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08/15/2026

Feast of the Assumption of Mary, when we celebrate the Blessed Virgin being taken, body and soul, into heavenly glory. Her Assumption reminds us that our final home is not here, but with God. Mary’s life of faith, humility, and loving surrender shows us the path toward eternal life.

The feast has ancient Christian roots, with celebrations of Mary’s Dormition documented in the East by the sixth century. Emperor Maurice (582–602) is traditionally associated with establishing August 15 as its date in the Byzantine Empire. The feast later became widely celebrated in the West. In 1950, Pope Pius XII solemnly defined Mary’s Assumption as a dogma of the Catholic Church through Munificentissimus Deus.

08/14/2026

AUGUST 14 + Today is the Feast Day of Spiritual Warrior Saint Maximilian Kolbe — the Patron Saint of drug addicts, prisoners, families, and the pro-life movement + Pray for us

Maximilian Maria Kolbe was born as Raymund Kolbe on January 8, 1894, in the Kingdom of Poland, which was part of the Russian Empire. He was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar and a martyr in the German death Camp of Auschwitz during World War II.

Maximilian was very active in promoting the Immaculate Virgin Mary and is known as the Apostle of Consecration to Mary. Much of his life was strongly influenced by a vision he had of the Virgin Mary when he was 12.

"That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."

One year after his vision, Maximilian and his elder brother, Francis joined the Conventual Franciscans and in 1911, he professed his first vows.

At the age of 21, Maximilian earned a doctorate in philosophy and he also earned a doctorate in theology by the time he was 28.

Maximilian saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day and his mission was to combat it. He founded the Militia of the Immaculata, whose aim was to fight evil and work for the conversion of sinners. He dreamed of and then founded Knight of the Immaculata, a religious magazine under Mary’s protection to preach the Good News to all nations. For the work of the publication, he established a “City of the Immaculata” which housed 700 of his Franciscan brothers. He later founded another one in Nagasaki, Japan. Both the Militia and the magazine ultimately reached over one million members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to Mary.

In 1939, the N***s overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow was severely bombed. Maximilian and his friars were arrested, but then released in less than three months, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

In 1941, the monastery was shut down and Maximilian was arrested by the German Gestapo and taken to the Pawiak prison. The N***s’ purpose was to liquidate the select ones, the leaders. Never abandoning his priesthood, Maximilian was the victim to severe violence and harassment. Toward the end of his second month in Auschwitz, men were chosen to face death by starvation to warn against escapes. Maximilian was not chosen but volunteered to take the place of a man with a family.

Survivors of the camp testified that the starving prisoners could be heard praying and singing hymns, led by the priest who had volunteered for an agonizing death. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, on the night before the Church's Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the camp officials decided to hasten Maximilian's death, injecting him with carbolic acid.

Maximilian Maria Kolbe's body was cremated by the camp officials on the Feast of the Assumption.

08/12/2026

AUGUST 12 + Today is the Feast Day of Spiritual Warrior Saint Clare of Assisi + Feast Days August 11 (New) August 12 (Traditional) + Pray for us

Clare was born in 1193 in Assisi to a noble family. Before her birth, her mother received a sign that her daughter would be a bright light of God in the world. As a child she was already very strongly drawn to the things of God, praying fervently, devoutly visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and manifesting a tender love towards the poor.

When she was 18, she heard St. Francis preaching in the town square during Lent and she knew at once that God wanted her to consecrate herself to Him. The next evening, Clare left her house at night, ran to meet Francis and his companions at the church they were staying in, and shared her desire to follow him in his way of life. He received her, gave her his tunic, cut off her golden locks, and sent her to a Benedictine convent, because she could not stay with the brothers. Her younger sister Agnes soon joined her and the two had to resist much pressure from their family to return home.

When Clare was 22, Francis placed her in a small house beside the convent and made her superior, a post she would serve for the next 42 years of her life until her death.

The "Poor Clares" as they came to be known, lived an unusually austere life for women of the time, walking barefoot around the town begging for alms, wearing sackcloth, and living without any possessions, completely dependent for their food on what was given to them. But the emphasis of their lives was, and still is, contemplation.

