ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER
Saints celebrated on the 12th of September
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 GUY, SACRISTAN
Saint Guy (Guido), commonly called the Poor Man of Anderlecht, was born in the country near Brussels, of mean parents, but both very virtuous, consequently content and happy in their station. They were not able to give their son a school education, but instructed him in all the maxims of our holy religion, often repeating to him the lesson which old Toby gave his son: “We shall be rich enough if we fear God.” But their own example was the most powerful constant instruction.
"WE SHALL BE RICH ENOUGH IF WE FEAR GOD"
He conceived the highest sense of all religious duties. The meanness of his condition much delighted him as soon as he was of an age to know its value. He rejoiced to see himself placed in a state which Christ had chosen for himself.
MOST PRECIOUS ADVANTAGES
The painful labour, hardships, inconveniences, and humiliations to which his condition exposed him, he looked upon as its most precious advantages.
As Guy was one day praying in the church of our Lady, at Laken, a mile from Brussels, the curate of the place was charmed to see his recollection and devotion, and, taking an opportunity afterwards to discourse with him, was much more struck with the piety and unction of his conversation, and retained him in the service of the church. This church is the most ancient of all the famous places of devotion to the Blessed Virgin in those parts.
HE PERFORMED HIS TASKS WITH THE UTMOST EXACTNESS
The saint, who rejoiced to have an opportunity of being always employed in the most humble offices of religion, embraced the offer with pleasure. His business was to sweep the church, dress the altars, fold up the vestments, take care of the linen and other moveables used in the service of God, ring the bell for mass and vespers, and provide flowers and other decorations which were used in that church: all which he performed with the utmost exactness and veneration which the most profound sense of religion can inspire.
The neatness and good order that appeared in everything under his direction edified all that came to that church; for, out of a true spirit of religion, the servant of God looked upon nothing as small which belonged to the service of God, or to the decency of his house. His religious silence, modesty, and recollection in the church seemed to say to others: "This is the house of the Lord; tremble you that approach his sanctuary."
HE DECIDED TO LEAVE
A danger to which he had lived long exposed, was the persecution, if we may so call it, of the applause and praises of the world, which his virtue drew upon him in his low station. He had always carefully studied to arm himself against this temptation by the most sincere humility and constant watchfulness; but now, upon a review of his heart and whole conduct, he resolved to avoid this flattering enemy, by seeking out some foreign retirement.
HIS PILGRIMAGES
In this disposition, and in a spirit of penance, he made an austere pilgrimage, first to Rome, and then to Jerusalem, and visited all the most celebrated places of devotion in the Christian world. After seven years’ absence, he returned to Anderlecht.
A COMPLICATION OF DISTEMPERS
The subdean of the chapter gave him an apartment in his house, not suffering him to return to Laken. The fatigues of his journeys, and other great hardships he had undergone, brought upon him a complication of distempers, of which he died soon after, on September 12, about the year 1012, or rather 1033.
HIS RELICS WERE TRANSLATED INTO A MAGNIFICENT CHURCH
The canons buried him honourably in the ground belonging to their church. Many miracles that were performed by his intercession gave occasion to Gerard II, bishop of Arras and Cambray, about the year 1090, to order his sacred bones to be taken up, and a chapel to be built over the spot where they had been buried in the churchyard. A magnificent collegiate church, under the patronage of St Guy, was erected, and his relics translated into it in 1112.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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