The Hanscom Family Weblog

1771 Mission San Antonio de Padua founded in California
1773 The first annual conference of the Methodist Church in America convened at St.George’s Church in Philadelphia, PA.
1775 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: ‘The knowledge of God cannot be attained by studious discussion on our parts; it must be by revelation on His part.’
1789 Bastille Day-citizens of Paris storm Bastille prison
1800 Birth of Anglican clergyman Matthew Bridges. In 1848 he converted to Catholicism, under the influence of the Oxford Movement in England. He is remembered today for authoring the hymn, ‘Crown Him with Many Crowns.’
1833 Anglican clergyman John Keble preached his famous sermon on national religious apostasy. It marked the beginning of the Oxford Movement, which sought to purify and revitalize the Church of England.
1892 The Baptist Young People’s Union held its first national convention in Detroit. The founding of the BYP Union was inspired by the earlier work of Francis E. Clark, a Congregational pastor who founded the first ‘modern’ youth fellowship in 1881.

Religious Observances

Muslim-Indonesia, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Yemen PDR : Mohammed Ascension
Old Catholic : Commem of St Bonaventure, bishop/confessor/doctor
RC : Mem St Camillus of Lellis, patron of nurses/sick (opt)
RC : Memorial of Bl Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks, virgin

July 14

On this day in 1833, John Keble preached a landmark sermon at St. Mary’s in Oxford and the Oxford Movement began in England.

Feast Day:

St. Idus, bishop of Ath-Fadha, in Leinster;
St. Bonaventure, cardinal and bishop, 1274;

St. Camillus de Lellis, confessor, 1614.

July 14

Amelberga, virgin [WTS (Bruges)]
Bonaventure, bishop, confessor, Doctor of the Church [common]

Camillus de Lellis, priest, confessor [common]
Cyprian, martyr (at Poitiers) [GTZ: Poitiers]
Exuperius, bishop (of Bayeux) (Translation) [GTZ: Bayeux]
Phocas, bishop, martyr [GTZ: France; 6082]
Giles (of Assisi) [BLS]
Henry, emperor, confessor [GTZ: Gnesen, Magdeburg]
Idus [BLS]
Justus, confessor (at Trier, or Bourges) [GTZ: Trier, Bourges, Sens]
Landericus, bishop (of Séez) [PCP (Paris)]
Lupus, bishop (of Bayeux) (Translation) [GTZ: Bayeux]
Maldegar, confessor [GTZ: Cambrai]
Sisinnius and companions, martyrs [GTZ: Chur]
Vigor, bishop (of Bayeux) (Translation) [GTZ: Bayeux]
Vincent, confessor [GTZ: Cambrai]

On This Day

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (United States)
Camillus de Lellis (Roman Catholic Church, except in the United States)
Idus of Leinster,
Libert of Saint-Trond, Ulrich of Zell

Bastille Day (France and French dependencies)

In History

1771 - Foundation of Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by Franciscan friar Junípero Serra

Samson Occom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Occum

SAMSON OCCUM
WITNESS TO THE FAITH IN NEW ENGLAND, 1792

The Reverend Samson Occom (1723 – 1792) (also spelled as Occum) was a Native American Presbyterian clergyman and a member of the Mohegan nation near New London, Connecticut. He has the distinction of being the first Native American person to ever publish documents and pamphlets in English.

Born to Joshua Tomacham and his wife Sarah, Occom is believed to be a direct descendant of the famous Mohegan chief, Uncas. In 1740, at the age of sixteen, Occom was exposed to the teachings of Christian evangelical preachers in the Great Awakening. He began to study theology at the “Lattin School” of Eleazar Wheelock in 1743 and stayed for four years until leaving to begin his own career.

Occom served as a missionary to Native American people in New England and Montauk, Long Island, where he married a local woman. It was also on Long Island where he was officially ordained a minister on August 30, 1759, by the presbytery of Suffolk. Although promised otherwise by the church leaders,

Wheelock established an Indian charity school (which became Dartmouth College) with a benefaction from Joshua Moor in 1754, and he persuaded Occom to go to England in 1766 to raise money for the school, along with the Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker. Occom preached his way across the country from February 16, 1766, to July 22, 1767. He delivered in total between three and four hundred sermons, drawing large crowds wherever he went. By the end of his tour he had raised over twelve thousand pounds for Wheelock’s project. King George III himself donated 200 pounds, and William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth subscribed 50 guineas. The friendship between Occom and Wheelock dissolved when Occom learned that Wheelock had neglected to care for Occom’s wife and children while he was away. Occom also took issue with the fact that Wheelock put the funds toward establishing Dartmouth College for the education of Englishmen rather than of Native Americans.

Upon his return from England, Occom lived at Mohegan, then moved in 1786 with some New England and Long Island Indians to Oneida territory in what is known today as New York. He then helped to found Brothertown, and lived among the Brothertown Indians. Occom died on July 14, 1792, in New Stockbridge, New York.

— from Wikipedia

Readings:

Psalm 29
Sirach 14:20-27
Acts 10:30-38
Luke 8:16-21

Preface of Baptism

PRAYER (traditional language)

God, the Great Spirit, whose breath givest life to the world and whose voice thundereth in the wind: We give thee thanks for thy servant Samson Occom, strong preacher and teacher among the Mohegan people; and we pray that we, cherishing his example, may love learning and by love build up the communities into which thou sendest us, and on all our paths walk in beauty with Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit, livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

God, Great Spirit, whose breath gives life to the world and whose voice thunders in the wind: We thank you for your servant Samson Occom, strong preacher and teacher among the Mohegan people; and we pray that we, cherishing his example, may love learning and by love build up the communities into which you send us, and on all our paths walk in beauty with Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit, is alive and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Bonaventure, Bp. of Albano
1274

Jul 14 - Father Among The Saints Joseph, Archbishop Of Thessalonika

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jul_14_-_father_among_the_saints_joseph_archbishop_of_thessalonika#7800

BLESSED KATERI TEKAKWITHA
WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010

Kateri Tekakwitha, the “Lily of the Mohawks,” is the first Native American to be beatified. She was born in Auriesville, New York, in 1656 to a Christian Algonquin woman and a pagan Mohawk chief.

When she was a child a smallpox epidemic attacked her tribe and both her parents died. She was left permanently scarred with a pocked face and impaired eyesight. Her uncle, who had now become chief of the tribe adopted her and her aunts began planning her marriage while she was still very young.

When three Jesuit fathers were visiting the tribe in 1667 and staying in the tent of her uncle, they spoke to her of Christ, and though she was still not and did not ask to be baptized, she believed in Jesus with an incredible intensity. She also realized that she was called into an intimate union with God as a consecrated virgin.

She had to struggle to maintain her faith amidst the opposition of her tribe who ridiculed her for it. When she was 18, Fr. Jacques de Lamberville returned to the Mohawk village and she asked to be baptized.

The life of the Mohawk village had become violent and debauchery was commonplace; realizing that this was proving too dangerous to her life and her call to perpetual virginity, Kateri escaped to the town of Caughnawaga in Quebec, near Montreal.

There she lived the last years of her short life practicing austere penance and constant prayer. She was said to have reached the highest levels of mystical union with God, and many miracles were attributed to her while she was still alive.

She died on April 17, 1680 at the age of 24, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. Devotion to her began immediately after her death and her body, enshrined in Caughnawaga, is visited by many pilgims each year.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
(1656-1680)

The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints. Nine years after the Jesuits Isaac Jogues and John de Brébeuf were tortured to death by Huron and Iroquois Indians, a baby girl was born near the place of their martyrdom, Auriesville, New York. She was to be the first person born in North America to be beatified.

Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan, the boldest and fiercest of the Five Nations. When she was four, Kateri lost her parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her disfigured and half blind. She was adopted by an uncle, who succeeded her father as chief. He hated the coming of the Blackrobes (missionaries), but could do nothing to them because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages with Christian captives. She was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who lodged with her uncle, but fear of him kept her from seeking instruction. She refused to marry a Mohawk brave and at 19 finally got the courage to take the step of converting. She was baptized with the name Kateri (Catherine) on Easter Sunday.

Now she would be treated as a slave. Because she would not work on Sunday, she received no food that day. Her life in grace grew rapidly. She told a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. She was powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the dignity of each of her people.

She was always in danger, for her conversion and holy life created great opposition. On the advice of a priest, she stole away one night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at Sault St. Louis, near Montreal.

For three years she grew in holiness under the direction of a priest and an older Iroquois woman, giving herself totally to God in long hours of prayer, in charity and in strenuous penance. At 23 she took a vow of virginity, an unprecedented act for an Indian woman, whose future depended on being married. She found a place in the woods where she could pray an hour a day—and was accused of meeting a man there!

Her dedication to virginity was instinctive: She did not know about religious life for women until she visited Montreal. Inspired by this, she and two friends wanted to start a community, but the local priest dissuaded her. She humbly accepted an “ordinary” life. She practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation. She died the afternoon before Holy Thursday. Witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color and became like that of a healthy child. The lines of suffering, even the pockmarks, disappeared and the touch of a smile came upon her lips. She was beatified in 1980.

‘DE HERETICO COMBURENDO’

Amongst the last victims of the religious persecution under Mary, were six persons who formed part of a congregation caught praying and reading the Bible, in a by-place at Islington, in May 1558. Seven of the party had been burned at Smithfield on the 27th of June; the six who remained were kept in a miserable confinement at the palace of Bonner, bishop of London, at Fulham, whence they were taken on the 14th of July, and despatched in a similar manner at Brentford.

While these six unfortunates lay in their vile captivity at Fulham, Bonner felt annoyed at their presence, and wished to get them out of the way; but he was sensible, at the same time, of there being a need for getting these sacrifices to the true church effected in as quiet a way as possible. He therefore penned an epistle to (apparently) Cardinal Pole, which has lately come to light, and certainly gives a curious idea of the coolness with which a fanatic will treat of the destruction of a few of his fellow-creatures when satisfied that it is all right.

‘Further,’ he says, ‘may it please your Grace concerning these obstinate heretics that do remain in my house, pestering the same, and doing snuck hurt many ways, some order may be taken with them, and in mine opinion, as I shewed your Grace and my Lord Chancellor, it should do well to have them brent in Hammersmith, a mile from my house here, for then I can give sentence against them here in the parish church very quietly, and without tumult, and having the sheriff present, as I can have him, he, without business or stir, [call] put them to execution in the said place, when otherwise the thing [will need a] day in [St] Paul’s, and with more comberance than now it needeth. Scribbled in haste, &c’

Bonner was a man of jolly appearance, and usually of mild and placid speech, though liable to fits of anger. In the ordinary course of life, he would probably have rather done one a kindness than an injury. See, however, what fanaticism made him. He scribbles in haste a letter dealing with the lives of six persons guilty of no real crime, and has no choice to make in the case but that their condemnation and execution may be conducted in a manner as little calculated to excite the populace as possible.

Bastille Day

When : July 14th

Bastille Day commemorates modern France and French democracy. Bastille Day is a French holiday. But, you can celebrate it, too.

Bastille Day symbolizes the end of the constitutional monarchy, and the beginning of the democratic republic of France. To Frenchmen, Bastille Day is viewed as their liberation.

Bastille Day is actually called Fete de la Federation. In France, it is a holiday that is celebrated with military parades.

Happy Bastille Day and “Vive la France!”

A Little (but not too much) Bastille Day History:

In the late 1700s, France was ruled by a king.

On July 14, 1789, there was an uprising against the constitutional monarchy, and the people stormed Bastille.

Bastille was actually a prison, and it was a symbol of the monarchy.

The goal was to create reconciliation for all of France, promote unity, and purse liberty from the monarchy.

This uprising ultimately led to the birth of democracy in France.

Fete de la Federation was first held on July 14, 1790, the first anniversary of the storming of the prison at Bastille.

DESTRUCTION OF THE BASTILE—THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK

The 14th of July will ever be a memorable day in French history, as having witnessed, in 1789, the demolition, by the Paris populace, of the grin old fortress identified with the despotism and cruelty of the falling monarchy. It was a typical incident, representing, as it were, the end of a wicked system, but unfortunately not inaugurating the beginning of one milder and better. Much heroism was shewn by the multitude in their attack upon the Bastile, for the defenders did not readily submit, and had a great advantage behind their lofty walls. But their triumph was sadly stained by the massacre of the governor, Delaunay, and many of his corps.

‘It was now,’ says Lamartine, ‘that the mysteries of this state-prison were unveiled—its bolts broken —its iron doors burst open—its dungeons and subterranean cells penetrated—from the gates of the towers to their very deepest foundations and their summits. The iron rings and the chains, rusting in their strong masonry, were pointed out, from which the victims were never released, except to be tortured, to be executed, or to die. On those walls they read the names of prisoners, the dates of their confinement, their griefs and their prayers —miserable men, who had left behind only those poor memorials in their dungeons to attest their prolonged existence and their innocence! It was surprising to find almost all these dungeons empty.

The people ran from one to the other: they penetrated into the most secret recesses and caverns, to carry thither the word of release, and to bring a ray of the free light of heaven to eyes long lost to it; they tore the locks from the heavy doors, and those heavy doors from the hinges; they carried off the heavy keys; all these things were displayed in triumph in the open court. They then broke into the archives, and read the entries of committals. These papers, then ignominiously scattered, were afterwards collected. They were the annals of arbitrary times, the records of the fears or vengeance of ministers, or of the meaner intrigues of their favourites, here faithfully kept to justify a late exposure and reproach. The people expected to see a spectre come forth from these ruins, to testify against these iniquities of kings. The Bastile, however, long cleared of all guilt by the gentle spirit of Louis XVI, and by the humane disposition of his ministers, disappointed these gloomy expectations. The dungeons, the cells, the iron collars, the chains, were only worn-out symbols of antique secret incarcerations, torture, and burials alive. They now represented only recollections of old horrors. These vaults restored to light but seven prisoners—three of whom, gray-headed men, were shut up legitimately, and whom family motives had withdrawn from the judgments of the ordinary courts of law. Tavernier and Withe, two of them, had become insane.

They saw the light of the sun with surprise; and their incurable insanity caused them to be sent to the madhouse of Charenton, a few days after they had enjoyed fresh air and freedom. The third was the Count de Solages, thirty-two years before sent to this prison at his father’s request. When restored free to Toulouse, his home, he was recognised by none, and died in poverty. Whether he had been guilty of some crime, or was the victim of oppression, was an inexplicable enigma. The other four prisoners had been confined only four years, and on purely civil grounds. They had forged bills of exchange, and were arrested in Holland on the requisition of the bankers they had defrauded. A royal commission had reported on their cases; but nothing was now listened to against them. What-ever had been branded by absolute authority, must be innocent in the eyes of the prejudiced people. These seven prisoners of the Bastile became victims —released, caressed, even crowned with laurels, carried in triumph by their liberators like living spoil snatched from the hands of tyranny, they were paraded about the streets, and their sufferings avenged by the people’s shouts and tears. The intoxication of the victors broke out against the very stones of the place, and the embrasures, torn from the towers, were soon hurled with indignation into the ditches.’

It was asserted at the time, and long afterwards believed—though there was no foundation for the averment—that the wasted body of the famous state-prisoner, called the Man in the Iron Mask, had been found chained in a lower dungeon, with the awful mask still upon the skull!

Speculations had long been rife among French historians, all tending to elucidate the mystery connected with that celebrated prisoner. By some, it was hinted that he was the twin-brother of Louis XIV, thus frightfully sacrificed to make his senior safe on his throne; others affirmed him to be the English Duke of Monmouth; others, a son of Oliver Cromwell; many, with more reason, inclining to think him a state-prisoner of France, such as the Duke de Beaufort, or the Count de Vermandois. It was reserved for M. Delort, at a comparatively recent period, to penetrate the mystery, and enable the late Lord Dover to compile and publish, in 1825, his True History of this unfortunate man; the facts being gathered from the state archives of France, and documentary evidence of conclusive authority.

