ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 13th 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 STEPHEN OF RIETI, ABBOT
Saint Stephen was abbot of a monastery near the walls of Rieti in Italy, and a man of admirable sanctity.
HIS LOVE OF HEAVEN
He had despised all things for the love of heaven. He shunned all company to employ himself wholly in prayer. So wonderful was his patience, that he looked upon them as his greatest friends and benefactors who did him the greatest injuries, and regarded insults as his greatest gain.
HE GRIEVED ONLY FOR THEIR SIN
He lived in extreme poverty, and a privation of all the conveniences of life. His barns, with all the corn in them, the whole subsistence of his monastery, were burned down by wicked men. He received the news with cheerfulness, grieving only for their sin by which God was offended.
HIS HAPPY DEATH
In his agony angels were seen surrounding him to conduct his happy soul to bliss. He lived in the sixth age. He is named in the Roman Martyrology.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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