Traditional Catholic Daily Devotional

It's the Feast of St Peter Claver, 3rd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: "A Salutary Meditation", today's news from the Church: "The Hymn of the Society of Saint Pius X", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:

"A Salutary Meditation" — From the Assumption to Adventhttps://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption




"The Hymn of the Society of Saint Pius X" (FSSPX.news)
https://fsspx.news/en/news/hymn-society-saint-pius-x-60879




The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop






Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook


Saint Peter Claver spent nearly forty years meeting ships that most people in seventeenth-century Cartagena wanted nothing to do with.

He was born in Spain in 1580 and entered the Jesuits as a young man. While studying on the island of Majorca, he met an elderly Jesuit brother, Saint Alphonsus Rodríguez, who became convinced that Peter's vocation was waiting for him across the Atlantic.

So Peter went to Colombia.

Cartagena was one of the great ports of the Spanish Empire, and tragically, one of the principal entry points for enslaved Africans brought to South America. Ships arrived carrying hundreds of people who had endured weeks below deck in horrific conditions. Many were sick. Some were dying. Few spoke Spanish.

Peter decided this would be his parish.

Whenever word came that a slave ship was approaching, he headed for the docks carrying whatever he could gather: water, fruit, bread, medicine, clothing, tobacco, and interpreters who spoke African languages.

Then he went below deck.

The conditions were awful. Heat, disease, filth, and fear filled the holds. Peter crawled into those spaces anyway, tending wounds and reassuring people who had no idea where they were or what was going to happen next.

He called himself "Petrus Claver, Aethiopum servus," Peter Claver, slave of the Africans.

And he meant it.

Peter understood that preaching Christianity to people while ignoring their suffering would ring hollow. So he cared for bodies first. He washed wounds, fed the starving, embraced people others refused to touch, and then, with interpreters and religious pictures, taught them about Christ and prepared many for baptism.

Tradition credits him with baptizing roughly 300,000 people during his ministry.

But his work didn't stop at the docks.

Peter visited plantations and prisons, confronted slave owners about mistreatment, and insisted that the Africans he baptized be treated as Christians with human dignity. He could not dismantle the enormous slave system surrounding him, but he refused to let that system convince him that the people trapped inside it were anything less than children of God.

Near the end of his life, Peter became seriously ill and spent several years largely confined to his room. The man who had cared for thousands was himself often neglected.

He died in 1654.

Today his remains are venerated in the San Pedro Claver Church and Convent, only a short distance from the harbor where he spent his life meeting those terrible ships.

There's something powerful about that location.

Cartagena remembers the wealth of an empire.

Peter Claver reminds us who paid for it.

Saint Peter Claver, servant of the enslaved and defender of forgotten souls, pray for us.


Please Support this Apostolate with 1-time or Monthly Donation >>

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Explore more:

Subscribe to the email version of this Devotional- it's a perfect companion!
Subscribe to this Podcastto receive this and all our audio episodes
Subscribe to the SSPX YouTube channelfor video versions of our podcast series and Sermons
FSSPX News Website:https://fsspx.news
Visit the US District website:https://sspx.org/


What is the SSPX Podcast?

The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?

The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.

Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.

https://sspx.org

It's the Feast of Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 2nd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: "The Thought of Death", today's news from the Church: "Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X: Their Life in 100 Images", a preview of this week's episode of The SSPX Podcast: "Audiobook Chapter 16", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:

"The Thought of Death" — From the Assumption to Adventhttps://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption




"Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X: Their Life in 100 Images" (FSSPX.news)
https://fsspx.news/en/news/sisters-society-saint-pius-x-their-life-100-images-60865




The SSPX Podcast: "Audiobook Chapter 16" (SSPX Podcast)
View on YouTube
Listen & Subscribe on SSPXpodcast.com




The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop






Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook


The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of only three birthdays celebrated in the Church's liturgical year: the birth of Christ, the birth of Saint John the Baptist, and the birth of Our Lady.

Interestingly, the Bible never tells us when Mary was born.

Even the names of her parents, Saints Joachim and Anne, come from ancient Christian tradition rather than Scripture. One of the earliest sources is the second-century Protoevangelium of James, which tells the beautiful story of Joachim and Anne as an elderly, childless couple whose long prayers were finally answered with the birth of Mary.

