The Latin calender had St Gabriel for March 24th. I still give him a shout out today even though it was changed.
The Germans in the past used to say instead of "Danke": Vergelt's Gott and the reply would have been: Segne's Gott
Exactly! Out of use, unfortunately. At least in Bavaria one can still hear : Grüß Gott as a greeting.
Yes, 24 March is so proper. One day before St. Gabriel's annunciation to the Blessed Virgin, which is today, 25 March. The annunciation is the greatest feast day, according to Pope Benedict XVI, since through Mary's "yes" salvation came into the world. Happy feast day to all here!
S. Gabrielis Archangeli ~ Duplex majus Commemoratio: Feria Tertia infra Hebdomadam Passionis Divinum Officium Divino Afflatu - 1939 ↓ 3-24-2026 ↑ Not before 1939 according to divinumofficium.org, Then S. Gabrielis Archangeli ~ III. classis Commemoratio: Feria Tertia infra Hebdomadam Passionis Divinum Officium Rubrics 1960 - 2020 USA ↓ 3-24-2026 ↑
SOLEMN FEAST WEDNESDAY, 25 MARCH, 2026 SOLEMNITY OF THE INCARNATION AND THE ANNUNCIATION A tradition, which has come down from the apostolic ages, tells us that the great mystery of the Incarnation was achieved on the twenty-fifth day of March. It was at the hour of midnight, when the most holy Virgin was alone and absorbed in prayer, that the Archangel Gabriel appeared before her, and asked her, in the name of the Blessed Trinity, to consent to become the Mother of God. Let us assist, in spirit, at this wonderful interview between the angel and the Virgin: and, at the same time, let us think of that other interview which took place between Eve and the serpent. A holy bishop and martyr of the second century, Saint Irenaeus, who had received the tradition from the very disciples of the apostles, shows us that Nazareth is the counterpart of Eden. In the garden of delights there is a virgin and an angel; and a conversation takes place-between them. At Nazareth a virgin is also addressed by an angel, and she answers him; but the angel of the earthly paradise is a spirit of darkness, and he of Nazareth is a spirit of light. In both instances it is the angel that has the first word. 'Why,' said the serpent to Eve, 'hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?' His question implies impatience and a solicitation to evil; he has contempt for the frail creature to whom he addresses it, but he hates the image of God which is upon her. See, on the other hand, the angel of light; see with what composure and peacefulness he approaches the Virgin of Nazareth, the new Eve; and how respectfully he bows himself down before her: 'Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!' Such language is evidently of heaven: none but an angel could speak thus to Mary. Scarcely has the wicked spirit finished speaking than Eve casts a longing look at the forbidden fruit: she is impatient to enjoy the independence it is to bring her. She rashly stretches forth her hand; she plucks the fruit; she eats it, and death takes possession of her: death of the soul, for sin extinguishes the light of life; and death of the body, which being separated from the source of immortality, becomes an object of shame and horror, and finally crumbles into dust. But let us turn away our eyes from this sad spectacle, and fix them on Nazareth. Mary has heard the angel's explanation of the mystery; the will of heaven is made known to her, and how grand an honor it is to bring upon her! She, the humble maid of Nazareth, is to have the ineffable happiness of becoming the Mother of God, and yet the treasure of her virginity is to be left to her! Mary bows down before this sovereign will, and says to the heavenly messenger: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.' Thus, as the great St. Irenaeus and so many of the holy fathers remark, the obedience of the second Eve repaired the disobedience of the first: for no sooner does the Virgin of Nazareth speak her fiat, 'be it done,' than the eternal Son of God (who, according to the divine decree, awaited this word) is present, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, in the chaste womb of Mary, and there He begins His human life. A Virgin is a Mother, and Mother of God; and it is this Virgin's consenting to the divine will that has made her conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost. This sublime mystery puts between the eternal Word and a mere woman the relations of Son and Mother; it gives to the almighty God a means whereby He may, in a manner worthy of His majesty, triumph over satan, who hitherto seemed to have prevailed against the divine plan. Never was there a more entire or humiliating defeat than that which this day befell satan. The frail creature, over