"Do not seek to be regarded as somebody, don't compare yourself to others in anything. Leave the world, mount the cross, discard all earthly things, shake the dust from off your feet." St. Barsanuphius
Today's Meditation
“He that sacrifices to God his property by alms-deeds, his honor by bearing insults, or his body by mortifications, by fasts and penitential rigours, offers to Him a part of himself and of what belongs to him; but he that sacrifices to God his will, by obedience, gives to Him all that he has, and can say: Lord, having given you my will, I have nothing more to give you.”
—St. Alphonsus Liguori, p. 191
Daily Verse
"Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made." Romans 1:20a
St. Zoe of Rome
Saint of the Day
St. Zoe of Rome (d. 286 A.D.) was a noblewoman married to a Roman court official during the reign of the infamous Emperor Diocletian. For six years she suffered from a condition that left her unable to speak; when she met St. Sebastian she fell at his feet so that he would heal her. St. Sebastian made the Sign of the Cross over her, and from that moment her speech miraculously returned. As she was being healed she had a vision of an angel standing next to St. Sebastian holding a book in which was written everything that St. Sebastian preached. Her first words were ones of thanks and praise to God, and many witnesses of the miracle were brought to faith in Christ. Zoe and her husband then received baptism, along with many others who had come to believe in Christ through St. Sebastian’s miracles. Of this new group of Christians, St. Zoe was the first to be martyred for her faith. She was greatly devoted to St. Peter the Apostle, and was arrested while praying at his tomb. She was martyred by being hung from a tree by her hair, with a fire lit under her feet. After her death her body was thrown into the Tiber River. She then appeared in a vision to St. Sebastian, who was in prison awaiting his execution, to tell him of her martyrdom and subsequent glory. St. Zoe of Rome’s feast day is July 5th.
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Month of the Precious Blood
Devotion of the Month
The month of July traditionally honors the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. It is the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, which cleanses us from sin—therefore the Church developed a devotion to Jesus’ physical blood and its mystical power, just as it did for His Sacred Heart from which His blood poured out on the Cross. The Precious Blood of Jesus courses through the Church