Christmas: January 9th
Friday after Epiphany
Other Commemorations: Bl. Pauline-Marie Jaricot (RM)
MASS READINGS
January 09, 2004 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
All-powerful Father, you have made know the birth of the Savior by the light of a star. May he continue to guide us with his light, for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today is the Friday after Epiphany. No feast of a saint is celebrated. This gives us another opportunity to ponder the great mystery of the Epiphany. The Magi are the first messengers of the Gospel; they must go and tell the Gentiles that the Mystery of Salvation has begun, that the earth is in possession of its Savior, and that their salvation is near at hand. For their sakes, God will bless the nations of the earth; from this day forward infidelity will lose ground, and faith will progress; and when, the Blood of the Lamb having been shed, Baptism shall be promulgated, the Magi shall be, not merely men of desire, but perfect Christians, initiated into all the Mysteries of the Church.
Blessed Pauline-Marie Jaricot
Pauline Marie Jaricot was born to a very pious Catholic family in Lyons, France, July 22, 1799, and grew up dreaming of becoming a great missionary. Through her brother she developed a real concern for the Asian missions, and at age 17, she began to lead a life of unusual abnegation and self-sacrifice, and on Christmas Day, 1816, took a vow of perpetual virginity. At age 18, she composed a treatise on the Infinite Love of the Divine Eucharist.
In order to repair the sins of neglect and ingratitude committed against the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she established a union of prayer among pious servant girls, the members of which were known as the "Réparatrices du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus-Christ."
During an extended visit to her married sister at Saint-Vallier (Drôme), she succeeded in effecting a complete transformation in the licentious lives of the numerous girls employed by her brother-in-law. It was among them and the "Réparatrices" that she first solicited offerings for the foreign missions. Her systematic organization of such collections dates back to 1819 when she asked each of her intimate friends to act as a promoter by finding ten associates willing to contribute one cent each week to the propagation of the Faith. One out of every ten promoters gathered the collections of their fellow-promoters; through a logical extension of this system, all the offerings were ultimately remitted to one central treasurer. The Society for the Propagation of Faith at its official foundation (3 May 1822) adopted this method, and easily triumphed over the opposition which had sought from the very start to thwart the realization of Pauline Jaricot's plans.
In 1826 she founded the Association of the Living Rosary. The fifteen decades of the Rosary were divided among fifteen associates, each of whom had to recite daily only one determined decade. A second object of the new foundation was the spread of good books and articles of piety. An undertaking of Pauline's in the interest of social reform, though begun with prudence, involved her in considerable financial difficulties and ended in failure. She died on January 9, 1862 and was declared venerable on February 25, 1963. Pope Francis beatified Pauline-Marie on May 22, 2022.
Patronage: Against poverty; impoverishment; poverty.
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about Pauline-Marie Jaricot:
- Visit the website dedicated to Pauline Jaricot.
- Read the Letter written by Pope John Paul II for the bicentenary of the birth of Ven. Pauline-Marie Jaricot.
- Learn more about The Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
- Have your children offer extra prayers for the missions or make a small sacrifice for priests and nuns in mission countries.
