"...for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples." Isaiah 56:7

"O Lord,...you have been pleased to bless this house of your servant, so that it will always remain. It is you, O Lord, who blessed it, and it will be blessed forever." 1 Chr 17: 26-27

Sr. Marie De Mandat-Grancey Foundation
P.O.Box 275
Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724 USA

" I am not a priest and cannot bless them, but all that the heart of a mother can ask of God for her children, I ask of Him and will never cease to ask Him." ~ Sister Marie

“The grace of our Lord be with us forever.” ~ Sr. Marie

Thursday, June 28, 2012

St. Irenaeus

The following excerpt was forwarded by a friend.

Saint Irenaeus, Pray for us and our country!!!!

St. Irenaeus Feast Day - June 28

Irenaeus was born in a port city of the country we now call Turkey. He made important contributions to the early Church. He lived from 130 to 200 A.D. One of Irenaeus' teachers was Polycarp, the bishop of Irenaeus' diocese. Polycarp, who later began a saint, was a disciple of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist.

This close connection to a person who had actually known Jesus helped Irenaeus understand the importance of tracing our beliefs back to the teachings and practices of the Apostles. Irenaeus knew that remaining true to the teachings of the Apostles would guide the Church in being always faithful to the mission and message of Christ. Irenaeus studied for the priesthood at the seminary in Lyons, France. After ordination he became known as a theologian, a person who helps us to understand the teachings and meaning of our faith. He wrote an important letter that corrected a false teaching that some Church leaders were preaching. The false teaching, or heresy, said that only a few people specially chosen by God would be rewarded with eternal life in God's kingdom of heaven. Irenaeus explained that Jesus came to save all people and that anyone who prayed, kept the commandments and tried to live as God's children could share in everlasting life. In the earliest days of the Church, Irenaeus worked to solve problems and disagreements among all the different groups who came to believe in Jesus and his teachings. On his feast day, we pray, "Renew us in faith and love so that we may always be intent on fostering unity and peace" (Sacramentary, page 655). As Catholics we proclaim our unity in the marks of the Church, when we say that the Church is "one." St. Paul wrote that we are united by "one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all" (Ephesians 4:5-6). We can work for unity by treating all people with love and respect, as St. Irenaeus did.

It is not thou that shapest God it is God that shapest thee.
If thou art the work of God await the hand of the artist who does all things in due season.
Offer Him thy heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form in which the artist has fashioned thee.
Let thy clay be moist, lest thou grow hard and lose the imprint of his fingers. - St. Irenaeus