Friday 28 November 2014

CathoilicCulture.org Liturgical Year


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On Wednesday, 26 November 2014, 22:02, Liturgical Year Preview <mailings@catholicculture.org> wrote:


Overview for November 26, 2014 to December 10, 2014

Ordinary Time

November

Nov. 26Wednesday of the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Sylvester. He was the son of a lawyer and had also studied law before becoming a canon in his native town of ...
Weekday
Nov. 27Thursday of the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time; Thanksgiving
Many people assume that the United States has celebrated Thanksgiving Day since the time of the pilgrims as a sign of thanksgiving for the harvest season. This is not exactly true. President Abraham Lincoln instituted the ...
Weekday
Nov. 28Friday of the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Traditionally today is the feast of St. Catherine Laboure. The Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her, a member of the Daughters of Charity, three times in 1830 and commissioned her to have made the Miraculous Medal and to spread a ...
Weekday
Nov. 29Saturday of the Thirty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
Today is the last day of the liturgical year. But the Church proposes no special liturgy to mark its close because already here on earth she lives an eternal life. One day follows another like the links of a chain; the end of ...
Weekday

Advent Begins:

Nov. 30First Sunday of Advent
For us Catholics, the new Liturgical Year commences with the first Sunday of Advent. In this new liturgical year, the Church not only wishes to indicate the beginning of a period, but the beginning of a renewed commitment ...
Sunday

December

Dec. 1Monday of the First Week of Advent
And God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, It repented him that he had made man on the earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow ...
Weekday
Dec. 2Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Bibiana who was martyred at Rome under Julian the Apostate in 363. Jesse Tree ~ Fall of ...
Weekday
Dec. 3Memorial of St. Francis Xavier, priest
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was born in the castle of Xavier in Navarre, Spain. In 1525 he went to Paris where he met St. Ignatius Loyola and with whom he received Holy Orders in Venice in 1537. In 1540 he was sent to ...
Memorial
Dec. 4Optional Memorial of St. John Damascene, priest and doctor
St. John Damascene was a learned theologian who carefully gathered together and transmitted to us the teaching of the Greek Fathers, and is thus one of the most trustworthy witnesses to oriental tradition. He also wrote many ...
Weekday
Dec. 5Friday of the First Week of Advent
St. Sabbas is pictured as an abbot with an apple. He was once tempted to eat an apple outside of the prescribed mealtime, whereupon he vowed never to eat apples again. The Martyrology says: "At Mutala in Cappadocia the holy ...
Weekday
Dec. 6Optional Memorial of St. Nicholas, bishop
St. Nicholas was born in Lycia, Asia Minor, and died as Bishop of Myra in 352. He performed many miracles and exercised a special power over flames. He practiced both the spiritual and temporal works of mercy, and fasted twice a ...
Opt. Mem.
Dec. 7Second Sunday of Advent
“As the journey of Advent continues, as we prepare to celebrate the nativity of Christ, John the Baptist's call to conversion sounds out in our communities. It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and to welcome the Son ...
Sunday
Dec. 8Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patronal Feastday of the United States of America 
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the solemn dogma defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854. As Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America, this is a ...
Solemnity
Dec. 9Optional Memorial of St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin (USA)
Today the Church in the United States celebrates the optional memorial of St. Juan Diego, an Indian convert, to whom the Virgin Mary appeared as he was going to Mass in Tlatlelolco, Mexico. Our Lady asked him to tell the Bishop ...
Weekday
Dec. 10Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent
St. Melchiades "who suffered much during the persecution of Maximianus; when at last peace was restored to the Church, died in the Lord." He was an African whom St. Augustine calls "the true child of the peace of Jesus Christ." ...
Weekday
The liturgical year resources on CatholicCulture.org are currently complete through Saturday, November 29, 2014.
There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church—which is, of course, quite a different thing. –Bishop Fulton Sheen
Commentary of the day 
Aphrahat (?-c.345), monk and Bishop near Mosul 
The Demonstrations, no.4 (©Cistercian publications; SC 349, p. 316)
"Be vigilant at all times and pray"
My beloved, that a person should do the will of God is what constitutes prayer. That is how prayer seems to me to excel. Above all, be eager for prayer and do not weary in it, as it is written that our Lord said: “Pray and do not weary.” You should be eager in wakefulness and remove far from yourself drowsiness and sleep; you should be watchful both by day and by night and not be disheartened.
     
