Saturday Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary

What did the widow do to get the judge to help her?

St. Nicholas was born around 1340 in Šibenik, a port town on the coast of Croatia, and became a Franciscan friar. For years he worked as a missionary in the mountains of Bosnia. But one place pulled at him more than any other: the Holy Land, where Jesus had walked. Around 1384 he got there and joined the Franciscans who were allowed to live on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and care for the holy places, on one condition. They could not preach in public. The city was ruled by Muslims, and proclaiming Christ in the streets was against the law.

Why couldn’t the friars in Jerusalem preach out loud?

Write one unanswered prayer on the fridge, say “Lord, hear our prayer” after it, and add one Hail Mary for the Holy Souls.

Continuing with something good even when it is hard, slow, or boring, without giving up. In prayer, it means asking God again tomorrow, and the day after that.

Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.

Why do we have to say the same prayer so many times in the Rosary? Doesn’t God hear it the first time?

Lord, you told us to keep asking. So we are asking again tonight. Hear the prayers on our list, the ones that have waited a long time. Give rest to the souls in Purgatory, and keep our faith strong until you come. Amen.

The boy was Laurence O’Toole, who became Archbishop of Dublin, and afterward St. Laurence O’Toole. He was Irish of the Irish: his mother’s name was O’Byrne, which is a great old name like O’Toole itself. As for the Christian name, Laurence, you may use the Irish form of it if you like: Lorcan. I think Lorcan is a lovely name for a boy, one of the many lovely saints’ names we have in Ireland.

The necessity of prayer is so often insisted upon in Holy Scripture that nothing is more clearly commanded than this duty. For although the Almighty knows what we stand in need of, as our Lord Himself tells us in St. Matthew’s Gospel, yet He wishes that we should ask for what we require and, by prayer, grasp it, as if by spiritual hands or some suitable instrument. Hear our Lord in St. Luke’s Gospel: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint,” and also, “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times.” Hear the apostle Paul: “Pray without ceasing”; and Ecclesiasticus: “Let nothing hinder thee from praying always.”

Tomorrow, November 15, is the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time and the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30), the second of November’s three “last things” parables: there will be a home talent show, so each child should decide tonight what one gift they will show, and a parent needs a coin per child for the “talent” to give away this week. The memory verse changes tomorrow to Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” If Confession did not happen today, next Saturday is the last one before the final week of the Church year.