whom he had so easily triumphed at the beginning of the world, now rises and crushes his proud head. Eve conquers in Mary. God would not choose man for the instrument of His vengeance; the humiliation of satan would not have been great enough; and therefore she who was the first prey of hell, the first victim of the tempter, is selected to give battle to the enemy. The result of so glorious a triumph is that Mary is to be superior not only to the rebel angels, but to the whole human race, yea, to all the angels of heaven. Seated on her exalted throne, she, the Mother of God, is to be the Queen of all creation. Satan, in the depths of the abyss, will eternally bewail his having dared to direct his first attack against the woman, for God has now so gloriously avenged her; and in heaven, the very Cherubim and Seraphim reverently look up to Mary, and deem themselves honored when she smiles upon them, or employs them in the execution of any of her wishes, for she is the Mother of their God. Therefore is it that we, the children of Adam, who have been snatched by Mary's obedience from the power of hell, solemnize this day of the Annunciation. Well may we say of Mary those words of Debbora, when she sang her song of victory over the enemies of God's people: ‘The valiant men ceased, and rested in Israel, until Debbora arose, a mother arose in Israel. The Lord chose new wars, and He Himself overthrew the gates of the enemies.' Let us also refer to the holy Mother of Jesus these words of Judith, who by her victory over the enemy was another type of Mary: 'Praise ye the Lord our God, who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him. And by me, His handmaid, He hath fulfilled His mercy, which He promised to the house of Israel; and He hath killed the enemy of His people by my hand this night. . . . The almighty Lord hath struck him, and hath delivered him into the hands of a woman, and hath slain him.' PRAYER ON THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION O God, Who wast pleased that the eternal Word, according to the declaration of the angel, should take flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Give to our humble petitions; and grant that we, who believe her to be truly the Mother of God, may be helped by her prayers. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
One really wonderful thing about the Annunciation is how beautiful the whole story is. That this Great Angel should come down from heaven , one of the seven great spirits that stand in the presence of God to greet a humble peasant girl in a very humble village. Heaven and Earth held it's breath to hear her say , 'Yes'. I think we see small shadows of this in Marian Apparition sites such as Lourdes.
In Annuntiatione Beatæ Mariæ Virginis ~ Duplex I. classis Feria Quarta infra Hebdomadam Passionis ◾The latest miracle at Lourdes through the intercession of BMV The 72nd officially recognized miracle at Lourdes is the healing of Antonietta Raco, an Italian woman who recovered from Primary Lateral Sclerosis (a progressive neurological disease) after a 2009 pilgrimage, a case formally recognized in April 2025 as instantaneous, lasting, and medically inexplicable, notes the Catholic Telegraph and Catholic Review. Key Details of the 72nd Miracle: The Beneficiary: Antonietta Raco, who was wheelchair-bound and suffered from severe breathing and swallowing issues due to the degenerative disease. The Healing: While bathing in the Lourdes water in 2009, she felt a sudden change and experienced a complete recovery, enabling her to walk again. Formal Recognition: Following a 16-year, rigorous investigation, Bishop Vincenzo Carmine Orofino of Tursi-Lagonegro officially proclaimed the healing as a miracle on April 16, 2025, a date highlighted by Palais du Rosaire. Antonia Raco, a 67-year-old Italian woman long affected by an incurable neurodegenerative illness, was officially introduced to the press on July 25 in Lourdes, where her healing was recognized as the 72nd miracle attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary since the apparitions of 1858. Diagnosed in 2006 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a progressive and fatal condition — Raco experienced a recovery that defied medical explanation. First announced by the Sanctuary of Lourdes on April 16, the recognition marked the culmination of 16 years of medical, canonical, and pastoral inquiry. Raco, a mother and active parishioner from Basilicata in southern Italy, had been living with the disease for several years when she traveled to Lourdes in 2009. “I had wanted to go to Lourdes since I was a child,” she recalled. That wish came true that summer, when she and her husband, Antonio, traveled