Better Days BroDcast

The 1718 Rule of the Brothers states that on this vigil, at 10:30 p.m., the Brothers go to the oratory, where a subject of meditation is read, and afterward go to the church, to be there for the beginning of Matins. They make their prayer there until the time for Mass, at which they receive Holy Communion. No doubt De La Salle wrote this meditation for that occasion. It is a good example of the Ch...

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This feast was first celebrated in the Eastern Church, and was only gradually introduced into Europe during the ninth century. It was promoted by the Franciscans in the thirteenth century, and the Franciscan Pope Sixtus IV introduced it in Rome in 1477. Because Pope Clement XI extended it to the universal Church in 1708, it received a special impetus toward the end of De La Salle’s life. This migh...

Ambrose was born in Treves Germany. His father was governor of the Gauls, and a member of the Roman aristocracy. Ambrose was educated in Rome, and became a provincial governor with headquarters in Milan. While presiding at the election of the bishop of Milan, he was nominated by acclamation, even though he was not yet a Christian, although his family was. He was forthwith baptized, ordained a prie...

Saint Nicholas, bishop of Myra Asia Minor, is known largely from legends and popular devotion, as the patron of sailors in the East and of children in the West. When the Saracens took possession of Myra, his relics were brought to Bari Italy, and he is often called Saint Nicholas of Bari. The stories recounted by De La Salle in the third point of his meditation, are the probable origins of his bec...

Francis was born at Xavier, in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre. He was educated in Paris and became a professor of philosophy at the College of Beauvais. At the University of Paris, he met Ignatius of Loyola, a fellow Basque, and became one of the first Jesuits, in 1534. In 1542 he was sent to India as Apostolic Nuncio to the Far East. Seven years later, after having labored ardently in the south a...

Andrew, as the Gospel tells us, was the brother of Saint Peter, one of the first to be called by Christ, a fisherman by trade. He was the one who told our Lord about the boy with the five loaves and two fish, and about the Gentiles who had come asking to see Jesus. There are many conflicting stories about his mission after Pentecost. He has become patron of Russia and Scotland. The tradition of th...

Catherine, according to the legend written about her, was beheaded after an unsuccessful attempt to kill her on a spiked wheel during the reign of Emperor Maxentius. The story of her refuting 50 philosophers has led to her becoming the patron of Christian philosophers and being venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. She was popular among the crusaders, who did much to spread devotion to he...

The feast of the Presentation of Mary, is based on a tradition that is without any biblical foundation for its historicity. It was first celebrated by the Pope when he was at Avignon in 1372, although the Eastern Church had celebrated it many centuries before. Pope Sixtus made it a feast for the universal Church in 1472. Pope Pius V suppressed it, but Pope Sixtus V restored it to the Roman breviar...

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Elizabeth of Hungary (1207–1231), the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary, was married at the age of 13 to the saintly Louis of Thuringia, Germany, for whom she bore a son and two daughters. As queen she combined great solicitude for the poor and an austere life for herself. When her husband was killed in Sicily on his way to a crusade, her brother-in-law, Henry, usurped the throne and expelled...

Martin was born at Salaria Hungary, and became a catechumen at an early age, despite the fact that his father was a pagan. Conscripted in the Roman army, he became a Christian after a vision of Christ rewarding him for his generosity, to a poor beggar needing warm clothing. He left the army after a miraculous victory over the barbarians in which, unarmed, he led the Romans. Coming under the guidan...

Two great friends since grade school years talk about what matters in life during these times. Recorded on Oct 26, 2020 and published the following Thursday. Photo by Frame Harirak on Unsplash

Charles Borromeo was born of a noble family in Arona, Italy. He earned a doctorate in canon law at Pavia in 1559 and forthwith was created a cardinal by his uncle, who had just become Pope Pius IV. He was made archbishop of Milan and Papal Secretary of State, and worked strenuously for the conclusion of the Council of Trent between 1560 and 1564. After that, he became the embodiment of the spirit...

This feast became part of the liturgy of the universal Church in the fourteenth century. Prior to that it was a long-standing practice of the Benedictines, begun during the tenth century at the Abbey of Cluny by Saint Odilon. At one time it was a practice for every priest to say three Masses on this day. (MTR) Music from SoundCloud.com. Photo by Veit Hammer on Unsplash

This feast was inaugurated when the Pantheon in Rome, which had originally been dedicated to all the pagan gods by the emperor Agrippa in 273 B.C., was consecrated to the worship of God in honor of our Lady and all the Christian martyrs by Pope Boniface IV (608–615). Pope Gregory IV (827–844) assigned the feast to November 1. (MTR) Music from SoundCloud. Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Simon is unknown except for the mention of him as one of the 12 Apostles. He was called the Zealot by Christ, which could mean only that he was a man of zeal for the Law rather than a member of the Zealot party. There are many apocryphal stories about him, including his martyrdom in Persia with Jude. Jude cannot be positively identified as the author of the Epistle, that bears this name nor as the...

Hilarion  is known to us from the biography of him written by Saint Jerome, who learned about him from Saint Epiphanius of Salamis, who knew Hilarion personally. Hilarion was born in Palestine and studied in Alexandria, becoming a Christian there at the age of 15. His life was a series of moves from one place to another in search of solitude, which was constantly thwarted by his reputation fo...

The Evangelist Luke, aAs author of the Gospel bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles, he is the largest single contributor to the New Testament. We learn about him from passages in the Acts, together with a few references to him in Paul’s epistles. From the style and content of his writings, we can deduce that he was well educated and knowledgeable in geography, the administration of the em...

Saint Teresa was born in 1515 near Ávila, Spain, partly of Jewish descent, and grew up in a large, upper middle-class family. When her mother died in 1528, she became a boarder in a convent school in Ávila and in 1536 entered the Carmelites there. After some years of mediocre living in the convent, she was favored with a spiritual conversion and received excellent guidance from her uncle and from...

According to Saint Gregory of Tours, Saint Denis, the bishop of Paris, was sent to France by the Pope and martyred at a spot that was later named for him, Saint-Denis, near Paris. The Abbey of Saint-Denis became the burial place of the French kings. Dela Salle opened a school in Saint-Denis in 1708; a community of Brothers is still there today. (MTR) Music from SoundCloud.com. Photo by Ninaras. Wi...

Saint Francis was born at Assisi around 1881 in Umbria. He was a son of a prosperous merchant, Peter Bernadone. Led by a deep religious experience, he abandoned a military life and the wealth of his family at the age of 28 or 29. He embraced a spirit of utter simplicity for the love of Christ and, with the approval of the Pope, led a small group of followers in a life of poverty and itinerant prea...

Not until 1670 was the feast of the Guardian Angels made a celebration for the whole Church, but devotion to these protectors of individual people was a much older practice among Christians. During Dela Salle’s lifetime, the popularity of the devotion became widespread. That it meant much to the Founder can be noted by the fact that in two of his Meditations for the Time of Retreat, he calls on th...

The Archangel Michael was honored by the Jews as a special protector of Israel and became for Christians a special protector of the Church. Originally, September 29 was the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Michael on the Salarian Way, but since the reform of the liturgy by Vatican II, the feast is celebrated in honor of the three principal archangels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael....

The only certain facts about Saint Matthew are those found in the Gospel. The details used by De La Salle concerning his mission and martyrdom are not historically certain.