Saint Lucy
December 13
“It is God alone who both gives virginity and protects it. And God is love! Love, therefore, is the guardian of virginity, but humility is the dwelling-place of this guardian. He indeed dwells there who said that the Holy Spirit rests on the humble, the peaceful, and the one who fears his words … Humble spouses more easily follow the Lamb than proud virgins.”
On Holy Virginity 51,52
December 13, 1898
John Murphy Farley, auxiliary bishop of New York writes to Prior Provincial John Fedigan, offering the Province “a place for a church and a small parish in New Brighton, Staten Island,” which was to become the Parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12
“Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, not to make the world, not to create all things visible and invisible, not to perform miracles and raise the dead, but that I am meek and humble of heart. Do you want to be great? Then begin with what is very small. Do you want to construct a lofty building? Think first of the foundation, which is humility. The more massive the building one has in mind and plans to construct, the deeper the foundations must be laid.”
Sermon 69, 2-3
Saint Damasus
December 11
“Let me seek you, Lord, even while I am calling upon you, and call upon you even as I believe in you; for to us you have indeed been preached. My faith calls upon you, Lord, this faith which is your gift to me, which you have breathed into me through the humanity of your Son and the ministry of your preacher.”
Confessions I.1.1
December 11, 1946
Following a Solemn Mass of Thanksgiving and dinner to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of the Province, the Definitory met to consider property proposed as the site of the Province’s new college in Andover, Massachusetts.
Augustine For Today
December 10
“Everyone must do what he or she can. If one person is not capable of as much as another, then he or she can still attain it in the other who does have this capability. The condition is that one love and esteem in the other the attainments which one does not have because of one’s own limitations. Thus, the person with fewer capabilities ought not to impede the person with more; nor should those who are more gifted put pressure on others who are less gifted. You have to render an account of your conscience to God alone. But the only thing that you owe one another is love for one another.”
Letter 130.16.31
December 10, 1924
The Definitory voted to accept the invitation of the Bishop of Oklahoma City, to give a parish and land for the construction of a high school in his diocese.
Saint Juan Diego
December 9
“It is by loving that one becomes a member of Christ, becomes through love incorporated into the body of Christ; and there will be the one Christ loving himself … when therefore you love a member of Christ, you’re loving Christ, you’re loving the Son of God; when you’re loving the Son of God you love the Father. Love can never be separated. Choose for yourself what you love, and the rest will follow.”
On the Letter of John 10.3
December 9, 1885
rs. Patrick Stanton and Peter Crane purchased a lot on the south side of Montgomery Avenue in Bryn Mawr for $2,000, on which to establish the Parish of Our Mother of Good Counsel.
The Immaculate Conception
December 8
“My Dioscorus, I wish that, with complete piety, you would submit to him, and not seek any other way to attaining lasting truth but the one shown us by him who, being God, sees our weakness. This way consists, first, of humility, second of humility, and third, of humility. No matter how often you would ask me, I would say the same. It is not that there are no other precepts to be mentioned. But, unless humility precedes, accompanies, and follows whatever good we do, unless it be a goal ever before us, alongside us to cling to, before us as a restraint, we will find that we have done little good to rejoice in; pride’s hand having bereft us of everything.”
Letter 118.22