Now I shall show you the different occasions for prayer. There is petition, thanksgiving, and praise (Phil 4,6). In petition one asks for mercy for one's sins, in thanksgiving you give thanks to your Father who is in heaven, while in praise you praise him for his works. At a time when you are in trouble, offer up petition, and when you are well supplied with good things, you should give thanks to the Giver, and when your mind rejoices, offer up praise.

Make all these prayers of yours with discernment to God. See how David was always saying: “I have risen to give thanks to you for your judgments, O Just One.” (Ps 119[118],62). And in another psalm he said: “Praise the Lord in heaven, praise him in the heights” (Ps 149[148],1). Again he says: “I will bless the Lord at all times, and at all times his praises are in my mouth” (Ps 34[33],2). Do not pray using only one kind of prayer, but all separately according to circumstance.

I am convinced, my beloved, that everything people ask for with diligence, God will grant them. But he takes no pleasure in the person who offers up prayer in mockery. As it is written: “This is required of the person who prays, offering up prayer: that he turn over and inspect his offering well, lest some blemish be found on it; only then should he offer it” (cf Mt 5,23-24; Mk 11,25), so that your offering does not remain on earth. What is this offering if not prayer?... Of all offerings pure prayer is the best.

Friday 21 November 2014

Dom Donald's Blog: COMMENTS: Father Donald 80 yrs

Dom Donald's Blog: COMMENTS: Father Donald 80 yrs: Octogenarian, celebration ... Anne Marie ... To   Me Aug 14 at 10:16   PM The pictures are brilliant.   Great memories of a gr...

Dom Donald's Blog: Nunraw Environmental Renewables

Dom Donald's Blog: Nunraw Environmental Renewables:     Whit Whitelee, Wind Farm, Eaglesham - Mini bus outing   Sancta Maria Abbey: http://www.nunraw.com.uk (Web...

Thursday 20 November 2014

Presentation of Our Lady

Fr. Ives Congar O.P.
Night Office Readings, Nov 21, 2013

SAN - Nov 21
Presentation of Our Lady-l

A Reading 'In the Virgin Mary and the Temple', by Fr. Yves Congar *

THE only occasions on which the Gospels express1y mention the Virgin Mary in connection with the Temple are in the account of her Purification and of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2, 23-38), the annual journey to Jerusalem of his parents for the Feast of the Passover (Lk 2~41) and the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple after four days' absence on his part and three of anxious searching by his parents (Lk 2, 42-50).  To these very brief indications, the piety of Christians very soon added the idea of the presen­tation of Mary in the Temple at the age of three to be consecrated to the service of God, We are dealing here with a symbolical representation of a profound spiritua1 reality about which the tradition and the doctrine of the Church provide us with valid information. Mary, predestined to be the Mother of Jesus, true God and true man, and to be worthy of her vocation, was prepared by the gift of exceptional graces and lived with unfailing fidelity a most pure life of inner consecration to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As the type of all faithful souls and of the Church herself, Mary expressed spiritually and supremely in her life that ''presentation'' which, for each one of us, is to begin by the service of faith and to be consummated in heaven.

It is obvious that the tradition and doctrine of the Church may, without falling a prey to the imaginary productions of the apocrypha, propound state­ments concerning the status of the Mother of God in relation either to the Jewish or the messianic temple going far beyond what we are explicitly told in the three short passages from the Gospel which narrate the incidents mentioned above, If Mary is the Mother of God, she has a special relation to the body of Christ which is the true temple-to his physical body and doubtless also, in a certain sense, to his body the Church, She is herself a temple of God in a quite specific and sublime way, both because Christ was within her from the moment of his conception until that of his birth, and because of the exceptional spirttua1 gifts she received in preparation for her divine motherhood and as a reward for her free acceptance of this vocation (Lk. 1,38), not only after the Annunciation but during the whole of her life. Hence the liturgy-the Oriental 1iturgy in particular-shows a profound understand of the mystery of Mary when it constantly uses the texts concerning the Temple and the tabernacle in order to express it.
* The Mystery of the Temple , Westminster (Maryland) 1962, 254-255,



