Daily Readings for:December 02, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Look with favor, Lord God, on our petitions, and in our trials grant us your compassionate help, that, consoled by the presence of your Son, whose coming we now await, we may be tainted no longer by the corruption of former ways. 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.
RECIPES
o Pepparkakor (Ginger Cookies)
ACTIVITIES
o Religion in the Home for Elementary School: December
o Religion in the Home for Preschool: December
PRAYERS
o December Devotion: The Immaculate Conception
o Collect for Feast of St. Bibiana
o Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Advent (1st Plan)
o Novena to the Immaculate Conception
o Novena to St. Francis Xavier - The Novena of Grace
· Advent: December 2nd
· Tuesday of the First Week of Advent
Old Calendar: St. Bibiana, virgin and martyr
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.
St. Bibiana
St. Bibiana was a Roman who was martyred during the time of Julian the Apostate. A legend states that Bibiana's parents, Flavian and Dafrosa, were devout Christians as well. Dafrosa was beheaded, and Flavian, who was a former Roman prefect, had his face burned with a hot iron and was exiled. Bibiana and Demetria, her sister, were forced to remain in their house after all their possessions had been taken from them. For five months the two sisters fasted and prayed. When they appeared in court, Demetria died on the spot, and the judge handed Bibiana over to a woman named Fufina. This woman tried to tempt Bibiana to be unfaithful to Christ, but her efforts were in vain. Bibiana was scourged to death with whips that were loaded with lead. Her corpse was left out in the open for dogs to eat, but no dogs touched it, and fter two days a priest named John took the body at night and buried it. St. Bibiana is one of the three virgin martyrs particularly venerated in Rome, the other two being St. Cecilia and St. Agnes.
Patron: Diocese of Los Angeles, California; epilepsy; epileptics; hangovers; headaches; insanity; mental illness; mentally ill people; single laywomen; torture victims.
Symbols: pillar; branch of a tree; dagger; scourge; column and scourge with leaded thongs.
Things to Do:
- Saint Bibiana lost everything except her faith. Say a prayer for those you know who are grieving the loss of loved ones, homes, jobs, health or some other tragedy.
- In imitation of St. Bibiana, resolve, with the help of God's grace, that no human considerations or advantages, no human ties and affections, will ever move you to surrender your Catholic faith, to deflect from God's commandments, to defile yourself with mortal sin or to lose the priceless pearl of chastity.
- Say this prayer in honor of St. Bibiana: O God, the giver of all good gifts, who didst bestow on thy servant Bibiana both the flower of virginity and the palm of martyrdom; we pray thee, that, by her intercession, our hearts may in such wise be joined in charity unto thee; that we, being defended against all dangers, may attain unto the rewards of everlasting salvation. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.