ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 3rd of August
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 NICODEMUS
Saint Nicodemus was by sect a Pharisee, and passed for a master and doctor in Israel, even when he was ignorant of the truths of eternal life. He seems to have been a senator of Jerusalem; for he is called a Jewish chief.
The Pharisees were in general, by their pride, the most opposite of all others to the humility of the gospel.
ST NICODEMUS BELIEVED IN CHRIST
St Nicodemus was an exception, and believed in Christ. At first, something of a sacred opinion of his own wisdom and learning, which it is so hard and so rare a thing for men to be perfectly divested of, seems to have been an obstacle to his opening his heart perfectly to the grace of his conversion.
THE MYSTERY OF REGENERATION BY BAPTISM
To humble him, Christ explained to him the mystery of regeneration by baptism, which St Nicodemus did not understand, though it was expressed in the prophets. Our merciful Redeemer reproached him for his ignorance. St Nicodemus, far from being offended at the reproof, received it with such humility, and was so confounded within himself, that perfecting these dispositions, Christ conducted him into the paths of true virtue.
HE RETIRED TO HIS COUNTRY HOUSE
He returned to Jesus from time to time; defended him openly against the Pharisees, assisted at his burial, and embalmed his sacred body with rich spices. Having been turned out of the synagogue by the Jews for believing in Christ, he retired to St Gamaliel at his country house, and died there, as St Austin and Photius testify from the Acts of the Invention of St Stephen’s relics.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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