Many young noble women left all they had to take on the poor habit of Clare and the order grew rapidly, with houses being founded all over Italy, all of whom took Clare as their model and inspiration.

Contemporary accounts glow with admiration of Clare’s life in the convent of San Damiano in Assisi. She served the sick and washed the feet of the begging nuns. She came from prayer with her face so shining it dazzled those about her even though she suffered serious illness for the last 27 years of her life. Her influence was such that popes, cardinals, and bishops often came to consult her — Clare herself never went beyond the walls of San Damiano.

Francis always remained her great friend and inspiration. Clare was always obedient to his will and to the great ideal of gospel life which he was making real.

Clare's reputation for holiness was such that the Pope himself came to her deathbed in 1253 to give her absolution, and wanted to canonize her immediately on her death, but was advised by his cardinals to wait.

Claire died in absolute tranquility, saying to one of the brothers at her side "Dear brother, ever since through His servant Francis I have known the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have never in my whole life found any pain or sickness that could trouble me."

She was canonized in 1255, two years after her death.

08/11/2026

AUGUST 11 + Today is the Feast Day of Spiritual Warrior Saint Philomena + Pray for us

For more than fifteen hundred years, Philomena was an unknown martyr, joining the numbers of beautiful but nameless souls who had died for Christ. But it seems that God wanted to share her with the world and have her story be known.

In 1802, a worker’s pickax struck the surface of a tomb in the darkness of an underground cemetery, within the catacombs of Priscilla. A Vatican overseer was notified and came with several other witnesses. Sand was cleared away and the tomb of a martyr was unearthed. Three funeral tiles bore the words PAX TECUM FILUMENA. (Peace be with you, Philomena) The letters were painted in a vermilion-red lead and were still easily legible.

When competent authorities examined the remains found within, they discovered them to be the bones of a young woman between the ages of 13 and 15.

With due reverence, the remains were taken to the treasury of Sacred Relics, and placed with care; but nothing at all was known about the saint, and it seemed that this would always be the case. But Philomena’s legacy had just begun.

Some years after her relics were discovered, the saint revealed her story to three different people. These three people had never met each other, lived in different places around the world, and yet reported accounts of Philomena’s life that were eerily identical.

The best-known account was given to Venerable Mother Maria Luisa di Gesù, a Dominican tertiary. In August of 1833, Mother Luisa was praying before a statue of Saint Philomena, and felt a keen desire to know the details of Philomena’s life and martyrdom. Later, when she was in her cell, her prayerful desire was granted and the gentle voice of Philomena spoke to her.

According to Mother Luisa, Philomena told her she was a Greek Princess — the daughter of a king in Greece who, with his wife, had converted to Christianity. At the age of about 13, she took a vow of consecrated virginity. When the Emperor Diocletian threatened to make war on her father, her father went with his family to Rome to ask for peace. The Emperor fell in love with the young Philomena and, when she refused to be his wife, subjected her to a series of torments: scourging, from whose effects two angels cured her; drowning with an anchor attached to her (two angels cut the rope and raised her to the river bank); being shot with arrows, (on the first occasion her wounds were healed; on the second, the arrows turned aside; and on the third, they returned and killed six of the archers, after which, several of the others became Christians). Finally the Emperor had her decapitated.

Philomena's decapitation occurred on a Friday at three in the afternoon, as with the death of Jesus. The two anchors, three arrows, the palm and the ivy leaf on the tiles found in the tomb were interpreted as symbols of her martyrdom. She is the Patron Saint of infants, babies, and youth.

08/08/2026

AUGUST 8 + Today is the Feast Day of Spiritual Warrior Saint Dominic — Feast Days August 4 (Traditional) August 8 (New) + Pray for us

Dominic de Guzman helped the cause of orthodoxy in the Church by founding the Order of Preachers, also known as Dominicans. The spread of the Rosary, a Marian devotion, is attributed to the preaching of Dominic. The Rosary has for centuries been at the heart of the Dominican Order. Pope Pius XI stated, "The Rosary of Mary is the principle and foundation on which the very Order of Saint Dominic rests for making perfect the life of its members and obtaining the salvation of others." For centuries, Dominicans have been instrumental in spreading the rosary and emphasizing the Catholic belief in the power of the rosary.