to the shrine with the Italian pilgrimage association Unitalsi. The experience, however, was not exactly as she had once imagined: She arrived in a wheelchair, already struggling to breathe and swallow. On the second day, sanctuary volunteers brought her to the baths. “We prayed together. That’s when I heard a beautiful young female voice say three times: ‘Don’t be afraid!’” she recounted during the press conference in Lourdes, held in the presence of religious and medical authorities. Raco wore the white veil and uniform of the Hospitallers of Lourdes — the volunteer caregivers she now joins each year, assisting the sick with the same compassion once shown to her. “At that moment, I burst into tears and prayed for the intentions I had brought with me.” She described a sudden, sharp pain in her legs during immersion, as though “they were taken away from me.” She did not disclose what had happened to anyone during her stay and returned home in a wheelchair. It was there, in her living room with her husband, that she again heard the same voice urging her, “Tell him! Call him!” Obeying the voice, she called out to her husband, who had just stepped into the kitchen. “Something has happened,” she told him. In that moment, she stood unaided for the first time in years. Overcome with emotion, the couple embraced, crying together as they realized she was cured. Though overjoyed, Raco was initially unsure of how to speak about her experience. She eventually confided in a parish priest in her diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro in Basilicata, who urged her to undergo medical evaluation. Soon after, the local archbishop who had accompanied the pilgrimage that year, Francesco Nolè, visited her and, after hearing her story, told her: “Antonietta, the Lord has entered your home and given you a gift — but it is not for you alone. It is for all of us.” The road to recognition took more than a decade of thorough medical evaluation and expert review. “There is no cure for ALS,” noted Professor Vincenzo Silani, a leading neurologist involved in the investigation. He was among those who confirmed both the diagnosis and the inexplicability of Raco’s recovery. “Patients are doomed to get a little worse every day.” Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, the permanent doctor at the Lourdes Sanctuary, reminded the audience that the Church considers a healing miraculous only if it is sudden, complete, lasting, medically inexplicable, and not attributable to treatment or gradual recovery. These criteria, which continue to guide the Church’s discernment today, were first established by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, later Pope Benedict XIV. Committee of Lourdes (CMIL) was initially inconclusive when the case was first presented in 2019. But a new international consensus on the diagnosis of ALS, published in 2020, provided the framework for reassessment. In 2023, Silani reevaluated Raco in Milan and confirmed the definitive cure. Finally, in November 2024, a secret vote was held among 21 members of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes: 17 voted in favor of an unexplained, complete, and lasting cure — meeting the two-thirds majority required by Church criteria. Following the positive medical vote, the case was referred to the current bishop of Raco’s home diocese, Vincenzo Carmine Orofino, who formally recognized the miracle on April 16 of this year. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, who participated in the scientific process without voting, praised the rigor and transparency of the medical discussions. “What impressed me most,” he said, “was the freedom of the experts. They are not there to defend a cause but to seek the truth.” He also reminded the participants that miracles never impose faith. “Even the Resurrection did not force anyone to believe,” he said. “A miracle is a sign — a gift to be received in the light of faith. ‘CNA Newsroom, Jul 26, 2025
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 26 MARCH, 2026 SAINT MARGARET CLITHEROW (1556 – 25 March, 1586) Margaret was born in 1556 in England. She was raised as a Protestant, a member of the Church of England, but after her marriage to John Clitherow, she made the decision to become Catholic. It was a brave decision, because Margaret lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who wanted to rid England of all Catholics and the practice of the Catholic faith. Margaret's husband did not become Catholic, but he supported her decision. John even paid the fines Margaret was charged for not attending Protestant services in their local church. Margaret had two hiding places built in their home. One was a small