ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 10th 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 SOTERIS, VIRGIN AND MARTYR
(Fourth Age.) Saint Ambrose boasts of this saint as the greatest honour of his family. St Soteris (St Sura) was descended from a long series of consuls and prefects: but her greatest glory was her despising, for the sake of Christ, birth, riches, great beauty, and all that the world prizes as valuable.
SHE CONSECRATED HER VIRGINITY TO GOD
She consecrated her virginity to God, and to avoid the dangers her beauty exposed her to, neglected it entirely, and trampled under her feet all the vain ornaments that might set it off.
SHE CONFESSED THE FAITH BEFORE HER PERSECUTORS
Her virtue prepared her to make a glorious confession of her faith before the persecutors, after the publication of the cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximian against the Christians.
HE WAS NOT ABLE TO DRAW FROM HER ONE SIGH OR TEAR
The impious judge commanded her face to be buffeted. She rejoiced to be treated as her divine Saviour had been, and to have her face all wounded and disfigured by the merciless blows of the executioners. The judge ordered her to be tortured many other ways, but without being able to draw from her one sigh or tear. At length, overcome by her constancy and patience, he commanded her head to be struck off. The ancient martyrologies mention her.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
Comments
Post a Comment