Venite Prandete

SAINT MATTHEW, EVANGELIST FEAST DAY 21 SEPTEMBER Who is Saint Matthew? He was a Jew from Galilee. He was a tax-collector, a profession despised by his fellow-Jews who saw it as collaboration with the occupying Roman force. He was called by Our Lord to leave his life as a tax collector behind, (Matthew 9:9): “And when Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man sitting in the custom house, named Matthew and he saith to him: Follow me. And he arose and followed him.” He was then chosen by Our Lord to be one of his inner circle of the twelve Apostles, (Matthew 10:1-4): “And having called his twelve disciples together, he gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. And the names of the twelve Apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the publican, and James, the son of Alpheus and ...

  FEAST OF THE SEVEN DOLOURS OF OUR LADY 15 SEPTEMBER The Collect of the Mass of today provides: “Oh God, at whose Passion, according to the prophecy of Simeon, a sword of sorrow pierced the most sweet soul of the glorious virgin and mother Mary: mercifully grant, that we who with devotion, honour her sorrows, may obtain the happy fruit of Thy Passion: Who livest and reignest…” The Servite Order was established by some Tuscan youths in 1232. They took up the sorrows of Our Lady, standing under the Cross, as the principal devotion of their order. Today’s Gospel is the Gospel of John 19: 25-27: “Near the Cross of Jesus stood His Mother and His Mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. Seeing His Mother and the disciple He loved standing near her, Jesus said to His Mother, “Woman, this is your son.” Then to the disciple He said, “This is your mother.” And from that moment the disciple made a place for her in his home.” In handing Our Lady to St John, Christ gave ...

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF CZESTOCHOWA 26 AUGUST The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the “Black Madonna,” is of Byzantine origin. It is an icon of the style attributed to St Luke the Evangelist, a close friend of Our Lady, who was a doctor and an artist. It has great graces attributed to it. Legend has it that St Luke painted two portraits of Our Lady, one of which is in Italy and venerated today. The other was said to have been painted by St Luke on the top of a cypress wood table which came from the home of the Holy Family. The style in which the portrait was done is called the “way-pointer style (“Hodigitria”), whereby the Blessed Virgin points to the Christ-child – the Lord. The portrait by St Luke and subsequent portraits derived from this style are a prayer to Our Lady as the preparer of the Way to Salvation; http://marianvalley.org.au/miraculous-icon-our-lady... . Originating in Antioch, the Hodigitria style of iconography reached Constantinople in the 5th century. Many of the icons...