Venite Prandete

ST CATHERINE LABOURE AND THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL 27th NOVEMBER Today is commemorated the Feast of the Miraculous Medal, where Our Lady appeared to Catherine Laboure, (whose Feast day, in the calendar of her order, is tomorrow - 28th November). Catherine Laboure was a young novice in the order of the Sisters of Charity, (the Company of the Daughters of Charity), which was founded under the patronage of St Vincent de Paul and St Louise de Marillac, a French noblewoman, for Apostolic life for women within the Church. Its members make annual vows and are free to leave without ecclesiastical permission. They were founded in 1633, their charism directed to serving the poor through the performance of the spiritual acts of mercy. They live in community so as to develop their spiritual life and so to carry out their mission of service more effectively. They set up soup kitchens, organized community hospitals, established schools and homes for orphaned children, organized job training, educated chi...

ST CATHERINE LABOURE 28th NOVEMBER St Catherine Laboure related the request of Our Lady for the striking of the Miraculous Medal at the convent in which she had seen the apparition in Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830. She was born the ninth of 11 children in the Burgundy region of France. Her mother died when she was nine years old, after which she was reported to have picked up a statute of the Blessed Virgin, kissed it and said, “Now you will be my Mother.” After her mother’s death she lived with her aunt about 9 kilometres from their home. She was a devout and romantic young girl, and joined the Daughters of Charity at a young age after she had a dream about St Vincent de Paul. She reported that, on 19 July 1830, on the eve of the feast of St Vincent de Paul, she was awakened by a child calling her to the chapel. When she arrived at the chapel, she experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who said to her, “God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do ...

ALPHONSE RATISBONNE + THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL 27th NOVEMBER “According to traditional Catholic theology, there is an intimate and profound relationship between the Blessed Mother and the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. By the will of God, the universal mediation of Mary is ordinarily necessary for the salvation and sanctification of men, just as the mediation of the Church is also necessary. And, if the Church has been entrusted with the task of guarding and spreading the truths of the faith in their integrity and purity, the Blessed Mother has been given the mission of fighting and conquering the devil, the supreme inspirer and advocate of all errors and heresies”. (1) Alphonse Ratsibonne was the son and heir of a wealthy Jewish French family. When he was a child, his older brother, Theodor, converted to Catholicism. Alphonse, however, was aggressively atheist and he and his family had an abiding antipathy to the Catholic Church and all things to do with it, including cultural and ...