Little Office of the Holy Angels
AT PRIME
Antiphon:
God hath given His Angels charge of thee, that they keep thee in all thy
ways. Amen.
O God, incline unto my aid.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen.
Alleluia.
HYMN
For Satan, driven from the happy land
Where once he shone in splendor, ill can brook
The kindly justice of the Almighty hand,
That gives to man the throne that he forsook;
And seeks to drag into his own disgrace
Poor mortals thus designed to fill his place.
Antiphon:
O holy Angels, our Guardians, defend us in the combat, that we perish not
in
the dreadful judgment.
V. In sight of Thy Angels I will sing to Thee, my God.
R. I will adore at Thy holy temple, and confess to Thy name.
PRAYER
O God, Who, with unspeakable providence, hast vouchsafed to appoint Thy
holy
Angels to be our Guardians
grant to Thy humble suppliants to be always defended by their protection,
and to enjoy their everlasting society through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our
Lord, Who liveth and reigneth, world without end. Amen.
<><><><>
September 10th - St. Nicholas of Tolentino, Healer, Seer
St. Nicholas was an Augustinian friar of the late 13th and early 14th
centuries. He was gifted with the charism of miraculous healings, but
equally significant was his tender care for the poor, the sick, the dying,
and his reconciling influence with those of hard hearts.
Nicholas was born, under auspicious cir***stances, in 1245 in the town of
Sant' Angelo, Italy. His parents had lived happily into middle age, but
were
childless. They prayed earnestly for the gift of a child, and made a
pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Nicholas of Bari. Through the intercession
of this Saint the mother beseeched God for a son who would be devoted to
His
service. Her holy prayer was heard, and at the baptism they gave the child
the name of his patron.
At a young age Nicholas received minor orders and apparently gained the
favor of the local church hierarchy, for his course was ostensibly set to
progress within the ranks of the secular clergy. Nicholas, however, had
other ideas. He desired to devote his total time and energy in the service
of God in a way which the life of the secular clergy would not allow.
The turning point for Nicholas came in the manner reminiscent of the
experience of St. Antony the Great. One day he happened into the
Augustinian
church of Sant' Angelo and he heard a friar preaching on the text: "Love
not
the world, nor the things which are in the world.... The world passeth
away...." Convicted by the words of the friar, he requested and promptly
gained admittance to the Augustinian friars. His novice master was the
very
friar whose words had turned Nicholas heart. By his eighteenth birthday he
had made his profession.
About the year 1270 Nicholas was ordained priest at Cingoli. It was there
that he healed a blind woman, and it seems that wherever he went, as he
moved among the friaries and missions, he gained a name for himself by
merit
of his charity, compassion and healings. During this period of almost
constant movement he was inclined to accept an invitation to stay on at a
monastery near Fermo, but while in prayer he heard a voice directing him:
"To Tolentino, to Tolentino. Persevere there." And, providentially, his
superiors sent him to Tolentino where he was to spend the remaining thirty
years of his life.
To this town torn and tormented by civil strife with its resulting
fanaticism, schism and reckless abandon, Nicholas was sent to preach on
the
streets. By God's grace he gained remarkable success. He went through the
slums tending to the sick and dying. Sometimes he was an instrument of
physical cures. He watched over the children, converted the lawless and
reconciled quarrels.
Nicholas was bedridden with illness for the final year of his life. Near
the
end he arose from his bed only once in order to absolve a penitent who, as
he knew, would have concealed a mortal sin from any confessor other than
himself. We can assume that aided by Nicholas' selfless service, this
penitent made a full and contrite confession and received abundant grace
and
forgiveness from God. Such was the compassion of this Saint.
According to some legends, Nicholas heard choirs of angels singing
assurances of his salvation for several months before his death. He died
peacefully on September 10, 1305, at the age of sixty. He was canonized in
1446.
The various patronages ascribed to Nicholas derive largely from legendary
accounts of his life. It is related that on several occasions he was
granted
visions of his prayers freeing souls from purgatory. He is said to have
distributed bread over which he had invoked the blessing of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. This bread, known as "St. Nicholas' Bread," was claimed to
have
caused numerous miracles including the extingui****ng of fires and the
healing of sick animals.
Saint Quote:
The heavens are not pure in the sight of Him Whom I serve; how then shall
I,
a sinful man, stand before Him?
-Saint Nicholas
Bible Quote:
Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures,
nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)
<><><><>
TO A MIRACULOUS MOTHER
Blessed Mother, be my guide!
Be here always at my side!
Take me through this world of sorrow,
Show me there's a bright tomorrow!
|
