revolt led by Ludolf, Otto's son by his first marriage, was crushed. It would appear to have been Adelaide's influence which encouraged, if it did not inspire, Otto's policy of close collaboration with the church. During a sojourn of six years in Italy Otto and Adelaide received the imperial crown from John XII.

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St. John of the Cross 1541 - 1591

Doctor of the Church

Patronage: Contemplatives, mystics

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St. Lucy, Virgin, Martyr (Memorial)

Patron Saint of the blind
283-304

Consecrated virgin, denounced by would-be pagan husband; her captors, unable to move or drag her, stabbed her and gouged her eyes out; she was martyred in Syracuse in Diocletion's persecutions of 304.




"Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's" - John Donne

Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of the Americas

Her feast commerorates her appearances to San Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on Tepeyac Hill near Mexico City, from December 9, 1531 to December 12, 1531.

In 1531 a "Lady from Heaven" appeared toJuan Diego, a humble Native American at Tepeyac, a hill northwest of what is now Mexico City. She identified herself as the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live, of the Creator of all things, Lord of heaven and the earth. She made a request for a church to be built on the site, and submitted her wish to the local Bishop. When the Bishop hesitated, and requested her for a sign, the Mother of God obeyed without delay or question to the Church's local Bishop, and sent Juan Diego to the top of the hill in mid-December to gather an assorment of roses for the Bishop. After complying to the Bishop's request for a sign, She also left for us an image of herself imprinted miraculously on Juan Diego's tilma, a poor quality cactus-cloth, which should have deteriorated in 20 years but shows no sign of decay 476 years later and still defies all scientific explanations of its origin.

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Basilica de Santa Maria de Guadalupe, Mexico City

Cathedral Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dallas, Tx

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, La Crosse, Wi

Feast of Saint Ambrose

"But a very little while," and a change we could never imagine will happen. The lowly will find joy and the poor will rejoice. Why? Because of a Presence that even a blind man can sense...because it is the Presence we have been waiting for all our life. "Have pity on us!" "The Lord Jesus took compassion on us in order that he might call us to himself and not scare us away. He comes as someone gentle, someone humble." - St. Ambrose (c. 338 - 307)

Saint Ambrose, mosaic, Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan

Feast Saint Francis Xavier

St. Francis Xavier evangelized the Indies and Japan during ten years of extraordinary missionary activity beginning in 1542. A second St. Paul, he was canonized on March 12, 1622, and named Patron of All Foreign Missionaries by Pope Pius in 1904.

Prayer on his Feast Day December 3rd

Lord Jesus,

You have sent us to proclaim the Gospel to all nations,

and have promised to always remain with us.

Look upon this family

gathered on the feast day of St. Francis Xavier.

Pour out the abundance of your Spirit

upon each one of our brothers and sisters

especially on those who are called to ponder

upon the journey made

and to plan what has still to be done,

so that we may offer a more authentic service to mission.

Grant that we may ever be faithful to the Gospel

and to give an answer

to the hopes which the world places before your church today.

Stay with us, Lord,

when we gather around the table of your Bread and your Word,

and when we walk the paths of the world

side by side with our brothers and sisters.

Grant that we all find ourselves in heaven, our homeland,

after having been members of the same family on earth.

Amen.

Blessed John of Vercelli (memorial) 1205 - 1283

Patronage - Holy Name Society

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Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle

St. Andrew was the brother of St. Peter and a follower of St. John the Baptist and was the first of the apostles to follow Christ. He preached the Gospel in Greece. St. Andrew was crucified in 60 A.D. in Patras on an X-shaped cross. He is Patron Saint of Fisherman, Old Maids, Russia, Scotland, and Singles.

The First Called

From the Fourth Gospel we know an important

detail: Andrew had previously been a disciple of John

the Baptist: and this shows us that he was a man who

was searching, who shared in Israel's hope, who

wanted to know better the word of the Lord, the

presence of the Lord. He was truly a man of faith

and hope; and one day he heard John the Baptist

proclaiming Jesus as: "the Lamb of God" (Jn 1:36);

so he was stirred, and with another unnamed disciple

followed Jesus, the one whom John has called "the

Lamb of God." Thus, Andrew enjoyed precious

moments of intimacy with Jesus. The account

continues with one important annotation: "One of

the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his

brother Simon, and said to him, 'We have found the

Messiah' (which means Christ). He brought him to

Jesus" (Jn 1:40-43), straighaway showing an

unusual apostolic spirit. Andrew, then was the first

of the Apostles to be called to follow Jesus. Exactly

for this reason the liturgy of the Byzantine Church

honors him with the nickname: "Protokletos,"

[protoclete] which means, precisely, "the first called."

Pope Benedict XVI

when i was an atheist, i didnt understand how a person can have faith; i thought it must be something a person is born with, like blue eyes or brown skin; but then i discovered that faith is'nt something we are born with, but that it is a gift from God, given to all, but a gift that only some accept, open and share.

i was stirred as St. Andrew was when i discovered, as an adult, that i could forgive someone who had committed a great injury to me when i was a child.

I discovered that i always had God's gift of faith, but i set it aside, unopened, turning my attention instead toward my tormentor; a slow tortuous death by fear, anger and hate.

By God's grace i found God's gift of faith, unconditional love. A love, that for me took the form of forgiveness, for myself and my tormentor that reconciled me with God and his church after a long exile.

i hope and pray that i continue to be stirred.