- St. Isadore the Farmer (1130). Patron or Patroness. Male Farmers. (Traditional)
- St. Nicholas of Flüe (1487). Patron or Patroness. Male Switzerland and councilman. (Historical) Hermit
ST. CATHARINE was daughter of Ulpho, prince of Nericia, in Sweden, and of St. Bridget. The love of God seemed almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house. Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in marriage to Egard, a young nobleman of great virtue; but the virgin persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual vow of perpetual chastity. By her discourses he became desirous only of heavenly graces, and, to draw them down upon his soul more abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal. The happy couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity. After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion to the passion of Christ, and to the relics of the martyrs, accompanied her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and penance. After her death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to Sweden, and died abbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen, on the 24th of March, in 1381. For the last twenty-five years of her life she every day purified her soul by a sacramental confession of her sins.
REFLECTION: Whoever has to dwell in the world stands in need of great prudence; the Holy Scripture itself assures us that “the knowledge of the Holy is prudence.”
WORD OF THE DAY
PERFECT HAPPINESS. The complete possession of the perfect good. That which fully satisfies all human desires. Imperfect happiness falls short of the perfect in some way by not satisfying all human desires or, if all of them, not all of them fully. Natural happiness, when perfect, is called natural beatitude. It satisfies those cravings which spring from human nature alone. It is the kind of happiness that human beings would have been destined to, had they been left on a purely natural plane. Mere reason cannot pass beyond this point. Christian revelation adds to this the prospect of supernatural happiness. When perfect, in the life to come, it consists of the Beatific Vision, which supposes a free gift of God lifting humanity above its natural capacity and enabling it to share in the very happiness of God.
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!)
LENT MEDITATION DAY 38
Enjoy daily meditations this lent from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through lent. (includes audio): Lent Day 38: Friday after the Fifth Sunday in Lent— The Deriding of Jesus.
March is the Month of St. Joseph
Daily devotional meditations on Saint Joseph: March 22d — St. Joseph as Head of the Holy Family.
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