Notes and Prayers for New Saints in the Liturgical Calendar

St John Ogilvie priest, martyr March 10

Born 1579, Drum-na- Keith, Banffshire, of Calvinist parents. Sent to the continent for his education, where he was eventually received into the Catholic Church. In 1599 he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained priest in 1610. Having been secretly sent back to Scotland he was shortly betrayed by one of his flock, captured in Glasgow, imprisoned, questioned and violently tortured. On the 10th March 1615 he was finally hanged to death. He was canonized 1976 by Pope Paul VI.

Collect

Lord God, you revealed the power of the Holy Spirit
in the life and death of your martyr, Saint John.
Through his example and prayers
give us strength to serve the Church under the banner of the Cross.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Lord,you fill our hearts with love
as we recall the suffering and death of St John, your martyr.
Grant that there may be in us the mind that was in Christ Jesus
so that we may in this sacrifice
worthily proclaim the death of your only Son, Jesus,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Prayer After Communion

Lord,you have renewed our strength through these sacramental gifts.
May the power of the Holy Spirit be active among us,
so that there may be one flock and one shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who laid down his life for his sheep
and now lives and reigns for ever and ever.


Approved by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland. Confirmed by Decree of the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship; 6th December 1978




St Patrick, Bishop, March 17

Where was he born ? It is true to say that the patron saint of Ireland has formed the subject of more learned controversy that all the other Celtic saints put together. There are so many legends about his life and deeds in Ireland, but what is most edifying for us is his own writing: "Confessions" and "Letter to Coroticus"

Patrick came from a Romano-british family and was born almost certainly in the Clyde estuary near modern Dumbarton. His father was a Roman citizen and a deacon of the Church. Patrick confesses that he himself was not drawn to religion and this suggests he remained a pagan. When quite young Patrick was abducted by Irish pirates and for several years worked as a slave in northern Ireland. During his captivity he had been converted to no conventional kind of faith. He escaped and eventually became convinced that his vocation was to go back to Ireland and preach the gospel there. It was long accepted by scholars that the captors left Patrick in Gaul and that he spent some years either with Bishop Germanus at Auxerre or in the island monastery of Lerins. There he prepared to be ordained deacon, then priest, then on the death of an earlier apostle Palladius, made bishop and returned to Ireland at 47 years old circa 432 It would seem that there were Christians and a Christian Church in Ireland before Patrick began his mission.

As Bishop and preacher of the Gospel he founded many local churches in Ireland, baptised thousands and implanted the firm faith which caused Ireland not only to maintain its deep Christianity, but also to be the country from which educators and missionaries spread, and continue to spread, all over the world. It would be difficult to asses the contribution made by that small isle to the education and Faith of Europe and beyond - initiated by Patrick and continued by Saints like Columba, Aidan, Columbanus.

The most important truth about St Patrick is that he was a man of prayer, a man whose life was totally centred on Christ. In his writings and in the prayers associated with him, that is what stands out most clearly and a total commitment to him and to his Kingdom. May the prayers of St Patrick today help us to have Christ as our unchanging friend, too, our guide and shepherd to the end. (Mgr Robert McDonald)