Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: the Fast of the Nativity
On the day of 13 December
The commemoration of Saint Lucy, virgin and martyr, who kept her lamp burning to meet the Bridegroom while she lived and, led to death for the sake of Christ at Syracuse in Sicily, was deemed worthy to enter the wedding celebration with him and abide in unfailing light.
Saint Lucy
Saint Lucy
Feastday: December 13
Patron of Blindness
Lucy's name means "light", with the same root as "lucid" which means "clear, radiant, understandable." Unfortunately for us, Lucy's history does not match her name. Shrouded in the darkness of time, all we really know for certain is that this brave woman who lived in Syracuse lost her life in the persecution of Christians in the early fourth century. Her veneration spread to Rome so that by the sixth century the whole Church recognized her courage in defense of the faith.
Because people wanted to shed light on Lucy's bravery, legends grew up. The one that is passed down to us tells the story of a young Christian woman who had vowed her life to the service of Christ. Her mother tried to arrange a marriage for her with a pagan. Lucy apparently knew that her mother would not be convinced by a young girl's vow so she devised a plan to convince her mother that Christ was a much more powerful partner for life. Through prayers at the tomb of Saint Agatha, her mother's long illness was cured miraculously. The grateful mother was now ready to listen to Lucy's desire to give her money to the poor and commit her life to God.
Unfortunately, legend has it, the rejected bridegroom did not see the same light and he betrayed Lucy to the governor as a Christian. This governor tried to send her into prostitution but the guards who came to take her way found her stiff and heavy as a mountain. Finally she was killed. As much as the facts of Lucy's specific case are unknown, we know that many Christians suffered incredible torture and a painful death for their faith during Diocletian's reign. Lucy may not have been burned or had a sword thrust through her throat but many Christians did and we can be sure her faith withstood tests we can barely imagine.
Lucy's name is probably also connected to statues of Lucy holding a dish with two eyes on it. This refers to another legend in which Lucy's eyes were put out by Diocletian as part of his torture. The legend concludes with God restoring Lucy's eyes.
Lucy's name also played a large part in naming Lucy as a patron saint of the blind and those with eye-trouble.
Whatever the fact to the legends surrounding Lucy, the truth is that her courage to stand up and be counted a Christian in spite of torture and death is the light that should lead us on our own journeys through life.
In Her Footsteps:
Lucy is the patron saint of the blind. Braille is an important means of communication for those with visual impairment or blindness. Support the teaching of braille in schools and learn about it yourself by calling your local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind.
Prayer:
Saint Lucy, you did not hide your light under a basket, but let it shine for the whole world, for all the centuries to see. We may not suffer torture in our lives the way you did, but we are still called to let the light of our Christianity illumine our daily lives. Please help us to have the courage to bring our Christianity into our work, our recreation, our relationships, our conversation -- every corner of our day. Amen
More Saints of the Day
•St. Jodoc
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Feastday: December 13
St. Jodoc (Josse) Confessor December 13 A.D. 669 Those Britons who, flying from the swords of the English-Saxons, settled in Armorica in Gaul, upon the ruins of the Roman empire in those parts formed themselves into a little state on that coast till they were obliged to receive the laws of the French. Judicaël, commonly called Giguel. eldest son of Juthaël, became king of Brittany about the year 630. This prince soon after renounced this perishable crown to labor more securely for the acquisition of an incorruptible one, and retired into the monastery of St. Meen, in the diocese of St. Malo, where he lived in so great sanctity as to be honored after his death with the title of the Blessed Judicaël. When he resigned the crown be offered it to his younger brother Jodoc, called by the French Josse But Jodoc had the same inclinations with his elder brother However, to consult the divine will, he shut himself up for eight days in the monastery of Lammamiont, in which he had been brought up, and prayed night and day with many tears that God would direct him to undertake what was most agreeable to him, and most conducive to his divine honor and his own sanctification. He put an end to his deliberation by receiving the clerical tonsure at the hands of the bishop of Avranches, and joined a company of eleven pilgrims who purposed to go to Rome. They went first to Paris, and thence into Picardy in 636, where Jodoc was prevailed upon by Haymo, duke of Ponchieu, to fix upon an estate of his, which was at a sufficient distance from his own country, and secure from the honors which there waited for him Being promoted to priest's orders, he served the duke's chapel seven years, then retired with