Cistercian Life Vocation


Regular Wednesday Community Talk
Fr. Raymond 19 November 2014

Cistercian Life - Vocation


Fr. Raymond Talk on Cistercian Vocation
None of our three Holy Founders has the personal individual fame of their great protégée St Bernard, nor do we have nearly so much biographical information about them.  That is a great pity, and yet there is something very fitting and relevant about their anonymity and the silence and the obscurity of their lives.  They were destined, after all, to found an Order whose members were, by profession, to live lives of anonymity and obscurity.  St Bernard’s life, however, was hardly obscure and anonymous.  It is true that he was a great monk but he was hardly a typical monk. Certainly not in the way that Robert and Alberic and Stephen were.
However, our debt to them and our devotion to them do make us eager to learn as much about them as we can.  Knowledge and love are two inseparable concepts.  If we love anyone, we want to know as much as possible about them.   
This seems to leave is in a bit of dilemma.  If we know so little about them how can we in any way get close to them?  How can we gain any inspiration from them?  How can we be drawn to imitate them?  How can we really respect and love them?
On consideration, however, this lack of knowledge of the external details of their lives is no great obstacle to our coming to know and love and appreciate them.  How much, for instance, we know about the details of the lives of the great figures of ancient human history: the Pharoahs, The Gengis Khans, the Napoleons, the Stalins, the Hitlers, the Churchills, and countless others, and yet how little do we really know them as persons.
The  case is very different however, with our Holy Founders.  We have a knowledge of them which is, in a way, very deep and intimate.  It is the knowledge that comes from the fact that we share in the deepest and most intimate aspirations of their minds and hearts.  We share in their ideals of poverty; of leaving behind all the goods of this world.  We share in their desire to commit themselves to God’s will in a life of obedience to a rule and an abbot.  We share in their love for God alone in a life of consecrated chastity.
 
Moreover, although the condition of human life has changed almost beyond recognition since those mediaeval times, yet the basic round of monastic life: The Divine Office, Lectio, Work, remains basically still the same for us as it was for them.
Indeed then we can know and love our Holy Founders and indeed we can know them for precisely who and what they were.
 
In the matter of our own personal relationship with our founders we can find great encouragement in a passage from Therese of Lisieux’s  autobiography.
She tells us “I dreamt that I was standing in a sort of gallery where several other people were present but our Mother (Celine) was the only one near me.  Suddenly, without seeing how they got there, I was conscious of the presence of three Carmelite sisters..........  What was borne in upon me with certainty was that they came from heaven.  I found myself crying out .......in the silence of my heart: “Oh how I would love to see the face of one of these Carmelites!”  Upon which, as if granting my request, the tallest of the three Saintly figures moved towards me, and, as I sank to my knees, lifted her veil right up and threw it over me.   I recognised her without the slightest difficulty;  the face was that of our Venerable Mother Anne of Jesus, who brought the reformed Carmelite order into France.  There was a kind of ethereal beauty about her features, which were transfused with a light that seemed to come from her.
I can’t describe what elation filled my heart; an experience like that can’t be put down on paper.  Months have passed now since then but the memory of it is as fresh as ever, as delightful as ever.  I can still see the look on Mother Anne’s face, her loving smile;  I Can still feel the touch of the kisses she gave me...........
What gave more strength to this impression was the fact that, up till then, Mother Anne of Jesus had meant nothing to me.  I’d never asked for her prayers, or even thought about her, except on the rare occasions when her name came up in conversation.

   

Calendar  

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Sts RobertAlberic and Stephen, 26 JanuaryJANUARY. 10 St. Gregory of Nyssa, Bishop. St. William of Bourges, Bishop O.N.. 12 St. Aelred, Abbot O.N., ...

Dom Donald's Blog: Presentation of Mary in the Temple

Dom Donald's Blog: Presentation of Mary in the Temple: Presentation of Mary in the Temple Mary's hidden life, e.g., her Presentation in the Temple , finds expression in ancient tradition...

