Pope beatifies Cardinal John Henry Newman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ly1c964vK4M&feature=related

A Nine Day Novena to Saint Therese

The Twenty-four 'Glory Be's’ Novena to St. Therese

Father Putigan received the favours he had petitioned of the Little Flower of Jesus, and promised to spread the novena to increase devotion to, and bring her more honour. In this fashion, from the ninth to the seventeenth of each month, those who want to participate in the 24 Glory Be’s novena, should add to those of their own, the intentions of all who are at that time making the novena, thus forming one great prayer in common. This novena can be said at any time, however.

The Glory Be is said 24 times each day for nine days, in thanksgiving for all the blessings and favours given to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus during the 24 years of her life. Start the novena each day with this prayer:

“Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, I thank You for all the blessings and favours You have showered upon the soul of Your servant Therese of the Child Jesus, during the 24 years she spent here on earth, and in consideration of the merits of this, Your most beloved Saint, I beseech You to grant me this favour, if it is in accordance with Your most Holy Will and is not an obstacle to my salvation.”

After this prayer, follow with the 24 Glory Be’s, between each of which should be included this short prayer”

“Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, pray for us.”

A Nine Day Novena to Saint Therese
http://www.carmeldundee.co.uk/carmel_novena_St_Therese.htm

The Holy Curé and his message

A man of prayer
Long periods spent in front of the tabernacle, a true intimacy with God, a total surrender to His will, a face transfigured… elements such touched deeply those who met him and made the depth of his prayer life and union with God perceptible. They were his greatest joy and the ground for a true friendship with God : “I love you, oh my God, and my only desire is to love you until my dying breath”. This was a friendship that implied a reciprocity which Mr. Vianney compared to two pieces of wax which are melted together and can no longer be separated or identified as distinct from each other ; it is thus for our soul with God when we pray…

At the heart of his life, the Eucharist celebrated and adored
“He is there”, the Holy Curé would exclaim as he stared at the tabernacle. He was a man of the Eucharist celebrated and adored ; “There is no reality greater than the Eucharist”, he used to affirm. What touched him most deeply perhaps was the realisation that his God was there, for us, present in the tabernacle : “He awaits us !” The awareness of the real presence of God in the Blessed Sacrament was perhaps one of his greatest graces and one of his greatest joys. Giving God to men and men to God, the eucharistic sacrifice, very quickly became the heart of his day and of his pastoral life.

Tormented by the salvation of mankind
It is perhaps this which best summarises who the Holy Curé was during his 41 years as a priest at Ars. He was tormented by his own salvation and that of others, most especially that of those who came to him or for whom he was responsible. As a priest, he was "accountable to God” he used to say. That each person taste the joy of knowing and loving God, of knowing how much He loves us… this was what Mr. Vianney strove relentlessly to achieve.

A martyr of the confessional
As from 1830 thousands of people came to Ars for confession with him, and more than 100,000 in the last year of his life…. The Curé of Ars was a true martyr of the confessional, John Paul II declared, for he spent up to 17 hours a day ‘imprisoned’ in order to reconcile men with God and among themselves. Smitten by the love of God, filled with wonder at the vocation of mankind, he had grasped the full measure of the folly in wanting to be separated from God. He wanted each person to be freed in order to be capable of receiving a taste of the love of God.

At the heart of his parish, a man with a social awareness
“We cannot imagine what the Holy Curé did not accomplish by way of social work” one of his biographers comments. He saw the Lord present in each of his brothers and sisters and did not rest until he had assisted them, brought relief, appeased their suffering or soothed their wounds, and enabled each one to be free and happy. Nothing was beyond him…starting an orphanage, setting up schools, being attentive to the poorest and the sick, a tireless builder of the Church that he was. He accompanied the families and sought to protect them from all that destroys them (alcohol, violence, egoism…). At the heart of his village he sought to take into account each of the dimensions of the human person (human, spiritual, social).

The patron saint of the priests of the whole world
He was beatified in 1905, and in the same year on April 12th he was declared patron saint of the priests of France by Pius X. In 1929, four years after his canonisation, Pope Pius XI declared him “patron saint of the priests of the whole world”. Pope John Paul II said no less by repeating three times that “The Curé of Ars remains an outstanding and unparalleled model for all nations both of the accomplishment of the ministry and the holiness of the minister”. “Oh, how great a reality lies in the priest !” Jean-Marie Vianney would exclaim, for he can give God to men and men to God ; he is the witness of the tenderness of the Father for each person and the artisan of salvation.

The Curé of Ars, an elder brother in the priesthood, is the saint to whom every priest in the world can come in order to entrust his ministry or his priestly life to the Curé’s intercession.

A universal call to holiness
“I will show you the path to Heaven” he replied to the little shepherd boy who showed him the way to Ars. By this he meant ‘I will help you to become a saint’. “There where the saints go their way, God goes with them”, he would remark later on. Ultimately he invited each and everyone to let themselves be sanctified by God, to seek the means to achieve this union with God here on earth and for all eternity.

The Holy Curé and his message
http://www.arsnet.org/113_en.php

St. Katharine Drexel

Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't you become a missionary?" His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Native American missions.

She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O'Connor, she wrote in 1889, "The feast of Saint Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored." Newspaper headlines screamed "Gives Up Seven Million!" . . .

At seventy-seven, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost twenty years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at ninety-six and was canonized in 2000.

St. Katharine Drexel
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2009-03-03