room, large enough for several priests to hide from the authorities looking to arrest any members of the clergy. The other secret place in Margaret's house was a small cupboard. In it she kept the sacred vessels, including a chalice and paten and vestments—anything a priest would need to celebrate the Eucharist. Catholics came secretly to Margaret's house for celebrations of the Mass and for the reception of the other Sacraments. We believe that Margaret and John's three children were baptized there as infants. The home was searched often because the authorities suspected that Margaret was breaking the laws against Catholics. Margaret made plans to send her oldest son to France so that he could receive a Catholic education. This, too, was a crime. Someone reported Margaret, and she was arrested in 1586 for harboring priests. She refused to admit that she had broken any laws. Margaret was found guilty and sentenced to death at the age of 30. Margaret was executed by being crushed to death on Good Friday in March 25, 1586. The two sergeants who were assigned to kill her, could not, and hired four desperate beggars to kill her. She was stripped and had a handkerchief tied across her face, then laid out upon a sharp rock the size of a man's fist, a door was put on top of her and slowly loaded with an immense weight of rocks and stones. It took her 15 minutes to die as she was crushed with rocks and stones. Her last words were “Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! have mercy on me!” Her death occurred in fifteen minutes, but she was left as an example for six hours until the weight was removed. Her hand was saved following her death and is now a relic in the chapel of the Bar Convent in York. After her execution, Queen Elizabeth I, wrote to the citizens of York to say that she should never have been executed due to her being a woman. Margaret's great faith was an inspiration to all three of her children. Her daughter, Anne, became a nun, and her two sons, Henry and William, both became priests. A plaque was installed at the end of the Ouse Bridge in 2008, to mark the site of her martyrdom. She was beatified in 1929, by Pope Pius XI and canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI along with martyrs from England and Wales. This group of candidates that were canonized are commonly called, “The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales”. She is sometimes referred to as the “Pearl of York.” The house believed to have been hers is now called the Shrine of the St. Margaret Clitherow and is open to the public. PATRONAGE: Business Women, Converts, Martyrs, Catholic Women's League. NOVENA PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, give us the courage and grace not only to live holy lives, but to be willing to die holy deaths as St. Margaret of Clitherow did. We thank you, dear Lord, for the examples of your holy saints. May we follow in their footsteps. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.
Blessed of the Day — March 26 Today marks the death anniversary of Blessed Maddalena Caterina Morano (1847–1908), a Salesian Sister who died on this date in Catania, Sicily, after twenty-five years transforming the lives of poor girls and young women across the island. Born into poverty in Piedmont, she set aside her own vocation for twelve years to support her widowed mother before finally entering religious life under Saint John Bosco. She is patron of teachers and catechists. ◾Her beatification miracle was investigated by the Vatican's Consulta Medica, which confirmed it as medically inexplicable on 19 June 1992. The healing concerned a case of tuberculosis. Pope John Paul II approved the miracle in 1994 and beatified her in Catania on 5 November 1994 — fittingly, in the very city where she had spent her life's work. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maddalena_Caterina_Morano Blessed Maddalena Caterina Morano, pray for us.
There was a wonderful piece on EWTN on St Margaret a while back. One take was on the position of her husband who loved her very,very much and was a successful buisnessman, It was clear that Margaret was rocking the boat everywhere by remaining Catholic and was going to bring big trouble om herself and perhaps on himself too. But he never tried ordered her to stop , he loved and respected her so much. They gave her a really terrible death, crushing her with weights, slow and agonising. She reminds me a lot of a lady who has been on the news a lot lately, Carrie Prejean Boller: https://www.newsweek.com/carrie-pre...award-after-trump-commission-ousting-11709049 St Margaret said, 'I will not join my prayers to yours, nor you to mine'. She died for this. Vatican take note.
