ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST
Saints celebrated on the 2nd 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 PETER JULIAN EYMARD, PRIEST
Saint Peter Julian Eymard was born at La Mure d’Isere, Diocese of Grenoble, France, on February 4, 1811; he died there August 1, 1868. From early childhood St Peter Julian gave evidence of great holiness and most tender devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. In 1829, he entered the novitiate of the Oblates of Mary, but illness compelled him to return home.
At the age of twenty he entered the grand seminary of Grenoble, and was ordained priest July 20, 1834. He returned to the Marist novitiate in 1839. In 1845 he was appointed Provincial of the Oblates of Mary.
HIS ENTIRE SPIRITUAL LIFE WAS CENTRED AROUND THE EUCHARIST
His entire spiritual life was centred around the Eucharist. It was the subject of his sermons and exhortations, the object of his worship and prayers. Those who fell under his spiritual direction were taught by his counsel to fix their attention on the Blessed Sacrament.
In January of 1851 Fr Eymard made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Fourvieres, and there promised Mary to devoted his life to founding a congregation of priests whose principal duty should be to honour the Blessed Sacrament.
THEY COMMENCED THE ADORATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
Having obtained the necessary ecclesiastical permission, he procured a small house in Paris, in which he and a single companion took up their abode. Here, on January 6, 1857, the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, and the nascent community of two members commenced the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as prescribed by their rule.
Their founder received his first encouragement for the work in a laudatory Brief, blessing the work and its author, and signed by Pius IX, in 1857.
THE CONGREGATION SPREAD RAPIDLY
Five years after, in 1862, Fr Eymard had enough spiritual sons to open a regular novitiate. From this date the congregation spread rapidly, until now its houses may be found in Rome, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Canada, the United States, and South America. The Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, a congregation of cloistered women who carry on perpetual adoration in their convents, were also founded by him in 1858. The Priests’ Eucharistic League and the Archconfraternity of the Blessed Sacrament are evidences of his zeal among priests and the faithful.
HIS WRITINGS
Fr Eymard’s writings have been collected, and form four volumes, [two of them available in English at the time]:
- The Real Presence
- Retreat at the Feet of Jesus Eucharistic
- La Sainte Communion
- L’Eucharistie et la Perfection Chretienne
These writings have received the approbation of the Holy See.
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)
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