It appears that this mysterious prisoner was Count Anthony Matthioli, secretary of state to Charles III, Duke of Mantua, and afterwards to his son Ferdinand, whose debauched habits, and consequent need, laid him open to a bribe from Louis XIV for permission to place an army of occupation in his territory, with a view to establish French influence in Italy. Matthioli had expressed his readiness to aid the plot; had visited Paris, and had a secret interview with the king, who presented him with a valuable ring and a considerable sum of money; but when the time came for vigorous action, Matthioli, who appears to have been intriguing with the Spanish court for a better bribe, placed all obstacles and delays in the way of France. The French envoy, the Baron Asfeld, was arrested by the Spanish governor of the Milanese; and the French court found that their diplomacy was betrayed. Louis determined to satisfy his wounded pride and frustrated ambition, by taking the most signal vengeance on Matthioli. The unfortunate secretary was entrapped at a secret interview on the frontier, and carried to the French garrison at Pignerol, afterwards to the fortress of Exiles; when his jailer, St. Mars, was appointed governor of the island of St. Marguerite (opposite Cannes), he was immured in the fortress there, and so remained for eleven years. In the autumn of 1698, St. Mars was made governor of the Bastile, and thither Matthioli was conveyed, dying within its gloomy walls on the 19th of November 1703. He had then been twenty-four years in this rigorous confinement, and had reached the age of sixty-three.

Throughout this long captivity, Louis never shewed him any clemency. The extraordinary precautions against his discovery, and the one which appears to have been afterwards resorted to, of obliging him to wear a mask during his journeys, or when he saw any one, are not wonderful, when we reflect upon the violent breach of the law of nations which had been committed by his imprisonment. Matthioli, at the time of his arrest, was actually the plenipotentiary of the Duke of Mantua for concluding a treaty with the king of France; and for that very sovereign to kidnap him, and confine him in a dungeon, was one of the most flagrant acts of violence that could be committed; one which, if known, would have had the most injurious effects upon the negotiations of Louis with other sovereigns; nay, would probably have indisposed other sovereigns from treating at all with him. The confinement of Matthioli is decidedly one of the deadliest stains that blot the character of Louis XIV.

The prison of Matthioli, in the fortress of St. Marguerite, is now, for the first time, engraved from an original sketch. It is one of a series of five, built in a row on the scarp of the rocky cliff. The walls are fourteen feet thick; there are three rows of strong iron gratings placed equidistant within the arched window of Matthioli’s room, a large apartment with vaulted roof, and no feature to bleak its monotony, except a small fireplace beside the window, and a few shelves above it. The Bay of Cannes, and the beautiful range of the Esterel mountains, may be seen from the window; a lovely view, that must have given but a maddening sense of confinement to the solitary prisoner. It is on record, that his mind was seriously deranged during the early part of his imprisonment; what he became ultimately, when all hope failed, and a long succession of years deadened his senses, none can know—the secret died with his jailers.

There is a tradition, that he attempted to make his captivity known, by scratching his melancholy tale on a metal dish, and casting it from the window; that it was found by a fisherman of Cannes, who brought it to the governor, St. Mars, thereby jeopardising his own life or liberty, for he was at once imprisoned, and only liberated on incontestable proof being given of his inability to read. After this, all fishermen were prohibited from casting their nets within a mile of the island. Matthioli was debarred, on pain of death, from speaking to any but his jailer; he was conveyed from one dungeon to the other in a sedan-chair, closely covered with oil-cloth, into which he entered in his cell, where it was fastened so that no one should see him; his jailers nearly smothered him on his journey to St. Marguerite; and afterwards the black mask seems to have been adopted on all occasions of the kind. Lord Dover assures us, that it has been a popular mistake to affirm this famed mask was of iron; that, in reality, it was formed of velvet, strengthened by bands of whalebone, and secured by a padlock behind the head.

0574 John III ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1105 Death of Rashi (b.1040), medieval Jewish Bible scholar. His name is a Hebrew acrostic for Rabbi Shelomoh ben Isaac. Rashi was the leading rabbinic commentator in his day on the Old Testament and Talmud.
1568 Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral perfects a way to bottle beer
1769 Birth of Thomas Kelly, Irish Episcopal clergyman and author of 765 hymns,including ‘Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him.’
1778 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: ‘It is perhapsthe highest triumph we can obtain over bigotry when we are able to bear with bigotsthemselves.’
1815 President John Adams wrote in a letter: ‘The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist,… I should still believe fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.’
1863 Anti-draft mobs lynch blacks in NYC; about 1,000 die
1868 Oscar J Dunn, former slave, installed as lt governor of Louisiana
1886 Birth of Father Edward Flanagan, American Catholic parish priest. Believing there was ‘no such thing as a bad boy,’ in 1922 he organized Boys Town near Omaha, Nebraska.
1917 Vision of Virgin Mary appeared to children of Fatima, Portugal
1919 Race riots in Longview & Gregg counties Texas
1967 Race riots break out in Newark, 27 die

Religious Observances

Christian : Festival of Our Lady of Fatima
RC : Commemoration of St Anacletus I, pope (c 76-c 88), martyr
RC : Feast of St Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, confessor
RC : Memorial of St Henry II (the Pious), emperor (opt)

July 13

On this day in 1819, Charles Kingsley, priest and author, was born in Devonshire, England. Kingsley’s most famous work is “The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby.”

July 13

On this day in 1857, “The Voice that Breathed O’er Eden” was written by John Keble, English priest and poet and a prominent leader of the Oxford movement.

Feast Day:

St. Anacletus, martyr, 2nd century;
St. Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, and his companions, martyrs, 505;
St. Turiaf, Turiave or Thivisiau, bishop of Doi, in Brittany, about 749.

July 13

Anacletus, pope, martyr [BLS; GTZ: southern France, Franciscans; PRI]
Eugenius, bishop (of Carthage), and companions, confessors [BLS]
Henry, emperor, confessor [common]
Margaret, virgin, martyr [common]
Mildrada, abbess, virgin [GTZ: Utrecht, Exeter]
Silas, apostle [GTZ: northern France]

Thuriaf, bishop (of Dol), confessor [BLS; GTZ: Paris; PCP (Paris), as Curien]
Willehad, bishop (of Bremen), confessor (Ordination) [GTZ: Bremen]

On This Day

Abd-al-Masih,
Abel of Tacla Haimonot (Coptic Church)
Clelia Barbieri - Catholic saint,
Eugenius of Carthage,
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor,
Mildthryth,
Silas (Roman Catholic Church)

Teresa of the Andes

In History

1985 - Live Aid benefit concerts take place around the world

Conrad Weiser

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Weiser

CONRAD WEISER
WITNESS TO PEACE and RECONCILIATION, 1760

Conrad Weiser (November 2, 1696 – July 13, 1760), born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a German Pennsylvanian pioneer, interpreter and effective diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native Americans. He was a farmer, soldier, monk, tanner, and judge as well. He contributed as an emissary in councils between Native Americans and the colonies, especially Pennsylvania, during the French and Indian War.

Conrad Weiser was born in 1696 in the small village of Affstätt in the Duchy of Württemberg (now part of Germany). Conrad Weiser and his family were among thousands of refugees who left German lands in 1709, many of them from the Palatine area. The Weiser family eventually ended up in the Schoharie Valley of New York. At age 16, Conrad’s father agreed to a chief’s proposal for the youth to live with the Mohawks in the upper Schoharie Valley. During his stay in the winter and spring of 1712-1713, Weiser learned much about the Mohawk language and the customs of the Iroquois, while enduring hardships of cold, hunger, and homesickness. Conrad Weiser returned to his own people towards the end of July 1713.

On November 22, 1720, at the age of 24, Weiser married the young German girl Anna Eve Feck (Faeg). In 1723 the couple followed the Susquehanna River south out of New York and settled their young family on a farm in Tulpehocken near present-day Reading, Pennsylvania. The couple had fourteen children, but only seven reached adulthood.

Weiser’s colonial service began in 1731. The Iroquois sent Shikellamy, an Oneida chief and friend of weiser, as an emissary to other tribes and the British. The Iroquois trusted him and considered him an adopted son of the Mohawks. Weiser impressed the Pennsylvania governor and council, which thereafter relied heavily on his services.

During the winter of 1737, Weiser attempted to broker a peace between southern tribes and the Iroquois. He had to survive high snow, freezing temperatures and starvation rations just to make the six-week journey to the Iroquois capital of Onondaga (near persent-day Syracuse, NY). Impressed with his fortitude, the Iroquois named Weiser Tarachiawagon (Holder of the Heavens). Spill-over violence from a war between the Iroquois and southern tribes such as the Catawba would have drawn first Virginia, and then Pennsylvania, into conflict with the Iroquois. Therefore this peace-brokering had a profound effect on Native American/colonial relations.

Throughout his decades-long career, Weiser built on his knowledge of Native American languages and culture. He was a key player in treaty negotiations, land purchases, and the formulation of Pennsylvania’s policies towards Native Americans. Because of his early experiences with the Iroquois, Weiser was inclined to be sympathetic to their interpretation of events, as opposed to the Lenape or the Shawnees. This may have exacerbated Pennsylvanian-Lenape/Shawnee relations, with bloody consequences in the French and Indian Wars.

Nevertheless, for many years, Weiser helped to keep the powerful Iroquois allied with the British as opposed to the French. This important service contributed to the continued survival of the British colonies and the eventual victory of the British over the French in the French and Indian Wars.

Between 1734 and 1741, Weiser became a follower of Conrad Beissel, a German Seventh Day Baptist preacher. For six years, he lived at the monastic settlement, Ephrata Cloister, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Conrad was also teacher and a lay minister of the Lutheran Church; he was one of the founders of Trinity Church in Reading.

Weiser died on his farm on July 13, 1760. Upon his death, one Iroquois Indian noted to a group of colonists, “We are at a great loss and sit in darkness…as since his death we cannot so well understand one another.” Indeed, shortly after Conrad Weiser’s death, relations between the colonists and the Native Americans began a rapid decline.

— more at Wikipedia and the Berks County website

Readings:

Psalm 122
Job 5:8-9, 20-27
2 Corinthians 5:16-20
John 16:33–17:5

Preface of the Epiphany

PRAYER (traditional language)

Almighty God, of thy grace thou didst endue Conrad Weiser with the gift of diplomacy, the insight to understand two different cultures and interpret each to the other with clarity and honesty: As we strive to be faithful to our vocation to commend thy kingdom, help us to proclaim the Gospel to the many cultures around us, that by thy Holy Spirit we may be effective ambassadors for our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the same Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Almighty God, of your grace you gave Conrad Weiser the gift of diplomacy, the insight to understand two different cultures and interpret each to the other with clarity and honesty: As we strive to be faithful to our vocation to commend your kingdom, help us to proclaim the Gospel to the many cultures around us, that by your Holy Spirit we may be effective ambassadors for our Savior Jesus Christ; who with you and the same Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Silas [Silvanus] Companion of Paul, Martyr, 1st Century

Silas is chiefly remembered as the companion of the Apostle Paul who was arrested with him at Philippi (Acts 16:19-40). They were beaten severely and confined in the inner prison, with their feet in stocks. There they sang hymns in the night, and an earthquake shook the prison, and released them. As a result, the jailer and his household became believers.

The first mention of Silas is earlier. Paul and Barnabas went on a missionary journey (A 13:1-5), taking with them John Mark, who (for unspecified reasons) parted from them and went home in the middle of the journey (A 13:13). Paul and Barnabas completed their mission and returned to Antioch. They had made many Gentile converts on their mission, and the question arose whether a Gentile could become a Christian without also becoming a Jew, being circumcised if male, and undertaking to observe the Law of Moses (A 15:1). The congregation at Antioch referred the question to the Apostles at Jerusalem, and Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to present their case. A council of apostles and elders at Jerusalem judged that, with a few specified exceptions, the Law of Moses was not to be imposed on Gentile Christians, and they sent two men from Jerusalem back to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas to convey their reply. The men were Judas Barsabbas (not otherwise mentioned) and Silas (A 15:22).

Eventually Paul and Barnabas undertook to visit again the congregations they had founded on their previous journey, and Barnabas wished to take John Mark with them, but Paul thought this unwise, and so they determined to travel separately, Barnabas taking Mark, and Paul taking Silas (A 15:36-40). And so Paul and Silas (joined in progress by Timothy and by Luke) went through part of what is now Turkey and then crossed over into Europe and preached at Philippi (where they made converts and were arrested as described above), and went on to Thessalonica and Berea, being the center of riots in each place (A 17:1-13), after which Paul went on to Athens and thence to Corinth, and was soon joined there by Silas and Timothy (A 18:5). And that is the last we hear of Silas.

The name “Silas” is a shortened form of “Silvanus”, and the Silvanus whom Paul mentions in his writings to the Corinthians (2 C 1:19) and the Thessalonians (1 Th 1:1; 2 Th 1:1) is almost certainly the Silas of Acts, and probably the same as the Silvanus who carried the Apostle Peter’s first letter (1 P 5:12) to its scattered recipients.

Further details of the life of Silas are not known, but he is customarily honored as a martyr.

PRAYER (traditional language)

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Silas, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evengelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant Silas, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the peoples of Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia. Raise up in this and every land evengelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Jul 13 - Holy Martyr Golinduc Of Persia

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jul_13_-_holy_martyr_golinduc_of_persia#7799

ST. HENRY II
TUESDAY, JULY 13, 2010

Born in 972 to the Duke of Bavaria and the daughter of the King of Burgundy, the future emperor was educated piously and rigorously by St. Wolfgang, bishop of Ratisbon, and had planned to enter the priesthood as a Benedictine monk.

However, at the age of 23, on the death of his father, Henry became the Duke of Bavaria, and seven years later, on the death of Otto III, he was elected emperor. He served in this capacity for 22 years, aided greatly by his wife, St. Cunegunde.

Henry II was an able politician who used his political skills to consolidate the place of the Church within the empire, and he was especially generous to the Benedictine Order, encouraging the reforms of Cluny and building many more monasteries.

In fact, near the end of his reign he wished to abdicate his throne and enter a monastery, but he was refused by the wise abbot, who told him that he had much to do in the world, and that he should dedicate his holy efforts to the advancement of the Church in the life of the empire.

He fought many battles to protect the empire from attacks from without, as well as rebellion within, notably the rebellion of Rome in 1014, which his army put down. He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII following his victory.

Henry established the See of Bamberg in which he built a Cathedral and towards which he was a doting benefactor.

He died in 1024, and was buried with his wife in the Cathedral of Bamberg, which has a strong devotion to him and the empress.

Pope Eugene III canonized him in 1146.
St. Henry
(972-1024)

As German king and Holy Roman Emperor, Henry was a practical man of affairs. He was energetic in consolidating his rule. He crushed rebellions and feuds. On all sides he had to deal with drawn-out disputes so as to protect his frontiers. This involved him in a number of battles, especially in the south in Italy; he also helped Pope Benedict VIII quell disturbances in Rome. Always his ultimate purpose was to establish a stable peace in Europe.

According to eleventh-century custom, Henry took advantage of his position and appointed as bishops men loyal to him. In his case, however, he avoided the pitfalls of this practice and actually fostered the reform of ecclesiastical and monastic life.

FESTIVAL OF MIRACLES

This day (July 13th), if Sunday, or the first Sunday after the 13th, begins the festival of the Miracles at Brussels, which lasts for fifteen days. The first day, Sunday, however, is the grand day of celebration; for on this takes place the public procession of the Holy Sacrament of the Miracles. We had an opportunity of witnessing this locally celebrated affair on Sunday, July 15th, 1860, and next day procured from one of the ecclesiastical officials a historical account of the festival, of which we offer an abridgment.

In the year 1369, there lived at Enghein, in Hainault, a rich Jew, named Jonathan, who, for purposes of profanation, desired to procure some consecrated wafers. In this object he was assisted by another Jew, named Jean de Louvain, who resided in Brussels, and had hypocritically renounced Judaism. Jean was poor, and in the hope of reward gladly undertook to steal some of the wafers from one of the churches. After examination, he found that the church of St. Catherine, at Brussels, offered the best opportunity for the theft. Gaining access by a window on a dark night in October, he secured and carried off the pix containing the consecrated wafers; and the whole were handed to Jonathan, who gave his appointed reward. Jonathan did not long survive this act of sacrilege. He was assassinated in his garden, and his murderers remained unknown. After his death, his widow gave the pix, with the wafers, to a body of Jews in Brussels, who, in hatred of Christianity, were anxious to do the utmost indignity to the wafers. The day they selected for the purpose was Good Friday, 1370. On that day, meeting in their synagogue, they spread the holy wafers, sixteen in number, on a table, and with horrid imprecations proceeded to stab them with poniards. To their amazement, the wounded wafers spouted out blood, and in consternation they fled from the spot!

