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Wednesday 10 May 2023    (other days)
Wednesday of the 5th week of Eastertide 
 or Saint John of Ávila, Priest, Doctor 

Using calendar: Europe. You can choose a country.

The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Year: A(I). Psalm week: 1. Liturgical Colour: White.

Saint John of Avila (c.1500-1569)

John was born in Almodóvar del Campo, in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, around 1500. As a priest he travelled throughout Andalusia, drawing crowds by his preaching. His enemies, disturbed by his success and challenged by his teaching, denounced him for heresy, and he made no attempt to avoid imprisonment or trial, but preached the Catholic faith even more fervently.
  He played an important part in the setting up of the Council of Trent, where his voice was heard through the treatises he wrote for its guidance even though he was not well enough to attend; and wrote a further work to guide the Bishop of Córdoba in the implementation of the Council’s reforms. He spent his last years in Montilla, and there he fell asleep in the Lord on 10 May 1569.

Other saints: Saint Damien of Molokai (1840 - 1889)

United States
Joseph de Veuster was born in Belgium and took the name Damien on entering the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at Leuven (Louvain). He landed in Hawaii in 1864, fulfilling his dream of becoming a missionary. In 1873, at his own request, he took up residence at the leper colony at Kalaupapa and ministered to its spiritual and material needs until he caught leprosy himself and eventually died of it.

Other saints: Saint Comgall (510/520 - 597/602)

Ireland
He was the founder and abbot of the great Irish monastery at Bangor in what is now Northern Ireland. See the article in Wikipedia.

Other saints: St. Antoninus of Florence OP (1389 - 1459)

10 May (where celebrated)
Dominican Friar and Bishop.
  Antonino Fierozzi was born in Florence in 1389 and in 1405 was received into the Order of Preachers “for the future priory of Fiesole” by Blessed John Dominic, who at that time was reforming the Dominican priories of the area according to the wishes of Blessed Raymond of Capua. He served the friars in various priories in Italy, often as local superior, and became a distinguished master of canon law. In 1436 he founded the famous priory of San Marco in Florence and under his leadership Fra Angelico decorated the priory and an outstanding library was collected. His wisdom and pastoral zeal made him a natural choice for Archbishop of Florence in 1446. He was noted for his service to the poor and established a society under the patronage of Saint Martin to assist him in this work. Among his writings the best known is his Summa moralis.
  His whole life was mirrored in his last words, “to serve God is to reign.” He died on May 2, 1459.

About the author of the Second Reading in today's Office of Readings:

Second Reading: The Letter to Diognetus

A 13th-century manuscript of the Letter from the Disciple to Diognetus was discovered in Constantinople in 1436, where it was being used as wrapping-paper in a fishmonger’s shop. It found its way to the abbey of Munster, and the first edition of it was published in 1592. The suppression of religious communities by the French Revolution in 1793 led to it being deposited in the municipal library at Strasbourg, where it was destroyed in 1870 by a fire started by German artillery. Two copies of the manuscript survive which were made in the 16th century.
  The Letter to Diognetus is a Christian apologetic work dating from the 2nd century, probably from late in that century. It was initially attributed to Justin Martyr but is now agreed to be by an unknown author. Whoever it was by, the letter seems to have passed out of general knowledge very early, since none of the standard authorities such as Eusebius mention it. The identity of the recipient is equally unknown. It is valuable as showing the nature of Christian belief in those very early days, and it is different from other Christian apologies in that it seems not to be a spontaneous work of explanation or justification, but a detailed response to a detailed series of questions.

Liturgical colour: white

White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
  In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)(Romans 4:24-25) ©
We believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us.

Noon reading (Sext)1 John 5:5-6 ©
Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ came by water and blood: not with water only, but with water and blood.

Afternoon reading (None)(Ephesians 4:23-24) ©
Let your spirits be renewed so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

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Latin America:  Brazil

Asia:  India · Malaysia · Singapore

Australia

Canada

Europe:  Belarus · Denmark · England · Estonia · Finland · France · Ireland · Italy · Malta · Netherlands · Poland · Scotland · Slovakia · Slovenia · Sweden · Wales

Middle East:  Southern Arabia

New Zealand

Philippines

United States


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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