- St. Felix of Nola (260). Martyr, Priest. (Traditional)
- St. Hilary Poitiers (368). Bishop, Doctor of the Church. (Traditional)
- St. Sava (1235). Bishop, Patron or Patroness. Patron of Serbia and Serbians. (Historical)
ST. HILARY was a native of Poitiers, in Aquitaine. Born and educated a pagan, it was not till near middle age that he embraced Christianity, moved thereto mainly by the idea of God presented to him in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted his wife and daughter, and separated himself rigidly from all un Catholic company. In the beginning of his conversion, St. Hilary would not eat with Jews, or heretics, nor salute them by the way. But afterwards, for their sake, he relaxed this severity. He entered Holy Orders, and in 353 was chosen bishop of his native city. Arianism, under the protection of the Emperor Constantius, was just then in the height of its power, and St. Hilary found himself called upon to support the orthodox cause in several Gallic councils, in which Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. He was in consequence accused to the emperor, who banished him to Phrygia.
He spent his three years and more of exile in composing his great works on the Trinity. In 359 he attended the Council of Seleucia, in which Arians, semi-Arians, and Catholics contended for the mastery. With the deputies of the council he proceeded to Constantinople, and there so dismayed the heads of the Arian party, that they prevailed upon the emperor to let him return to Gaul. He traversed Gaul, Italy, and Illyria, wherever he came discomfiting the heretics, and procuring the triumph of orthodoxy. After seven or eight years of missionary travel he returned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368.
REFLECTION: Like St. Hilary, we, too, are called to a life-long contest with heretics; we shall succeed in proportion as we combine hatred of heresy with compassion for its victims.
WORD OF THE DAY
NATURAL KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Man’s capacity for knowing God by reason and apart from revelation. According to the First Vatican Council, "the one true God, our Creator and Lord, can be known with certainty by the light of human reason, from things that are made" (Denzinger 3004). Consequently human beings have the ability to know the one, true personal God who made the universe. The subjective means of obtaining this knowledge is human reason in the condition of fallen nature. The source of this knowledge is the world, bodily and spiritual, of created things. This knowledge can be certain and not merely probable.
The Bible, in the Old and New Testaments, also teaches that the existence of a personal God can be known from reflection on nature. Thus the Israelites were told, "Through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures, we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author" (Wisdom 13:5), and according to St. Paul, "ever since God created the world, His everlasting power and deity–however invisible–have been there for the mind to see in the things He has made" (Romans 1:20).
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!)
Christmastide Meditations
Daily devotional meditations on the Birth of Our Savior and Christmastide: Their Gifts: (3) Myrrh – Christmas Meditation Day 21 (Jan 14)