Anxious to rid themselves of objects on which so very extraordinary a miracle had been wrought, these wicked Jews engaged a woman, named Catherine, to carry the wafers to Cologne, though what she was to do with them there is not mentioned. Catherine fulfilled her engagement, but with an oppressed conscience she, on her return, went and revealed all to the rector of the parish church. The Jews concerned in the sacrilege were forthwith brought to justice. They were condemned to be burned, and their execution took place May 22nd, 1370. Three of the wafers were restored to the clergy of St. Guduli, where they have ever since remained as objects of extreme veneration. On several occasions they have good service to the inhabitants of Brussels, in the way of stopping epidemics.

On being appealed to by a solemn procession in 1529, a grievous epidemic at once ceased. From 1579 to 1585, during certain political troubles in the Netherlands, there were no processions in their honour; and they were similarly neglected for some years after the great revolution of 1789—92. But since Sunday, July 14th, 1804, the annual procession has been resumed, and the three wafers shewing the miraculous marks of blood, have been exposed to the adoration of the faithful in the church of St. Guduli. It is added in the authoritative account, that certain indulgences are granted by order of Pius VI. to all who take part in the procession, and repeat daily throughout the year, praises and thanks for the most holy sacrament of the Miracles. In the openings of the pillars along both sides of the choir of St. Guduli, is suspended a series of Gobelin tapestries, vividly representing the chief incidents in the history of the Miracles, including the scene of stabbing the wafers.

SUPERSTITIONS, SAYINGS, &c., CONCERNING DEATH

If a grave is open on Sunday, there will be another dug in the week.

This I believe to be a very narrowly limited superstition, as Sunday is generally a favourite day for funerals among the poor. I have, however, met with it in one parish, where Sunday funerals are the exception, and I recollect one instance in particular. A woman coming down from church, and observing an open grave, remarked: ‘Ah, there will be some-body else wanting a grave before the week is out!’ Strangely enough (the population of the place was then under a thousand), her words came true, and the grave was dug for her.

If a corpse does not stiffen after death, or if the rigor mortis disappears before burial, it is a sign that there will be a death in the family before the end of the year.

In the case of a child of my own, every joint of the corpse was as flexible as in life. I was perplexed at this, thinking that perhaps the little fellow might, after all, be in a trance. While I was considering the matter, I perceived a bystander looking very grave, and evidently having something on her mind. On asking her what she wished to say, I received for answer that, though she did not put any faith in it herself, yet people did say that such a thing was the sign of another death in the family within the twelve-month.

If every remnant of Christmas decoration is not cleared out of church before Candlemas-day (the Purification, February 2), there will be a death that year in the family occupying the pew where a leaf or berry is left. An old lady (now dead) whom I knew, was so persuaded of the truth of this superstition, that she would not be contented to leave the clearing of her pew to the constituted authorities, but used to send her servant on Candlemas-eve to see that her own seat at any rate was thoroughly freed from danger.

Fires and candles also afford presages of death. Coffins flying out of the former, and winding-sheets guttering down from the latter. A winding-sheet is produced from a candle, if, after it has guttered, the strip, which has rum down, instead of being absorbed into the general tallow, remains unmelted: if, under these circumstances, it curls over away from the flame, it is a presage of death to the person in whose direction it points.

Coffins out of the fire are hollow oblong cinders spirted from it, and are a sign of a coming death in the family. I have seen cinders, which have flown out of the fire, picked up and examined to see what they presaged; for coffins are not the only things that are thus produced. If the cinder, instead of being oblong, is oval, it is a cradle, and predicts the advent of a baby; while, if it is round, it is a purse, and means prosperity.

The howling of a dog at night under the window of a sick-room, is looked upon as a warning of death’s being near.

Perhaps there may be some truth in this notion. Everybody knows the peculiar odour which frequently precedes death, and it is possible that the acute nose of the dog may perceive this, and that it may render him uneasy: but the same can hardly be alleged in favour of the notion, that the screech of an owl flying past signifies the same, for, if the owl did scent death, and was in hopes of prey, it is not likely that it would screech, and so give notice of its presence.

Suffolk. C. W. J.

O - Bon / Festival of Souls (lunar date)
Shinto/em>

1533 Pope Clement VII excommunicated England’s King Henry VIII
1656 Ann Austin and Mary Fisher became the first Quakers to arrive in America and were promptly arrested. Five weeks later, they were deported back to England.
1740 Jews are expelled from Little Russia by order of Czarina Anne
1905 Black intellectuals & activists organize Niagara movement
1952 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: ‘Teach me, Lord Jesus,… not to be hungering for the “strange and peculiar” when the common, ordinary, and regular, rightly taken, will suffice to feed and satisfy the soul.’
1955 American Presbyterian missionary Francis Schaeffer observed in a letter: ‘No priceis too high to have a free conscience before God.’
1967 The Vatican reported that Albania had closed its last Roman Catholic church.(Albania is a tiny Balkan country with an area only the size of Maryland.
1977 Medal of Freedom awarded posthumously to Rev Martin Luther King Jr

Religious Observances

Orthodox : Feast of St Olga, 1st Russian saint the Orthodox Church
RC : Commemoration of St Pius I, 10th pope (141-55), martyr
Ang, Luth, RC : Mem of St Benedict of Nursia, abbot of Monte Cassino

July 11

On this day in 1533, Pope Clement VII excommunicates England’s King Henry VIII for remarrying after his divorce.

Feast Day:

St. Pius I, pope and martyr, 157;
St. James, bishop of Nisibis, confessor, 350;
St. Hidulphus, bishop and abbot, 707;
St. Drostan, abbot of Dalcongaile, about 809.

July 11

Droatan, prince (of Scotland), abbot [BLS]
Benedict, abbot (of Montecassino), confessor (Translation, Deposition) [common; WTS (Bruges), sometimes in red]

Brictius, bishop, confessor [GTZ: Meissen]
Faustinus, bishop, martyr [GTZ: Kammin]
Hyldulf, bishop (of Trier), confessor [BLS; GTZ: Trier]
James, bishop (of Nisibis), confessor [BLS]
Ketillus, confessor (sometimes martyr): [GTZ: Sleswig, Scandinavia]
Pius (I), pope, martyr [BLS; GTZ: Bamberg, Orden; PRI]
Placidus and Sigisbert [GTZ: Chur]
Procopius, abbot (at Prague), confessor [GTZ: Dominicans]
Sabinus, confessor [GTZ: Poitiers]

ST. BENEDICT
SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010

St. Benedict is the patron of Europe and the founder of Western monasticism.

He was born in the fifth century into a noble family, the twin brother of St. Scholastica, in Umbria, Italy. After studying in Rome, he fled to the mountains and lived like a hermit in a cave for three years. Tradition says that he was fed by a raven.

Based on his vituous reputatin, an abbey invited him to join them as their leader at Monte Cassino, Italy. This is where he wrote his renowned Rule.

However, he soon returned to his cave when an attempt was made on his life. Some monks tried by poison him, but he blessed the cup and it became harmless.

He continued to attract followers and he eventually established 12 monasteries. He had the ability to read consciences and drive demons. He destroyed pagan statues and helped to Christianize Europe. He also had the gift of prophesy.

He died of a fever while in prayer at Monte Cassino, Italy, March 21, 547. He was buried in the same tomb as St. Scholastica, who also lived the monastic life as a nun.

After his death, many other Benedictine monasteries were established across Europe, helping to evangelize and Christianize the continent. His Rule was adopted by up to 40,000 monasteries around the world.

Benedict of Nursia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_of_Nursia

BENEDICT
FOUNDER OF WESTERN MONASTICISM (11 JULY 540)

Benedict was born at Nursia (Norcia) in Umbria, Italy, around 480 AD. He was sent to Rome for his studies, but was repelled by the dissolute life of most of the populace, and withdrew to a solitary life at Subiaco. A group of monks asked him to be their abbot, but some of them found his rule too strict, and he returned alone to Subiaco. Again, other monks called him to be their abbot, and he agreed, founding twelve communities over an interval of some years. His chief founding was Monte Cassino, an abbey which stands to this day as the mother house of the world-wide Benedictine order.

Totila the Goth visited Benedict, and was so awed by his presence that he fell on his face before him. Benedict raised him from the ground and rebuked him for his cruelty, telling him that it was time that his iniquities should cease. Totila asked Benedict to remember him in his prayers and departed, to exhibit from that time an astonishing clemency and chivalry in his treatment of conquered peoples.

Benedict drew up a rule of life for monastics, a rule which he calls “a school of the Lord’s service, in which we hope to order nothing harsh or rigorous.” The Rule gives instructions for how the monastic community is to be organized, and how the monks are to spend their time. An average day includes about four hours to be spent in liturgical prayer (called the Divinum Officium — the Divine Office), five hours in spiritual reading and study, six hours of labor, one hour for eating, and about eight hours for sleep. The Book of Psalms is to be recited in its entirety every week as a part of the Office.

A Benedictine monk takes vows of “obedience, stability, and conversion of life.” That is, he vows to live in accordance with the Benedictine Rule, not to leave his community without grave cause, and to seek to follow the teaching and example of Christ in all things. Normal procedure today for a prospective monk is to spend a week or more at the monastery as a visitor. He then applies as a postulant, and agrees not to leave for six months without the consent of the Abbot. (During that time, he may suspect that he has made a mistake, and the abbot may say, “Yes, I think you have. Go in peace.” Alternately, he may say, “It is normal to have jitters at this stage. I urge you to stick it out a while longer and see whether they go away.” Many postulants leave before the six months are up.) After six months, he may leave or become a novice, with vows for one year. After the year, he may leave or take vows for three more years. After three years, he may leave, take life vows, or take vows for a second three years. After that, a third three years. After that, he must leave or take life vows (fish or cut bait). Thus, he takes life vows after four and a half to ten and a half years in the monastery. At any point in the proceedings at which he has the option of leaving, the community has the option of dismissing him.

The effect of the monastic movement, both of the Benedictine order and of similar orders that grew out of it, has been enormous. We owe the preservation of the Holy Scriptures and other ancient writings in large measure to the patience and diligence of monastic scribes. In purely secular terms, their contribution was considerable. In Benedict’s time, the chief source of power was muscle, whether human or animal. Ancient scholars apparently did not worry about labor-saving devices. The labor could always be done by oxen or slaves. But monks were both scholars and workers. A monk, after spending a few hours doing some laborious task by hand, was likely to think, “There must be a better way of doing this.” The result was the systematic development of windmills and water wheels for grinding grain, sawing wood, pumping water, and so on. The rotation of crops (including legumes) and other agricultural advances were also originated or promoted by monastic farms. The monks, by their example, taught the dignity of labor and the importance of order and planning. For details, see The Mediaeval Machine: The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Age, by Jean Gimpel, (Holt Rinehart & Winston, 1976; Penguin, 1977, ISBN 0-14-00-4514-7).

by James Kiefer

Readings:

Psalm 1 or 34:1-8
Proverbs 2:1-9
Luke 14:27-33
Preface of a Saint (2)

PRAYER (traditional language)

Almighty and everlasting God, whose precepts are the wisdom of a loving Father: Give us grace, following the teaching and example of thy servant Benedict, to walk with loving and willing hearts in the school of the Lord’s service; let thine ears be open unto our prayers; and prosper with thy blessing the work of our hands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Almighty and everlasting God, whose precepts are the wisdom of a loving Father: Give us grace, following the teaching and example of your servant Benedict, to walk with loving and willing hearts in the school of the Lord’s service; let your ears be open to our prayers; and prosper with your blessing the work of our hands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

World Population Day

When : Always July 11th

World Population Day focuses upon people under 25, reproductive issues, and health. This day is sponsored by the United Nations World Population Fund (UNFPA).

According to the UNFPA website, the focus of this day is upon people under 25 and those at reproductive age. This day seeks to provide education and awareness to reproductive health, reproductive choice, family planning, and to provide a better future for young people.

You can participate in World Population Day by playing a role in bringing awareness of these issues to the youth in your community.

The Origin of World Population Day:

World Population Day was started by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Cheer Up the Lonely Day

When : July 11th

Cheer Up the Lonely Day is an opportunity to make a lonely person happy. Any time you can make someone happy, you’ve done a good thing, and should be proud of yourself.

Lonely people have few friends and loved ones. They may have lost loved ones over the years. They may be elderly. They see people on an infrequent basis.

Spend some time today cheering up lonely people. It’s easy to do…..just spend some time with them. When you visit, bring happy things to talk about. Keep the conversation upbeat, and lively. When you leave, give a big hug and let them know you enjoyed the stay. Sending cards or making a phone call is okay, only if they live too far away to visit. What a lonely person really needs, is face to face time with other people.

The Origin of Cheer Up the Lonely Day:

1765 English poet and hymnwriter William Cowper observed in a letter: ‘How naturallydoes affliction make us Christians!’
1776 Declaration of Independence-US gains independence from Britain
1827 Slavery abolished in NY
1840 Birth of American sacred composer James McGranahan. His most enduring melodiesinclude CHRIST RETURNETH, MY REDEEMER, NEUMEISTER (‘Christ Receiveth Sinful Men’) andSHOWERS OF BLESSING.
1870 Birth of James Moffatt, Scottish New Testament scholar. Moffatt translated theNew (1913) and Old (1924) Testaments into the colloquial English of his day. They were firstpublished together in 1935.
1875 White Democrats kill several blacks in terrorist attacks in Vicksburg
1902 Vivekananda, Hindu spiritual leader and reformer Vivekananda—who attempted to combine Indian spirituality with Western material progress, maintaining that they supplemented and complemented one another—died this day in Calcutta in 1902.
1918 Altar dedicated at full-scale replica of Stonehenge at Maryhill, Wa
1970 American Presbyterian missionary Francis Schaeffer observed in a letter: ‘If standards are raised which are not really scriptural,… it can only lead to sorrow. If we try to have a spirituality higher than the Bible sets forth, it will always turn out to be lower.’
1973 In audience with Italian cyclists, Pope Paul VI praises athletes who
“offer the magnificent show of a healthy, strong, generous youth”

July 4

On this day in 973, Ulrich, bishop of Augsburg from 923, died. Twenty years later he would become the first person canonized by a pope.

Feast Day:

St. Finbar, abbot.
St. Bolcan, abbot.
St. Sisoes or Sisoy, anchoret in Egypt, about 429.
St. Bertha, widow, abbess of Blangy, in Artois, about 725.
St. Ulric, bishop of Augsburg, confessor, 973.
St. Ode, archbishop of Canterbury, confessor, 10th century.

July 4

Bertha, widow, abbess (of Blangy in Artois) [BLS]
Bolcan [BLS]
Elizabeth Lusitania [MR]
Finbar, abbot [BLS]
Laurianus, bishop, martyr [GTZ: Bourges]
Martin, bishop (of Tours), confessor (Translation, Ordination) [HCC, PCP (Paris), in red; WTS (Bruges), sometimes in red]
Odo, bishop (of Canterbury) [BLS]
Othelric, bishop, confessor [GTZ]
Procopius, abbot (at Prague), confessor [GTZ: Prague, Gnesen, Meissen]
Sisoes, anchorite [BLS]
Ulric, bishop (of Augsburg) confessor [common]

Independence Day (United States)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(United_States)

INDEPENDENCE DAY
(United States of America) (4 JULY 1776)

On 2 July 1776, the Continental Congress, comprising delegates sent by the legislatures of the thirteen colonies, voted to declare complete independence from British rule, and on 4 July the formal wording of the declaration (principally the work of Thomas Jefferson) was approved and the document signed.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation upon such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are long accustomed. But [our grievances are neither light nor transient, and a list of them follows….]
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

The decision to seek independence rather than simply a restoration of the colonists’ traditional rights as British subjects did not come readily or suddenly. Armies had been in the field for more than a year before the Declaration, and for another two years afterward, the officers of the Continental Army drank his Majesty’s health at every mess. But the Declaration was rightly acknowledged as crucial. It speaks in terms of the Natural Law and God-given principles of justice and right, in language that, as one (British) writer has said, combines great prose, great politics, and great theology.

FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 10:17-21
(“When you have entered the homeland that God gives you, serve Him
faithfully. Deal generously with the alien and the homeless, for you
were homeless aliens in the land of Egypt.”)

PSALM 145
(“One generation shall declare thy works unto another.”)

EPISTLE: Hebrews 11:8-16
(Abraham and the other saints of old recognized that their true and
abiding homeland is not on earth, but awaits them in Heaven.)

