S. Joannis Leonardi ConfessorisSt. John Leonard, Confessor

Lesson I

Lesson from the first book of Machabees

1 Mac 2:70; 3:1-3; 3:5-6

And he died in the hundred and forty-sixth year: and he was buried by his sons in the sepulchres of his fathers in Modin, and all Israel mourned for him with great mourning. Then his son Judas, called Machabeus, rose up in his stead. And all his brethren helped him, and all they that had joined themselves to his father, and they fought with cheerfulness the battle of Israel. And he got his people great honour, and put on a breastplate as a giant, and girt his warlike armour about him in battles, and protected the camp with his sword. And he pursued the wicked and sought them out, and them that troubled his people he burnt with fire: And his enemies were driven away for fear of him, and all the workers of iniquity were troubled: and salvation prospered in his hand.

Lesson II

1 Mac 3:7-12

And he grieved many kings, and made Jacob glad with his works, and his memory is blessed for ever. And he went through the cities of Juda, and destroyed the wicked out of them, and turned away wrath from Israel. And he was renowned even to the utmost part of the earth, and he gathered them that were perishing. And Apollonius gathered together the Gentiles, and a numerous and great army from Samaria, to make war against Israel. And Judas understood it, and went forth to meet him: and he overthrew him, and killed him: and many fell down slain, the rest fled away. And he took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius, and fought with it all his lifetime.

Lesson III

1 Mac 3:25-28

And the fear of Judas and of his brethren, and the dread of them fell upon all the nations round about them. And his fame came to the king, and all nations told of the battles of Judas. Now when king Antiochus heard these words, he was angry in his mind: and he sent and gathered the forces of all his kingdom, an exceeding strong army. And he opened his treasury, and gave out pay to the army for a year: and he commanded them, that they should be ready for all things.

Lesson IV

John Leonard was born of pious and respectable parents in the town of Diecimo, not far from the city of Lucca. From very early boyhood he shewed himself mature and serious, with an inclination to solitude and prayer. When he was twenty-six years old God called him to enlist among the soldiers of the Church. John renounced immediately all his worldly interests. At first he had to study elementary Latin with little boys, but he soon advanced in a knowledge of literature, philosophy and theology. After a scant four years, at the command of his superior, he was ordained to the priesthood. Soon afterward he and a group of noble youths, alike inflamed with high ideals, earnestly set about attaining perfection in virtue. The following year they formed the Congregation of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God, a name chosen because of their intense devotion to her. John and his companions laboured with such diligence in their care of souls, that before long a change of attitude was brought about. In the city state of Lucca, where through the perfidious wiles of the heretics, hateful passion turned fiercely among the citizens, where morals were corrupted, in a very short space of time the primitive piety of the Christians seemed to revive.

Lesson V

In his work for the salvation of souls John met most bitter insults from wicked men who tried in every way to destroy the newly gathered family. But the man of God, bearing all things cheerfully and serenely, defended pertinaciously the fruit of his apostolic labours by securing from the Supreme Pontiff, Gregory XIII, papal approbation of his Congregation. Many bishops about to undertake difficult enterprises sought his advice and aid. Even the Holy Father delegated to him the solution of intricate litigation and the reform of religious societies. He stood in support of Saint Joseph Calasanctius when his society was on the verge of collapse. Scarcely less arduous were the hours John devoted to the affairs of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit in the English section of Rome, and to those of the convent of Saint Frances of Rome.

Lesson VI

Greatly saddened that so many peoples in far distant places were without the light of the Gospel, John burned with a desire to journey to those countries to spread the light of the true Faith. But when Saint Philip Neri, who called John a true reformer, showed him that he and his Congregation were destined to educate the Italian people, John acquiesced to the will of God. He did not, however, refrain so completely that he did not try to do some work for the infidels. He is therefore, very rightly credited along with the pioneer Vives with being the founder of the movement among the bishops to send well-qualified young men to distant, alien lands to propagate the faith. Wherefore he is very properly regarded as the author of that most illustrious institute which augments the work of the Sovereign Pontiffs and serves to spread the Catholic faith throughout the world. John wrote many works on theology and morality, well adapted to the men of that day. Finally, in sackcloth and ashes, lacking nothing in his sacred ministry, he passed to the Lord in Rome on the 9th day of October, 1609, at the age of sixty-six. He was so famous for sanctity and miracles that Pius IX, the Supreme Pontiff, named him on the calendar of the Blessed. In 1938 on the solemn Feast of Easter, Pius XI enrolled him among the Saints.

Lesson VII

From the Holy Gospel according to Luke

Luke 10:1-9

At that time, the Lord appointed other seventy-two also, and sent them two and two before His face into every city and place, whither He Himself would come. And so on.

Homily by Pope St. Gregory (the Great.)

17th Homily on the Gospels

Dearly beloved brethren, our Lord and Saviour doth sometimes admonish us by words, and sometimes by works. Yea, His very works do themselves teach us for that which He doth silently His example still moveth us to copy. Behold how He sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two since there are two commandments to love, that is, a commandment to love God, and a commandment to love our neighbour and where there are not two, the one, being alone, hath not whereon to do the Lord's commandment. And no man can properly be said to love himself: for love tendeth outward toward our neighbour, if it be the love whereto the Gospel doth oblige us.

Lesson VIII

Behold, the Lord sendeth forth His disciples to preach by two and two and thus doing, He doth silently teach us that whosoever loveth not his neighbour, such a one it behoveth not to take upon him the office of a preacher. Well also is it said that He sent them before His face into every city and place whither He Himself would come. The Lord followeth His preachers first cometh preaching, and then the Lord Himself cometh to the house of our mind, whither the word of exhortation hath come before and so cometh the truth into our mind.

Lesson IX

Commemoration of: Sts. Denis, Bishop, Rusticus et Eleutherius, Martyrs

Denis was an Athenian, one of the Judges of the Court of the Areopagus, and a man of varied and deep learning. There is a story concerning him that on the day when the Lord Christ was nailed to the Cross, and when he saw the unnatural eclipse of the sun, Denis said: Either the God of nature is suffering, or the frame-work of the world is breaking up. When the Apostle Paul came to Athens, and was taken and brought unto the Areopagus, and gave an account of the faith which he preached, affirming that Christ had risen from the dead, and that all the dead likewise are to live again, some mocked, and others said We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit, certain men clave unto him, and believed among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite. ~(Acts xvii. 3234) Denis was baptized by the Apostle, and set over the Church of the Athenians. He came afterwards to Rome, and was sent by Pope Clement into Gaul, to preach the Gospel. There followed him to Paris one Rusticus a Priest, and Eleutherius a Deacon. He turned many to Christ, and was therefore hided with rods by command of Fescennius the Praefect, and, forasmuch as he still went on bravely preaching Christ, he was tortured with fire upon a grating, and put to diverse other torments, and his comrades likewise. They bore their torments bravely and cheerfully, and then Denis, being over an hundred years of age, and his two comrades with him, suffered by the axe upon the 9th day of October. This is that Denis concerning whom the old story is told that after his head was cut off he took it in his hands and walked two thousand paces, carrying it all the while. He was the author of some marvelous books, clear proofs of a mind fixed in heaven, upon The Names of God, upon The Orders in Heaven and in the Church, upon The Mystic Theology, and diverse others.

Te Deum