CATHOLIC FAMILY CELEBRATIONS
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  • SpiritualBouquet
  • November
    • November 1 All Saints Day
    • November 2 All Souls Day
    • November 9 Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
    • November 11 St. Martin of Tours
    • November 13 St. Frances Cabrini
    • November 15 St. Albert the Great
    • November 17 St. Elizabeth of Hungary
    • November 21 Presentation of Mary
    • November 22 St. Cecilia
    • November 30 St. Andrew
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christ the King
  • Advent/Dec.
    • Advent Wreath
    • Jesse Tree
    • The Creche
    • December 3 St. Francis Xavier
    • December 5 St. Nicholas
    • December 7 St. Ambrose
    • December 8 Immaculate Conception
    • December 9 St. Juan Diego
    • December 12 Our Lady of Guadalupe
    • December 13 St. Lucy
    • December 14 St. John of the Cross
    • Posada
    • O Antiphons
  • Christmas
  • January
    • January 1 Mary Mother of God
    • January 4 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
    • Epiphany
    • Baptism of Our Lord
    • January 21 St. Agnes
    • January 22 Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of the Unborn Child
    • January 28 St. Thomas Aquinas
    • January 31 St. John Bosco
    • Superbowl Sunday
  • February
    • February 2 Presentation
    • February 3 St. Blaise
    • February 6 St. Paul Miki
    • February 10 St. Scholastica
    • February 11 Our Lady of Lourdes
    • February 14 St. Valentine
    • February 22 Chair of St. Peter
  • March
    • March 3 St. Katharine Drexel
    • March 7 Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
    • March 9 St. Frances of Rome
    • March 17 St. Patrick
    • March 19 St. Joseph
    • March 25 Annunciation
  • Mardi Gras
  • Ash Wednesday
  • Lent
  • Easter
  • Divine Mercy Sunday
  • May
    • Pentecost Novenas
    • May 1 St. Joseph the Worker
    • May 3 Sts. Philip and James
    • Mother's Day
    • May 10 St. Damien Molokai
    • May 13 Our Lady of Fatima
    • May 22 St. Rita
    • May 26 St. Philip Neri
    • May 31 Visitation
  • Ascension
  • Graduation
  • Pentecost
  • Trinity Sunday
  • Summer Fun
  • June
    • Corpus Christi
    • Father's Day
    • Sacred Heart and Immaculate Heart
    • June 13 St. Anthony of Padua
    • June 24 Nativity of St. John the Baptisi
    • June 29 Sts. Peter and Paul
  • July
    • July 4th
    • July 6 St. Maria Goretti
    • July 11 St. Benedict
    • July 14 St. Kateri Tekakwitha
    • July 22 St. Mary Magdalene
    • July 25 St. James
    • July 26 Sts. Joachim and Anne
    • July 29 St. Martha
    • July 31 St. Ignatius of Loyola
  • August
    • Back to School
    • August 4 St. John Vianney
    • August 6 Transfiguration
    • August 8 St. Dominic
    • August 10 St. Lawrence
    • August 11 St. Clare
    • August 14 St. Maximillian Kolbe
    • August 15 Assumption
    • August 21 St. Pius X
    • August 22 Queenship of Mary
    • August 24 St. Bartholomew
    • August 27-August 29
  • September
    • Patrons of School and Study
    • Labor Day
    • Sept. 5 St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
    • September 8 Mary's Birthday
    • September 15 Our Lady of Sorrows
    • September 20 St. Andrew Kim
    • September 21 St. Matthew
    • September 23 St. Padre Pio
    • September 27 St. Vincent DePaul
    • September 29 The Archangels
    • September 30 St. Jerome
  • Family Dinner
  • October
    • Oct 1 St. Therese of the Child Jesus
    • October 2 Guardian Angels
    • October 4 St. Francis
    • October 7 Our Lady of the Rosary
    • October 17 St. Ignatius of Antioch
    • October 18 St. Luke
    • October 19 Sts. Isaac Jogues and John De Brebeuf
    • October 28 Sts. Simon and Jude
    • October 29 Blessed Chiara Badano
    • Halloween or All Hallow's Eve
  • Contact

St John of the Cross

Picture
 
PRAYER OF PEACE 
BY SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS 
O blessed Jesus, 
Give me stillness of soul in You. 
Let Your mighty calmness reign in me. 
Rule me, O King of Gentleness, 
King of Peace. 










Salvador Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross

Picture
Born in Spain in 1542, John learned the importance of self-sacrificing love from his parents. His father gave up wealth, status, and comfort when he married a weaver's daughter and was disowned by his noble family. After his father died, his mother kept the destitute family together as they wandered homeless in 
search of work. These were the examples of sacrifice that John followed with his own great love -- God. 
When the family finally found work, John still went hungry in the middle of the wealthiest city in Spain. At fourteen, John took a job caring for hospital patients who suffered from incurable diseases and madness. It was out of this poverty and suffering, that John learned to search for beauty and happiness not in the world, but in God. 

After John joined the Carmelite order, Saint Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform movement. John supported her belief that the order should return to its life of prayer. But many Carmelites felt threatened by this reform, and some members of John's own order kidnapped him. He was locked in a cell six feet by ten feet and beaten three times a week by the monks. There was only one tiny window high up near the ceiling. Yet in that unbearable dark, cold, and desolation, his love and faith were like fire and light. He had nothing left but God -- and God brought John his greatest joys in that tiny cell. 

After nine months, John escaped by unscrewing the lock on his door and creeping past the guard. Taking only the mystical poetry he had written in his cell, he climbed out a window using a rope made of strips of blankets. With no idea where he was, he followed a dog to civilization. He hid from pursuers in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From then on his life was devoted to sharing and explaining his experience of God's love. His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the beliefs that "Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?" and "Where there is no love, put love -- and you will find love." John left us many books of practical advice on spiritual growth and prayer that are just as relevant today as they were then. These books include: Ascent of Mount Carmel , Dark Night of the Soul and A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ . 

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