GOSPEL: Matthew 5:43-48
(“Love your enemies…. Your Father in Heaven makes the sun rise on
the evil and the good….”)

Readings:

Psalm 145 or 145:1-9;
Deuteronomy 10:17-21;
Hebrews 11:8-16;
Matthew 5:43-48

Preface of the Trinity

PRAYER (traditional language)

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant, we beseech thee, that we and all the peoples of this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYERS (contemporary language)

Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant, we pray, that we and all the peoples of this land may have grace to maintain these liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

ST. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL
SUNDAY, JULY 04, 2010

St. Elisabeth of Portugal is known as a great peacemaker. She was actually born in Aragon, Spain, in 1271, the daughter of King Pedro III. Her great aunt was St. Elizabeth of Hungary, after whom she was named.

She grew up in a very pious home, with daily mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. At the age of 12, she was married to King Diniz of Portugal and became queen of the country before she was a teen. However, her husband was abusive and an adulturer. Still, they had two children and she prayed for his conversion and served the poor and the sick.

Her son, Prince Affonso, rebelled against the favors his fathers bestowed on his illegitimate sons and, in 1323, confronted the king’s forces with his own. But Elizabeth rode onto the battlefield between them, and was able to bring reconciliation between father and son.

After her husband died in 1325, Elizabeth distributed her property to the poor and became a Franciscan tertiary. She retired to a monastery of Poor Clare, which she had founded at Coimbra.

However, she emerged on the battlefield as a peacemaker in 1336, when her son, now king, marched against his son-in-law, the king of Castile, to punish him for being a negligent and abusive husband. She died later that same year.

St. Elizabeth is the patroness of difficult marriages, victims of adultery, widows and royalty.

St. Elizabeth of Portugal
(1271-1336)

Elizabeth is usually depicted in royal garb with a dove or an olive branch. At her birth in 1271, her father, Pedro III, future king of Aragon, was reconciled with his father, James, the reigning monarch. This proved to be a portent of things to come. Under the healthful influences surrounding her early years, she quickly learned self-discipline and acquired a taste for spirituality. Thus fortunately prepared, she was able to meet the challenge when, at the age of 12, she was given in marriage to Denis, king of Portugal. She was able to establish for herself a pattern of life conducive to growth in God’s love, not merely through her exercises of piety, including daily Mass, but also through her exercise of charity, by which she was able to befriend and help pilgrims, strangers, the sick, the poor—in a word, all those whose need came to her notice. At the same time she remained devoted to her husband, whose infidelity to her was a scandal to the kingdom.

He too was the object of many of her peace endeavors. She long sought peace for him with God, and was finally rewarded when he gave up his life of sin. She repeatedly sought and effected peace between the king and their rebellious son, Alfonso, who thought that he was passed over to favor the king’s illegitimate children. She acted as peacemaker in the struggle between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and his cousin James, who claimed the crown. And finally from Coimbra, where she had retired as a Franciscan tertiary to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband, she set out and was able to bring about a lasting peace between her son Alfonso, now king of Portugal, and his son-in-law, the king of Castile.

TRANSLATION OF ST. MARTIN

That the Church of Rome should not only celebrate the day of St. Martin’s death (November 11), but also that of the transference of his remains from their original humble resting place to the cathedral of Tours, shews conclusively the veneration in which this soldier-saint was held. (See under November 11.) The day continues to have a place in the Church of England calendar.

In Scotland, this used to be called St. Martin of Bullion’s Day, and the weather which prevailed upon it was supposed to have a prophetic character. It was a proverb, that if the deer rise dry and lie down dry on Bullion’s Day, it was a sign there would be a good gose-harvest—gose being a term for the latter end of summer; hence gose-harvest was an early harvest. It was believed generally over Europe that rain on this day betokened wet weather for the twenty ensuing days.

THE FOURTH OF JULY

Where a country or a government has been baffled in its efforts to attain or preserve a hated rule over another people, it must be content to see its failure made the subject of never-ending triumph and exultation. The joy attached to the sense of escape or emancipation tends to perpetuate itself by periodical celebrations, in which it is not likely that the motives of the other party, or the general justice of the case, will be very carefully considered or allowed for. We may doubt if it be morally expedient thus to keep alive the memory of facts which as certainly infer mortification to one party as they do glorification to another: but we must all admit that it is only natural, and in a measure to be expected.

The anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, has ever since been celebrated as a great national festival throughout the United States, and wherever Americans are assembled over the world. From Maine to Oregon, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, in every town and village, this birthday of the Republic has always hitherto been ushered in with the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, the display of the national flag, and other evidences of public rejoicing. A national salute is fired at sunrise, noon, and at sunset, from every fort and man-of-war. The army, militia, and volunteer troops parade, with bands of music, and join with the citizens in patriotic processions. The famous Declaration is solemnly read, and orators, appointed for the occasion, deliver what are termed Fourth of July Orations, in which the history of the country is reviewed, and its past and coming glories pro-claimed. The virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, the heroic exertions and sufferings of the soldiers of the Revolution, the growth and power of the Republic, and the great future which expands before her, are the staple ideas of these orations. Dinners, toasts, and speeches follow, and at night the whole country blazes with bonfires, rockets, Roman candles, and fireworks of every description. In a great city like New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, the day, and even the night previous, is insufferably noisy with the constant rattle of Chinese-crackers and firearms. In the evening, the displays of fireworks in the public squares, provided by the authorities, are often magnificent.

0683 St Leo II ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1756 English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: ‘One who lives and dies in error, or in dissent from our Church, may yet be saved; but one who lives and dies in sin must perish.’
1848 Slaves freed in Danish West Indies (now US Virgin Islands)
1894 Birth of Don R. Falkenberg, founder in 1923 of the Mid-West Businessmen’s Council of the Pocket Testament League. In 1967 the name of this evangelical agency was changed to Bible Literature International.
1907 Pope St. Pius X, in his encyclical ‘Lamentabili,’ formally condemned the’modernist’ intellectual movement, as it exhibited itself in the Catholic Church.
1959 Pope John XXIII, in his encyclical ‘Ad Petri Cathedram,’ expressed the hope that non-Catholic Christians would see in the upcoming Vatical II Ecumenical Council ‘a warminvitation to seek and find unity.’
1979 Thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the West German government voted to continue prosecution of Nazi war criminals by removing the statute of limitations onmurder.

July 3

On this day in 1999, twenty-fifth Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold began his official visit to Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church.

July 3

Appolin [PCP (Paris)]
Bertran, bishop (of Le Mans) [BLS]
Gunthiern, abbot [BLS]
Guthagon, recluse [BLS]
Leo (II), pope [BLS]
Marinus, bishop, martyr [GTZ: Sleswig, Scandinavia]
Phocas, martyr [BLS]
Raymond, confessor (at Toulouse) [GTZ: Toulouse]
Sidronius, martyr [GTZ: Sens]
Thomas, apostle (Translation) [common]

ST. THOMAS, APOSTLE
SATURDAY, JULY 03, 2010

What we know of the life of St. Thomas is what is recorded of him in the Gospels -especially the Gospel of John - and what has been handed down by tradition. He is named in the three synoptic Gospels but only in the lists of the Apostles of Christ.

St. Thomas is most famously known for having doubted the news of Christ’s Resurrection, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)

He believed a week later when Christ presented Himself and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” When Thomas did so he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

But Thomas was also the Apostle who was ready to die with the Lord when Jesus said that he would go to Judea to visit His friend Lazarus, a journey that was clearly perilous because the Jewish authorities were looking to kill Him: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16).

St. Thomas, as tradition has it, is said to have been the Apostle who preached the Gospel in the East, to the Persians and Medians, and all the way to the southern coast of India. The Syro-Malabar Catholics, of southern India, claim that their church was founded by the Apostle Thomas in 52 A.D. and he is said to have been martyred in the year 72 by being struck by a spear.

Pope Paul VI declared St. Thomas the Apostle of India in 1972. He is the patron of architects, carpenters and builders.

July 3, 2010
St. Thomas the Apostle

Poor Thomas! He made one remark and has been branded as “Doubting Thomas” ever since. But if he doubted, he also believed. He made what is certainly the most explicit statement of faith in the New Testament: “My Lord and My God!” (see John 20:24-28) and, in so expressing his faith, gave Christians a prayer that will be said till the end of time. He also occasioned a compliment from Jesus to all later Christians: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29).

Thomas should be equally well known for his courage. Perhaps what he said was impetuous—since he ran, like the rest, at the showdown—but he can scarcely have been insincere when he expressed his willingness to die with Jesus. The occasion was when Jesus proposed to go to Bethany after Lazarus had died. Since Bethany was near Jerusalem, this meant walking into the very midst of his enemies and to almost certain death. Realizing this, Thomas said to the other apostles, “Let us also go to die with him” (John 11:16b).

Festival of Cerridwen
Celtism

1535 Sir Thomas More went on trial in England charged with treason
1643 The Westminster Assembly first convened in England, from which would emerge the Westminster longer and shorter catechisms.
1690 Army of England’s Protestant King William III defeats Roman Catholic King James II in Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (Now celebrated on July 12 as “The Battle of the Orange”)
1800 The earliest recorded Methodist camp meeting in America was held in Logan County Kentucky, near the Gaspar River Church.
1899 In Wisconsin, the Gideons were founded by three traveling businessmen. They placed their first Bibles in 1908 at the Superior Hotel in Iron Mountain, Montana.
1917 Race riots in East St Louis Illinois (40 to 200 reported killed)
1942 Birth of Andrae Crouch, African-American sacred music artist. His most enduring gospel songs have been ‘Soon and Very Soon,’ ‘My Tribute’ and ‘Through It All.’
1959 World Refugee Year begins
1985 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public school teachers may not enter parochial school classrooms, to provide remedial or enrichment instruction.

Feast Day:

Saints Julius and Aaron, martyrs, about 303;
St. Thierri, abbot of Mont-d’Hor, 533;
St. Calais or Carilephus, abbot of Anille, 542;
St. Gal the First, bishop of Clermont, about 553;
St. Cybar, recluse at Angouleme, 581;
St. Simeon, surnamed Salus, 6th century;
St. Leonorus or Lunaire, bishop;
St. Rumold, patron of Mechlin, bishop and martyr, 775;
St. Theobald or Thibault, confessor, 1066.

July 1

Calais, abbot (of Ancille) [BLS]
Carileffus, priest [GTZ: Chartres, Rouen, Tours, Durham]
Cybar, recluse [BLS]
Domitian, abbot, confessor [GTZ: Lyon]
Eparchius, priest (at Angoulême), confessor [GTZ: Angoulême, Saintes, Limoges]
Gaius, pope, martyr [GTZ: Bamberg]
Gall, bishop (of Clermont) [BLS; GTZ: Clermont]
Golvinus, bishop (of Léon), confessor [GTZ: St. Pol de Léon]
John the Baptist (Octave) [common; 6082, in red]
Julius and Aaron, martyrs [BLS]
Leonore, bishop, confessor [BLS; GTZ: Paris; PCP (Paris), as Lunaire]
Leontius, bishop (of Autun), confessor [GTZ: Autun]
Monegundis, virgin [GTZ: Liège]
Oliver Plunkett, martyr [BLS]
Rumold, bishop, martyr [BLS; GTZ: Liège, Cambrai, Scotland]
Servanus, bishop, confessor [GTZ: Scotland]
Simeon Salus [BLS]
Sophia, widow, and daughters (Faith, Hope, and Charity), martyrs [GTZ: Freising, Minden, Sitten]
Theobald, priest, confessor [BLS; GTZ: Mainz, Trier, Metz, Switzerland, France; PCP (Paris)]
Theoderic (Thierry), abbot (of Mont d’Hor), confessor [BLS; GTZ: Reims]

On This Day

Aaron (Syriac Christianity)
Feast of the Most Precious Blood,
Blessed Fray Junípero Serra,
Julius and Aaron,
Leontius of Autun,
Servanus

In History

1858 - Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to Linnean Society
2002 - International Criminal Court established

Harriet Beecher Stowe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
WRITER AND PROPHETIC WITNESS, 1896

Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and author. Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) depicted life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom and made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South. Upon meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln allegedly remarked, “So you’re the little lady who started this great war!” The quote is regarded as apocryphal.

Harriet Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14, 1811. She was the daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote, a deeply religious woman who died when Stowe was four years old. She was the sister of the educator and author, Catharine Beecher, clergymen Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.

Harriet enrolled in the seminary run by her eldest sister Catharine, where she received a traditionally “male” education. At the age of 21, she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father, who had become the president of Lane Theological Seminary, and in 1836 she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at the seminary and an ardent critic of slavery. The Stowes supported the Underground Railroad and housed several fugitive slaves in their home. They eventually moved to Brunswick, Maine, where Calvin taught at Bowdoin College.

In 1850, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law, prohibiting assistance to fugitives. Stowe was moved to present her objections on paper, and in June 1851, the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin appeared in the antislavery journal National Era. The 40-year-old mother of seven children sparked a national debate and, as Abraham Lincoln is said to have noted, a war. Stowe died on July 1, 1896, at age eighty-five, in Hartford, Connecticut.

— more at Wikipedia

Readings:

Psalm 94:16-23
Isaiah 26:7-13
1 Peter 3:8-12
Matthew 23:1-12

Preface of Advent

PRAYER (traditional language)

Gracious God, we offer thanks for the witness of Harriett Beecher Stowe, whose fiction inspired thousands with compassion for the shame and sufferings of enslaved peoples, and who enriched her writings with the cadences of The Book of Common Prayer. Help us, like her, to strive for thy justice, that our eyes may see the glory of thy Son, Jesus Christ, when he comes to reign with thee and the Holy Spirit in reconciliation and peace, one God, now and always. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Gracious God, we thank you for the witness of Harriett Beecher Stowe, whose fiction inspired thousands with compassion for the shame and sufferings of enslaved peoples, and who enriched her writings with the cadences of The Book of Common Prayer. Help us, like her, to strive for your justice, that our eyes may see the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ, when he comes to reign with you and the Holy Spirit in reconciliation and peace, one God, now and always. Amen.

ST. ARNULF OF METZ
THURSDAY, JULY 01, 2010

Statesman, bishop under the Merovingians, born c. 580; died c. 640. His parents belonged to a distinguished Frankish family, and lived in Austrasia, the eastern section of the kingdom founded by Clovis. In the school in which he was placed during his boyhood he excelled through his talent and his good behaviour. According to the custom of the age, he was sent in due time to the court of Theodebert II, King of Austrasia (595-612), to be initiated in the various branches of the government. Under the guidance of Gundulf, the Mayor of the Palace, he soon became so proficient that he was placed on the regular list of royal officers, and among the first of the kings ministers. He distinguished himself both as a military commander and in the civil administration; at one time he had under his care six distinct provinces. In due course Arnulf was married to a Frankish woman of noble lineage, by whom he had two sons, Anseghisel and Clodulf. While Arnulf was enjoying worldly emoluments and honours he did not forget higher and spiritual things. His thoughts dwelled often on monasteries, and with his friend Romaricus, likewise an officer of the court, he planned to make a pilgrimage to the Abbey of Lérins, evidently for the purpose of devoting his life to God. But in the meantime the Episcopal See of Metz became vacant. Arnulf was universally designated as a worthy candidate for the office, and he was consecrated bishop of that see about 611. In his new position he set the example of a virtuous life to his subjects, and attended to matters of ecclesiastical government. In 625 he took part in a council held by the Frankish bishops at Reims. With all this Arnulf retained his station at the court of the king, and took a prominent part in the national life of his people.

In 613, after the death of Theodebert, he, with Pepin of Landen and other nobles, called to Austrasia Clothaire II, King of Neustria. When, in 625, the realm of Austrasia was entrusted to the kings son Dagobert, Arnulf became not only the tutor, but also the chief minister, of the young king. At the time of the estrangement between the two kings, and 625, Arnulf with other bishops and nobles tried to effect a reconciliation. But Arnulf dreaded the responsibilities of the episcopal office and grew weary of court life.

About the year 626 he obtained the appointment of a successor to the Episcopal See of Metz; he himself and his friend Romaricus withdrew to a solitary place in the mountains of the Vosges. There he lived in communion with God until his death. His remains, interred by Romaricus, were transferred about a year afterwards, by Bishop Goeric, to the basilica of the Holy Apostles in Metz.

