St. Raphael the Archangel whose name means “Medicine of God” or “God heals” in Hebrew; is one of the seven Archangels that stand before the throne of GOD.
“I am Raphael, one of the seven who stand before the Lord.” [Tob. 12: 15] When we pray for his help he intercedes directly to God the Father. He is one of the three angels mentioned by name in holy scripture. St. Raphael appears in the deutero-canonical Book of Tobit, a beautiful narrative in the Old Testament.
He heals Tobit of blindness, he protects and guides Tobias on his travels and he delivers Sarah from an evil demon. Tobit, Tobias and Sarah were beset by trials and difficulties to purify them, but they remained steadfast in their faith during the period of testing, and eventually enjoyed God’s blessings and mercy. All prayed for deliverance and God sent St. Raphael. The longest recorded speech of an angel is Chapter 12 of the Book of Tobit.
He is the healing and deliverance Archangel, and the patron of travelers, the blind, bodily ills, nurses, physicians,medical workers, happy meetings and marriages.
The feast day of Raphael was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on October 24. With the 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar, the feast was transferred to September 29 for celebration together with archangels Saints Michael and Gabriel.

According to the 1962 Missal of St. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows who was born in Assisi on March 1, 1838, the eleventh child of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti. His father Sante was a distinguished Italian lawyer. The boy was given the name of the city’s illustrious patron, St. Francis, at baptism.

Stational Church

St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
On Ascension Day, 1920, Pope Benedict XV bestowed the honors of sainthood on a youth who is rightly called the Aloysius of the 19th century. He was Francis Possenti, known in religion as Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother.

Born in Assisi, March 1, 1838, he was given the name of the city’s illustrious patron, St. Francis, at baptism. As a student in neighboring Spoleto, he led a good though rather worldly kind of life until God drew him closer to Himself through an illness. The decisive step was taken while seeing the highly honored miraculous picture of our Lady in Spoleto borne about in solemn procession. As his eyes followed our Blessed Mother, Francis felt the fire of divine love rising in his heart and almost at once made the resolve to join the Passionists, a religious congregation dedicated to the veneration of and meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ (1856).

After overcoming many difficulties, he carried out his resolution and received the religious name, Gabriel of the Mother of Sorrows. Even as a novice, he was regarded as a model of perfect holiness both within and beyond the cloister.

Saint Gabriel did not stand out from his community in any extraordinary way — his heroism lay in his obedient attitude. He conformed himself to his community in complete humility. Little is known of his life – only that he was blessed with an excellent memory and other gifts that made him an outstanding student. He also had a great devotion to the Passion of Christ and the Sorrows of Mary. Pius X and Leo XIII especially desired that he be the patron saint of young people and novices in religious orders, as their model in the interior life. He died in the year 1862.

Saint Gabriel Possenti wrote: “Love Mary!… She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity.”

Patron: Abruzzi region of Italy; Catholic Action; clerics; students; young people in general.

Things to Do:

• For more information about this Passionist saint visit: here, EWTN and the Passionist nuns

St. Leander of Seville
St. Leander was born of an illustrious family at Carthagena in Spain. He was the eldest of five brothers, several of whom are numbered among the Saints. He entered into a monastery very young, where he lived many years and attained to an eminent degree of virtue and sacred learning.

These qualities occasioned his being promoted to the see of Seville; but his change of condition made little or no alteration in his method of life, though it brought on him a great increase of care and solicitude.

Spain at that time was in possession of the Visigoths. These Goths, being infected with Arianism, established this heresy wherever they came; so that when St. Leander was made bishop it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This was his great affliction; however, by his prayers to God, and by his most zealous and unwearied endeavors, he became the happy instrument of the conversion of that nation to the Catholic faith. Having converted, among others, Hermenegild, the king’s eldest son and heir apparent, Leander was banished by King Leovigild. This pious prince was put to death by his unnatural father, the year following, for refusing to receive Communion from the hands of an Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, the king recalled our Saint; and falling sick and finding himself past hopes of recovery, he sent for St. Leander, and recommended to him his son Recared. This son, by listening to St. Leander, soon became a Catholic, and finally converted the whole nation of the Visigoths. He was no less successful with respect to the Suevi, a people of Spain, whom his father Leovigild had perverted.

St. Leander was no less zealous in the reformation of manners than in restoring the purity of faith; and he planted the seeds of that zeal and fervor which afterwards produced so many martyrs and Saints.

This holy doctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 27th of February, as Mabillon proves from his epitaph.

The Church of Seville has been a metropolitan see ever since the third century. The cathedral is the most magnificent, both as to structure and ornament, of any in all Spain.

Excerpted from Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

MASS READINGS

February 27, 2020 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2020-02-27

Meditation: Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Do you want Lent to be fruitful this year? Try thinking of it as a journey you’re taking with the disciples as Jesus prepares for his passion, death, and resurrection. You will hear Jesus preach and tell parables; you will see him heal and feed the needy. How will you respond? Each day, each step of the journey gives you another chance to choose to follow him.

Following the Lord requires choosing. Each reading today says so. Moses gives his farewell address to the Israelites, and his main point is that if they want to receive God’s life, they have to choose to follow and obey him (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Jesus predicts his passion and gives the disciples a list of things they need to choose to do: deny themselves, take up their crosses daily, and follow him (Luke 9:23). Even today’s psalm describes the blessed people who follow the Lord—they choose not to follow the counsel of the wicked; they delight in God’s law. As a result, they are like a well-watered, fruitful tree (Psalm 1:1-3).

The same is true for us: choosing to follow God gives us life. So go ahead and spend a little more time in prayer or Scripture reading. Attend your parish’s Stations of the Cross. Give to the poor, whether you talk with the homeless man on the street corner or spend an afternoon preparing meals at a shelter. Wash your family’s dirty dishes or pick up after your loved ones with a smile.

This might sound like a spiritual to-do list. But there’s more to it than that. As you take more time to pray, you may notice a sense of joy welling up in you, even in difficulty. As you reach out to give to the needy, you may get a clearer glimpse of Jesus’ love for the poor. As you choose to serve your family even when you’re aggravated, you may discover a new sense of peace. Every decision to follow Jesus nourishes your soul like a river watering a tree (Psalm 1:3).

So rely on God’s grace and say yes to him. As you journey with Jesus through Lent, you’ll start resembling him more in your thoughts, words, and actions. That’s what his life does in you!

“Lord, help me choose to walk with you today.”

Psalm 1:1-4, 6
Luke 9:22-25