Category Archives: today

November 17 – SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY
“Whoever has injured another by open insult, or by abusive or even incriminating language, must remember to repair the injury as quickly as possible by an apology, and the one who suffered the injury must also forgive without further wrangling. But if they have offended one another, they must forgive one another’s trespasses for the sake of your prayers which should be recited with greater sincerity each time you repeat them. Although one is often tempted to anger, yet prompt to ask pardon from one he admits to having offended, such a one is better than another who, though less given to anger, finds it too hard to ask forgiveness.”
The Rule, VI.42

November 16 – SAINT MARGARET OF SCOTLAND
“No one shall perform any task for his or her own benefit, but all your work shall be done for the common good, with greater zeal and more dispatch that if each one were to work for himself or herself alone. For charity, as it is written, is not self-seeking meaning that it places the common good before its own, not its own before the common good. So, whenever you show greater concern for the common good than for your own, you may know that you are growing in charity. Thus, let the abiding virtue of charity prevail in all things that minister to the fleeting necessities of life.”
The Rule, V.31

November 15 – SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT
“How wonderful will be our happiness in heaven! Our undying body will be freed from the need to perform the ordinary tasks of this life. Who can describe the beauty of our bodies in that new life? Just imagine how they will act in that place where there is nothing ugly! Whatever our spirits decide will be accepted happily by our bodies. And our spirits will not be tempted to choose anything unbecoming either for themselves or for their friends, their bodies. We shall have perfect peace because there will be nothing inside or outside of us to cause upset. All of our parts will be drawn to praise the Lord. Our whole being will become one magnificent organ striking melodies in praise of the wonderful artist who made us inside and out and placed us at the center of the overpowering structure of this universe, a universe that will ravish us with its beauty.”
City of God 22.30

November 14 – SAINT GIOCONDO
“People didn’t make themselves, but they make bad deeds. What God made in them is good, because God made man to his image and likeness. But the evil that man worked by free choice, turning away from his author and creator and turning to wickedness, this God condemns in order to set man free; that is, God condemns what man has done, and God sets free what God himself has done.”
Sermon 23A

November 13 – ALL AUGUSTINIAN SAINTS
“Who would be ashamed to say, ‘I am unequal to God’? Assuredly you are. Or to say, ‘I am unequal to Christ’? Yes, you are unequal even to the mortal Christ. But Peter was what you are, the apostles and prophets were what you are. If you have no stomach for imitating your Lord, imitate your fellow servant. A whole marching column of servants has gone ahead, so there is no excuse for the lazy. Yet human weakness still complains: ‘I am not Peter’s equal, nor Paul’s.’ What, are you unequal to confessing the truth? Men of humble origin are crowned; the haughty are left with excuse. Finally, I must ask you: Are you unequal to boys? Even to girls?”
Sermon 325

November 12 – SAINT JOSAPHAT
“The bread which you can see on the altar, sanctified by the word of God, is the body of Christ. That cup, or rather what the cup contains, sanctified by the word of God, is the blood of Christ. It was by means of these things that the Lord Christ wished to present us with his body and blood, which he shed for our sake for the forgiveness of sins. If you receive them well, you are yourselves what you receive. You see, the apostle says, We, being many, are one loaf, one body. That’s how he explained the sacrament of the Lord’s table; one loaf, one body, is what we all are, many though we be.”
Sermon 227

November 11 – SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS
“Since Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is his body, the whole Christ is both head and body. He has already risen again. So, we have our head in heaven. Our head is interceding for us; our head, sinless and deathless, is already placating God for our sins, so that we too, when we rise again at the end and are changed into heavenly glory, may follow our head. After all, where the head goes, there too go the other parts of the body. But while we are here, we are still parts of it; we must never despair, because we are going to follow our head.”
Sermon 137, 1

November 10 – SAINT LEO THE GREAT
“Now is the time of mercy, for us to correct ourselves; the time for judgment has not yet come. There is space, there’s room; we have sinned, let us correct ourselves. The journey is not yet over, the day has not yet drawn to a close, we have not yet breathed our last. There is no need to despair, which is worse than anything, because on account of those human and pardonable sins, the more frequent the more trivial they are. God has established in the Church set times for requesting mercy, a daily medicine of our saying Forgive us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors; so that washing our faces with these words we may share together in the body and blood of Christ.”
Sermon 17, 5

November 9
“The teacher of humility, who shared our weakness and gave us a share in his own divinity, came to earth in order to teach us the way, even to be the Way himself. It was his humility, above all else, that he impressed upon us. He willingly submitted to baptism at the hands of one of his servants, so that we might learn to confess our own sins and to become weak in order to be truly strong, repeating with the apostle: When I am weak, then I am strong.”
Exposition of the Psalms 58

November 8 – BLESSED AVELINO RODRIGUEZ & COMPANIONS, O.S.A.
“Dearly beloved, exult and rejoice on the days of the holy martyrs; pray that you may be able to follow in the footsteps of the martyrs. It isn’t, after all, the case that you are human beings and they weren’t; not, after all, the case that you were born, and they were born quite differently; I mean, they didn’t carry around flesh of a different kind from what you do. We are all from Adam, we are all trying to be in Christ.”
Sermon 273