Jul 1 - Holy And Wonderworking Unmercenaries Cosmas And Damian, Martyrs At Rome

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jul_1_-_holy_and_wonderworking_unmercenaries_cosmas_and_damian_martyrs_at_r#7716

1 Jul 1878
Catherine Winkworth, Hymnwriter and Educator

Catherine Winkworth was born in London in 1827, and spent most of her life in Manchester. In 1845 she went to Dresden, Germany, to stay for a year. In 1853 (or 1855?) she published a collection of translations of German hymns into English, called Lyra Germanica. It was an instant success, and went into 23 editions. Her second series, published in 1858, went into 12 editions. In 1863 she published The Chorale Book For England, and in 1869 Christian Singers of Germany. Her work is one of the principal means by which the great German chorale tradition of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries has been incorporated into English-language worship.

Some of her hymn translations widely sung today, plucked from a couple of nearby hymnals, are listed below. I give the first line, followed by the German author, and the date of writing or (preceded by a +) the date of the author’s death. Stars mark my own favorites.

All depends on our possessing (Nuernburg Hymnal, 1676)
* All my heart this night rejoices (Paulus Gerhardt, 1656)
* Baptized into thy name most holy (Johann J Rambach, +1735)
* Blessed Jesus, at thy word (Tobias Clausnitzer, +1684)
Christ, the life of all the living (Ernst C Homburg, +1681)
Christ the Lord is risen again! (Michael Weissel, +1534)
* Comfort, comfort ye my people (Johann Olearius, +1684)
Dearest Jesus, we are here (Benjamin Schmolck, +1737)
Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (Johann Franck, 1649)
* From deepest woe I cry to thee (Martin Luther, +1546)
* If thou but suffer God to guide thee (Georg Neumark, +1681)
In thee is gladness (Johann Lindemann, + c1631)
* Jesus Christ, my sure defense (anon., Berlin, 1653)
* Jesus, priceless treasure (Johann Franck, +1677)
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (George Weissel, 1642)
Lord God, we worship thee (Johann Franck, 1653)
* Lord Jesus Christ, be present now (Wilhelm II, +1662)
Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word (Martin Luther, +1546)
* Lord, thee I love with all my heart (Martin Schalling, +1608)
* My soul, now bless thy maker (Johann Gramann, +1541)
* Now thank we all our God (Martin Rinkart, c1630)
O Christ, our light, O Radiance true (Johann Hermann, +1647)
* O God, thou faithful God (Johann, Franck, +1647)
O Holy Spirit, enter in (Michael Schirmer, +1673)
O Jesus Christ, our Lord most dear (Heinrich von Laufenburg,1429)
* O living Bread from heaven (Johann Rist, +1667)
Oh, blest the house, whate’er befall (Christoph von Pfeil, +1784)
Once he came in blessing (Johann Horn (aka Jan Roh?), +1547)
Open now thy gates of beauty (Benjamin Schmolck, +1737)
* Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (Joachim Neander, +1680)
Rise, my soul, to watch and pray (Johann B Freystein, +1718)
Thy Word, O Lord, is gentle dew (Carl B Garve, +1841)
* Wake, awake, for night is flying (Philip Nicolai, 1597)
* When in the hour of deepest need (Paul Eber +1569)
(Note: Your hymnal may have a slightly different title, since hymnal compilers tend to fiddle with the wording. Thus, “All my heart this night rejoices” has been changed in some hymnals to “Once again my heart rejoices,” presumably so that it can be sung on other occasions than Christmas Eve.)

In addition to translating hymns, Miss Winkworth was deeply involved in promoting women’s rights, and was the secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women, a supporter of the Clifton High School for Girls, and a member of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She died suddenly of heart disease near Geneva on 1 July 1878.

PRAYER (traditional language):

Heavenly Father, by whose grace thy servant Catherine was moved To render into English the words of praise which she had heard in the German tongue: grant unto us a like devotion, that we may be moved to proclaim thy glory in sacred song; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language):

Heavenly Father, by whose grace your servant Catherine was Moved to render into English the words of praise which she had heard in the German tongue: grant us a like devotion, that we may be moved to proclaim your glory in sacred song; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Blessed Junipero Serra
(1713-1784)

In 1776, when the American Revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a gray-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions established under the direction of this indomitable Spaniard.

Born in Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order, taking the name of St. Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was 35, he spent most of his time in the classroom—first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of St. Francis Solanus in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World.

Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross—sometimes life-threatening—for the rest of his life. For 18 years he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there.

Enter politics: the threat of a Russian invasion south from Alaska. Charles III of Spain ordered an expedition to beat Russia to the territory. So the last two conquistadors—one military, one spiritual—began their quest. José de Galvez persuaded Junipero to set out with him for present-day Monterey, California. The first mission founded after the 900-mile journey north was San Diego (1769). That year a shortage of food almost canceled the expedition. Vowing to stay with the local people, Junipero and another friar began a novena in preparation for St. Joseph’s day, March 19, the scheduled day of departure. On that day, the relief ship arrived.

Other missions followed: Monterey/Carmel (1770); San Antonio and San Gabriel (1771); San Luís Obispo (1772); San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano (1776); Santa Clara (1777); San Buenaventura (1782). Twelve more were founded after Serra’s death.

Junipero made the long trip to Mexico City to settle great differences with the military commander. He arrived at the point of death. The outcome was substantially what Junipero sought: the famous “Regulation” protecting the Indians and the missions. It was the basis for the first significant legislation in California, a “Bill of Rights” for Native Americans.

Because the Native Americans were living a nonhuman life from the Spanish point of view, the friars were made their legal guardians. The Native Americans were kept at the mission after Baptism lest they be corrupted in their former haunts—a move that has brought cries of “injustice” from some moderns.

Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military commanders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquenchable zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight till dawn. He baptized over 6,000 people and confirmed 5,000. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988.

HOLY WELLS

July 1, 1652, the eccentric John Taylor, commonly called the Water Poet, from his having been a waterman on the Thames, paid a visit to St. Winifred’s Well, at Holywell, in Flintshire. This was a place held in no small veneration even in Taylor’s days; but in Catholic times, it filled a great space indeed.

There is something at once so beautiful and so bountiful in a spring of pure water, that no wonder it should become an object of some regard among a simple people. We all feel the force of Horace’s abrupt and enthusiastic address, ‘0 Fons Blandusiae, splendidior vitro,’ and do not wonder that he should resolve upon sacrificing a kid to it. In the middle ages, when a Christian tinge was given to everything, the discovery of a spring in a romantic situation, or remarkable for the brightness, purity, or taste of its water, was forthwith followed by its dedication to some saint; and once placed among the category of holy wells, its waters were endued, by popular faith, with powers more or less miraculous. Shrewd Thomas Powell, writing in 1631, says: ‘Let them find out some strange water, some unheard-of spring; it is an easy matter to discolour or alter the taste of it in some measure, it makes no matter s how little. Report strange cures that it hath done; beget a superstitious opinion of it. Good-fellowship shall uphold it, and the neighbouring towns shall all swear for it.’

So early as 963, the Saxon king Edgar thought it necessary to forbid the ‘worshipping of fountains,’ and the canons of Anselm (1102) lay it down as a rule, that no one is to attribute reverence or sanctity to a fountain without the bishop’s authority. Canons, however powerful to foster superstition, were powerless to control it; ignorance invested springs with sanctity without the aid of the church, and every county could boast of its holy well.

Some of these were held specially efficacious for certain diseases. St. Tegla’s Well was patronised by sufferers from ‘the falling sickness;’ St. John’s, Balmanno, Kincardineshire, by mothers whose children were troubled with rickets or sore eyes. The Tobirnimbuadh, or spring of many virtues, in St. Kilda’s Isle, was pre-eminent in deafness and nervous disorders; while the waters of Trinity Gask Well, Perthshire, enabled every one baptized therein to face the plague without fear. Others, again, possessed peculiar properties. Thus, St. Loy’s Well, Tottenham, was said to be always full but never overflowing; the waters of St. Non’s ebbed and flowed with the sea; and those of the Toberi-clerich, St. Kilda, although covered twice in the day by the sea, never became brackish.

The most famous holy well in the three kingdoms is undoubtedly that dedicated to St. Winifred (Holywell, Flintshire), at whose shrine Giraldus Cambrensis offered his devotions in the twelfth century, when he says she seemed ’ still to retain her miraculous powers.’ Winifred was a noble British maiden of the seventh century; a certain Prince Cradocus fell in love with her, and finding his rough advances repulsed, cut off the lady’s head. Immediately he had done this, the prince was struck dead, and the earth opening, swallowed up his body. Meanwhile, Winifred’s head rolled down the hill; where it stopped, a spring gushed forth, the blood from the head colouring the pebbles over which it flowed, and rendering fragrant the moss growing around. St. Bueno picked up the head, and skilfully reunited it to the body to which it belonged, after which Winifred lived a life of sanctity for fifteen years, while the spring to which she gave her name became famous in the land for its curative powers.

The spring rises from a bed of shingle at the foot of a steep hill, the water rushing out with great impetuosity, and flowing into and over the main basin into a smaller one in front. The well is enclosed by a building in the perpendicular Gothic style (dating from the beginning of the reign of Henry VII), which ‘forms a crypt under a small chapel contiguous to the parish church, and on a level with it, the entrance to the well being by a descent of about twenty steps from the street. The well itself is a star-shaped basin, ten feet in diameter, canopied by a most graceful stellar vault, and originally enclosed by stone traceried screens filling up the spaces between the supports. Round the basin is an ambulatory similarly vaulted.’

The sculptural ornaments consisted of grotesque animals, and the armorial-bearings of various benefactors of the shrine; among them being Catharine of Aragon, Margaret, mother of Henry VII, and different members of the Stanley family, the founders both of the crypt and the chapel above it. Formerly, the former contained statues of the Virgin Mary and St. Winifred. The first was removed in 1635; the fate of Winifred’s effigy, to which a Countess of Warwick (1439) bequeathed her russet velvet gown, is unknown.

On the stones at the bottom of the well grow the Bissus iolethus, and a species of red Jungermania moss, known in the vulgar tongue as Winifred’s hair and blood. In the seventeenth century, St. Winifred could boast thousands of votaries. James II paid a visit to the shrine in 1688, and received the shift worn by his great-grandmother at her execution, for his pains. Pennant found the roof of the vault hung with the crutches of grateful cripples. He says, ‘the resort of pilgrims of late years to these Fontanalia has considerably decreased; the greatest number are from Lancashire. In the summer, still a few are to be seen in the water, in deep devotion up to their chins for hours, sending up their prayers, or performing a number of evolutions round the polygonal well; or threading the arches between and the well a prescribed number of times.’

An attempt to revive the public faith in the Flintshire saint was made in 1805, when a pamphlet was published, detailing how one Winefred White, of Wolverhampton, experienced the benefit of the virtue of the spring. The cure is certified by a resident of Holywell, named Elizabeth Jones, in the following terms: ‘I hereby declare that, about three months ago, I saw a young woman calling herself Winefred White, walking with great difficulty on a crutch; and that on the following morning, the said Winefred White came to me running, and without any appearance of lameness, having, as she told me, been immediately cured after once bathing in St. Winifred’s Well.’ It was of no avail; a dead belief was not to be brought again to life even by Elizabeth Jones of Holywell.

St. Madern’s Well, Cornwall, was another popular resort for those who sought to be relieved from aches and pains. Bishop Hall, in his Mystery of Godliness, bears testimony to the reality of a cure wrought upon a cripple by its waters. He says he ‘took strict and impartial examination’ of the evidence, and found neither art nor collusion—the cure done, the author an invisible God.’ In the seventeenth century, however, the well seems to have lost its reputation. St. Madern was always propitiated by offerings of pins or pebbles. This custom prevailed in many other places beside; Mr. Haslam assures us, that pins may be collected by the handful near most Cornish wells. At St. Kilda, none dared approach with empty hands, or without making some offering to the genius of the place, either in the shape of shells, pins, needles, pebbles, coins, or rags. A well near Newcastle obtained the name of Ragwell, from the quantity of rags left upon the adjacent bushes as thank-offerings. St. Tegla, of Denbighshire, required greater sacrifices from her votaries. To obtain her good offices, it was necessary to bathe in the well, walk round it three times, repeating the Lord’s Prayer at each circuit, and leave fourpence at the shrine. A cock or hen (according to the patient’s sex) was then placed in a basket, and carried round the well, into the churchyard, and round the church. The patient then entered the church, and ensconced him or herself under the communion-table, with a Bible for a pillow, and so remained till daybreak. If the fowl, kept all this while imprisoned, died, the disease was supposed to have been transferred to it, and, as a matter of course, the believer in St. Tegla was made whole.

Wells were also used as divining-pools. By taking a shirt or a shift off a sick person, and throwing it into the well of St. Oswald (near Newton), the end of the illness could easily be known—if the garment floated, all would be well; if it sank, it was useless to hope. The same result was arrived at by placing a wooden bowl softly on the surface of St. Andrew’s Well (Isle of Lewis), and watching if it turned from or towards the sun; the latter being the favourable omen. A fore-knowledge of the future, too, was to be gained by shaking the ground round St. Madern’s Spring, and reading fate in the rising bubbles. At St. Michael’s (Banffshire), an immortal fly was ever at his post as guardian of the well. ‘If the sober matron wished to know the issue of her husband’s ailment, or the love-sick nymph that of her languishing swain, they visited the well of St. Michael. Every movement of the sympathetic fly was regarded with silent awe, and as he appeared cheerful or dejected, the anxious votaries drew their presages.’

Of St. Keyne’s Well, Cornwall, Carew in his Survey quotes the following descriptive rhymes:

‘In name, in shape, in quality,
This well is very quaint;
The name to lot of Keyne befell,
No over-holy saint.
The shape—four trees of divers kind,
Withy, oak, elm, and ash,
Make with their roots an arched roof,
Whose floor the spring doth wash.
The quality—that man and wife,
Whose chance or choice attains,
First of this sacred stream to drink,
Thereby the mastery gains.’

Southey sang of St. Keyne—how the traveller drank a double draught when the Cornishman enlightened him respecting the properties of the spring, and how

You drank of the well I warrant betimes?
He to the Cornishman said;
But the Cornishman smiled as the stranger spake,
And sheepishly shook his head.

I hastened as soon as the wedding was done,
And left my wife in the porch;
But i’ faith she had been wiser than me,
For she took a bottle to church!’

When Erasmus visited the wells of Walsingham (Norfolk), they were the favourite resort of people afflicted with diseases of the head and stomach. The belief in their medicinal powers afterwards declined, but they were invested with the more wonderful power of bringing about the fulfilment of wishes. Between the two wells lay a stone on which the votary of our Lady of Walsingham knelt with his right knee bare; he then plunged one hand in each well, so that the water reached the wrist, and silently wished his wish, after which he drank as much of the water as he could hold in the hollows of his hands. This done, his wishes would infallibly be fulfilled within the year, provided he never mentioned it to any one or uttered it aloud to himself.

While the Routing Well of Inveresk rumbled before a storm of nature’s making, the well of Oundle, Northamptonshire, gave warning of perturbations in the world of politics. Baxter writes (World of Spirits, p. 157)— ‘When I was a school-master at Oundle, about the Scots coming into England, I heard a well in one Dob’s yard, drum like any drum beating a march. I heard it at a distance; then I went and put my head into the mouth of the well, and heard it distinctly, and nobody in the well. It lasted several days and nights, so as all the country-people came to hear it. And so it drummed on several changes of tunes. When King Charles II died, I went to the Oundle carrier at the Ram Inn, Smithfield, who told me the well had drummed, and many people came to hear it.’

Not many years ago, the young folks of Bromfield, Cumberland, and the neighbouring villages, used to meet on a Sunday afternoon in May, at the holywell, near St. Cuthbert’s Stane, and indulge in various rural sports, during which not one was permitted to drink anything but water from the well. This seems to have been a custom common to the whole county at one time, according to The June Days Jingle:

The wells of rocky Cumberland
Have each a saint or patron,
Who holds an annual festival,
The joy of maid and matron.

And to this day, as erst they wont,
The youths and maids repair,
To certain wells on certain days,
And hold a revel there.

Of sugar-stick and liquorice,
With water from the spring,
They mix a pleasant beverage,
And May-day carols sing.’

