Wednesday of the Third week of Easter

Acts of the Apostles

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment.
Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to (the) city of Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice, came out of many possessed people, and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

Psalms

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!”
“Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!”
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John

Jesus said to the crowds, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."

St. Rosa Venerini((1656-1728))

SAINT ROSA VENERINI (1656 - 1728)Origins Rosa Venerini was born in Viterbo, on February 9, 1656. Her father, Goffredo, originally from Castelleone di Suasa (Ancona), after completing his doctorate of medicine in Rome, moved to Viterbo, where he practiced the medical profession brilliantly in the Grand Hospital. From his marriage to Marzia Zampichetti, of an ancient family of Viterbo, four children were born: Domenico, Maria Maddalena, Rosa and Orazio. Rosa was naturally gifted with intelligence and an uncommon human sensibility. The education she received in her family allowed her to uncover many talents of mind and heart and formed her in steadfast Christian principles. According to her first biographer, Father Girolamo Andreucci, S.I., she made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of 7. During the early years of her youth, she lived through a conflict between the attractions of the world and the promise made to God. She overcame this crisis with trusting prayer and mortification. At age 20, Rosa raised questions about her own future. The women of her time could choose only two orientations for their life: marriage or the cloister. Rosa esteemed both, but felt called to realize another project for the good of the Church and society. Urged on by prophetic interior occurrences, she committed much time in searching. In the autumn of 1676, on the advice of her father, Rosa entered the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine, with the prospect of fulfilling her vow. With her Aunt Anna Cecilia beside her, she learned to listen to God in silence and meditation. She remained in the monastery for only a few months because of the sudden death of her father. In the years immediately following, Rosa carried the burden of serious events for her family: her brother Domenico died at age 27; and a few months later, her mother died. In the meantime, Maria Maddalena married; and there remained at home only Orazio and Rosa - by now 24 years old. Challenged by the desire to do something great for God, in May of 1684, Rosa began to gather the girls and women of the area in her own home to recite the rosary. The way in which the girls and women prayed, and above all, their conversation before and after the prayer, opened the mind and heart of Rosa to a sad reality: the women of the common people were suffering cultural, moral and spiritual poverty. She then understood that the Lord called her to a higher mission, which she saw as the need to instruct and form young Christian women: not with sporadic encounters, but with a school. On August 30, 1685, with the approval of the bishop of Viterbo, Cardinal Urbano Sacchetti and the collaboration of two friends, Gerolama Coluzzelli and Porzia Bacci, Rosa left her father's home to begin her first school. The first objective of the Foundress was to give the girls a complete Christian formation and prepare them for life in society. Without pretense, Rosa opened the first Public School for Girls in Italy. The origins were humble, but the significance was prophetic: the human promotion and spiritual uplifting of women was a reality that did not take long to receive the recognition of the religious and civil authorities.Expansion of the Work The initial stages were difficult. The three Maestre (teachers) faced resistance from clergy, who considered the teaching of the catechism as their private office. The harshest suspicion came from conformists: scandalized by the boldness of this upper-middle-class woman of Viterbo who had taken to heart the education of ignorant girls. Rosa faced everything for the love of God; and with her characteristic strength, continued on the path that she had undertaken, by now sure that she was truly following the plan of God. The fruits proved her to be right. The same pastors recognized the moral improvement that the work of education generated among the girls and mothers. The validity of this initiative was acknowledged and its fame went beyond the confines of the Diocese. Cardinal Mark Antonio Barbarigo, Bishop of Montefiascone, understood the genius of the Viterbo project, so he called Rosa to his diocese. Rosa responded to the invitation; and from 1692 to 1694, she opened ten schools in Montefiascone and the villages surrounding Lake Bolsena. The cardinal provided the material means while Rosa gathered the families, trained the teachers and organized the schools. When she had to return to Viterbo to attend to the strengthening of her first school, she entrusted the schools and teachers to the direction of St. Lucia Filippini. After the openings in Viterbo and Montefiascone, other