My Family Prayer Book

Nov-24: Feast of  St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions On this feast day of St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions, the Church remembers the sufferings inflicted on the Vietnamese Church, which are among the most terrible in the long history of Christian martyrdom.  He represents the suffering and persecution of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics who died for the faith over the past three centuries, as well as the many Catholics who continue to face persecution as they attempt to practice their religion in communist Vietnam. All 117 Martyrs of Vietnam, Patron Saints of Vietnam, were canonized by Pope St. John Paul II on June 19,1988 .  All were tortured and beheaded under the Annamite Emperor Ming-Mang between 1820 and 1862. Each of them have a name and a historically verifiable narrative detailing their sad fate. Of that group of 117, 96 were Vietnamese, 11 Spaniards, and 10 French. There were 8 bishops, 50 priests, 42 lay people, 16 catechists and one seminarian in...

  November 12: Feast of the Martyr St Josaphat St Josaphat was martyred on November 12, 1623 bringing about unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. His story should serve to inspire us in this day and age when the Church of Christ is more divided than ever. In 1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern Church (centred in Constantinople) and the Western Church (centered in Rome).  In 1595-96 the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and five other Orthodox bishops representing millions of Ruthenian faithful met in the city of Brest Litovsk and signed a declaration of their intention to enter into union with the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Clement VIII accepted their conversion from Orthodox to Catholicism, while allowing them to keep their Byzantine liturgical rites and traditions.  St. Josaphat was born John Kuncevic about circa 1580 or 1584 in Vladimir, a Lithuanian village (then a part of the fiercely Catholic Polish Jagiellonian Dynasty), to ...

  August 24: Feast of the Apostle and Martyr St Bartholomew Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus named in Matthew 10:2–4, Mark 3:16–19, Luke 6:14–16, Acts 1:1–13.  The Church honors Bartholomew as a saint, and he is the patron of butchers. The name “Bartholomew” most likely comes from Aramaic (Bar-Talmai), meaning “son of Talmai.” He was born in Cana in Galilee, an area renowned for farming. Some identify him as Nathanael (meaning God has given), who appears only in the Gospel of John 1:43-51 when introduced to Jesus by his good friend, the apostle Philip. Nathanael was skeptical of Jesus because Philip told him he found the Messiah, who came from Nazareth. Nathanael famously said, “ Nazareth! Can anything good come from there ?” (John 1:46). We are presented with the Apostle's character in this brief and beautiful dialogue with the Lord Jesus. He is a good Jew, honest and innocent, a just man, who devotes much time to quiet reflection and prayer - "under the fi...

  August 14: Feast of the martyr St Maximillian Kolbe Today August 14th, is the feast of Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe - Polish Franciscan priest who was martyred at Auschwitz 80 years ago on August 14, 1941. He is the patron saint of  journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement, the chemically addicted and those with eating disorders. He recounts an early childhood vision of the Virgin Mary. This vision was significant because he chose both the path of sanctity and also to follow the path of a martyr. “That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me, a Child of Faith. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”  Born Raymund Kolbe, on 8 January 1894, he was given the religious name Maximillian when he was admitted as an initia...