SAINTS OF THE DAY - JUNE 25th, 2016

Saturday memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary

‘On Saturdays in Ordinary Time when there is no obligatory memorial, an optional memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary is allowed.

  ‘Saturdays stand out among those days dedicated to the Virgin Mary. These are designated as memorials of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This memorial derives from Carolingian times (9th century), but the reasons for having chosen Saturday for its observance are unknown. While many explanations of this choice have been advanced, none is completely satisfactory from the point of view of the history of popular piety.

  ‘Whatever its historical origins may be, today the memorial rightly emphasizes certain values ‘to which contemporary spirituality is more sensitive. It is aremembrance of the maternal example and discipleship of “the Blessed Virgin Mary who, strengthened by faith and hope, on that ‘great Saturday’ on which Our Lord lay in the tomb, was the only one of the disciples to hold vigil in expectation of the Lord’s resurrection.” It is a prelude and introductionto the celebration of Sunday, the weekly memorial of the Resurrection of Christ. It is asign that the “Virgin Mary is continuously present and operative in the life of the Church”.’

  

Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (2001), §188

Other saints: Saint Luan (520 - 592)

Argyll & the Isles

Saint Moluag, (Lua, Luan, Murlach, or Lugaidh) was the first bishop of Argyll and the Isles. He was a hugely important associate of Columba. Whilst Columba worked among the Celts, Moluag worked among the Picts. Columba settled on Iona, Moluag on Lismore.

  He was trained at Bangor and went on to found 100 monastic settlements in Ireland and Scotland. He ettled in Clachan, Kintyre and at Lismore, which was to become the seat of the Bishop of Argyll & the Isles.

  He died at Rossmarkie on the Moray Firth on June 25th 592.

Barra Catholic

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Liturgical colour: green

The theological virtue of hope is symbolized by the colour green, just as the burning fire of love is symbolized by red. Green is the colour of growing things, and hope, like them, is always new and always fresh. Liturgically, green is the colour of Ordinary Time, the season in which we are being neither penitent (in purple) nor joyful (in white).

Liturgical colour: white

White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.

  In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.