Saints celebrated on the 12th of June
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 ODULPH, CANON OF UTRECHT, CONFESSOR
St Odulph was born of noble French parents, and distinguished in his youth by the innocence of his manners, and his remarkable progress in learning and piety.
HE WAS MADE CURATE OF ORESSCOTH IN BRABANT
Being ordained priest, he was made curate of Oresscoth in Brabant. St Frederic afterwards, by urgent entreaties, engaged him, for the greater glory of God, to be his strenuous assistant in reforming the manners of the fierce Frisons; in which undertaking it is incredible what fatigues he underwent, and what proofs he gave of heroic patience, meekness, zeal, and charity.
Contemplation and prayer were the support and refreshment of his soul under his continual labours and austerities. Several wonderful predictions of things which happened long after his death, are recorded in his life.
FEARING TO LOSE BY SLOTH AND FOR WANT OF PERSEVERANCE THE CROWN FOR WHICH HE FOUGHT
In his old age he resided at Utrecht, and died canon of the cathedral. To his last moments he allowed himself no indulgence, and never relaxed his fervour in labour; but rather redoubled his pace the nearer he saw his end approach, knowing this to be the condition of the Christian’s hire, and fearing to lose by sloth and for want of perseverance the crown for which he fought. His fasts, his watchings, his assiduity in prayer, his almsdeeds, his zeal in instructing the people, and exhorting all men to the divine love and the contempt of all earthly things, seemed to gather strength with his years.
HE EARNESTLY EXHORTED HIS BRETHREN TO FERVOUR
Being seized with a fever, he with joy foretold his last moment, and earnestly exhorting his brethren to fervour, and commending himself to their prayers, he promised, by the divine mercy, never to forget them before God, and happily departed this life in the ninth age, on June 12, on which day his festival was kept with great solemnity at Utrecht and Staveren. Several churches and chapels bear his name; but the chapel at the New Bridge in Amsterdam, called Olofs-Kapel, was erected by the Danish sailors in memory of St Olaus, king of Norway and Martyr, not of St Odulph.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
Comments
Post a Comment