Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel
Prayers to Saint Michael. (A Sermon of Pope Saint Gregory the Great) We speak of nine orders of Angels, because we know, by the testimony of Holy Scripture, that there are the following: Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. Nearly every page of Scripture witnesses to the fact that there are…
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
[Homily of Pope Saint Leo the Great] When Christ is exalted on the Cross, beloved brethren, do not let only those things which the ungodly have seen, come to the sight of your mind. For to them it was said through Moses, “And your life will be hanging before your eyes and you will…
Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary
[Excerpts from the writings of Saint John Eudes] There are (special) qualities which the holy Doctors of the Church attribute to the Sacred Name of Mary, which are very consoling to us. Saint Epiphanius tells us that “Mary is the prodigious and admirable treasure of the Church.” “She is an inexhaustible treasure of grace and…
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
( A Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Father and Doctor of the Church) The hoped-for day of the Blessed and Venerable Mary ever a Virgin has now come; therefore let our earth rejoice with great gladness, illuminated by the birth of so great a Virgin. For she is the flower of the field…
Feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary
[Sermon of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church] The martyrdom of the Virgin is set before us both in Simeon’s prophecy and in the narrative of the Lord’s Passion. “This Child is destined,” the holy elderly man said of the Child Jesus, “for a sign that shall be contradicted; and thine own soul,”…