Fullness of life

"The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord

puts the demons to flight,

defends us against the incentives

    to vice and to concupiscence,

cleanses the soul from sin,

quiets the anger of God,

enlightens the understanding to know God,

inflames the will and the affections

    with the love of God,

fills the memory with spiritual sweetness,

confirms the entire man in good,

frees us from eternal death,

multiples the merits of a good life,

leads us to our everlasting home,

and re-animates the body to eternal life.”

St Thomas Aquinas

 

Remembering.... St Lucy (Santa Lucia)

In Italian, Lucia means "light"

Virgin, Martyr

Sicily ~ 283-304

Patron of blindness and eye problems

Feast Day - December 13

(Happy Anniversary to Jeff, Spencer and the Johnsons -

10 years in the Church!)

Sentenced to be defiled in a brothel, Lucy asserted:

"No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things. If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me."

 St Lucia, ora pro nobis!

A BIT ABOUT ST LUCY...

St. Lucy (Santa Lucia) was a young Sicilian girl who vowed to live as a virgin in devotion to Christ. Her mother, however, arranged a marriage for her to a pagan suitor. To dissuade her mom by proof of a miracle, Lucy prayed at the tomb of St. Agatha that her mother's hemorrhage would stop. When the miracle happened, her mother agreed to leave aside the topic of marriage.

Lucy's suitor, however, had other plans, and revealed Lucy as a Christian. Authorities went to collect her, planning on forcing her into prostitution -- but they were unable to budge her, even after tying her to a team of oxen. She was then tortured by having her eyes torn out. They'd planned on torturing her by fire, too, but the fires kept going out. She was then killed by being stabbed in the throat with a dagger. Lucy's martyrdom: December 13, 304.

St. Lucy is the patron of those with eye problems, and often depicted carrying her eyes (often on a plate), being tied to a team of oxen, with St. Agatha, or before her judges. 

Excerpt from:  http://fisheaters.com/customsadvent6a.html

Saint Lucy is one of seven women, aside from the Blessed Virgin Mary, commemorated by name in Eucharistic Prayer I of the Canon of Mass.