Saturday, November 22, 2003

The Feast of St. Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
is today. There is information on her here.. I blogged a poem on her last year. Prayers for all musicians, particularly those who use their gifts to assist at the Sacred Liturgy, would be most welcome. (That would include prayers for your humble webscribe and the choir to which she belongs.) For others who have her as a special patron, especially these wonderful Religious, happy feast day !


"Who has not heard of the abundant favours gained by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and of the marvellous consequences which have attended the invocation of St. Antony of Padua? These phenomena are sometimes reported of Saints in their lifetime, as well as after their death, especially if they were evangelists or martyrs. The wild beasts crouched before their victims in the Roman amphitheatre; the axe-man was unable to sever St. Cecilia's head from her body, and St. Peter elicited a spring of water for his jailor's baptism in the Mamertine. St. Francis Xavier turned salt water into fresh for five hundred travellers; St. Raymond was transported over the sea on his cloak; St. Andrew shone brightly in the dark; St. Scholastica gained by her prayers a pouring rain; St. Paul was fed by ravens; and St. Frances saw her guardian Angel. I need not continue the catalogue; here what one party urges, the other admits; they join issue over a fact; that fact is the claim of miracles on the part of the Catholic Church; it is the Protestants' charge, and it is our glory." - Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England

Today is also the feast of a set of fairly recently beatified Martyrs of England, Scotland, and Wales. The anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis is today as well, and in honor of those martyrs who died for Christ's Church and the memory of a great Christian who, alas, did not (despite the hopes of the Professor) find his way into the Catholic Church during in his lifetime, I would suggest that prayers for Christian unity would be appropriate.

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