DECEMBER 29, 2024 – ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY.

• St. David the King (973). (Historical)
• St. Thomas Becket (St. Thomas of Canterbury) (1170). Bishop, Martyr. (Current, Traditional)

ST. THOMAS, son of Gilbert Becket, was born in Southwark, England, A.D. 1117. When a youth he was attached to the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to Paris and Bologna to study law. He became Archdeacon of Canterbury, then Lord High Chancellor of England; and in 116, when Archbishop Theobald died, the king insisted on the consecration of St Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be broken. In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict at once broke out; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, which violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of the realm. After six years of contention, partly spent in exile, St. Thomas, with full. foresight of martyrdom before him, returned as a good shepherd to his Church. On the 29th of December, 1170, just as vespers were beginning, four knights broke into the cathedral, crying: “Where is the archbishop? where is the traitor?” The monks fled, and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But he advanced, saying: “Here I am-no traitor, but archbishop. “What seek you?” “Your life,” they cried. “Gladly do I give it,” was the reply; and bowing his head, the invincible martyr was hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. Six months later Henry II submitted to be publicly scourged at the Saint’s shrine, and restored to the Church her full rights.

REFLECTION: “Learn from St. Thomas,” says Father Faber, “to fight the good fight even to the shedding of blood, or, to what men find harder, the shedding of their good name by pouring it out to waste on the earth.”

WORD OF THE DAY

SUNDAY REST. Abstention from servile, judicial, or commercial work on Sundays. Its religious purpose is to commemorate Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, allow the faithful to make the first day of each week a day of joy and of freedom from work, and enable them to celebrate the Eucharist in a fitting manner. "Other celebrations, unless they be truly of the greatest importance, shall not have precedence over Sunday, which is the foundation and center of the whole liturgical year" (Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Liturgy, V, 106). Holy days of obligation are also to be days of rest.

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: The Little Maid & The Companions of Heaven – Christmas Meditation Day 5 (Dec 29)

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