Saints celebrated on the 22 May
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.
SS. CASTUS AND EMILIUS, MARTYRS
Saints Castus and Emilius had first fallen in the persecution; but being touched with remorse, rose again with greater fervour, and triumphed over the flames.
PRESUMING THEIR OWN STRENGTH
St Augustine, in a sermon which he preached on their festival, says, they fell like St Peter by presuming on their own strength. They suffered in Africa, probably under Decius, in 250. See St. Cyprian de lapsis, St Augustine. Serm. 285, and the old African Martyrology of the fifth century.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who celebrate the anniversary of the death of your holy martyrs Castus and Emilius, may by their intercession be delivered from all evils that threaten us. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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