Friday of week 23 in Ordinary Time, or The Most Holy Name of Mary

Office of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | Mass(The Most Holy Name of Mary)

Saint John Chrysostom, Bishop, DoctorOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassSt John Chrysostom (349 - 407)

He was born in Antioch. After a thorough education, he took up the ascetic life. He was ordained to the priesthood, and became a fruitful and effective preacher.He was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 397, and was energetic in reforming the ways of the clergy and the laity alike. He incurred the displeasure of the Emperor and was twice forced into exile. When the second exile, to Armenia, had lasted three years, it was decided that he should be sent still further away, but he died on the journey, worn out by his hardships.His sermons and writings did much to explain the Catholic faith and to encourage the living of the Christian life: his eloquence earned him the surname “Chrystostom” (the Greek for “golden mouth”).See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

The Exaltation of the Holy CrossOffice of Readings | Morning Prayer | Evening Prayer | Night Prayer | MassDante Alighieri (1265 - 1321)

Dante, who died on this day in 1321, is probably the greatest Catholic poet ever. “The Divine Comedy” is a massive poem narrating a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise – it is simultaneously a vision, an imaginative poem, a spiritual journey, a commentary on life and politics, a deep work of psychology, and a synthesis of the then still revolutionary theology of St Thomas Aquinas.Too many people think of “grim Dante” of the Inferno (Hell), the inventor of grotesque punishments, and that is all they know of and read. Fools! The horrors of Hell are the horrors of sin itself, nothing more, nothing less: sin stripped of the false romanticism we give it. It is where the poem starts from, not where it is going. The most human of the three books is the Purgatorio (Purgatory), where you see ordinary, fallible men and women – people like you and me – no longer able to sin, or wanting to, but still bearing the stain and being purged of it. Suffering there is, but there is also joy.Incidentally, Dante was the first Italian to use a language other than Latin for serious work, and he is, more or less, the creator of Italian as a literary language.Read him, and pray for him. He wrote of the vision of God; may he be experiencing it.The Exaltation of the Cross