Skip to main content

SAINT FEAST DAY 16 MARCH: BL. JOSE GABRIEL DEL ROSARIO BROCHERO


ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 16th of March

WELCOME!

“THERE’LL BE TROUBLE IF THE DEVIL ROBS ME OF A SINGLE SOUL.”

In September a Beatification Mass took place to give the Church its newest Blessed. This new Blessed, Jose Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, is known as ‘the Gaucho Priest’ who travelled around on a mule. Blessed Jose was born in 1840 in Argentinia and was ordained a priest at the age of 26.

A VERY LARGE MOUNTAINOUS PARISH

He was given a very large mountainous parish to look after, which contained about 10,000 impoverished parishioners. Blessed Jose travelled on the back of a mule to bring the Gospel of Jesus and the sacraments to his people. When he visited families in his vast parish they said it was ‘like getting a visit from Jesus’. Blessed Jose would bring with him and image of the Virgin Mary and a prayer book. While explaining the Faith he would ‘speak in a way that everyone understood because he spoke from his own heart.’

WELL KNOWN FOR HIS CARE OF THE SICK

Blessed Jose was well known for his care of the sick and the dying, particularly during a cholera epidemic in 1867. After very many years of this exhausting lifestyle Blessed Jose caught leprosy, but he was faithful to the end celebrating daily Mass even as a blind leper. In an article in a newspaper in 1887 it was said of Blessed Jose that ‘He practised the Gospel. Are you missing a carpenter? He’s a carpenter. Are you missing a labourer? He’s a labourer.’

APOSTOLIC COURAGE

Pope Francis said of Blessed Jose: ‘His apostolic courage, his missionary zeal, the bravery of his heart, compassionate like the heart of Jesus – that made him say: ‘There’ll be trouble if the devil robs me of a single soul’ – spurred Jose to win over crooks and difficult fellow countrymen to God. One can count by the thousands of men and women who, thanks to Jose’s priestly ministry, gave up their vices and quarrels…

Jose was an ordinary man, frail like the rest of us, but he knew the love of Jesus, his heart forged by God’s mercy. He was able to come out from the cavern of ‘I-me-my-with me-for me’, of the small-minded selfishness from which we all suffer.'

From: Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris 

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Jose may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.







Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME

  Please pick your saints: January - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   February - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17 18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29   March - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   April - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   May - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   

ST JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS - 13 AUGUST

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 13th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS   (Patron Saint of Altar Servers.) The eldest boy of a poor cordwainer, in a small Belgian town, John was ever a dutiful, prayerful, and studious child. Our Lord called him when but young to leave his father and his father’s house, to serve Him in the Society of Jesus.  And because he was so good a son, it cost his father much to give him up to God; but he was too good a Christian to refuse outright.  HE WAS SENT TO ROME John had hardly taken his religious vows when he was sent to the centre of Christendom, the holy city of Rome. His modesty, his purity, shone out as great virtue always does; and the young laymen who attended the lectures would come to gaze upon his beautiful and holy face, and go away the better for the sight. GREAT VIRTUE Three short years, and his last sickness found him sighing for heaven, and three days before the great feast of Mary’s Assumption in 1

ST LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR - 19 OCTOBER

  WELCOME! SAINT LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR   Laura, a widow and martyr of Cordoba in Spain, is mentioned in the Spanish martyrology of Tamajode Salazar, who refers to Luitprand, where it says the following: St Laura is said to have been of a noble family, and  according to the wishes of her parents she married an equally noble man and gave birth to two daughters.  After the death of her husband and her daughters, she went to the monastery of St Aurea, named St-Maria de Cuteclara, and after her martyrdom led the same for nine years as her successor.  After she had made wonderful progress in all virtues, she was finally summoned to renounce the faith before a Saracen judge. But since she remained steadfast, she was first beaten very cruelly and then thrown into a bath of boiling pitch, where she remained in praise of God for three hours and then flew to heaven on October 19, 864.   St Laura is of the 48 Martyrs of Cordoba. PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who