SAINT OF THE DAY FRIDAY, 27 MARCH, 2026 SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT HERMIT (304 - 394) A man who desired to be alone with God was to become one of the most famous hermits of his time. St. John of Egypt was born in the year 304. Not much is known about his childhood except that he learned the carpenter's trade. John was noted for performing seemingly absurd acts at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, such as rolling rocks from place to place and cultivating dead trees. He avoided seeing women, in particular, to avoid temptation, but he avoided all people for the last fifty years of his life. Saint Augustine wrote that John was tempted by devils and performed miraculous cures. He cured a woman, according to Augustine, of blindness and then appeared to her in a vision to avoid seeing her in person. He possessed the spiritual gift of prophecy and spoke through a window to people twice a week, often predicting the future and knowing the details of persons he had never met. When he was twenty-five, John decided to leave the world for good to spend his life in prayer and sacrifice for God. He was one of the famous desert hermits of that time. For ten years he was the disciple of an elderly, seasoned hermit. This holy man taught him the spiritual life. St. John called him his "spiritual father." After the older monk's death, St. John spent four or five years in various monasteries. He wanted to become familiar with the way monks pray and live. Finally, John found a cave high in the rocks. The area was quiet and protected from the desert sun and winds. He divided the cave into three parts: a living room, a work room and a little chapel. People in the area brought him food and other necessities. Many also came to seek his advice about important matters. Even Emperor Theodosius I asked his advice twice, in 388 and in 392. He predicted future victories to the Emperor Theodosius the Great. Such well-known saints as Augustine and Jerome wrote about the holiness of St. John. When so many people came to visit him, some men became his disciples. They stayed in the area and built a hospice. They took care of the hospice so that more people could come to benefit from the wisdom of this hermit. St. John was able to prophesy future events. He could look into the souls of those who came to him. He could read their thoughts. When he applied blessed oil on those who had a physical illness, they were often cured. Even when John became famous, he kept humble and did not lead an easy life. He never ate before sunset. When he did eat, his food was dried fruit and vegetables. He never ate meat or cooked or warm food. St. John believed that his self-sacrificing life would help him keep close to God. John prayed incessantly, and he spent the last three days of his life without food or drink or any interactions but prayer. He was discovered in his cell, with his body in a position of prayer. He died peacefully in 394 at the age of ninety. PATRON: Hermits. PRAYER: Dear God, I pray that I discover the special gifts you have given me, and that I learn how to use them in all the circumstances of my life and to help others grow closer to you. Teach me, Holy Spirit, to accept and grow in the gifts you've bestowed upon me, and favor me with more as I grow in holiness. Amen. St. John of Egypt, you were the hermit whose life of prayer and self-surrender inspired other great saints—pray for us!
Hermits are fun and so interesting. Reading the lives of hermits saints they often have several things in common such a being attacked by demons and retreating further and further away from human interaction. I saw a funny thing one time on a Video about Mount Athos. A pilgrim was passing the home of a permit when the hermit, who must have spied him through his window m rushed out to meet him talking like crazy. It just struck me that the poor old hermit was bored and lonely and very eager for the company. Being a hermit is generally taken to be the summit of the Religious Life, but it is certainly not for everyone. Just as there can seem to be good reasons for doing bad things there can seem to be bad reasons for doing good things. I suspect many people who feel called to be hermits are not really called at all.
Blessed of the Day — March 27 Today marks the death anniversary and feast day of Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno (1825–1888), who died in Turin on this very date. A nobleman, army officer and one of the leading mathematicians of his era — he studied under Cauchy in Paris and his name is immortalized in Faà di Bruno's Formula — he gave up wealth, rank and academic fame to serve the poor of Turin. At the urging of Saint John Bosco he was ordained a priest at the age of fifty-one, founded the Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage, built a church dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers, and created workshops and refuges for unmarried mothers, domestic servants and women in need. He is patron of mathematicians and of women in difficult circumstances. ◾His beatification miracle, confirmed unanimously by the Vatican's Consulta Medica as medically inexplicable, was the complete and lasting healing of a person suffering from severe malabsorption with sequelae. Pope John Paul II beatified him on 25 September 1988 in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, on the centenary of his death. Blessed Francesco Faà di Bruno, pray for us.
Decades ago I stayed a night at a Kelley on M Athos, the young monk described himself as a runaway from civilization at the time for me strange reason He created icons for a living Apart from many other memories from the old house I took with me many fleas... He simply commented that they don't attack himself....
You were blessed to get in there, I understand it is not always easy. My favourite modern hermit is Father Lazarus who is Coptic. In recent years though Father Lazarus has vanished after becoming world famous. A typical Hermit trick
understand it is not always easy One had to run around Thessaloniki a bit, 2 or 3 different offices if I remember correctly, to obtain entry permission, then at Athos go directly to an office to be checked again, then one was allowed to stay for 5 days. Free boarding at the monasteries at the time, circling the mountain Athos itself
