Wednesday

January 27, 2016

My Eucharistic Vocation

“An impediment to practicing mercy is our lack of awareness and attentiveness to the needs of others. We can become so wrapped up in the challenges of our day-to-day lives - even lives of discipleship and ministry - that we become blind to the realities of pain and struggle around us.

Earlier this summer, I witnessed a moment of God’s mercy at work transforming a young man’s heart in the reception of the Eucharist. As I prayed with this encounter, I experienced a profound renewal of my call to serve as a Eucharistic minister and I committed to regularly serving in my parish’s Sunday liturgy.

...It is my Eucharistic Vocation to share the grace of mercy that I have received, to go forth and practice mercy, to offer myself in love.”

Visit the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy blog to read the full entry by Megan Shepherd.

Year of Mercy Calendar for Today: “We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father’s love for us.” ~ Pope St. John Paul

Catholic Culture

Ordinary Time: January 27th

Optional Memorial of St. Angela Merici, virgin

MASS READINGS

January 27, 2016 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

May the Virgin Saint Angela never fail to commend us to your compassion, O Lord, we pray, that, following the lessons of her charity and prudence, and express it in what we do. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Litany of St. Angela Merici
Novena for Purification
Old Calendar: St. John Chrysostom, bishop, confessor and doctor; St. Angela Merici
St. Angela was born in northern Italy. In 1516, she founded the Order of Ursulines, the first teaching order for women approved by the Church.
According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. John Chrysostom. St. Angela Merici's feast is celebrated on June 1, except in the convents of her order where it is also celebrated today.

St. Angela Merici
The saint was born in 1474 in the diocese of Verona. Early in life she dedicated herself to Christ as His bride. After the death of her parents, she desired to live solely for God in quiet and solitude, but her uncle insisted that she manage his household. She renounced her patrimony in order to observe most perfectly the rule for Franciscan Tertiaries.
During a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, she lost her eyesight temporarily. Pope Clement VII, whom she visited in Rome, desired her to remain in the Holy City. Later she founded a society for girls, under the protection of St. Ursula; this was the beginning of the Ursuline Order. St. Angela was almost seventy when she died; her body remained incorrupt for thirty days. Remarkable phenomena occurred at her burial in the Church of St. Afra.
-- Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patron: Bodily ills; disabled people; handicapped people; illness; loss of parents; physically challenged people; sick people; sickness.
Symbols: Cloak; ladder.
Things to Do:
- Read more about the life of St. Angela and her travels to the Holy Land.
- St. Angela formed the Company of St. Ursula, a secular institute. Read more about secular institutes and their role in the Church.
- Read Jeff Mirus' review Stages on the Road by Sigrid Undset. The book includes an essay on St. Angela Merici.