We’ve decided to change the format of our weekly guide (i.e. the posts we put up like this) to an email newsletter. If you want to subscribe, you will receive an email every Sunday morning with the collect and saints of the week. Click here to subscribe. I think we’ll include a very short “Upcoming Dates” section, instead of our “Homely Links.” And then, here on the blog we will have a big monthly post for liturgical living preparation with lots of resources and links. This weekly guide — with only the saints summaries and collect for the week — will be a little detached from the blog, with the idea that some people might just may just want that content without any of the extras.    

Collect: “O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” There are no saints listed for this week in the Ordo calendar, so we’re going to use this post for a few pieces of news. Homely Notes Change in Weekly Guide Format If you follow these weekly guides, please be on the lookout this week for a post about a change of format. For various reasons, we’re going to be moving this weekly guide into a weekly email newsletter. Some of this is just practical: it will be more convenient for me and, I imagine, there are some people who only want to receive the saints and collect of the week (i.e. the other content on this site isn’t very relevant to them). So, we’ll have a sign-up for that email newsletter coming soon. …

Collect: Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints of the Week Monday, August 26: St. Louis Born in 2014, the fourth son of King Louis VIII, Louis was crowned King of France at the age of 12 (his elder brothers had all died during his childhood). He married Margaret of Provence, who bore five sons and six daughters and was his strong and loving companion. His life and reign were devoted to God — he prayed the full monastic office every day and night, heard two masses a day, and made confession every Friday. He committed himself to justice and order — outlawing private wars and usury, personally inserting himself into unjust situations. In the midst of splendor and power, he lived austerely, ascetically — it’s said that at one point, he even discussed abdicating the throne in order to become a monk. In …

Collect: Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints  Tuesday, August 20: Saint Bernard Saint Bernard was born to a noble French family in the year 1090. The third of seven children, his mother’s death when he was seventeen plunged him into despair; only his sister Humbeline was able to bring him out of his depression. He entered the Benedictine abbey at Citeaux at the age of 22, along with 31 others whom he had persuaded to join him. After three years, Abbot Stephen of Citeaux sent Bernard with 12 other monks to found a new branch of the monastery , which he eventually named Clairvaux, or “Valley of Light.” As a leader of the reform within Benedictinism at that time, hundreds of monastic houses were founded using his system of rule. Fr. John Julian states …

Collect: “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Saints and Blesseds Monday, August 12: St. Clare of Assisi: Born in 1194 to a noble family, very little is known of St. Clare’s early life. We know that in 1212, when she was 18, St. Francis preached the Lenten sermons at her church. St. Clare was so compelled by St. Francis that on Palm Sunday, after the blessing of the palms, she ran out of the church to him and donned rough clothes instead of her her elegant gown. Francis cut her hair and gave her a veil and Clare became the first woman to follow him. He would call her “the first flower in my garden” and in many ways, she was the most faithful of his followers. Clare founded her own contemplative community, which came to be known as the …

Collect: “Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Saints: Monday, August 5: Saint Dominic St. Dominic was born between 1173 and 1175 in the Castilian village of Caleruega. While pregnant, his mother had several dreams which foretold that Dominic would be a light to the world. After being educated in theology and ordained, Dominic lived as a canon in the Rule of St. Augustine for around six years. While on official business traveling from Spain to Castile, Dominic and his companion encountered some Cistercian monks who shared their difficulties preaching against the popular Albigensian heresy in Southern France. The Albigensians believed that all matter was evil, thus denying the incarnation and the sacraments. In their extreme asceticism, they demanded celibacy, rigorous fasting and even esteemed suicide, but the laudible purity of their …

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 …