Wednesday 19 November 2014

St Mary's Abbey, Holme Cultram, Abbeytown, Cumbria: Archaeological and Historical Investigations - Cumbria Archaeological Research Reports No. 4 (Book) by Jan Walker, et al. (2013): Waterstones.com

COMMENT: This press cutting from 'The Cumberland News' is received from William...
The interest is warmly appreciated from the Cistercian history and the immediate  link of Holme Cultram Abbey, the affiliation from Melrose Abbey.
Holme Cultram from Melrose Abbey
St Mary's Abbey, Holme Cultram, Abbeytown, Cumbria: Archaeological and Historical Investigations - Cumbria Archaeological Research Reports No. 4 (Book) by Jan Walker, et al. (2013): Waterstones.com 

The Cumberland News
Holme Cultram
Dig reveals treasure chess of the monks
Interesting discovery: Archaeologist Mark Graham is leading the dig at Holme Cultram Abbey at Abbey town. He is holding up a medieval chess piece unearthed during the dig.     Paul Johnson

BY JENNY BROWN

A CHESS piece, a shoe sole and leather horse tack are the latest findings to have been uncovered at a north Cumbrian excavation.

Archeologists have unearthed artefacts at Holme Cultram Abbey, near Abbey town, that they believe tell us about the activities of the Cistercian monks who lived in Cumbria more than 500 years ago.

To the south of the site a latrine has been found in a newly-discovered building, thought to be an infirmary.

Archeologist Trish Shaw said: "It's brilliant. It goes beyond what we expected to find really.

"It's absolutely wonderful to be in Cumbria and to do research on a site like this."

Volunteer Robert 'Bone read about the dig in The Cumberland News and decided to take part.
Shifting soil: The excavation has been ongoing since June.     Going underground: Inside the medieval water cistern at the abbey

He was the lucky digger who found the chess piece on his second day.

"I'd only been there for about half an hour before I found it," said Robert. "It was beginner's luck. I didn't expect to find anything more than a bit of bone.

"If I hadn't found it someone else would have."
He said it looked unusual and was unsure what it was made of. The piece was found inside the refectory - where the monks would have eaten and socialised - and is thought to be a queen or a pawn.

"It's small but intricate," said Trish. "It could be ivory, bone or horn but it is yet to be looked at by a specialist."
Leather horse tack and a shoe sole were found at Friar's Garth, an area to the west of the abbey where, in 2012, experts found it to be an area containing a high level of magnetic disturbance.

Trish continued: "The leather is quite good and well preserved, and it should be able to be handled when it is  conserved."
She explained how all their fmdings tell us a lot about how the monks lived.
"We've found drainage systems, but no water sources yet. But it shows us they were managing the water systems.
"We know they were breeding sheep and cattle - from the bones we've found - and that they encompassed quite a lot of the area, managing the woodland, farming and utilising the sea," added Trish.

"As they increased in wealth they were in a position to reorganise things."

The site around the church, that was nearly destroyed by fire in 2006, dates back to about 1150.

It would have once been a huge complex, but experts say it was destroyed in 1538 during the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.

The excavation, which is part of the Heritage Lottery funded Solway Landscape Partnership, has been ongoing since June and will run until July 25.

In the past, coins, stained glass, ceramics, decorated tiles and bodies have been found in the area.

Where the artefacts will be displayed is yet to be decided. There is a lot of post-excavation work and research to be completed before then.


Tuesday 18 November 2014

Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn (of Helfta)   Friday, 19 November 2010St. Me...

(MATILDA VON HACKEBORN-WIPPRA).
Benedictine; born in 1240 or 1241 at the ancestral castle of Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony; died in the monastery of Helfta, 19 November, 1298

Dom Donald's Blog:                     Friday, 19 November 2010St. Me...:                      Friday, 19 November 2010 St. Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century) Saint Mechtildis of Helfta (13th century)...