London was not without its holy wells; there was one dedicated to St. John, in Shoreditch, which Stow says was spoiled by rubbish and filth laid down to heighten the plots of garden-ground near it. A pump now represents St. Clement’s Well (Strand), which in Henry II’s reign was a favourite idling-place of scholars and city youths in the summer evenings when they walked forth to take the air.

July, 2010 Bizarre and Unique Holidays

Month:

National Blueberry Month
National Anti-Boredom Month
Unlucky Month for weddings
National Cell Phone Courtesy Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month

Week Event:

Week 2 Nude Recreation Week

Canada (Dominion) Day

When: July 1st(except when it fall on a Sunday it is then celebrated the next day)

Canada Day is a celebration of Canadian nationalism, heritage and pride. Canada became self-governing on July 1st, 1867, with the passage of the British North America Act (BNA Act) in the British Parliament. The holiday was originally known as “Dominion Day”. It was changed to Canada Day by the Canadian Parliament on October 27, 1982.

1757 Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: ‘Whatever we may undertake with a sincere desire to promote His glory, we may comfortably pursue. Nothing is trivial that is done for Him.’
1776 Mission Dolores founded by SF Bay
1810 In Bradford, Massachusetts, the first U.S. missionary society was organized: the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
1875 The first ‘holiness’ conference opened at Keswick, England. Keswick conferences stress a non- charismatic, ‘crisis’ form of sanctification, in contrast to the older traditional view of Christian sanctification as being a lifelong ‘process.’
1908 Birth of Cyrus H. Gordon, American Jewish archaeological scholar. Having taught Assyriology and Egyptology at Dropsie College in Philadelphia, his his technical writings include the ‘Ugaritic Handbook’ (1947).
1931 The Unevangelized Fields Mission was founded, in England. UFM missionaries today work primarily in Latin America, Europe and Africa, as well as in Haiti and Indonesia. 1936 Pope Pius XI encyclical to US bishops “On motion pictures”
1946 British arrest 2,700 Jews in Palestine as alleged terrorists
1949 South Africa begins implementing apartheid; no mixed marriages
1959 Pope John XXIII encyclical “On truth, unity, & peace, in charity”
1969 1st Jewish worship service at White House

June 29

On this day in 1685, Thomas Ken, hymnist, was consecrated as Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Feast Day:

St. Peter the Apostle, 68;

St. Hemma, widow, 1045.

June 29

Emma, widow [BLS]
Peter and Paul, apostles [common]

On This Day

Cassius of Narni,
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul; a local holiday in Rome, and also for the Eastern Orthodox Church and diamond workers.

In History

1925 - South African parliament passed bill excluding black, coloured (mixed race) and Indian people from skilled or semi-skilled work
1972 - Supreme Court rules death penalty — as then employed by US — unconstitutional

STS. PETER AND PAUL
TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 2010

“Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.” – Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 295

As early as the year 258, there is evidence of an already lengthy tradition of celebrating the solemnities of both Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, on the same day.

They are together the founders of the See of Rome, through their preaching and ministry, and ultimately their martyrdoms there, Peter in 64 A.D. and Paul in 67 A.D.

Peter, who was named Simon, was a fisherman, in the line of his father, and was introduced to the Lord Jesus by his brother Andrew, also a fisherman. It was from Him that he received the name Cephas (Petrus in Latin), which means ‘Rock,’ in view of the mission he was to fulfill as the head of the Apostles and the first pope.

Peter was the first to recognize that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” the first to pledge his fidelity until death, the first to jump to Jesus’ side in Gethsemane and defend Him. Yet he was also very often the first to make mistakes, to reveal his human weaknesses and lack of faith, and his betrayal of the Lord at the hour of His passion and crucifixion is the most public.

After the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, Peter’s role as the head of the Apostles is confirmed is made clear in the accounts of the Acts of the Apostles. He is the leader of the Church and the one entrusted with confirming that the followers of Christ keep the true faith.

St. Peter’s last years were in Rome where he led the Church and where he was finally crucified (upside-down because he claimed that he was not worthy to die as his Lord) as Christ had told him he would be, and buried on the Vatican hill.

St. Peter’s basilica is built over the tomb of the Prince of Apostles.

St. Paul was the great preacher of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen again. His letters were the first writings of the New Testament, and it is through them that we know most of the facts of His life and of the faith of the early Church.

Before receiving the name Paul he was Saul, a pharisee and persecutor of Christians in Jerusalem, present at the martyrdom of St. Stephen.

Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christian community there when he was surrounded by a great light from heaven and fell off of his horse. He then heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?…Saul answered: Who art thou, Lord? Christ said: Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecute. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad (to contend with one so much mightier than thyself).”

Saul continued to Damascus, received baptism and went to see Peter and the other Apostles in Jerusalem. He was the Lord’s chosen instrument to take the faith to the Gentiles.

Paul spent the rest of his life tirelessly preaching the Gospel all over the Mediterranean world. He was imprisoned and taken to Rome where he was beheaded in the year 67.

He is buried in the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, in Rome.
Jun 29 - The Holy, Glorious And All-praised Leaders Of The Apostles, Peter And Paul

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jun_29_-_the_holy_glorious_and_all-praised_leaders_of_the_apostles_peter_an#7714

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_Saints_Peter_and_Paul

June 29, 2010
Sts. Peter and Paul
(d. 64 & 67)

Peter: St. Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men for Jesus.

The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus’ death. His name is first on every list of apostles.

And to Peter only did Jesus say, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the nether world shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17b-19).

But the Gospels prove their own veracity by the unflattering details they include about Peter. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.

He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, “What are we going to get for all this?” (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ’s anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23b).

Peter is willing to accept Jesus’ doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus’s ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears.

Paul: If Billy Graham suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul’s life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Paul’s central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.

Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God’s chosen people, the children of the promise.

In light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul’s name has surfaced (among others) as a possible patron of the Internet.

PETER AND PAUL
APOSTLES AND MARTYRS (29 JUN 64)

The Confession of Peter (“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God”) is commemorated on 18 January, and the Conversion of Paul (on the approach to Damascus) a week later on 25 January. On 29 June we commemorate the martyrdoms of both apostles. The date is the anniversary of a day around 258, under the Valerian persecution, when what were believed to be the remains of the two apostles were both moved temporarily to prevent them from falling into the hands of the persecutors.

The Scriptures do not record the deaths of Peter or Paul, or indeed any of the Apostles except for James the son of Zebedee (Acts 12:2), but they are clearly anticipated (see the readings below), and from an early date it has been said that they were martyred at Rome at the command of the Emperor Nero, and buried there. As a Roman citizen, Paul would probably have been beheaded with a sword. It is said of Peter that he was crucified head downward. The present Church of St Peter in Rome replaces earlier churches built on the same site going back to the time of the Emperor Constantine, in whose reign a church was built there on what was believed to be the burial site of Peter. Excavations under the church suggest that the belief is older than Constantine.

St. Augustine writes (Sermon 295):

Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.

FIRST READING: Ezekiel 34:11-16
(The LORD God will be a shepherd to Israel, and they shall be His flock.)

PSALM 87
(The foundations of Zion, the city of God, rest upon the holy hills. Of many nations it shall be said: In Zion were they born.)

EPISTLE: 2 Timothy 4:1-8
(Paul writes: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”)

THE HOLY GOSPEL: John 21:15-19
(Jesus, after rising from the dead, said to Peter: “When you were young, you went where you would, but when you are old, you will go where you are taken.” And by these words, He foretold Peter’s death. He then said, “Follow me.”)

by James Kiefer

Readings:

Psalm 87
Ezekiel 34:11-16
2 Timothy 4:1-8
John 21:15-19

Preface of Apostles

PRAYER (traditional language)

Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified thee by their martyrdom: Grant that thy Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by thy Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

The 29th of June is a festival of the Anglican Church in honour of St. Peter the Apostle. It is familiarly known that St. Peter, the son of Jonas, and brother of Andrew, obtained this name (signifying a rock) from the Saviour, in place of his original one of Simon, on becoming an apostle. He suffered martyrdom by the cross at Rome in the year 68, under the tyrannous rule of Nero. On the strange, obscure history, which exhibits a succession of bishops from Peter, resulting in the religious principality of Rome, it is not necessary here to enter. The veneration, however, felt, even in reformed England, for the alleged founder of the Church of Rome, is shown in the festival still held in commemoration of his martyrdom, and the great number of churches which are from time to time dedicated to him.

St. Peter has in England 830 churches dedicated in his sole honour, and 30 jointly with St. Paul, and 10 in connecton with some other saint, making 1070 in all.’—Calendar of the Anglican Church.

It is well known to be customary for the popes on their elevation to change their Christian name. This custom was introduced in 884 by Peter di Porca (Sergius the Second), out of a feeling of humility, deeming that it would be presumptuous to have himself styled Peter the Second. Following in the same line of sentiment, no pope has ever retained or assumed the name of Peter.

Hug Holiday Day

When : Always June 29th

Hug Holiday Day encourages us to give hugs to those who need them. On this day, people go out and give hugs at senior citizen centers, hospitals, and other places. The focus is upon elderly, sick and invalid, lonely people and anyone who needs the warmth, cheer, and love that a hug provides.

This very special day was created by the “Hugs for Health Foundation”. According to the Foundation:

” Hug Holiday is founded on the premise that hugs, friendship and volunteer support are vital components to the overall senior care plan.”

Celebrate Hug Holiday Day today by:

0684 St Benedict II begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1097 The armies of the First Crusade (1096-99) occupied the ancient Byzantine city of Nicea.
1702 Birth of Philip Doddridge, an English Nonconformist clergyman. Doddridge authored 370 hymn- texts, of which ‘O Happy Day That Fixed My Choice’ is still sung today.
1839 Scottish clergyman and missionary Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: ‘Joy is increased by spreading it to others.’
1892 Birth of Pearl S. Buck, American Presbyterian missionary to China and author of the 1931 best-seller, ‘The Good Earth.’
1955 The first Southern Baptist congregation was formally organized in Las Vegas, with 33 charter members. It was the second Southern Baptist church established in Nevada.

June 26

On this day in 1989, James E. Solheim began as News Director in the Department of Communication at the Episcopal Church Center.

June 26

On this day in 1982, A. Theodore Eastman was ordained and consecrated bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland at the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul.

Feast Day:

Saints John and Paul, martyrs in Rome, about 362;
St. Vigilins, Bishop of Trent, 400 or 405;
St. Maxentius, Abbot in Poitou, about 515;
St. Babolen, Abbot in France, 7th century;
The Venerable Raingarda of Auvergne, widow, 1135;
St. Anthelm, Bishop of Bellay, confessor, 1178.

June 26

Anthelm, bishop (of Bellay) [BLS]
Babolen, abbot (of St.-Pierre-des-Fosses) [BLS; GTZ: Paris]
Hilarius, bishop (of Poitiers), confessor (Translation) [GTZ: Poitiers]
John and Paul, martyrs [common; 6082, in red]
Leo (II), pope [PCP (Paris)]
Maxentius, abbot [BLS]
Maxentius, bishop (of Poitiers), confessor [GTZ: Poitiers]
Raingarda, widow [BLS]
Salvius, martyr [GTZ: Cambrai]
Vigilius, bishop (of Trent), martyr [BLS; GTZ: Trent]

Isabel Florence Hapgood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Florence_Hapgood

ISABEL FLORENCE HAPGOOD
ECUMENIST and JOURNALIST, 1929

Isabel Florence Hapgood (November 21, 1851 - June 26, 1928) was an U.S. writer and translator of Russian texts.

Hapgood was born in Boston, the descendant of a long-established New England family. She studied Germanic and Slavic languages, specializing in Orthodox liturgical texts. She was one of the major figures in the dialogue between Western Christianity and Orthodoxy. She traveled through Russia between 1887 and 1889, meeting Leo Tolstoy. Hapgood died in New York.

— from Wikipedia

Own works:
* The Epic Songs of Russia (1886)
* Russian Rambles (1895)
* A Survey of Russian Literature (1902)
* Little Russian and St. Petersburg Tales (Date Unknown)

Translations:
* Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, Life (1888), and Sevastopol (1888) by Leo Tolstoy
* Taras Bulba and Dead Souls by Nikolay Gogol
* Les Misérables (1887), Notre Dame de Paris (1888), and Toilers of the Sea (1888) by Victor Hugo
* Recollections and Letters (1892) by Ernest Renan
* The Revolution of France Under the Third Republic (1897) by Pierre de Coubertin
* Foma Gordyeef (1901) and Orloff and His Wife (1901) by Maksim Gorky
* The Brothers Karamazov (1905) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
* The Seagull (1905) by Anton Chekhov
* Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic (Greco-Russian) Church (1922)
* The Village (1923) by Ivan Bunin

More information may be found in an article courtesy of Project Canterbury.

ST. PELAGIUS
SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 2010

Pelagius was a thirteen year old Christian martyred for refusing to denounce his faith and convert to Islam, in Cordoba, Spain, 925.

10th century Cordoba was the most powerful and glorious of the muslim caliphates in the world and boasted the largest mosque outside of the Caaba in Mecca.

Pelagius was, as a ten year old boy, taken hostage by the Moors of Cordoba during a rampage in a Christian town. He was in captivity for three years and nobody had made any attempt to ransom him.

The Emir of Cordoba offered him his freedom if he would convert to Islam. The boy refused and the Emir had him tortured and killed. He is said to have endured six hours of constant excruciating pain until he died.

Saint Pelagius is venerated in Leon, Cordoba, and Oviedo, where his relics have been kept since they were transferred there in 985.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON

The ordinary biographies of Archbishop Leighton fail to make us acquainted with a strange escapade of his youth—namely, his being temporarily expelled from the University of Edinburgh. The provost of that day, Provost Aikenhead—who ex-officio was rector of the University—having in some way provoked the wrath of the students, one of them, Mr. Robert Leighton, the future archbishop, formed an epigram upon him, turning upon the name Aikenhead (q.d., head of oak), and the pimpled visage borne by the unfortunate official:

‘That whilk his name pretends is falsely said,
To wit, that of ane aik his head is made;
For if that it had been composed so,
His fiery nose had flamed it long ago.’

For this the young man was called before the faculty of masters, and solemnly expelled. His guardian, Sir James Steuart, was absent at the time, but on his return was influential enough to get him reponded.

Another semi-comic anecdote of the amiable prelate is quite as little known. It chanced to him that he never was married. While he held the see of Dumblane, he was of course a subject of considerable interest to the celibate ladies living in his neighbourhood. One day he received a visit from one who had come to a mature period of life. Her manner was solemn, yet somewhat embarrassed: it was evident from the first that there was something very particular upon her mind. The good bishop spoke with his usual kindness, encouraged her to be communicative, and by and by drew from her that she had had a very strange dream, or rather, as she thought, a revelation from heaven. On further questioning, she confessed that it had been intimated to her that she was to be united in marriage to the bishop. One may imagine what a start this would give to a quiet scholar who had long ago married his books, and never thought of any other bride. He recovered, however, and very gently addressing her, said that ‘doubtless these intimations were not to be despised. As yet, however, the designs of heaven were but imperfectly explained, as they had been revealed to only one of the parties. He would wait to see if any similar communication should be made to himself, and whenever it happened he would be sure to let her know.’ Nothing could be more admirable than this humour but the benevolence shown in so bringing an estimable woman off from a false position.

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

International Day Against Drug Abuse & Trafficking

Forgiveness Day

When :

Forgiveness Day June 26th

Global Forgiveness Day is held on August 27th

International Forgiveness Day, the first Sunday of August

Forgiveness Day is a time to forgive and to be forgiven. The world will be a better place for this day.

Global Forgiveness Day began in 1994. It was created and is sponsored by the Christian Embassy for Christ’s Ambassadors. It originated in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

International Forgiveness Day was created by the World Forgiveness Alliance, a non-denominational, educational foundation. According to their website: ” International Forgiveness Day dedicated to evoking the healing power of forgiveness worldwide.” The founder is Robert W. Plath, from Mill Valley, California.

