The Holy Name of Jesus

 

I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify Thy Name forever; for Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee, alleluia.

--Ps. 85.12,5 from the Offertory of the Mass of the Holy Name of Jesus

Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord

"On the day that the divine Infant was circumcised, He received the name of Jesus, which signifies SAVIOUR, which had been given Him by the angel before He was conceived. That name, so beautiful, so glorious, the divine Child does not wish to bear for one moment without fulfilling its meaning; even at the moment of His circumcision He showed Himself a SAVIOUR by shedding for us that blood a single drop of which is more than sufficient for the ransom and salvation of the whole world."
--Father Alban Butler

Time

Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time.
~Edward Fitzgerald

Anyone can

Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all life really means.
--Robert Louis Stevenson

Feast of Saint Thomas of Canterbury

"For the Name of Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death."

--dying words of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, also known as Saint Thomas (a) Becket.

Saint Thomas, pray for us.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Sweet flow’rets of the martyr band,
So early plucked by cruel hand;
Like rosebuds by a tempest torn,
As breaks the light of summer morn.
First victims offered for the Lord,
Ye little knew your high reward,
As, at the very altar, gay
With palms and crowns ye seemed to play.
Ah! what availed King Herod’s wrath?
He could not stay your Savior’s path;
The Child he sought alone went free;
That Child is King eternally.
O Lord, the virgin born, to Thee
Praise, honor, might and glory be,
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Ghost forevermore.

--Aurelius Prudentius (348-413); translated by Henry W. Baker.

All you Holy Innocents, pray for us. 

Feast of Saint John

Deus caritas est.

(God is Love.)

--First Letter of Saint John, 4,16.
Saint John, pray for us.