July 26
Feast of Sts. Joachim and Ann, Parents of Our Blessed Mother Mary
“Joachim and Ann, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.”
-Saint John Damascene
July 25
Feast of St. James, Apostle
“Almighty Father, by the martyrdom of St. James you blessed the work of the early Church. May his profession of faith give us courage and his prayers bring us strength.”
-From the Office of Readings for
the Feast of St. James
July 24
“The beauty of the world is Christ’s tender smile for us coming through matter.”
-Simone Weil
July 23
Feast of St. Bridget, Religious (1303 – 1373)
“Eternal praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the time you endured on the cross the greatest torments and sufferings for us sinners. The sharp pain of your wounds fiercely penetrated even to your blessed soul and cruelly pierced your most sacred heart until finally you sent forth your spirit in peace, bowed your head, and humbly commended yourself into the hands of God your Father, and your whole body remained cold in death.”
-St. Bridget
July 22
Feast of St. Mary Magdalene
“The one whom she sought outwardly was the one who inwardly taught her to keep on searching.”
-St. Gregory the Great about St. Mary Magdalene
July 21
Feast of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest and Doctor (1559 – 1619)
“The preaching of the word of God is necessary for the spiritual life, just as the planting of the seed is necessary for bodily life. Preaching, therefore, is a duty that is apostolic, angelic, Christian, divine.”
- St. Lawrence of Brindisi
July 19
“From our neighbor are life and death. If we do good to our neighbor, we do good to God; if we cause our neighbor to stumble, we sin against Christ.”
-St. Anthony the Great
July 18
“We crush the head of the serpent when we scorn and trample underfoot the glory of the world, the praises and vanities and all the other pomps of pride.”
-St. Marie of the Incarnation
July 17
“It shall happen as God shall choose, for assuredly we depend not on our own power but on the power of God.”
- St. Perpetua
