• St. Firminus (543). Bishop. (Historical)
• The Divine Maternity of Our Lady. (Traditional)

IN the year 304, Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus, differing in age and nationality, but united in the bonds of faith, being denounced as Christians to Numerian, Governor of Cilicia, were arrested at Pompeiopolis, and conducted to Tharsis. They underwent a first examination in that town, after which their limbs were torn with iron hooks, and they were taken back to prison covered with wounds. Being afterwards led to Mopsuesta, they were submitted to a second examination, ending in a manner equally cruel as the first. They underwent a third examination at Anazarbis, followed by greater torments still. The governor, unable to shake their constancy, had them kept imprisoned that he might torture them further at the approaching games. They were borne to the amphitheater, but the most ferocious animals, on being let loose on them, came crouching to their feet and licked their wounds. The judge, reproaching the jailers with connivance, ordered the martyrs to be despatched by the gladiators.

REFLECTION: Such is true Christian devotion. “Neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus.”

WORD OF THE DAY

SEAL OF CONFIRMATION. To establish or determine irrevocably, in the sacrament of confirmation, when a bishop anoints a person with chrism and says, "[Name], be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit." Thus, by confirmation a baptized Christian becomes permanently marked as a witness of Christ and is enabled to preserve, profess, and communicate the faith even (if need be) with the price of his blood.

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

October, Month of the Rosary

Maria Magnificata. Short Meditations for October, the Month of the Rosary. 11th Day — The Incarnation.