one only disciple named Vurmare, into a woody solitude at Ray, where he found a small spot of ground proper for tillage, watered by the river Authie. The duke built them a chapel and cells, in which the hermits lived, gaining by the tillage of this land their slender subsistence and an overplus for the poor. Their exercises were austere penance, prayer, and contemplation. After eight years thus spent here they removed to Runiac, now called Villers-saint-Josse, near the mouth of the river Canche, where they built a chapel of wood in honor of St. Martin. In this place they continued the same manner of life for thirteen years; when Jodoc having been bit by an adder, they again changed their quarters, the good duke who continued their constant protector, having built them a hermitage, with two chapels of wood, in honor of SS. Peter and Paul. The servants of God kept constant enclosure, except that out of devotion to the princes of the apostles, and to the holy martyrs, they made a penitential pilgrimage to Rome in 665. At their return to Runinc they found their hermitage enlarged and adorned, and a beautiful church of stone, which the good duke had erected in memory of St. Martin, and on which he settled a competent estate. The duke met them in person on the road, and conducted them to their habitation. Jodoc finished here his penitential course in 669, and was honoree by miracles both before and after his death. Winoc and Arnoc, two nephews of the saint, inherited his hermitage, which became a famous monastery, and was one of those which Charlemagne first bestowed on Alcuir in 792. It stands near the sea, in the diocese of Amiens, follows the order of St. Bennet, and the abbot enjoys the privileges of count. It is called St. Josse-sur-mer. St. Jodoc is mentioned on this day in the Roman Martyrology. See the life of this saint written in the eighth century; Cave thinks about the year 710. It is published with learned notes by Mabillon, Act Ben. t. 2, p. 566 Gall. Chr. Nov. t. 10, pp. 1289, 1290.
•St. Autbert
Feastday: December 13
669
Bishop of Canbrai-Arras, France. A patron of monasteries, he founded the abbey of St. Vedast, or Vaast, among others. Also called Aubert, he developed the monastic communities of Hainault and Flanders, Belgium.
•St. Edburga
Feastday: December 13
7th century
A Benedictine nun of Lyminge, Kent, England. She continued the tradition of monastic life and was a model of sanctity.
•St. Einhildis & Roswinda
Feastday: December 13
8th century
Nuns of the Benedictine monastery of Hohenburg, in Alsace, France. St. Roswinda was the sister of St Ottilia. St. Einhildis was abbess of Niedermunster, near Hohenburg.
•St. Elizabeth Rose
Feastday: December 13
1130
Benedictine abbess, the foundress of the convent of Sainte-Marie-du-Rozoy, near Courtenay, Loiret, France
Scriptural Readings:
11:00 PM (28 minutes ago)
First Reading - Num 24:2-7,15-17a
2 And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes: and the spirit of God rushing upon him, 3 He took up his parable and said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man hath said, whose eye ire stopped up: 4 The hearer of the words of God hath said, he that hath beheld the vision of the Almighty, he that falleth, and so his eyes are opened: 5 How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel! 6 As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the waterside. 7 Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. For Agag his king shall be removed, and his kingdom shall be taken awry. 15 Therefore taking up his parable, again he said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man whose eye is stopped up, hath said: 16 The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the visions of the Almighty, who falling hath his eyes opened: 17a I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near.
Psalm - Ps 25:4-9
4 Let all them be confounded that act unjust things without cause. shew, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths. 5 Direct me in thy truth, and teach me; for thou art God my Saviour; and on thee have I waited all the day long. 6 Remember, O Lord, thy bowels of compassion; and thy mercies that are from the beginning of the world. 7 The sins of my youth and my ignorances do not remember. According to thy mercy remember thou me: for thy goodness' sake, O Lord. 8 The Lord is sweet and righteous: therefore he will give a law to sinners in the way. 9 He will guide the mild in judgment: he will teach the meek his ways.
11:00 PM (28 minutes ago)
Gospel - Mt 21:23-27
23 And when he was come into the temple, there came to him, as he was teaching, the chief priests and ancients of the people, saying: By what authority dost thou these things? and who hath given thee this authority? 24 Jesus answering, said to them: I also will ask you one word, which if you shall tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men? But they thought within themselves, saying: 26 If we shall say, from heaven, he will say to us: Why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say, from men, we are afraid of the multitude: for all held John as a prophet. 27 And answering Jesus, they said: We know not. He also said to them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things
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