Universalis: Today

Universalis

Saturday 30 August 2008
Saturday of week 21 of the year
or Saints Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward, martyrs

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Tomorrow: 22nd Sunday of the year
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The Lord’s is the earth and its fulness: come, let us worship.

St Margaret Clitherow, née Middleton (1556 - 1586): She was born in York and lived there all her life. At the age of 15 she married a butcher, John Clitherow, and three years later became a Catholic. Imprisoned for her non-attendance at the Protestant church, she taught herself to read, and on her release ran a small school for her own and her neighbours’ children. Her husband, although he remained a Protestant himself, allowed her to hide priests in the house. In 1586 the secret hiding places were discovered and Margaret was put on trial. As the law then stood, to be found guilty would have meant destitution for her children, so she refused to plead: thus she could not be tried, and instead was crushed to death with a heavy stone, on 25 March 1586.

St Anne Line, née Heigham (1565? - 1601): She was born in Dunmow, in Essex. In her teens she became a Catholic and was disinherited by her family, and in 1585 she married another disinherited convert, Roger Line. Her husband was imprisoned for his faith and then sent into exile, leaving her destitute. She taught and embroidered and also kept house for priests. One day a large number of people were seen congregating at her house for Mass. She was arrested, tried, condemned to death, and hanged at Tyburn in London on 27 February 1601.

St Margaret Ward (- 1588): She was born in Congdon, in Cheshire, and became a servant of a family in London. She was arrested after helping a priest to escape from prison, but even under severe torture she refused to reveal his hiding place or to renounce her faith. She was tried at the Old Bailey and executed on 30 August 1588.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)	1 Kings 8:60 - 61 ©
May all the peoples of the earth come to know that the Lord is God indeed, and that there is no other. May your hearts be wholly with the Lord our God, following his laws and keeping his commandments as at this present day.

Noon reading (Sext)	Jeremiah 17:9 - 10 ©
The heart is more devious than any other thing, perverse too: who can pierce its secrets? I, the Lord, search to the heart, I probe the loins, to give each man what his conduct and his actions deserve.

Afternoon reading (None)	Wisdom 7:27 - 8:1 ©
Although she is alone, Wisdom can accomplish everything. She deploys her strength from one end of the earth to the other, ordering all things for good.

August 2008
Fri 29	The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Sat 30	Saturday of week 21 of the year or Saints Margaret Clitherow, Anne Line, and Margaret Ward, martyrs
Sun 31	22nd Sunday of the year
September 2008
Mon 1	Monday of week 22 of the year
Tue 2
Wed 3	Saint Gregory the Great, Pope, Doctor Feast
Thu 4	Thursday of week 22 of the year or Saint Cuthbert, Bishop
Fri 5
Sat 6

Calendar used: Europe - England

Scripture readings taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.

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