schools were started in Lazio. Rosa reached Rome in 1706, but the first experience in Rome was a failure, which affected her and caused her to for wait six years before she regained the trust of authorities. On December 8, 1713, with the help of Abate Degli Atti, a great friend of the Venerini family, Rosa was able to open one of her schools in the center of Rome at the foot of the Campidoglio. On October 24, 1716, they received a visit from Pope Clement XI, accompanied by eight cardinals who wanted to attend the lessons. Amazed and pleased, he addressed these words to the Foundress at the end of the morning: "Signora Rosa, you are doing that which we cannot do. We thank you very much because with these schools you will sanctify Rome." From that moment on, governors and cardinals asked for schools for their areas. The duties of the Foundress became intense, consisting of travels and hard work, interwoven with joys and sacrifices for the formation of new communities. Wherever a new school sprang up, in a short time a moral improvement could be noted in the youth. Rosa Venerini died a saintly death in the community of St. Mark's in Rome on the evening of May 7, 1728. She had opened more than forty schools. Her remains were entombed in the nearby Church of the Gesù, which she loved. In 1952, on the occasion of her beatification, they were transferred to the chapel of the Generalate in Rome. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006.Her Spirituality During her entire life, Rosa moved in the ocean of the Will of God. She said, "I feel so nailed to the Will of God that nothing else matters, neither death nor life. I want what He wants; I want to serve Him as much as pleases Him and no more." After her first contacts with the Dominican Fathers at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Oak Tree, near Viterbo, she definitely followed the austere and balanced spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola under the direction of the Jesuits, especially Father Ignatius Martinelli. The crises of adolescence, the perplexity of youth, the search for a new way, the institution of the schools and the communities, the rapport with the Church and the world - all were oriented to the Divine Will. Prayer was the breath of her day. Rosa did not impose on herself or her Daughters long vocal prayers, but recommended that the life of the Maestre, in the practice of the precious education ministry, be a continuous speaking with God, of God and for God. Intimate communion with the Lord was nourished by mental prayer, which the Saint considered "essential nourishment of the soul." In meditation, she listened to the Teacher who taught along the roads of Palestine and in a particular way from the height of the Cross. With her gaze upon the crucifix, Rosa always felt more strongly her passion for the salvation of souls. For this reason, she celebrated and lived daily the Eucharist in a mystical way. In her imagination, the Saint saw the world as a great circle; she placed herself in the center of it and contemplated Jesus, the immaculate victim, who offered Himself from every part of the world to the Father through the Eucharistic Sacrifice. She called this means of elevating herself to God "The Greatest Circle." With incessant prayer, she participated spiritually in all the Masses being celebrated in every part of the world. She united with love the sufferings, hard work and joys of her own life to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, concerned that His Precious Blood would not be shed in vain.The Charism Rosa Venerini was consumed by passion for God and passion for the salvation of souls. She spared nothing of time, hard work, struggle and difficulties to give Italian girls human and Christian formation. Moreover, she intuited that professional training could give women a human promotion and affirmation in society. Rosa, without pretense and well before its time in history, offered to the Church the model of the Apostolic Religious Community. Rosa did not practice her educational mission only in the school, but took every occasion to announce the love of God. She comforted and cured the sick, raised the spirits of the discouraged, consoled the afflicted, called sinners back to a new life, exhorted to fidelity consecrated souls not observing their call, helped the poor and freed people from every form of moral slavery. "Educate to save" became the motto that urged the Maestre Pie Venerini to continue the Work of the Lord intended by their Foundress and radiate the charism of Rosa to the world: to free from ignorance and evil so that the project of God, which every person carries within, can be visible. This is the magnificent inheritance that Rosa Venerini left her Daughters. Wherever the Maestre Pie Venerini strive to live and transmit the apostolic concern of their Mother, in Italy as in other lands, they give preference to the poor. After having made its contribution to the Italian immigrants to the USA from 1909 and in Switzerland from 1971 to 1985, the Congregation extended its apostolic activity to other lands: India, Brazil, Cameroon, Romania, Albania, Chile, Venezuela and Nigeria.

St. John of Beverley()

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