The feast itself seems to have developed first in Jerusalem, where Christians honored a church dedicated to Saint Anne near the traditional site of Mary's childhood home. By the sixth century, Mary's birth was being celebrated in the Christian East, and over the following centuries the feast spread westward to Rome.

But why September 8?

There's actually a wonderfully simple explanation.

The Church celebrates Mary's Immaculate Conception on December 8.

Count forward nine months.

September 8.

In fact, historically the Nativity came first. The date of the Immaculate Conception was later calculated backward nine months from Mary's traditional birthday.

The feast developed some wonderfully local customs across Catholic Europe. In parts of France, it became associated with the grape harvest, and farmers brought their finest grapes to church to be blessed. In Austria and other Alpine regions, Mary's birthday became connected with thanksgiving for the summer harvest.

One of the most colorful celebrations developed in Malta, where September 8 became known as the Bambina, or "Little Mary." Statues of the infant Virgin are carried through decorated streets amid processions, music, fireworks, and enormous crowds. The date gained even greater significance because several major military victories in Maltese history occurred around September 8, including the end of the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.

In parts of Italy, devotion focuses on Maria Bambina, Mary as a little child. Small statues show the infant Mary wrapped in swaddling clothes, sometimes resting in an ornate cradle. One of the best-known shrines to Maria Bambina is in Milan, where devotion to the image became especially popular in the nineteenth century.

There's something charming about this feast because it celebrates no miracle Mary performed and no words she spoke.

She's a baby.

That's the whole point.

The world didn't know it yet, but the little girl born to Joachim and Anne would become the Mother of God. Salvation history was quietly moving forward in a home where, as far as the neighbors could tell, a perfectly ordinary child had just been born.

Holy Mary, whose birth announced the approaching dawn of our salvation, pray for us.


Please Support this Apostolate with 1-time or Monthly Donation >>

- - - - - -
Explore more:

Subscribe to the email version of this Devotional- it's a perfect companion!
Subscribe to this Podcastto receive this and all our audio episodes
Subscribe to the SSPX YouTube channelfor video versions of our podcast series and Sermons
FSSPX News Website:https://fsspx.news
Visit the US District website:https://sspx.org/


What is the SSPX Podcast?

The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?

The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.

Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.

https://sspx.org

It's a Feria, 4th Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: "The Sorrowing Mother", today's news from the Church: "St. Pius X Against Half-Hearted Journalism", a preview of the Sermon: "Total Confidence in God", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:

"The Sorrowing Mother" — From the Assumption to Adventhttps://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption




"St. Pius X Against Half-Hearted Journalism" (FSSPX.news)
https://fsspx.news/en/news/st-pius-x-against-half-hearted-journalism-60892




"Total Confidence in God" (SSPX Sermons)
SSPX YouTube: Sermons Playlist
Listen & Subscribe: SSPX Sermons Podcast




The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop






Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook


Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki was only twenty-two when she was killed, but by then she had already watched nearly every spiritual guide in her life suffer for the Catholic faith.

She was born around 1611 near Nagasaki, Japan, into a Christian family. This was no longer the hopeful age when Saint Francis Xavier had first brought the Gospel to Japan. Christianity was now outlawed, missionaries were hunted, and Catholic families faced imprisonment, torture, or death.

Magdalene's own parents were reportedly martyred while she was still young.

She remained Catholic.

Later, she came under the spiritual direction of Augustinian missionaries, including Saints Francis of Jesus and Vincent of Saint Anthony. She wanted to belong more completely to God, so she became an Augustinian tertiary, living a consecrated life while helping the underground Church.

Then her priests were arrested and killed.

Magdalene remained Catholic.

She worked with two more missionaries, Saints Martin of Saint Nicholas and Melchior of Saint Augustine.

They were killed too.

At some point, hiding probably began to feel like simply waiting for the authorities to find her.

So Magdalene did something extraordinary.

She turned herself in.

According to the traditional accounts, she appeared before the authorities wearing her Augustinian habit and openly declared that she was a Christian. She hoped that by publicly defending the faith, she might strengthen Catholics who were frightened into silence.

The authorities subjected her to one of the most horrifying punishments used during the Japanese persecution, the ana-tsurushi, or "pit torture." The prisoner was suspended upside down over a pit, often with the body tightly bound and the head lowered into the opening. The torture could continue for days because the authorities wanted apostasy, not simply death.

Magdalene endured it for nearly two weeks.

Witnesses later remembered her remarkable composure. Even during the torture, she reportedly continued praying and singing hymns.

Eventually she died in 1634, probably from suffocation after heavy rain flooded the pit.

The authorities burned her body and scattered the ashes into Nagasaki Bay so Christians would have no relics to venerate.

That didn't erase her memory.

In fact, Nagasaki became home to one of the most astonishing stories in Catholic history. For more than two centuries after the missionaries were expelled, communities of hidden Christians, the Kakure Kirishitan, secretly preserved baptism, prayers, and fragments of Catholic tradition without priests.

Magdalene never lived to see that.

But she belonged to the generation whose courage made that survival possible.

Saint Magdalene of Nagasaki, fearless daughter of Japan's hidden Church, pray for us.


Please Support this Apostolate with 1-time or Monthly Donation >>

- - - - - -
Explore more:

Subscribe to the email version of this Devotional- it's a perfect companion!
Subscribe to this Podcastto receive this and all our audio episodes
Subscribe to the SSPX YouTube channelfor video versions of our podcast series and Sermons
FSSPX News Website:https://fsspx.news
Visit the US District website:https://sspx.org/


What is the SSPX Podcast?

The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?

The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.

Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.

https://sspx.org

It's the Feast of XV Sun of Pentecost, 2nd Class, with the color of Green. In this episode: the meditation: "The Resurrection of the Widow's Son", today's news from the Church: "The Hymn of the Society of Saint Pius X", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:

"The Resurrection of the Widow's Son" — From the Assumption to Adventhttps://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption




"The Hymn of the Society of Saint Pius X" (FSSPX.news)
https://fsspx.news/en/news/hymn-society-saint-pius-x-60879




The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop






Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook


Blessed Liberato of Loro Piceno is one of those medieval Franciscan figures where the history is a little hazy, but the tradition surrounding him gives us a beautiful glimpse into the earliest generations after Saint Francis.

Liberato lived in thirteenth-century Italy and came from Loro, in the Marches, the region facing the Adriatic Sea. Some traditions identify him with a nobleman named Liberato da Loro who gave up wealth and status to enter the Franciscan life.

And this was still very early Franciscanism.

Saint Francis had died only a generation before. His memory was fresh. Friars were still trying to figure out exactly what it meant to live his radical ideal of poverty after the order had expanded across Europe.

Liberato wanted the simplest version possible.

He withdrew to a small hermitage at Soffiano, in the wooded hills near Sarnano. There he lived with other friars in prayer, fasting, manual work, and the kind of poverty that had characterized the first companions of Saint Francis.

The place itself is worth imagining.

No great monastery.

No elaborate choir stalls.

Just a few friars living in the hills, trying to pray and stay out of everyone's way.

One reason Liberato became remembered is his connection with an extraordinary medieval book, the Little Flowers of Saint Francis. A friar named Liberato appears in stories surrounding the hermitage of Soffiano, along with Brothers Humble and Pacificus. These accounts describe a small community marked by contemplation and mystical prayer.

One particularly beautiful tradition says that Liberato received a warning in prayer that his death was approaching. Rather than being frightened, he prepared quietly, received the sacraments, and entrusted himself to God.

After his death, devotion remained local but persistent.

And that's fitting, because Liberato's entire life was local.

The region around Loro Piceno and Sarnano is still filled with Franciscan history. Ancient hermitages, mountain sanctuaries, and little churches dot the landscape, preserving the memory of friars who deliberately chose places where almost nobody would notice them.

Liberato never became a famous preacher like Saint Anthony.

He never led the Franciscan Order like Saint Bonaventure.

He didn't leave behind great books.

Instead, he belonged to that quieter stream of Franciscan life: men who heard Francis say that poverty, prayer, and simplicity were enough, and then spent their lives trying to prove it.

There's something refreshing about a saint whose great accomplishment was essentially disappearing into the hills to pray.

Blessed Liberato of Loro Piceno, hidden son of Saint Francis and lover of holy poverty, pray for us.


Please Support this Apostolate with 1-time or Monthly Donation >>

- - - - - -
Explore more:

Subscribe to the email version of this Devotional- it's a perfect companion!
Subscribe to this Podcastto receive this and all our audio episodes
Subscribe to the SSPX YouTube channelfor video versions of our podcast series and Sermons
FSSPX News Website:https://fsspx.news
Visit the US District website:https://sspx.org/


What is the SSPX Podcast?

The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?

The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.

Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.

https://sspx.org

It's the Feast of St. Lawrence Justinian / First Sat, 3rd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: "Recourse to God", today's news from the Church: "Education: An Agreement Between Parents", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:

"Recourse to God" — From the Assumption to Adventhttps://angeluspress.org/products/from-trinity-sunday-to-the-assumption




"Education: An Agreement Between Parents" (FSSPX.news)
https://fsspx.news/en/news/education-agreement-between-parents-60845




The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
https://angeluspress.org/products/spiritual-life-archbishop






Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Learn more:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-Wp4MQdK2o
Donate:https://sspx.gifts/audiobook


Saint Lawrence Justinian became the first Patriarch of Venice, but he spent most of his life trying to avoid exactly the kind of attention that came with that title.

He was born in Venice in 1381 into the powerful Giustiniani family. Wealth, connections, and a comfortable future were all waiting for him. As a young man, however, Lawrence became convinced that God was calling him somewhere very different.

So he joined a community of canons living on the little island of San Giorgio in Alga, across the lagoon from Venice.

His family wasn't exactly thrilled.

According to tradition, when relatives tried to persuade him toward a prestigious marriage, Lawrence chose instead a life of poverty, prayer, and penance. Once ordained, he became known for walking through Venice begging alms for his community. That could be humiliating for anyone. For a member of one of Venice's noble families, it was especially noticeable.

When people insulted him or refused him, he simply moved on.

When they gave generously, he sometimes deliberately returned to houses where he had been treated badly, reasoning that begging was supposed to teach humility, not make him popular.

Eventually, his reputation reached Rome, and in 1433 Pope Eugene IV appointed him Bishop of Castello, the diocese that then included much of Venice.

Lawrence reportedly tried very hard to get out of it.

He failed.

As bishop, he lived with the same simplicity he had practiced in the monastery. He reduced unnecessary expenses, improved the formation of clergy, visited parishes, and quietly redirected money toward the poor. His episcopal household looked considerably less impressive than people expected from a Venetian bishop.

Then, in 1451, something historically important happened.

The old Patriarchate of Grado was reorganized and united with the Venetian see. Lawrence became the first Patriarch of Venice, beginning the line of patriarchs that continues today. Centuries later, three Patriarchs of Venice would become popes: Pius X, John XXIII, and John Paul I.

Lawrence was also a serious spiritual writer. His works focused especially on prayer and the interior life, and people sought his advice because he had a gift for making deep spiritual ideas practical.

When he died in 1456, devotion spread quickly. His body became an object of particular veneration and was preserved for centuries in Venice.

There's something wonderfully Venetian about his story. Lawrence lived amid one of Europe's wealthiest cities, surrounded by merchants, palaces, ships, and political power.

Yet right in the middle of all that splendor, he chose simplicity.

He became important almost despite himself.

And when the Church gave him greater authority, he simply found more people to serve.

Saint Lawrence Justinian, first Patriarch of Venice and humble shepherd of the poor, pray for us.


Please Support this Apostolate with 1-time or Monthly Donation >>

- - - - - -
Explore more:

Subscribe to the email version of this Devotional- it's a perfect companion!
Subscribe to this Podcastto receive this and all our audio episodes
Subscribe to the SSPX YouTube channelfor video versions of our podcast series and Sermons
FSSPX News Website:https://fsspx.news
Visit the US District website:https://sspx.org/


What is the SSPX Podcast?

The SSPX Podcast is produced by Angelus Press, which has as its mission the fortification of traditional Catholics so that they can defend the Faith, and reaching out to those who have not yet found Tradition.
What is the SSPX?

The main goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood.

Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.

Although the traditional Latin Mass is the most visible and public expression of the work of the Society, we are committed to defending Catholic Tradition in its entirety: all of Catholic doctrine and morals as the Church has always defended them. What people need is the Catholic Faith, without compromise, with all the truth and beauty which accompanies it.

https://sspx.org