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Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn, Abbess
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Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn  

  November 19

Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn

Abbess
(1240-1298)


Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn
Saint Mechtildis of Hackeborn

Saint Mechtildis, born in 1240 in Saxony, was the younger sister of the illustrious Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn. She was so attracted to religious life at the age of seven, after a visit to her sister in the monastery of Rodardsdoft, that she begged to be allowed to enter the monastic school there. Her gifts caused her to make great progress both in virtue and learning.
Ten years later, when her sister had transferred the monastery to an estate at Helfta offered by their brothers, Mechtildis went with her. She was already distinguished for her virtues, and while still very young became the valuable Assistant to Abbess Gertrude. One of the children who in the monastic school were committed to her care, was the child of five who later became known as Saint Gertrude the Great.
Saint Mechtildis was gifted with a beautiful voice, and was choir mistress of the nuns all her life. Divine praise, it has been said, was the keynote of her life, as also of her famous book, The Book of Special Grace. When she learned, at the age of fifty, that two of her nuns had written down all the favors and words of their Abbess, which she had become, she was troubled, but Our Lord in a vision assured her that all this has been committed to writing by My will and inspiration, and therefore you have no cause to be troubled over it. He added that the diffusion of the revelations He had given her would cause many to increase in His love. She immediately accepted the Lord's bidding, and the book became extremely popular in Italy after her death. Its influence on the poet Dante's Purgatorio is undeniable, for she had described the place of purification after death under the same figure of a seven-terraced mountain. The Donna Matelda of his Purgatorio, who guides him at one point in his vision, is Saint Mechtildis as she represents mystical theology. She died in 1298 at the monastery of Helfta.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by C. G. Herbermann with numerous collaborators (Appleton Company: New York, 1908); Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler's Livesof the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
Lives of the Saints  Our Models and Protectors
   http://magnificat.ca/cal/en/saints/saint_mechtildis_of_hackeborn.html 


Monday 17 November 2014

Dom Donald's Blog: "C. S. Lewis - A Life" by Alister McGrath 2

Dom Donald's Blog: "C. S. Lewis - A Life" by Alister McGrath: CS Lewis Biography Alister McGrath     Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4y5VNWXZOU Published on 19 Nov ...

"C. S. Lewis - A Life" by Alister McGrath


CS Lewis Biography

Alister McGrath

  
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4y5VNWXZOU
Published on 19 Nov 2012
An introduction to Alister McGrath's new biography of CS Lewis, to be published in March 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary year of his death


  Published on 17 Apr 2013

"C. S. Lewis - A Life" by Alister McGrath 


In honor of the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis' death, celebrated Oxford don Dr. Alister McGrath presents us with a compelling and definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis, the author of the well-known Narnia series.

For more than half a century, C. S. Lewis' Narnia series has captured the imaginations of millions. In C. S. Lewis — A Life, Dr. Alister McGrath recounts the unlikely path of this Oxford don, who spent his days teaching English literature to the brightest students in the world and his spare time writing a bestselling fantasy series for children.

Dr. McGrath uses his extensive research and thorough examination in chronological order of Lewis' correspondence and archival materials to present a new picture of Lewis's life. This definitive biography paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became a compelling, though reluctant, prophet for our times.

You won't want to miss this fascinating portrayal of a creative genius who inspired generations.    



http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=26026

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=26026






Sunday 16 November 2014

St. Gertrude the Great German Cistercian, mystic, and theologian

Prayer to St. Gertrude the Great
Model of total fidelity to the Heavenly Bridegroom and to your Cistercian Rule, the Lord was pleased to make available wonderful private revelations
through you. Help religious to realize that where there is total generosity,
trials are usually not lacking, but there is also God's infinite love.
Make all religious generous like you. Amen.

St. Gertrude The Great 17 November 2014

St. Gertrude the Great: Patroness of Cloistered Nuns, Travellers, and the West Indes, Invoked for Souls in Purgatory and for Living Sinners

http://www.2heartsnetwork.org/Gertrud...

