...you will fill me
with joy in your presence... - Psalm 16:11b
"In 1853 Neumann began
the Forty Hours Devotion* on the
feast of Corpus Christi in the Church of St Philip Neri
What Neumann did was to inaugurate it on a
diocesan level. A schedule was made calling for the
devotion to be held in designated churches so as to cover the entire year.
Neumann gave great edification by the way he joined in these devotions whenever
possible. To Neumann the Forty Hours was not merely the
pious practice of making visits. To him it was the way of seeing that
Catholic life in Philadelphia
Alfred
C. Rush, CSSR
The
Autobiography of St
John
*Forty Hours Devotion
is
a devotion in which continuous prayer is made for forty hours before the Blessed
Sacrament exposed. It commonly occurs in a succession of churches, with one
finishing prayers at the same time as the next takes it up. The number
forty
has always signified a sacred period of
time: the rains during the time of Noah lasted 40 days and
nights; the Jews wandered through the desert for 40 years, our Lord fasted and
prayed for 40 days before beginning His public ministry. The 40 Hours Devotion
remembers that traditional "forty-hour period" from our Lord's burial until the
resurrection.
St John
Neumann
Bohemian -
1811-1860
Redemptorist
missionary - Bishop of Philadelphia
Bishop motto: “Passion of Christ
strengthen me”
Multi-lingual;
Promoter of Forty Hours Devotion
Opened over
100 schools, built over 80 churches,
wrote 2
catechisms, and a Bible History +++
Patron of sick children and
immigrants
FEAST DAY - January
5
“Lord, teach me how to
live.” ~ St John Neumann
Click here:
Life - The National Shrine of St. John Neumann (Philadelphia)
St John
Neumann, pray for us!
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