In religions:

** The Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur is a day of atonement or forgiving.

** In Christian religions,the first Sunday before Lent is called “Forgiveness Sunday”.

0253 St Lucius I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1115 St. Bernard founded a monastery in Clairvaux, France. It afterward became a strategic center for the Cistercians, a religious order that flourished up until the Reformation.
1178 5 Canterbury monks report something exploding on Moon
1243: Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi was elected pope, taking the name Innocent IV.
1530: The Augsburg Confession, 28 articles that constitute the basic confession of the Lutheran churches, was presented at the Diet of Augsburg to the emperor Charles V.
1580 The German ‘Book of Concord’ was published, containing all the official confessions of the Lutheran Church. (English translations of the entire work were not available before 1851.)
1672 1st recorded monthly Quaker meeting in US held, Sandwich, Mass
1744 The first Methodist conference convened, in London. This new society within Anglicanism imposed strict disciplines upon its members, formally separating from the Established Church in 1795.
1865 English pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. Its headquarters moved to the US in 1901, and in 1965 its name became Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) International.
1957 During a convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed by a merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
1962 Supreme Court rules NY school prayer unconstitutional
1987 Pope John Paul II receives Austrian Pres Kurt Waldheim

June 25

On this day 1115, Bernard founded a monastery at Clairvaux, France, that would soon become the center of the Cistercian religious order.

Feast Day:

Saints Agoard and Aglibert, martyrs, near Paris, about 400;
St. Prosper of Aquitain, confessor, 463;
St. Maximus, Bishop of Turin, confessor, 5th century;
St. Melee, bishop and confessor in Scotland, 7th century;
St. Adelbert of Northumberland, confessor, about 740;
St. William of Monte-Vergine, 1142.

June 25

Adalbert, monk, confessor [BLS; GTZ: Trier]
Agoard and Agilbert, martyrs [BLS]
Amandus and Domnolenus, confessors [GTZ: Limoges, Périgueux]
David, abbot [GTZ: Scandinavia]
Eligius, bishop (of Noyon), confessor (Translation (but not always called such)) [GTZ: Salzburg, Chur, Meissen, Metz, France; PCP (Paris); WTS (Bruges), in red]
Emilianus, bishop (of Nantes), martyr [GTZ: Nantes]
Fridolinus, confessor (Translation) [GTZ: Switzerland]
Gallicanus, martyr [GTZ: Regensburg, France]
Iterius, bishop (of Nevers), confessor [GTZ: Nevers]
Kanute, duke [of Sleswig], martyr (Translation) [GTZ: Sleswig, Scandinavia]
Lebuinus, confessor [GTZ: Utrecht (Translation); HCC, in red]
Luan, abbot (of Bangor) [BLS]
Moloc, bishop, confessor [BLS; GTZ: Scotland]
Maximus, bishop (of Turin) [BLS]
Pecinna, virgin [GTZ: Poitiers]
Prosper (of Aquitaine), confessor [BLS]
Radbod, bishop, confessor (Translation (of Lebwin and Radbod)) [GTZ: Utrecht]
Saturninus, bishop (of Toulouse), martyr [GTZ: Toulouse, Narbonne (Translation); Limoges (Revelation)]
Severa, virgin [GTZ: Paderborn]
Simplicius, bishop (of Autun), confessor [GTZ: Autun]
Sisters of Charity of Arras, martyrs [BLS]
Vindicianus, bishop (of Cambrai), confessor [GTZ: Cambrai]
William (of Montevergine) [BLS]

On This Day

Prosper of Aquitaine
Prosper of Reggio
William of Montevergine
LGBT Flag Day

In History

1530 - Lutheran Augsburg Confession is presented to the Holy Roman Emperor
1678 - Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy
1938 - Douglas Hyde is inaugurated the first President of Ireland
1947 - Diary of Anne Frank is published
1950 - Korean War begins
1991 - Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia

James Weldon Johnson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Weldon_Johnson

JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
POET, 1938

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and collections of folklore. He was also one of the first African-American professors at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University.

He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, into a middle-class black family of Bahamian ancestry. He graduated from Atlanta University and became the first African-American admitted to the Florida bar. From 1906 to 1913 he was Consul in Venezuela and then Nicaragua; during this period he wrote the fictional Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man.

In 1913 he returned to the U. S., lived in New York, and engaged initially in songwriting and the theater with his brother, but then became involved in political activism.

In the fall of 1916, because Johnson excelled as a reconciler of differences among those whose ideological agendas seemed to preclude unified, cooperative action, he was asked to become the national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Opposing race riots in northern cities and the lynchings that pervaded the South during and immediately after the end of World War I, Johnson engaged the NAACP in mass tactics, such as a silent protest parade down New York’s Fifth Avenue in which ten thousand African Americans took part on July 28, 1917. In 1920 Johnson was elected to manage the NAACP, the first African American to hold this position. While serving the NAACP from 1914 through 1930 Johnson started as an organizer and eventually became the first black male secretary in the organization’s history. Throughout the 1920s he was one of the major inspirations and promoters of the Harlem Renaissance trying to refute condescending white criticism and helping young black authors to get published. While serving in the NAACP Johnson was involved in sparking the drive behind the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill of 1921.

By the 1930’s, he had tired of politics, and “retired” as Professor of Creative Literature and Writing at Fisk University. He died in an automobile accident in Maine in 1938.

— more at Wikipedia

Johnson is well-known as a poet and author. Some of his published works include:

Poetry:
* To a Friend (1892)
* A Brand (1893)
* The Color Sergeant (1898)
* Lift Every Voice and Sing (1899)
* Sense You Went Away (1900)
* The Black Mammy (1900)
* O Black and Unknown Bards (1908)
* Brothers (1916)
* Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917)
* The Creation (1919)
* My City (1923)
* God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
* Saint Peter Relates an Incident (1935)
* The Glory of the Day was in Her Face
* Complete Poems (2000)

Other works and collections:
* The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912/1927)
* Self-Determining Haiti
* Second Book of Negro Spirituals
* Black Manhattan
* Negro Americans, What Now?
* Along This Way (autobiography)
* Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson

Readings:

Psalm 46:1-8
Sirach 39:1-11
Ephesians 6:10-18
Luke 1:57-75

Preface of the Epiphany

PRAYER (traditional language)

Eternal God, we give thanks for the gifts that thou didst bestow upon thy servant James Weldon Johnson: a heart and voice to praise thy Name in verse. As he gave us powerful words to glorify you, may we also speak with joy and boldness to banish hatred from thy creation, in the Name of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Eternal God, we give thanks for the gifts that you gave your servant James Weldon Johnson: a heart and voice to praise your Name in verse. As he gave us powerful words to glorify you, may we also speak with joy and boldness to banish hatred from your creation, in the Name of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ST. WILLIAM OF VERCELLI
FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2010

William was born in 11th-century Italy to a noble family. He was orphaned as an infant and raised by relatives. At the young age of 14, he made a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and decided to devote his life to God as a hermit.

He returned to Italy and lived as a hermit for two years at Monte Solicoli, where he was credited with healing a blind man. At Monte Vergiliano, his reputation for holiness attracted many disciples, and in 1119, he established a monastery with a Rule based on the Benedictines.

Five other houses were formed during his lifetime, but only the original survives today. He died June 25, 1142 of natural causes.
Jun 25 - Holy Father Dionysios, Founder Of The Monastery Of St. John The Forerunner On Mt. Athos

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jun_25_-_holy_father_dionysios_founder_of_the_monastery_of_st._john_the_for#7681

June 25, 2010
Blessed Jutta of Thuringia
(d. 1264?)

Today’s patroness of Prussia began her life amidst luxury and power but died the death of a simple servant of the poor.

In truth, virtue and piety were always of prime importance to Jutta and her husband, both of noble rank. The two were set to make a pilgrimage together to the holy places in Jerusalem, but her husband died on the way. The newly widowed Jutta, after taking care to provide for her children, resolved to live in a manner utterly pleasing to God. She disposed of the costly clothes, jewels and furniture befitting one of her rank, and became a Secular Franciscan, taking on the simple garment of a religious.

From that point her life was utterly devoted to others: caring for the sick, particularly lepers; tending to the poor, whom she visited in their hovels; helping the crippled and blind with whom she shared her own home. Many of the townspeople of Thuringia laughed at how the once-distinguished lady now spent all her time. But Jutta saw the face of God in the poor and felt honored to render whatever services she could.

About the year 1260, not long before her death, Jutta lived near the non-Christians in eastern Germany. There she built a small hermitage and prayed unceasingly for their conversion. She has been venerated for centuries as the special patron of Prussia.

National Catfish Day

When : Always June 25th

It’s National Catfish Day. It’s a day to enjoy some tasty, fried catfish. Or, enjoy catfish cooked to your favorite recipe……yummy.

Guess who said: “More and more Americans are discovering a uniquely American food delicacy — farm-raised catfish.” For the author, read on below to the “Origin of National Catfish Day”.

You should have no doubt what to do today. Enjoy a plateful of catfish, cooked anyway you want. Chances are, you will eat farm raised catfish, which supplies the vast majority of catfish to the U.S. market. But, wouldn’t it be much more fun to fish in the morning, and catch the catfish you will eat?

The Origin of National Catfish Day:

Yes, today is truely a National day!

On June 25, 1987, President Ronald Reagan began a presidential proclamation with the words “More and more Americans are discovering a uniquely American food delicacy — farm-raised catfish.”

Log Cabin Day

When : June 25th

Log Cabin Day brings you back to a quieter, simpler, more rugged era. A couple hundred years ago, life was far more rugged. Americans moving West (west at the time may have been Ohio, or Tennessee) found an untouched wilderness, filled with pristine forests. They built their homes out of logs. These log cabins were solid, long lasting, and served them well.

Life was rustic and simple. Heat was provided by an open fireplace, where they also cooked their meals. Need air conditioning in the summer? Just open the window (there wasn’t any glass or screening). There was no electricity (no television, stereos or boom boxes blasting, or computers). And, plumbing? Just look back towards the woods to the outhouse. The path to it is well worn.

Log Cabin Day celebrates what was then the “Modern” home in America, and all of the lifestyle that accompanied it. Today is a day to appreciate the history and significance of log cabins. Visit them at historical museums today, or sometime this summer.

The Origin of Log Cabin Day:

1322 Jews are expelled from France
1509 Henry VIII crowned King of England
1519 Birth of Theodore Beza, French-born Swiss theological reformer. Beza became the acknowledged leader of the Swiss Calvinists, following John Calvin’s death in 1564.
1527 King Gustavus of Sweden assembled the Diet of Wester’s, for the purpose of carrying through the Protestant Reformation in Sweden.
1535 Anabaptists Protestants conquerered & disbanded
1540 Henry VIII divorces his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves
1803 Birth of George J. Webb, American church organist. He compiled several collections of sacred music during his lifetime, and also composed the melody to the hymn, ‘Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.’
1901 Jewish National Fund starts
1917 Death of Orville J. Nave (born 1841), U.S. Armed Services chaplain and compiler of the popular ‘Nave’s Topical Bible.’
1941 The two-day Constitutional Assembly of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyodan opened, during which was formed the United Church of Christ in Japan.

June 24

On this day in 1579, the first Anglican service was held in the Americas. Francis Fletcher, sailing with Sir Francis Drake, read from the Book of Common Prayer in California.

Feast Day:

Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

The Martyrs of Rome under Nero, 1st century.
St. Bartholomew of Dunelm.

June 24

Agoard and Agilbert, martyrs [GTZ: Paris; PCP (Paris)]
Bartholomew, monk [BLS]
John the Baptist (Nativity) [common]

Martyrs of Rome [BLS]
Patroclus, martyr (Portatio) [GTZ: Soest]
On This Day

John the Baptist

Feast of Rahmat (Bah’ai)
Midsummer Day (England)

In History

1374 - Outbreak of ecstatic St John’s Dance in Aachen, Germany
1535 - Anabaptist rebels defeated in Munster
1748 - John and Charles Wesley open Kingswood School in Bristol.
1963 - Zanzibar gains self-government from UK
1980 - General Strike in El Salvador against the Death Squads
1985 - Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud becomes first Muslim in space
2004 - Capital punishment declared unconstitutional in New York State

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST
THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 2010

John the Baptist spent his adult life preparing the way for Jesus and proclaiming that “the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.”. He was born to Zachary and Elizabeth, an elderly married couple. The Angel Gabriel had visited Zachary and told him that his wife would bear a child, even though she was an old woman.

Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin and Zachary was a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. As a baby in the womb, John recognized Jesus’ presence in Mary’s womb when Mary visited Elizabeth. Both women were pregnant at the same time.

John was probably born at Ain-Karim southwest of Jerusalem. As a young adult, he lived as a hermit in the desert of Judea until about A.D. 27. When he was 30, he began to preach on the banks of the Jordan, calling for repentance and baptizing people in the river waters. When Jesus came to John for baptism, John recognized Jesus as the Messiah and baptized Him, saying: “It is I who need baptism from you.”

John continued to preach after Jesus was baptized, but was imprisoned not long after by Herod Antipas after he denounced the king’s adulterous marriage with Herodias, wife of his half-brother Philip.

John was beheaded at the request of Salome, daughter of Herodias. Many came to know Jesus through John, namely the Apostles Andrew and John.
Jun 24 - Nativity Of St .John The Baptist

http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/saintoftheday/jun_24_-_nativity_of_st_.john_the_baptist#7680

Nativity of John the Baptist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_of_St._John_the_Baptist

THE BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
(24 JUNE NT)

Our principal sources of information about John the Baptist are
(1) references to his birth in the first chapter of Luke,
(2) references to his preaching and his martyrdom in the Gospels, with a few references in Acts, and
(3) references in Josephus to his preaching and martyrdom, references which are consistent with the New Testament ones, but sufficiently different in the details to make direct borrowing unlikely.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus (who wrote after 70 AD), John the Baptist was a Jewish preacher in the time of Pontius Pilate (AD 26-36). He called the people to repentance and to a renewal of their covenant relation with God. He was imprisoned and eventually put to death by Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great, who was king when Jesus was born) for denouncing Herod’s marriage to Herodias, the wife of his still-living brother Philip. In order to marry Herodias, Herod divorced his first wife, the daughter of King Aretas of Damascus, who subsequently made war on Herod, a war which, Josephus tells us, was regarded by devout Jews as a punishment for Herod’s murder of the prophet John.

In the Book of Acts, we find sermons about Jesus which mention His Baptism by John as the beginning of His public ministry (see Acts 10:37; 11:16; 13:24). We also find accounts (see Acts 18:24; 19:3) of devout men in Greece who had received the baptism of John, and who gladly received the full message of the Gospel of Christ when it was told them.

Luke begins his Gospel by describing an aged, devout, childless couple, the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth. As Zechariah is serving in the Temple, he sees the angel Gabriel, who tells him that he and his wife will have a son who will be a great prophet, and will go before the Lord “like Elijah.” (The Jewish tradition had been that Elijah would herald the coming of the Messiah = Christ = Anointed = Chosen of God.) Zechariah went home, and his wife conceived. About six months later, Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, a kinswoman of Elizabeth, and told her that she was about to bear a son who would be called Son of the Most High, a king whose kingdom would never end. Thus Elizabeth gave birth to John, and Mary gave birth six months later to Jesus.

After describing the birth of John, Luke says that he grew, and “was in the wilderness until the day of his showing to Israel.” The people of the Qumran settlement, which produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, sometime use the term “living in the wilderness” to refer to residing in their community at Qumran near the Dead Sea. Accordingly, it has been suggested that John spent some of his early years being educated at Qumran.

All of the gospels tell us that John preached and baptized beside the Jordan river, in the wilderness of Judea. He called on his hearers to repent of their sins, be baptized, amend their lives, and prepare for the coming of the Kingship of God. He spoke of one greater than himself who was to come after. Jesus came to be baptized, and John told some of his disciples, “This is the man I spoke of.” After His baptism by John, Jesus began to preach, and attracted many followers. In fact, many who had been followers of John left him to follow Jesus. Some of John’s followers resented this, but he told them: “This is as it should be. My mission is to proclaim the Christ. The groomsman, the bridegroom’s friend, who makes the wedding arrangements for the bridegroom, is not jealous of the bridegroom. No more am I of Jesus. He must increase, and I must decrease.” (John 3:22-30)

John continued to preach, reproving sin and calling on everyone to repent. King Herod Antipas had divorced his wife and taken Herodias, the wife of his (still living) brother Philip. John rebuked him for this, and Herod, under pressure from Herodias, had John arrested, and eventually beheaded. He is remembered on some calendars on the supposed anniversary of his beheading, 29 August.

