Collect: O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints and Blesseds: Monday, July 29: St. Mary and Martha of Bethany St. Mary and St. Martha, along with their brother Lazarus, welcomed Jesus into their home at Bethany outside of Jerusalem. And Scripture says that Jesus loved all three of them. In Luke 10:38-42, we have the famous story where Mary sits at Jesus’s feet, while Martha is serving. Interestingly, rather than this necessarily pitting the contemplative life against the active, this account shows how Jesus lifts up women. A woman sitting at the feet of a Rabbi was forbidden and Martha’s protest was not a matter of jealousy or annoyance, but of upholding cultural standards for a Rabbi. Jesus’s response is breathtaking: “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,  but few things …

Collect: Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Saints and Blesseds Monday, July 22: St. Mary Magdalene St. Mary Magdalene was probably from Magdala by the sea of Galilee. In Luke 8:2-3, Mary, “from whom seven demons had come out,” is grouped with the “women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases… who supported [Jesus] out of their own means” and who traveled with Jesus and the Twelve. In the Western tradition, she was also identified with Mary of Bethany, the unnamed penitent woman who anoints Jesus, and the woman taken in adultery. While that is likely over-simplification, we know that she had a prominent place among Jesus’s followers. She stayed beside the cross during Jesus’s crucifixion, she discovered the empty tomb, and she is the first person to whom Jesus appeared who took the good news of the Resurrection to the disciples. Bishop Hippolytus …

(There weren’t any saints listed on the Ordo Calendar for this week, so it’s nice to take a little break. )

Collect: O Lord, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may, by thy mighty aid, be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints Days Thursday, July 11 – St. Benedict of Nursia All we know about St. Benedict of Nursia is what St. Gregory the Great wrote about him in the second book of his dialogues. St. Benedict and his twin sister St. Scholastica were born around 480 in the city of Nursia in central Italy. The Roman Empire had collapsed in 476. When Benedict was sent to Rome to study when he was 14, he was so appalled by the immorality of his fellow students and the city itself that he secretly fled and joined a small community of scholars 30 miles away. He then became a hermit in Subiaco, where he began to attract followers. Eventually, after a few poisoning attempts from monks who had wanted him to be their abbot and …