ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL
Saints celebrated on the 26th of April
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.
SAINT RAFAEL ARNAIZ BARON, RELIGIOUS
Rafael Arnaiz Baron was born on April 9, 1911 in Burgos as the first of four sons to Rafael and Mercedes Baron. He had his education in several Jesuit schools and afterwards studied in order to qualify as an architect.
THE TRAPPISTS
Once he graduated from high school in 1930 he sought a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ. He contacted the Trappists of San Isidoro de Duenas in Palencia. He was drawn to the silence and was attracted to the Gregorian chant such as the Salve Regina that was sung at Compline. On April 15, 1934, having finished his architectural studies he entered the order as a postulant and then became a novice; he was convinced that this was his true religious calling.
THE HEAVY CROSS
He suffered from a severe case of diabetes mellitus which developed four months after his entering the convent and was diagnosed in May 1934. The saddened and perplexed novice was forced to rest at home on and off. Due to his medical condition he was obliged to enter as a conventual oblate instead of as a monk, taking a lower place and living on the margins of the order; this circumstance revealed his intense vocational commitment. He received the habit on April 17, 1938 prior to his death. Between December 1937 to April 1938 he had written 33 letters.
HIS RELICS
On April 22, 1938, he suffered a high fever and became delirious at times due to that ailment. He died from diabetes on April 26, 1938. His remains were relocated in 1965 and for the final time in November 1972 into a small chapel. Pope John Paul II, on August 19, 1989 at World Youth Day in Santiago de Compostela, proposed him as a model for adolescents. Pope Benedict XVI canonised him on October 11, 2009.
HIS ENTRY IN THE ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
In the monastery of San Isidoro de Duenas in Spain, Blessed Raffaele Arnaiz Baron, a religious of the Cistercian Order, who, still a novice struck by a serious illness, endured his ill health with strenuous patience, always trusting in God.
(Sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Arnaiz_Bar%C3%B3n
http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/92549)
Comments
Post a Comment