November 23, 1916
The Provincial and Council authorized the purchase of a property bordering Catholic University in Washington at a cost of about $10,000, for a residence for friars who were pursuing higher studies.
Saint Cecilia
November 22
“Let me love you, Lord, and give thanks to you and confess to your name, because you have forgiven my grave sins and wicked deeds. By your sheer grace and mercy, you melted my sins away like ice. To your grace also do I also ascribe whatever sins I did not commit, for what would I not have been capable of. I who could be enamored even of a wanton crime I acknowledge that you have forgiven me everything, both the sins I willfully committed by following my own will, and those I avoided through your guidance.”
Confessions II,7,15
November 22, 1964
Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Massachusetts, was dedicated by Richard Cardinal Cushing in the presence of the Prior Provincial, James A. Donnellon, and a large number of friars, diocesan clergy and laity. It had an overall capacity of 1200 students.
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin
November 21
“The Word of God took up our grass in order to make us gold. The Word of God, you see, which abides forever, did not consider it beneath him to be for a time grass; not in order to change the Word itself, but to bestow on the grass a change for the better. Yes, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and as the Lord he suffered for us and was buried, and rose again and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, no longer grass but now gold, undestroyed and indestructible.”
Sermon 113B, 2
November 21, 1897
Archbishop Sebastiano Martinelli, Apostolic Delegate and Prior General, dedicated the newly completed church of Our Mother of Good Counsel, Bryn Mawr, in the presence of Archbishop Patrick Ryan, who presided, and auxiliary bishop Edmond Prendergast.
Saint Benignus
November 20
“Perfect love or charity is the final, perfect gift of the Holy Spirit. First, however, comes the gift which consists in the forgiveness of sins, the benefaction by which we are delivered from the power of darkness, and the prince of this world is thrown outside by our faith; he is the one who is at work in the children of unbelief … It is by the Holy Spirit who gathers the people of God together into one, that the unclean spirit is cast out, who is divided against himself.”
Sermon 71, 19-20
November 20, 1878
The first community cemetery was blessed at Villanova, north of the church. Thomas Mark Darragh, a professed cleric, was the first friar interred there that day.
Saint Faustus
November 19
“Listen, dearest grains of Christ; listen, Christ’s precious ears of wheat; listen, Christ’s dearest corn. Take a look at yourselves, go back to your consciences, interrogate your faith, interrogate your love, stir up your consciences. And if you discover that you are good grain, let the thought occur to you. Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved. Any of you who are shaking up your consciences find yourselves among the weeds, must not be afraid to change. The command hasn’t yet been given to cut, it isn’t the harvest yet; don’t be today what you were yesterday, or at least don’t be tomorrow what you are today.”
Sermon 73A.2
November 19, 1923
Today is the anniversary of the death of Fr. Thomas C. Middleton, O.S.A., Villanova College’s first librarian, 10th President from 1876 to 1878, and founder and first president of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia.
Augustine For Today
November 18
“Pride is a great evil; it is even the foremost evil, the beginning, root and cause of all sin. It was pride that overthrew the angel and made the devil. And even when overthrown, he passed on the cup of pride to upright humanity. He aroused pride in the human being who had been created in the image of God, and that pride made humanity shameful. The devil entered humanity and persuaded Eve to defy God’s law and use her own power. … ‘If you eat, he said, you will be like gods’ (Gen 3:5). Consider, then, whether it was not pride that persuaded her. The two who had been created human wanted to be gods. They assumed what they were not and lost what they were; they did not lose their human nature, but they lost blessedness, both present and future. They lost the place to which they were to be raised, deceived by the one who had been thrown down from there”
Sermon 340A