Born in Caleruega, Spain around the year 1170, Dominic was the son of Felix de Guzman and Joanna of Aza, members of the nobility. His mother would eventually be beatified by the Church, as would his brother Manes who became a Dominican. The family's oldest son Antonio also became a priest.

Dominic received his early education from his uncle, who was a priest, before entering the University of Palencia where he studied for ten years. After his ordination to the priesthood, Dominic was asked by Bishop Diego of Osma to participate in local Church reforms.

While traveling in France with the bishop, Dominic observed the bad effects of the Albigensian heresy, which had taken hold in southern France. The sect revived an earlier heresy, Manicheanism, which condemned the material world as an evil realm not created by God.

Dreading the spread of heresy, Dominic began to think about founding a religious order to promote the truth. In 1204 he and Bishop Diego were sent by Pope Innocent III to assist in the effort against the Albigensians, which eventually involved both military force and theological persuasion.

Dominic's extreme physical asceticism caused him to fall into a coma, during which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to him and instructed him to promote the prayer of the Rosary. Its focus on the incarnation and life of Christ directly countered the Albigensian attitude towards matter as evil.

During that same year, Dominic returned to Toulouse and obtained the bishop's approval of his plan for an order dedicated to preaching. Dominic obtained papal approval for his plan and was named as the Pope's chief theologian. The Order of Preachers expanded in Europe with papal help.

Dominic spent the last several years of his life building up the order and continuing his preaching missions, during which he is said to have converted over 100,000 people.

08/07/2026

Prayer for the First Friday of August

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus,
today we come before You with humble and grateful hearts. Fill us with Your mercy, Your love, and Your peace. Forgive our sins, strengthen us in times of trial, and help us to love as You have loved us.

May our hearts become more like Yours—gentle, humble, faithful, and full of compassion. Bless our families, protect those in need, and draw all people closer to You.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place our trust in You, now and always. Amen.

08/06/2026

AUGUST 6 + Today is the Feast Day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels. This miracle is unique among others in that the miracle happens to Jesus himself. St. Thomas Aquinas considered the Transfiguration "the greatest miracle" in that it complemented baptism and showed the perfection of life in Heaven. The Transfiguration is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.

The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord celebrates the revelation of Christ's divine glory on Mount Tabor in Galilee. After revealing to His disciples that He would be put to death in Jerusalem, Christ, along with Saints Peter, James, and John, went up the mountain. There, Saint Matthew writes, "He was transfigured before them. And His face did shine as the sun: and His garments became white as snow.”

The brightness with which He shone on Mount Tabor was not something added to Christ but the manifestation of His true divine nature. For Peter, James, and John, it was also a glimpse of the glories of Heaven and of the resurrected body promised to His followers. When Christ was transfigured, two others appeared with Him: Moses, representing the Old Testament Law, and Elijah, representing the prophets. Thus Christ, who stood between the two and spoke with them, appeared to the disciples as the fulfillment of both the Law and the prophets.

At Christ's baptism in the Jordan, the voice of God the Father was heard to proclaim, "This is my beloved Son." During the Transfiguration, God the Father pronounced the same words.

The Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, and the setting on the mountain is presented as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place of the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth.

The Transfiguration not only supports the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, but also identifies Him as the messenger and mouth-piece of God. The significance of this identification is enhanced by the presence of Elijah and Moses, for it indicates to the apostles that Jesus is the voice of God "par excellence," and instead of Elijah or Moses, He should be listened to, surpassing the laws of Moses by virtue of His relationship to God. Peter echoes the same message: at the Transfiguration, God assigns to Jesus a special honor and glory and it is the turning point at which God exalts Jesus above all other powers in creation, and positions him as ruler and judge.

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