ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 23rd of December
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST JOHN STONE, MARTYR
Saint John Stone was an English martyr, executed at the Dane-John, Canterbury, probably in December, 1539, for denying the royal supremacy.
AN AUGUSTINIAN FRIAR AND A DOCTOR OF DIVINITY
He was an Austin [Augustinian] Friar of Canterbury, and a doctor of divinity. He is probably the Austin Friar of whom Bishop Ingworth complained on December 14, 1538, that "at all times he still held and still desired to die for it, that the king may not be head of the Church of England".
"BE OF GOOD COURAGE"
When in prison before his martyrdom "after an uninterrupted fast of three days, he heard a voice, but without seeing the presence of anyone, calling him by name and exhorting him to be of good courage and not to hesitate to suffer with constancy for the truth of the opinion which he had professed"
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
[St John Stone is one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. He was canonised by Pope Paul VI. in 1970.]
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