Did You Know? According to legend, in 1284, while the town of Hamelin, Germany was suffering from a rat infestation, a man dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing appeared, claiming to be a rat-catcher. He promised the townsmen a solution for their problem with the rats. The townsmen in turn promised to pay him for the removal of the rats. The man accepted, and played a musical pipe to lure the rats with a song into the Weser River, where all but one drowned. Despite his success, the people reneged on their promise and refused to pay the rat-catcher the full amount of money. The man left the town angrily, but vowed to return some time later, seeking revenge. On St. John and Paul’s Day (June 26) while the inhabitants were in church, he played his pipe yet again, dressed in green, like a hunter, this time attracting the children of Hamelin. One hundred and thirty boys and girls followed him out of the town, where they were lured into a cave and never seen again. The moral of the story: Always pay your debts. Or never enrage the exterminator. Or use the cats of Ulthar instead. Something like that. LEARN MORE.
Author: Jimmy Akin
The Church Year: June 25, 2012
Today is Monday of the 12th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.
In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is white.
Saints & Celebrations:
On June 25, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. William, abbot, who died in A.D. 1142. It is a Class III day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. William, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
According to the Holy See’s Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation:
25. With regard to mysticism, one has to distinguish between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the charisms granted by God in a totally gratuitous way. The former are something which every Christian can quicken in himself by his zeal for the life of faith, hope and charity; and thus, by means of a serious ascetical struggle, he can reach a certain experience of God and of the contents of the faith. As for charisms, St. Paul says that these are, above all, for the benefit of the Church, of the other members of the Mystical Body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:17). With this in mind, it should be remembered that charisms are not the same things as extraordinary (“mystical”) gifts (cf. Rom 12:3-21), and that the distinction between the “gifts of the Holy Spirit” and “charisms” can be flexible. It is certain that a charism which bears fruit for the Church, cannot, in the context of the New Testament, be exercised without a certain degree of personal perfection, and that, on the other hand, every “living” Christian has a specific task (and in this sense a “charism”) “for the building up of the body of Christ” (cf. Eph 4:15-16),29 in communion with the Hierarchy whose job it is “not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test all things and hold fast to what is good” (LG, n. 12).
That’s a Bear of a Different Color
Did You Know? There was a bear in a zoo in Medoza City, Argentina that contracted a skin condition. Zoo officials tried treating the skin condition, and in the process the bear turned purple! (Temporarily, at least.) It looked much better than the algae-stained green bears, FWIW. (Also, check out the video of polar bears playing with sled dogs!) LEARN MORE.
The Church Year: June 24, 2012
Today is the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is white.
In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.
In the Extraordinary Form, it is the 4th Sunday after Pentecost.
Saints & Celebrations:
On June 24, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. In the Ordinary Form, it is a solemnity, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class I day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. John the Baptist, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
225. The devotion of St. John the Baptist has been present in the Christian Church since ancient time. From a very early date, it acquired popular forms and connotations. In addition to the celebration of his death (29 August), of all the Saints he is the only one whose birth is also celebrated (24 June) – as with Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In virtue of having baptized Jesus in the Jordan, many baptisteries are dedicated to him and his image as “baptizer” is to found close to many baptismal founts. He is the patron Saint of those condemned to death or who have been imprisoned for the witness to the faith, in virtue of the harsh prison which he endured and of the death which he encountered.
In all probability, the date of John the Baptists’ birth (24 June) was fixed in relation to that of Christ (25 December): according to what was said by the Angel Gabriel, when Mary conceived Our Savior, Elizabeth had already been with child for six months (cf Lk 1, 26.36). The date of 24 June is also linked to the solar cycle of the Northern hemisphere. The feast is celebrated as the Sun, turning towards the South of the zodiac, begins to decline: a phenomenon that was taken to symbolize John the Baptist who said in relation to Jesus: “illum oportet crescere, me autem minui” (John 3, 30).
John’s mission of witnessing to the light (cf John 1, 7) lies at the origin of the custom of blessing bonfires on St John’s Eve – or at least gave a Christian significance to the practice. The Church blesses such fires, praying God that the faithful may overcome the darkness of the world and reach the “indefectible light” of God.
First “Flying Saucer” Sighting
Did You Know? Aviator Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a group of fast-flying objects in Washington State on June 24, 1947. He compared their motion to that of saucers being skipped across water. Though he did *not* say they were *shaped* like saucers (actually, he said they *weren’t*), his account led to the term “flying saucer.” LEARN MORE.
The Church Year: June 23, 2012
Today is Saturday of the 11th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.
In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is violet.
Saints & Celebrations:
On June 23, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate the Vigil of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. It is a Class II day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. John the Baptist, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
According to the Holy See’s Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation:
24. There are certain mystical graces, conferred on the founders of ecclesial institutes to benefit their foundation, and on other saints, too, which characterize their personal experience of prayer and which cannot, as such, be the object of imitation and aspiration for other members of the faithful, even those who belong to the same institutes and those who seek an ever more perfect way of prayer.28 There can be different levels and different ways of sharing in a founder’s experience of prayer, without everything having to be exactly the same. Besides, the prayer experience that is given a privileged position in all genuinely ecclesial institutes, ancient and modern, is always in the last analysis something personal. And it is to the individual person that God gives his graces for prayer.
How Low Can You Go?
Did You Know? The Dead Sea on the Israel-Jordan border is the lowest place on land on Earth. Its surface and shores are 423 metres (1,388 ft) below sea level, Earth’s lowest elevation on land. The Dead Sea is 377 m (1,237 ft) deep, the deepest hypersaline (extra salty) lake in the world. With 33.7% salinity, it is also one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water, though Lake Assal (Djibouti), Garabogazköl, and some hypersaline lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica (such as Don Juan Pond) have reported higher salinities. It is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. It is, however, extra floaty. LEARN MORE.
The Church Year: June 22, 2012
Today is Friday of the 11th week of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.
In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost, and the liturgical color for today is red.
Saints & Celebrations:
On June 22, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Paulinus of Nola, bishop of Nola and confessor, who died in A.D. 432. In the Ordinary Form, it is an optional memorial, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class III day.
In the Ordinary Form, we also celebrate St.s John Fisher, bishop, and Thomas More, both martyrs. It is an optional memorial.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Paulinus, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St. John Fisher, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about Thomas More, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
According to the Holy See’s Letter on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation:
23. Without doubt, a Christian needs certain periods of retreat into solitude to be recollected and, in God’s presence, rediscover his path. Nevertheless, given his character as a creature, and as a creature who knows that only in grace is he secure, his method of getting closer to God is not based on any technique in the strict sense of the word. That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the Gospel. Genuine Christian mysticism has nothing to do with technique: it is always a gift of God, and the one who benefits from it knows himself to be unworthy.27
They Did Come to Regret Doing This
Did You Know? The Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe on June 22, 1633. LEARN MORE.
The Church Year: July 22, 2012
Today is the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green.
In the Extraordinary Form, this is the season after Pentecost.
In the Extraordinary Form, it is the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.
Saints & Celebrations:
On July 22, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Mary Magdalene, penitent, who died in the 1st century. In the Ordinary Form, it is a feast, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class III day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Mary Magdalene, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them: