January
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St. André Bessette (January 6th)
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Born in 1845, André (born as “Alfred”) Bessette was a Holy Cross Brother who lived a life of humility and love. He spent most of his life as a doorkeeper (porter) at Notre Dame College in Montreal, where he touched the lives of others through his loving personality and his special gift of healing the sick. His gift of healing involved rubbing a sick person with oil from a lamp in the college chapel. Sick people would line up at his door, and many were healed and prayed for. Whenever asked about the gift of healing, he always responded, “I do not cure, St. Joseph cures.” His life was devoted to Our Lord, Our Lady, and St. Joseph. One of the most prominent devotees of St. Joseph, Brother André constructed a shrine and chapel to the great foster-father of Jesus which he called “St. Joseph’s Oratory,” located on Mount Royal’s Westmount Summit in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This oratory is now a basilica and still in use today as a major pilgrimage site. Brother André died on January 6, 1937 at the age of 91 and is buried in St. Joseph’s Oratory. He was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982, and then canonized a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
Click Here to learn more about St. Joseph's Oratory
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St. Thomas Aquinas (January 28th)
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St. Thomas Aquinas, the great "Angelic" Doctor of the Church. Thomas is one of the greatest philosophers and theologians of not only Christianity, but the entire Western world.
- While studying under St. Albert the Great, Thomas was referred to as the "Dumb Ox" by his fellow students (as well as St. Albert), due to his size and his slow speech.
- Despite this nickname, he went on to write some of the most profound and influential works of Our Church, including the famous "Summa Theologiae."
- Thomas also composed 5 beautiful Eucharistic Hymns for the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264, at the request of the pope.
- During one of his prayers, Christ said to Thomas, "You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward would you have for your labor?" and Thomas said in reply, "Nothing but you, Lord."
- After an overwhelmingly deep and mystical experience toward the end of his life, Thomas said he could no longer continue his writing. He explained, "Compared with what has been revealed to me, all that I have written seems like straw."
- On his deathbed, he asked for the The Song of Songs from the Bible to be read aloud to him.
May we all receive the grace St. Thomas Aquinas had to desire the Lord more fully in our daily lives!
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