Easter: May 17th
Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Other Commemorations: St. Paschal Baylon, Religious (RM)
MASS READINGS
May 17, 2004 (Readings on USCCB website)
COLLECT PRAYER
God of mercy, may our celebration of your Son's resurrection help us to experience its effect in our lives. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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"When the Advocate comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the outset." "Our restoration to paradise, our ascent to the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our vocal freedom to call God our Father, our being made sharers in the grace of Christ, our being termed children of light, our being participants in eternal glory, and in a word, our being brought into the fullness of blessing in this world and in the future, is through the Holy Spirit. We await the full enjoyment of all those good gifts in store for us; and, since they are promised us, it is as if they were already present, and we contemplate grace represented as if in a mirror." — St. Basil
Before the reform of the General Roman Calendar today was the feast of St. Paschal Baylon, who lived and died in the kingdom of Aragon, Spain. He spent his early years as a shepherd and often gave religious instruction to the shepherds on the hills of Aragon. At the age of twenty-four he entered the Franciscan Order and embraced the humble, austere life of a lay brother. He was noted for his devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Pope Leo XIII declared him protector or all Eucharistic Congresses and works. His feast is no longer on the calendar in the United States.
St. Paschal Baylon
Paschal Baylon (named after the day of his birth and death: Pentecost Sunday—Pascha Pentekostes) was a simple, pious shepherd boy who later became an ardent spiritual son of St. Francis and the heavenly patron of adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He belongs to that illustrious circle of saints who, by heroic holiness of life, refurbished the Church's crown that had been desecrated by the heretics of the sixteenth century. He hailed from the Spanish section of Valencia in the year 1540, and died at the age of 52. As he lay dead upon the bier, he opened and closed his eyes twice when the sacred species were elevated at the consecration. Leo XIII declared him the heavenly patron of all Eucharistic leagues and societies.
One day Paschal heard the bells of a convent announce the approaching consecration at Mass. Such an ardent longing for God overcame him that, prompted by yearning and love, he involuntarily cried out: "O God, most worthy of all adoration, please let me see You!" Hardly had he uttered the prayer when a glowing star appeared in the sky. As he watched, the heavens opened; the star disappeared and was replaced by a chalice with the Host, flanked by two adoring angels. Christian art has selected this vision to show his chief virtue, viz., love for the most holy Eucharist.
—Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch
Patronage: cooks; shepherds; male children; Eucharistic congresses and organizations (proclaimed 28 November 1897); priestly vocation; Bisenti, Italy; Castelnuovo, Assisi, Italy; Montebello, Orciano di Pesaro, Italy; Obado, Bulacan, Philippines; diocese of Segorbe-Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Symbols and Representation: In adoration before a vision of the Host; Monstrance; Franciscan habit; Before the Eucharist
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. Paschal:
- Tomie de Paola wrote a children's book Pascual and the Kitchen Angels that retells some of the goings on in the kitchen with St. Pascal.
- St. Paschal's tomb is located in Sanctuary of St. Paschal Baylon, or de Sant Pasqual, popularly known as El Sant in Villarreal, Spain.
