November 21, 2024
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke 19:41-44
As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
November 21, 2024
Saint Who?
Saints Who Lost Loved Ones
Saint Stephen of Hungary
Married layman († 1038) Feast: August 16
Stephen of Hungary, son of a Magyar duke, was baptized at ten. By the age of thirty, he had consolidated the region’s tribes and received papal approval to be crowned King of Hungary. Together with his wife, Blessed Gisela, Stephen labored to make his country Catholic. He raised his son, Saint Emeric, to do the same.
“Dearest son,” he wrote, “even now in our kingdom the Church is proclaimed as young and newly planted; and for that reason she needs more prudent and trustworthy guardians.” Emeric gave every promise of fulfilling his father’s hopes. He was a virtuous and devout young man who followed a monastic order of life, inspired by the Cluniac reform spreading through the Church, as much as he could.
Stephen’s hopes were dashed when Emeric was killed by a boar while hunting. Nonetheless, Stephen took his own good advice: “Be strong lest prosperity lift you up too much or adversity cast you down.” He redoubled his acts of charity, and bore conniving over the royal succession with equanimity. An assassin, hired by Stephen’s cousins, once entered his room. Stephen calmly said, “If God be for me, who shall be against me?” The murder attempt failed, and Stephen pardoned both the assassin and his cousins. He died on August 15, 1038, and was canonized forty-five years later.
Heavenly Father, through the prayers of Saint Stephen, help us to remain confident in your goodness
even when our dearest plans appear to fail.
Our newsletter for Sunday Mass
Sign up to receive resources every Wednesday to help you prepare for Sunday Mass:
- Insight into the day’s liturgical theme
- The Gospel
- A Meditation
- Suggested Prayer of the Faithful
Magnificat
Rosary for a Eucharistic Revival
- All twenty mysteries, with introductions, focus on Eucharistic revival.
- Splendid artwork helps prepare us to contemplate Jesus and Mary more devoutly.
- Mary, Jesus’ first tabernacle, leads us to adore and follow him in all the joys, lights, and sorrows of this earth to the unending glory of reigning with him in heaven.
48 p – 4,5 x 6,75 in – US $5.99 – Price per copy available as low as US $1.99
©Image : Christ on the Lake of Galilee, Jacopo Tintoretto (circle, 1518-1594), NGA, Washington D.C., USA. Photo Courtesy NGA Washington.
