"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday of the Fifth week of Easter
Saints of the day:
Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, S.C.(March 26, 1901–May 8, 1927)
Sr. Miriam Teresa was an American Ruthenian Catholic Sister of Charity, who has been beatified by the Catholic Church. The ceremony for this was the first to take place in the United States.
She was born Teresa Demjanovich in Bayonne, New Jersey, on March 26, 1901, the youngest of seven children, of Alexander Demjanovich and Johanna Suchy), Ruthenian immigrants to the United States from what is now eastern Slovakia. She received Baptism, Confirmation, and her First Holy Communion in the Byzantine Ruthenian rite of her parents.
Teresa felt called to the religious life from a very young age. She delayed her entrance to care for her mother who fell ill. Her family encouraged her to pursue a college education , she attended the College of St. Elizabeth graduating with highest honors in 1923. She pursued her desire to enter the discalced Carmel, but was discouraged by superiors because of health concerns. She then considered a teaching order and For the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, she made a novena and, at its conclusion on December 8, she decided she was called to enter the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth. She never received an official transfer of rite, and therefore remained a Byzantine Rite Catholic while serving as a Religious Sister in a Roman Rite congregation.
As a postulant and novice, Demjanovich taught at the Academy of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station during 1925-1926. In June 1926, her spiritual director, Father Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., asked her to write the conferences for the novitiate. She wrote 26 conferences which, after her death, were published in a book, Greater Perfection.
In November 1926, Demjanovich became ill. After a tonsillectomy, she returned to the convent, but was soon diagnosed with myocarditis and acute appendicitis. Doctors did not think she was strong enough for an operation and her condition worsened. Demjanovich's profession of permanent religious vows was made "in articulo mortis" (danger of death) on 2 April 1927. She was operated on for appendicitis on 6 May 1927 and died on 8 May 1927.
Favors and cures attributed to her intercession are continually being reported. On December 17, 2013, Pope Francis approved the attribution of a miraculous healing to the intercession of Demjanovich, opening the way to her beatification. Demjanovich was beatified at a ceremony on October 4, 2014, held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
Saint Victor IDeath: 199
The author of a treatise on the throwing of dice, St. Victor was an African who made Latin the official language of the Roman church. He was a favorite of Marcia, mistress to the Emperor Commodus, and gave her lists of imprisoned Christians, whom she released. Victor excommunicated several bishops for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. Irenaeus of Lyons criticized Victor's severity. During his papacy (189-198), Victor also fought gnosticism and monarchianism.
Saint Victor Maurus
Feastday: May 8
Death: 303
Victor Maurus was a native of Mauretania. He was born in the third century, and was called Maurus to distinguish him from other confessors named Victor. He is believed to have been a soldier in the Praetorian guard. Victor was a Christian from his youth, but it was not until he was an elderly man that he was arrested for the Faith. After severe tortures, including being basted with molten lead, he was decapitated under Maximian in Milan around the year 303. Later a church was erected over his grave. According to St. Gregory of Tours, many miracles occurred at the shrine. In 1576, at the request of St. Charles of Borromeo, Victor's relics were transferred to a new church in Milan established by the Olivetan monks. The church still bears St. Victor's name today. After a life of adherence to the Faith during perilous times, St. Victor Maurus was taken prisoner and tortured as an old man. Despite age, infirmity, and declining health, he remained steadfast in the Faith, gladly giving up his life for the Kingdom. His generous response to the call to martyrdom stands as a solemn sign to the modern church of the folly of the things of this world. His feast day is May 8th.
Friday ofThe Fifth week of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 15:22 Then the emissaries and the elders, together with the whole Messianic community, decided to select men from among themselves to send to Antioch with Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba. They sent Y’hudah, called Bar-Sabba, and Sila, both leading men among the brothers, 23 with the following letter:
From: The emissaries and the elders, your brothers
To: The brothers from among the Gentiles throughout Antioch, Syria and Cilicia
Greetings!
24 We have heard that some people went out from among us without our authorization, and that they have upset you with their talk, unsettling your minds. 25 So we have decided unanimously to select men and send them to you with our dear friends Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul, 26 who have dedicated their lives to upholding the name of our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah. 27 So we have sent Y’hudah and Sila, and they will confirm in person what we are writing.
28 For it seemed good to the Ruach HaKodesh and to us not to lay any heavier burden on you than the following requirements: 29 to abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you will be doing the right thing.
Shalom!
30 The messengers were sent off and went to Antioch, where they gathered the group together and delivered the letter. 31 After reading it, the people were delighted by its encouragement.
Psalm 57:8 (7) My heart is steadfast, God, steadfast.
I will sing and make music.
9 (8) Awake, my glory! Awake, lyre and lute!
I will awaken the dawn.
10 (9) I will thank you, Adonai, among the peoples;
I will make music to you among the nations.
12 (11) Be exalted, God, above heaven!
May your glory be over all the earth!
Holy Gospel According to Saint John 15:12 “This is my command: that you keep on loving each other just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends, if you do what I command you. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is about; but I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, I chose you; and I have commissioned you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that whatever you ask from the Father in my name he may give you. 17 This is what I command you: keep loving each other!
Friday of the Fifth week of Easter
Commentary of the day:
Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 to 2013
Encyclical “ Spe salvi ”, § 38-39 (© Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves—these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself. Yet once again the question arises: are we capable of this?... In the history of humanity, it was the Christian faith that had the particular merit of bringing forth within man a new and deeper capacity for these kinds of suffering that are decisive for his humanity. The Christian faith has shown us that truth, justice and love are not simply ideals, but enormously weighty realities. It has shown us that God —Truth and Love in person—desired to suffer for us and with us.
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