ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 27th of February
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 GABRIEL POSSENTI, RELIGIOUS
Francis Possenti (1838-1862) was a popular, fun-loving eighteen-year-old two weeks from his graduation in Spoleto, Italy, when on August 22, 1856, he attended a procession in honour of the city’s most prized image of the Madonna. As the icon of Mary passed Francis, his eyes met hers, and he heard in his heart a voice telling him, “Francis, why do you tarry in the world? Arise, make haste, and become a religious.”
Immediately, Francis resolved to enter the Passionist Order. At his profession, he took the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
HIS DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
As a Passionist, he was distinguished by his extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her sorrows at the foot of the Cross filled his thoughts. Brother Gabriel took a private vow to promulgate devotion to Mary. In a corner of the monastery garden, on a plot he called “Our Lady’s Bower”, he grew flowers exclusively for the adornment of her shrine. He believed that images of the Blessed Virgin should be beautiful and attractive, observing, “A beautiful image is a treasure, because it fosters devotion.”
After contracting tuberculosis, he died at the age of twenty-four. Gabriel is venerated as a patron of young people.
“Help me, O my God, to correct myself.”
(St Gabriel Possenti)
PRAYER IN HONOUR OF ST GABRIEL OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS
Eternal Father, I wish to honour St Gabriel Possenti of Our Lady of Sorrows, and give You thanks for his consuming love for Christ through Our Lady of Sorrows and for all the other graces You have bestowed upon him.
I ask You to please increase grace in my soul through the merits of St Gabriel, and I commit the end of my life to him by this special prayer, so that by virtue of Your goodness and promise, St Gabriel might be my advocate and provide whatever is needed at that hour.
Amen.
➡️ The anniversary of Saint Gabriel Possenti's call to religious life
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