The next two days mark the feasts of two great saints of the Church, a mother and a son, whose lives give testimony to a sure-fire method of evangelizing those we love.
St. Monica (August 27) is the mother of St. Augustine (August 28), though Augustine was no saint when Monica began her earnest intercession. At that time he was a pagan and a member of the heretical Manichean sect. He was known to be a carouser who lived with a woman to whom he had fathered a child. A brilliant mind, he was "devoted" to his views and his lifestyle, and had no intention of converting to the Catholic faith.
St. Monica was distraught about her son's dissolute ways and decided to do something about it. She prayed. And in the end, her prayers won the soul of her son.
What was it that made St. Monica's prayers so effective? I think five strategies are primarily responsible. Perhaps you can implement them as you seek to evangelize those you love.
Read the rest
The next two days mark the feasts of two great saints of the Church, a mother and a son, whose lives give testimony to a sure-fire method of evangelizing those we love.
St. Monica (August 27) is the mother of St. Augustine (August 28), though Augustine was no saint when Monica began her earnest intercession. At that time he was a pagan and a member of the heretical Manichean sect. He was known to be a carouser who lived with a woman to whom he had fathered a child. A brilliant mind, he was "devoted" to his views and his lifestyle, and had no intention of converting to the Catholic faith.
St. Monica was distraught about her son's dissolute ways and decided to do something about it. She prayed. And in the end, her prayers won the soul of her son.
What was it that made St. Monica's prayers so effective? I think five strategies are primarily responsible. Perhaps you can implement them as you seek to evangelize those you love.
Read the rest
June 30
“Be of good cheer, only work, only strive cheerfully; for nothing is lost. Every prayer of yours, every psalm you sing is recorded. Every alms, every fast is recorded.”
-St. Cyril of Jerusalem
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June 29
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles
“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostle’s blood.”
-St. Augustine
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June 28
Feast of St. Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr (130 – 200)
“Where there is order, there is also harmony, where there is harmony, there is also correct timing; where there is correct timing, there is also advantage.”
-St. Irenaeus
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June 27
Feast of St. Cyril of Alexandria , Bishop (D. 444)
“That anyone could doubt the right of the holy Virgin to be called the Mother of God fills me with astonishment. Surely she must be the Mother of God if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him! Our Lord’s disciples may not have used those exact words, but they delivered to us the belief those words enshrine, and this has also been taught us by the holy fathers.”
-St. Cyril of Alexandria
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June 26
“How often have I thought that I may owe all the graces I’ve received to the prayers of a person who begged them from God for me, and whom I shall know only in heaven.”
-St. Therese of Lisieux
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June 25
“If you’re a Catholic you believe what the Church teaches, and the climate makes no difference.”
-Flannery O’Connor
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June 24
Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist
“Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.”
-Matthew 3: 3
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June 23
“My daughter, I see more Pharisees among the Christians than there were around Pilate.”
-St. Margaret of Cortona
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