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Wednesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Veronica Giuliani, 1660-1727; native of Binasco, near Milan, Italy, born in 1660; she entered the Capuchins in 1677, and served as novice mistress for 34 years; received a stigmata in 1697, and had visions, the accounts of which are quite detailed; she remained practical in spite of her ecstatic experiences; became abbess in 1716, a...

Tuesday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions, the Chinese martyrs; the 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930; Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society to his martyrdom in Beijing; all 120 were canonized on October 1, 2000 Office of Readin...

Monday of the 14th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Priscilla; she and her husband, Aquila, the tent-maker, were forced to leave Rome, and settled in Corinth, where they provided lodging for Paul--who may have converted them to Christianity; they went with Paul to Ephesus, and then back to Rome; they suffered martyrdom in Asia Minor according to the Roman martyrology, but one tradition...

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 7/7/24 Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

Saturday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, 1890-1902; daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer; on a hot July afternoon, an 18-year-old neighbor, Alessandro, attempted to molest her, and ended up stabbing her multiple times; Maria was taken to a hospital, where she died; Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison; while there, he received a dream--or vis...

Friday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, 1502-1539; born in Cremona, Italy; ordained a priest at the age of 26; sent to Milan, and he laid the foundations of three religious congregations, one for men, one for women, and an association of married couples; Anthony encouraged such innovations as the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate, frequen...

Thursday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time; Independence Day in the United States Optional Memorial of St. Elizabeth of Portugal, 1271-1336; daughter of Pedro III, future king of Aragon; given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal, at age 12; she exercised both piety and charity, and remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom; Denis gave up his life of s...

Feast of St. Thomas, apostle; died about 72 A.D. Wednesday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 7/3/24 Gospel: John 20:24-29

Tuesday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Otto of Bamberg, 1060-1139; born in Swabia, served Emperor Henry IV in various posts; Otto was appointed bishop of Bamberg in 1103; he was a figure in the  reconciliation of the pope and Emperor Henry V; headed a mission to Pomerania, and made numerous converts among the local inhabitants; known as the Apostle of Pomerania Office of R...

Monday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Junipero Serra, 1713-1784; born on Spain’s island of Mallorca, and joined the Franciscans; set out to convert native peoples in the New World; worked in central Mexico and the Baja Peninsula, and then traveled 900 miles north to set his first mission, San Diego; other missions followed; Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle w...

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/30/24 Gospel: Mark 5:21-43

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul Saturday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/29/24 Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19

Friday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Irenaeus, 130-202; as bishop of Lyons, he foughts the Gnostics, who claimed "secret" knowledge which Jesus had only revealed to a few; Irenaeus' work gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics; circumstances of his death remain unclear, but he is regarded as a martyr Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/28/24 Gospel: Matthew 8:1-4

Thursday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Cyril of Alexandria, 378-444; began his career as archbishop of Alexandria with impulsive--often violent--actions; but he championed the cause of orthodoxy against the heresy of Nestorius, who taught that in Christ there were two persons, one human and one divine; at the Council of Ephesus in 431, Cyril condemned Nestorianism and...

Wednesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, 1902-1975; knew, in 1918, that God was asking something of him; ordained a priest in 1925; in 1928, he realized that his mission was to found Opus Dei, an institution within the  Catholic  Church dedicated to helping people in all walks of  life  to follow Christ, to seek  holiness  in their daily  lif...

Tuesday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. William of Vercelli, 1085-1142; became a hermit on Monte Vergine, Italy, and attracted so many followers that a monastery was built; in time, the austerity of his rule led to dissension, and to keep peace, he left, and was taken under the care of Roger I of Naples; Roger built him a monastery at Salermo; William founded monasteries th...

Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist Monday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/24/24 Gospel: Luke 1:57-66, 80

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/23/24 Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

Saturday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of Saints John Fisher, 1469-1535, and Thomas More, 1478-1535; the two great martyrs of England; condemned and executed for essentially the same reasons--refusal to acknowledge the divorce and remarriage of King Henry VIII, and refusal to accept the king as head of the Church in England, which would deny the pope as head Office of Reading...

Friday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Aloyisius Gonzaga, 1568-1591; grew up in royal courts and army camps, but the more that he saw of court life, the more disillusioned he became; his spiritual awakening began at the age of 7; eventually, his father allowed him to renounce his right to succession, and join the Society of Jesus; during the 1591 plague in Rome, Aloysius assisted...

Thursday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. John of Matera, 1070-1139; longed to become a hermit, and served for a time as a shepherd at a monastery--but his exceptional austerity was so irksome to the less fervent monks, that he had to leave; later, he rebuilt a dilapidated church dedicated to St. Peter; in Bari, he preached with great efficacy; eventually founded a Benedicti...

Wednesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Romuald, 950-1027; after seeing his father kill a relative in a duel, he fled to a monastery; after three years, he was asked to leave; for thirty years, he founded monasteries and hermitages across Italy; he was falsely accused of a crime, and was excommunicated--an unjust punishment which he endured for six months; in later lif...

Tuesday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St Gregory Barbarigo, 1625-1697; embraced a diplomatic career, but became a priest, and then first bishop of Bergamo; he was later elevated to cardinal and given additional authority over the diocese of Padua; he worked to carry out the reforms set forth by the Council of Trent; through his efforts the seminaries of both Bergamo  and  Pad...

Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time Saint of the Day: St. Nectan of Hartland, 468-510; possibly a native of Wales or Ireland, best known through legends; lived as a hermit in Devonshire, England, founding churches there and in Cornwall, England; beheaded by robbers, and in some traditions was a relative of the chieftain Brychan; much revered during the Middle Ages Office of Readings and Morni...

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/16/24 Gospel: Mark 4:26-34