Each month has an illustration in color; these are various religious themes painted in our Monastery: scenes from the Old and New Testaments and other pious paintings. Pictures of the Saint for each day are also featured. May this calendar be an instrument of edification and a blessing for the homes and businesses where it is displayed.
To attract the Holy Spirit, let us imitate the Apostles and disciples of Jesus and withdraw into the Cenacle with Mary. The Cenacle signifies a life of recollection, prayers, holy desires. It informs us that we ought to live united to the Mother of our Saviour in a constant heart-to-heart, to think, love and act like Her, to mingle our supplications with Hers and touch the Heart of God.
A novena with a prayer for each day requesting one of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, concluding on the ninth day with a prayer to receive them through the intercession of Mary, His cherished Spouse. Devotional, instructive, inspirational!
Saint James the Less – Protector of the month of May.
Short biography and prayer to the holy Apostle.
Also a few excerpts of his Epistle.
Short account of the life of Saint Philip the Apostle, Protector of the Month of April, followed by a prayer to this Holy Apostle of Our Lord.
Summary of the Gospel narrative of the Saviour’s apparitions. Let us admire the wisdom and goodness of Jesus, who wanted to multiply the proofs of His resurrection. The Apostles were decisively converted and transformed. Previously fearful and hesitant, they now braved torture and death to declare the resurrection of the Master. Crowds were converted thousands at a time. Martyrs began to shed their blood. Witnesses of the resurrection did not retreat in the face of scourgings, the teeth of ferocious beasts, fire and sword. Christ had indeed risen: they would proclaim it even at the cost of their life; they would give unto the last drop of their blood to attest to this truth.
Saint Jude Apostle – protector of the month of March.
Short biography and prayer to the Patron of desperate cases.
Saint Matthias is perhaps the Apostle whose life and labors are the least known to us. The little we do know is found in chapter one of the Acts of the Apostles and in Tradition. God wished to hide the labors and even the death of a good number of His Apostles. Furthermore, it suffices to say for the glory of Saint Matthias that he was one of the first disciples of Jesus, that God Himself designated him to complete the company of the Apostles, that he united his labors, his life and his death to the labors, life and death of these preachers of the Faith.
To obey God’s command, Abraham accepted to immolate his son Isaac, when an Angel came to prevent him. Called the father of believers, Abraham is a figure of the Eternal Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to redeem us through His death upon the Cross.
Watchword and Wish for 2018:
May This Year Be a Eucharistic Year,
Through the Mass, Communion and Adoration of Jesus Host
Live in Intimacy with God