When John had been in prison for a while, he sent some of his followers to Jesus to ask, “Are you he that is to come, or is there another?” (Matthew 11:2-14) One way of understanding the question is as follows: “It was revealed to me that you are Israel’s promised deliverer, and when I heard this, I rejoiced. I expected you to drive out Herod and the Romans, and rebuild the kingdom of David. But here I sit in prison, and there is no deliverance in sight? Perhaps I am ahead of schedule, and you are going to throw out the Romans next year. Perhaps I have misunderstood, and you have a different mission, and the Romans bit will be done by someone else. Please let me know what is happening.”

Jesus replied by telling the messengers, “Go back to John, and tell him what you have seen, the miracles of healing and other miracles, and say, ‘Blessed is he who does not lose faith in me.’” He then told the crowds: “John is a prophet and more than a prophet. He is the one spoken of in Malachi 3:1, the messenger who comes to prepare the way of the LORD. No man born of woman is greater than John, but the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John.”

This has commonly been understood to mean that John represents the climax of the long tradition of Jewish prophets looking forward to the promised deliverance, but that the deliverance itself is a greater thing. John is the climax of the Law. He lives in the wilderness, a life with no frills where food and clothing are concerned. He has renounced the joys of family life, and dedicated himself completely to his mission of preaching, of calling people to an observance of the law, to ordinary standards of virtue. In terms of natural goodness, no one is better than John. But he represents Law, not Grace. Among men born of woman, among the once-born, he has no superior. But anyone who has been born anew in the kingdom of God has something better than what John symbolizes. (Note that to say that John symbolizes something short of the Kingdom is not to say that John is himself excluded from the Kingdom.)

Traditionally, the Birth of Jesus is celebrated on 25 December. That means that the Birth of John is celebrated six months earlier on 24 June. The appearance of Gabriel to Mary, being assumed to be nine months before the birth of Jesus, is celebrated on 25 March and called the Annunciation, and the appearance of Gabriel to Zechariah in the Temple is celebrated by the East Orthodox on 23 September. At least for Christians in the Northern Hemisphere, these dates embody a rich symbolism. (NOTE: Listmembers living in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, southern South America, or elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, press your delete keys NOW!) John is the last voice of the Old Covenant, the close of the Age of Law. Jesus is the first voice of the New Covenant, the beginning of the Age of Grace. Accordingly, John is born to an elderly, barren woman, born when it is really too late for her to be having a child, while Jesus is born to a young virgin, born when it is really too early for her to be having a child. John is announced (and conceived) at the autumnal equinox, when the leaves are dying and falling from the trees. Jesus is announced (and conceived) at the vernal equinox, when the green buds are bursting forth on the trees and there are signs of new life everywhere. John is born when the days are longest, and from his birth on they grow steadily shorter. Jesus is born when the days are shortest, and from his birth on they grow steadily longer. John speaks truly when he says of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

(Of course, it is to be noted that none of this symbolism proves anything, since the Scriptures do not tell us that Jesus was born on 25 December. The symbolism of the dates is used by Christians, not as evidence, but as material for the devout imagination.)

FIRST LESSON: Isaiah 40:1-11
(Isaiah speaks of someone who will cry out, “Prepare the way of the LORD.”)

PSALM 85
(The long exile is over, God has restored his people, mercy and truth are reconciled.)

SECOND LESSON: Acts 13:14b-26
(Paul preaches about Christ, and how the prophets, including John the Baptist, all pointed forward to him.)

THE HOLY GOSPEL: Luke 1:57-80
(The birth of John the Baptist; his father Zechariah’s song of praise.)

Readings:

Psalm 85 or 85:7-13
Isaiah 40:1-11
Acts 13:14b-26
Luke 1:57-80

Preface of Advent

PRAYER (traditional language)

Almighty God, by whose providence thy servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

PRAYER (contemporary language)

Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

June 24, 2010
Birth of John the Baptist

Jesus called John the greatest of all those who had preceded him: “I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John….” But John would have agreed completely with what Jesus added: “[Y]et the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” (Luke 7:28).

John spent his time in the desert, an ascetic. He began to announce the coming of the Kingdom, and to call everyone to a fundamental reformation of life.

His purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus. His Baptism, he said, was for repentance. But One would come who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. John is not worthy even to carry his sandals. His attitude toward Jesus was: “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

John was humbled to find among the crowd of sinners who came to be baptized the one whom he already knew to be the Messiah. “I need to be baptized by you” (Matthew 3:14b). But Jesus insisted, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15b). Jesus, true and humble human as well as eternal God, was eager to do what was required of any good Jew. John thus publicly entered the community of those awaiting the Messiah. But making himself part of that community, he made it truly messianic.

The greatness of John, his pivotal place in the history of salvation, is seen in the great emphasis Luke gives to the announcement of his birth and the event itself—both made prominently parallel to the same occurrences in the life of Jesus. John attracted countless people (“all Judea”) to the banks of the Jordan, and it occurred to some people that he might be the Messiah. But he constantly deferred to Jesus, even to sending away some of his followers to become the first disciples of Jesus.

Perhaps John’s idea of the coming of the Kingdom of God was not being perfectly fulfilled in the public ministry of Jesus. For whatever reason, he sent his disciples (when he was in prison) to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Jesus’ answer showed that the Messiah was to be a figure like that of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. John himself would share in the pattern of messianic suffering, losing his life to the revenge of Herodias.

MIDSUMMER DAY - THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

Considering the part borne by the Baptist in the transactions on which Christianity is founded, it is not wonderful that the day set apart for the observance of his nativity should be, in all ages and most parts of Europe, one of the most popular of religious festivals. It enjoys the greater distinction that it is considered as Midsummer Day, and therefore has inherited a number of observances from heathen times. These are now curiously mixed with those springing from Christian feelings, insomuch that it is not easy to distinguish them from the other. It is only clear, from their superstitious character, that they have been originally pagan. To use the quaint phrase of an old translator of Scaliger, they ‘form the footesteps of auncient gentility;’ that is, gentilism or heathenism.

The observances connected with the Nativity of St. John commenced on the previous evening, called, as usual, the eve or vigil of the festival, or Midsummer eve. On that evening the people were accustomed to go into the woods and break down branches of trees, which they brought to their homes, and planted over their doors, amidst great demonstrations of joy, to make good the Scripture prophecy respecting the Baptist, that many should rejoice in his birth. This custom was universal in England till the recent change in manners. In Oxford there was a specialty in the observance, of a curious nature. Within the first court of Magdalen College, from a stone pulpit at one corner, a sermon was always preached on St. John’s Day; at the same time the court was embowered with green boughs, ‘that the preaching might resemble that of the Baptist in the wilderness.’

Towards night, materials for a fire were collected in a public place and kindled. To this the name of bonfire was given, a term of which the most rational explanation seems to be, that it was composed of contributions collected as boons, or gifts of social and charitable feeling. Around this fire the people danced with almost frantic mirth, the men and boys occasionally jumping through it, not to show their agility, but as a compliance with ancient custom. There can be no doubt that this leaping through the fire is one of the most ancient of all known superstitions, and is identical with that followed by Manasseh. We learn that, till a late period, the practice was followed in Ireland on St. John’s Eve.

It was customary in towns to keep a watch walking about during the Midsummer Night, although no such practice might prevail at the place from motives of precaution. This was done at Nottingham till the reign of Charles I. Every citizen either went himself, or sent a substitute; and an oath for the preservation of peace was duly administered to the company at their first ‘meeting at sunset. They paraded the town in parties during the night, every person wearing a garland of flowers upon his head, additionally embellished in some instances with ribbons and jewels. In London, during the middle ages, this watch, consisting of not less than two thousand men, paraded both on this night and on the eves of St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s days. The watchmen were provided with cressets, or torches, carried in barred pots on the tops of long poles, which, added to the bonfires on the streets, must have given the town a striking appearance in an age when there was no regular street-lighting. The great came to give their countenance to this marching watch, and made it quite a pageant. A London poet, looking back from 1616, thus alludes to the scene:

The goodly buildings that till then did hide
Their rich array, open’d their windows wide,
Where kings, great peers, and many a noble dame,
Whose bright pearl-glittering robes did mock the flame
Of the night’s burning lights, did sit to see
How every senator in his degree,
Adorn’d with shining gold and purple weeds,
And stately mounted on rich-trapped steeds,
Their guard attending, through the streets did ride,
Before their foot-bands, graced with glittering pride
Of rich-gilt arms, whose glory did present
A sunshine to the eye, as if it meant,
Among the cresset lights shot up on high,
To chase dark night for over from the sky;
While in the streets the sticklers to and fro,
To keep decorum, still did come and go,
Where tables set were plentifully spread,
And at each door neighbour with neighbour fed.’

King Henry VIII, hearing of the marching watch, came privately, in 1510, to see it; and was so much pleased with what he saw, that he came with Queen Catherine and a noble train to attend openly that of St. Peter’s Eve, a few nights after. But this king, in the latter part of his reign, thought proper to abolish the ancient custom, probably from a dread of so great a muster of armed citizens.

Some of the superstitious notions connected with St. John’s Eve are of a highly fanciful nature. The Irish believe that the souls of all people on this night leave their bodies, and wander to the place, by land or sea, where death shall finally separate them from the tenement of day. It is not improbable that this notion was originally universal, and was the cause of the widespread custom of watching or sitting up awake on St. John’s night, for we may well believe that there would be a general wish to prevent the soul from going upon that somewhat dismal ramble. In England, and perhaps in other countries also, it was believed that, if any one sat up fasting all night in the church porch, he would see the spirits of those who were to die in the parish during the ensuing twelvemonths come and knock at the church door, in the order and succession in which they were to die. We can easily perceive a possible connexion between this dreary fancy and that of the soul’s midnight ramble.

The civic vigils just described were no doubt a result, though. a more remote one, of the same idea. There is a Low Dutch proverb used by those who have been kept awake all night by troubles of any kind:

‘We have passed St. John Baptist’s night.’ In a book written in the seventeenth century for the instruction of a young nobleman, the author warns his pupil against certain ‘fearful superstitions, as to watch upon St. John’s evening, and the first Tuesday in the month of March, to conjure the moon, to lie upon your back, having your ears stopped with laurel leaves, and to fall asleep not thinking of God, and such like follies, all forged by the infernal Cyclops and Pluto’s servants.’

A circumstance mentioned by Grose supports our conjecture—that to sleep on St. John’s Eve was thought to ensure a wandering of the spirit, while watching was regarded as conferring the power of seeing the vagrant spirits of those who slept. Amongst a company who sat up in a church porch, one fell so deeply asleep that he could not be waked. His companions after-wards averred that, whilst he was in this state, they beheld his spirit go and knock at the church door.

The same notion of a temporary liberation of the soul is perhaps at the bottom of a number of superstitious practices resembling those appropriate to Hallow-eve. It was supposed, for example, that if an unmarried woman, fasting, laid a cloth at midnight with bread and cheese, and sat down as if to eat, leaving the street-door open, the person whom she was to marry would come into the room and drink to her by bowing, after which, setting down the glass, with another bow he would retire. It was customary on this eve to gather certain plants which were supposed to have a supernatural character. The fern is one of those herbs which have their seed on the back of the leaf, so small as to escape the sight. It was concluded, according to the strange irrelative reasoning of former times, that to possess this seed, not easily visible, was a means of rendering one’s self invisible. Young men would go out at midnight of St. John’s Eve, and endeavour to catch. some in a plate, but without touching the plant—an attempt rather trying to patience, and which often failed.

Our Elizabethan dramatists and poets, including Shakspeare and Jonson, have many allusions to the invisibility-conferring powers of fern seed. The people also gathered on this night the rose, St. John’s wort, vervain, trefoil, and rue, all of which were thought to have magical properties. They set the orpine in clay upon pieces of slate or potsherd in their houses, calling it a Midsummer Man. As the stalk was found next morning to incline to the right or left, the anxious maiden knew whether her lover would prove true to her or not. Young women likewise sought for what they called pieces of coal, but in reality, certain hard, black, dead roots, often found under the living mugwort, designing to place these under their pillows, that they might dream of their lovers.

Some of these foolish fancies are pleasantly strung together in the Connoisseur, a periodical paper of the middle of the last century. ‘I and my two sisters tried the dumb cake together; you must know two must make it, two bake it, two break it, and the third put it under each of their pillows (but you must not speak a word all the time), and then you will dream of the man you are to have. This we did; and, to be sure, I did nothing all night but dream of Mr. Blossom. The same night, exactly at twelve o’clock, I sowed hemp-seed in our backyard, and said to myself—”Hemp-seed I sow, hemp-seed I hoe, and he that is my true love come after me and mow.’ Will you believe me? I looked back and saw him as plain as eyes could see him. After that I took a clean shift and wetted it, and turned it wrong side out, and hung it to the fire upon the back of a chair; and very likely my sweetheart would have come and turned it right again (for I heard his step), but I was frightened, and could not help speaking, which broke the charm. I likewise stuck up two Mid-summer Men, one for myself and one for him. Now, if his had died away, we should never have come together; but I assure you his bowed and turned to mine. Our maid Betty tells me, if I go backwards, without speaking a word, into the garden upon Midsummer Eve, and gather a rose, and keep it in a clean sheet of paper, without looking at it till Christmas Day, it will be as fresh as in June; and if I then stick it in my bosom, he that is to be my husband will come and take it out.’ So also, in a poem entitled the Cottage Girl, published in 1786:

The moss rose that, at fall of dew,
Ere eve its duskier curtain drew,
Was freshly gather’d from its stem,
She values as the ruby gem;
And, guarded from the piercing air,
With all an anxious lover’s care,
She bids it, for her shepherd’s sake,
Await the new-year’s frolic wake,
When, faded in its alter’d hue,
She reads—the rustic is untrue!
But if its leaves the crimson paint,
Her sickening hopes no longer faint;
The rose upon her bosom worn,
She meets him at the peep of morn,
And lo! her lips with kisses prest,
He plucks it from her panting breast.’

We may suppose, from the following version of a German poem, entitled The St. John’s Wort, that precisely the same notions prevail amongst the peasant youth of that country:

The young maid stole through the cottage door,
And blushed as she sought the plant of power:
“Thou silver glow-worm, oh, lend me thy light,
I must gather the mystic St. John’s wort tonight—
The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide
If the coining year shall make me a bride.”
And the glow-worm came
With its silvery flame,
And sparkled and shone
Through the night of St. John.
And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.
With noiseless tread,
To her chamber she sped,
Where the spectral moon her white beams shed:
“Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power,
To deck the young bride in her bridal hour!
But it droop’d its head, that plant of power,
And died the mute death of the voiceless flower;
And a wither’d wreath on the ground it lay,
More meet for a burial than bridal day.
And when a year was past away,
All pale on her bier the young maid lay;
And the glow-worm came
With its silvery flame,
And sparkled and shone
Through the Eight of St. John,
As they closed the cold grave o’er the maid’s cold day.’

Some years ago there was exhibited before the Society of Antiquaries a ring which had been found in a ploughed field near Cawood in Yorkshire, and which appeared, from the style of its inscriptions, to be of the fifteenth century. It bore for a device two orpine plants joined by a true love knot, with this motto above, Alec fiancee velt, that is, My sweetheart wills, or is desirous. The stalks of the plants were bent towards each other, in token, no doubt, that the parties represented by them were to come together in marriage. The motto under the ring was Joye l’amour feu. So universal, in time as in place, are these popular notions.

The observance of St. John’s Day seems to have been, by a practical bull, confined mainly to the previous evening. On the day itself, we only find that the people kept their doors and beds embowered in the branches set up the night before, upon the understanding that these had a virtue in averting thunder, tempest, and all kinds of noxious physical agencies.

The Eve of St. John is a great day among the mason-lodges of Scotland. What happens with them at Melrose may be considered as a fair example of the whole. ‘Immediately after the election of office-bearers for the year ensuing, the brethren walk in procession three times round the Cross, and afterwards dine together, under the presidency of the newly-elected Grand Master. About six in the evening, the members again turn out and form into line two abreast, each bearing a lighted flambeau, and decorated with their peculiar emblems and insignia. Headed by the heraldic banners of the lodge, the pro-cession follows the same route, three times round the Cross, and then proceeds to the Abbey. On these occasions, the crowded streets present a scene of the most animated description. The joyous strains of a well-conducted band, the waving torches, and incessant showers of fire-works, make the scene a carnival. But at this time the venerable Abbey is the chief point of attraction and resort, and as the mystic torch-bearers thread their way through its mouldering aisles, and round its massive pillars, the outlines of its gorgeous ruins become singularly illuminated and brought into bold and striking relief.