"Behold," said Our Saviour, "such is the life which Gertrude, My beloved, leads before My face. She walks ever in My presence, never losing sight of Me for an instant. She has but one desire: to know the good pleasure of My Heart. As soon as she has ascertained this, she executes My will with care and fidelity. Her whole life is an unbroken chain of praise consecrated to My honour and glory." - Vision of St. Mechtilde

Jesus: ...Do not fight against a temptation by yourself, but disclose it to the confessor/priest at once, and then the temptation will lose all its force. Second, during these ordeals do not lose your peace; live in My presence; ask My Mother and the Saints for help. Third, have the certitude that I am looking at you and supporting you. Fourth, do not fear either struggles of the soul or any temptations, because I am supporting you; if only you are willing to fight, know that the victory is always on your side. Fifth, know that by fighting bravely you give Me great glory and amass merits for yourself. Temptation gives you a chance to show Me your fidelity. (1560) - St. Faustina
Category
 YouTube homeYoutube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a49l21XWyjs


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Gertrude the Great - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_the_Great
Gertrude the Great (or Saint Gertrude of Helfta) (Italian: Santa Gertrude) (January 6, 1256 – ca. 1302) was a German Cistercian, mystic, and theologian. ... the General Roman Calendar, for celebration throughout the Latin Rite on November16. .... purgatory by the recitation of some prayer were prohibited by Pope Leo XIII.

Saint Margaret of Scotland - November 16

St. Margaret of Scotland Sunday, November 16, 2014

Margaret of Scotland was a truly liberated woman in the sense that she was free to be herself. For her, that meant freedom to love God and serve others.
Not Scottish by birth, Margaret was the daughter of Princess Agatha of Hungary and the Anglo-Saxon Prince Edward Atheling. She spent much of her youth in the court of her great-uncle, the English king, Edward the Confessor. Her family fled from William the Conqueror and was shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland. King Malcolm befriended them and was captivated by the beautiful, gracious Margaret. They were married at the castle of Dunfermline in 1070.     
St. Margaret & Malcolm m. 1015

Malcolm was good-hearted, but rough and uncultured, as was his country. Because of Malcolm’s love for Margaret, she was able to soften his temper, polish his manners and help him become a virtuous king. He left all domestic affairs to her and often consulted her in state matters.
Margaret tried to improve her adopted country by promoting the arts and education. For religious reform she encouraged synods and was present for the discussions which tried to correct religious abuses common among priests and lay people, such as simony, usury and incestuous marriages. With her husband, she founded several churches.
Margaret was not only a queen, but a mother. She and Malcolm had six sons and two daughters. Margaret personally supervised their religious instruction and other studies.
Although she was very much caught up in the affairs of the household and country, she remained detached from the world. Her private life was austere. She had certain times for prayer and reading Scripture. She ate sparingly and slept little in order to have time for devotions. She and Malcolm kept two Lents, one before Easter and one before Christmas. During these times she always rose at midnight for Mass. On the way home she would wash the feet of six poor persons and give them alms. She was always surrounded by beggars in public and never refused them. It is recorded that she never sat down to eat without first feeding nine orphans and 24 adults.
In 1093, King William Rufus made a surprise attack on Alnwick castle. King Malcolm and his oldest son, Edward, were killed. Margaret, already on her deathbed, died four days after her husband.   
Comment:
There are two ways to be charitable: the "clean way" and the "messy way." The "clean way" is to give money or clothing to organizations that serve the poor. The "messy way" is dirtying your own hands in personal service to the poor. Margaret's outstanding virtue was her love of the poor. Although very generous with material gifts, Margaret also visited the sick and nursed them with her own hands. She and her husband served orphans and the poor on their knees during Advent and Lent. Like Christ, she was charitable the "messy way."
Quote:
"When [Margaret] spoke, her conversation was with the salt of wisdom. When she was silent, her silence was filled with good thoughts. So thoroughly did her outward bearing correspond with the staidness of her character that it seemed as if she has been born the pattern of a virtuous life" (Turgot, St. Margaret's confessor).
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Below: Youtube
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf361-mmTrU 






Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year (A) Gospel November 16, 2014

Courtesy of Fr.  Bill. MM
Gospel November 16, 2014
Published on 12 Nov 2014
It is to us as servants and for the sake of being servants that God gives us talents. Let us not bury them, but put them forth for the whole world.



Thirty-Third Sunday of the Year (A)
Matthew 25:14-30
14 'It is like a man about to go abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them.

15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out on his journey.

16 The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more.

17 The man who had received two made two more in the same way.

18 But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

19 Now a long time afterwards, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them.

20 The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. "Sir," he said, "you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made."

21 His master said to him, "Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master's