Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar

When Saint Lawrence saw Bishop Sixtus being led to martyrdom, he started to weep. It was not his Bishop’s suffering that drew tears form his eyes but the fact that he was going to martyrdom without him. That was why he began shouting after him in these words: “Father, where are you going without your son? O holy priest, where are you going in such a hurry without your deacon? Yet you have never been accustomed to offer the sacrifice without a minister!… Test it out that you have chosen a good deacon: would you refuse to share the sacrifice of your blood with him to whom you have entrusted the administration of the Lord’s blood, with whom you share the sacraments?”… Then Pope Sixtus replied to Lawrence: “I have not forgotten you, my son, nor am I forsaking you. But to you I am leaving even greater combats to undergo. I am old and can only bear a light struggle. But you are young and there remains an even more glorious triumph against the tyrant to be won by you. You will be coming shortly; dry your tears; you will follow me in three days …” Three days later, Lawrence was arrested. He was asked to bring out the Church’s wealth and treasures. He promised to do so. The following day he returned with some poor people. He was asked where the treasures were that he had to bring. He showed the poor people, saying: “These are the Church’s treasures. What greater treasures could Christ have than those of whom he said: ‘Whatever you have done to one of these little ones, you have done to me’ (Mt 25,40)?” Lawrence showed forth those treasures and so he was the victor, for the persecutor had no desire to take them from him. But, in his fury, he caused him to be burned alive.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

Edith Stein’s encounter with Christianity did not lead her to reject her Jewish roots; rather it enabled her fully to rediscover them. Her entire journey towards Christian perfection was marked not only by human solidarity with her native people but also by a true spiritual sharing in the vocation of the children of Abraham, marked by the mystery of God’s call and his “irrevocable gifts” (cf. Rom 11:29). In particular, Edith made her own the suffering of the Jewish people, even as this reached its apex in the barbarous Nazi persecution which remains, together with other terrible instances of totalitarianism, one of the darkest and most shameful stains on the Europe of our century. At the time, she felt that in the systematic extermination of the Jews the Cross of Christ was being laid on her people, and she herself took personal part in it by her deportation and execution in the infamous camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her voice merged with the cry of all the victims of that appalling tragedy, but at the same time was joined to the cry of Christ on the Cross which gives to human suffering a mysterious and enduring fruitfulness. The image of her holiness remains for ever linked to the tragedy of her violent death, alongside all those who with her suffered the same fate. Today we look upon Teresa Benedicta of the Cross and, in her witness as an innocent victim, we recognize an imitation of the Sacrificial Lamb and a protest against every violation of the fundamental rights of the person. We also recognize in it the pledge of a renewed encounter between Jews and Christians which, following the desire expressed by the Second Vatican Council, is now entering upon a time of promise marked by openness on both sides. Today’s proclamation of Edith Stein as a Co-Patroness of Europe is intended to raise on this Continent a banner of respect, tolerance and acceptance which invites all men and women to understand and appreciate each other, transcending their ethnic, cultural and religious differences in order to form a truly fraternal society.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team