Author Archives: Steve Benner

The Beheading of John the BaptistThe main celebration for John the Baptist is on 24 June, the date observing his birth, but John was also the forerunner of Christ in his death and, as the gospels of Matthew and Mark relate it, followed his denouncing of immoral ways and his call to repentance. On hearingContinue reading “Oremus for Friday, August 29, 2025”

AugustineAugustine was born in North Africa in 354. His career as an orator and rhetorician led him from Carthage to Rome, and from there to Milan where the Imperial court at that time resided. By temperament, he was passionate and sensual, and as a young man he rejected Christianity. Gradually, however, under the influence firstContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, August 28, 2025”

Hélder CâmaraHélder Pessoa Câmara OFS was a Brazilian Catholic archbishop. A self-identified socialist, he was the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, serving from 1964 to 1985, during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Câmara was an advocate of liberation theology. He did social and political work for the poor and for human rights and democracy during the military regime. Câmara preached for a churchContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, August 27, 2025”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/yjrz92n5 O Lord, I trust in your merciful love.My heart will rejoice in your salvation.I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me. Psalm 13 Eternal God,give us insight to discern your will for us,to give up what harms us,and to seek the perfection we are promisedin Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. CW:Continue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, August 26, 2025”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/29rt3xn4 I will recount all your wonders,I will rejoice in you and be glad,and sing psalms to your name, O Most High. Psalm 9 As of old, O Lord our God, you gave commandments to make one nation just and true, so by your incarnate Word you make all peoples one in grace and in theContinue reading “Oremus for Monday, August 25, 2025”

BartholomewIt has long been assumed that Bartholomew is the same as Nathanael though it is not a certainty. The gospels speak of Philip bringing Nathanael to Jesus and calling him an Israelite worthy of the name. He is also present beside the Sea of Galilee at the resurrection. Although he seems initially a somewhat cynicalContinue reading “Oremus for Sunday, August 24, 2025”

Simone WeilSimone Weil belonged to a species so rare, it had only one member. This peculiar French philosopher and mystic diagnosed the maladies and maledictions of her own age and place – Europe in the first war-torn half of the 20th century – and offered recommendations for how to forestall the repetition of its iniquities:Continue reading “Oremus for Saturday, August 23, 2025”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/8zfp8pca Behold, I am with you always,even to the end of the age, alleluia. Matthew 28 O God,your love is wider than all the universeand your mercy greater than the heights of heaven.When we are tempted to break faith with you,put a new song of love on our lips,that we may sing your praises to allContinue reading “Oremus for Friday, August 22, 2025”

Jonathan DanielsJonathan Myrick Daniels (March 20, 1939 – August 20, 1965) was an Episcopal seminarian and civil rights activist. In 1965, he was murdered by a shotgun-wielding special county deputy, Tom Coleman, who was a construction worker, in Hayneville, Alabama, while in the act of shielding 17-year-old Ruby Sales. He saved the life of theContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, August 21, 2025”

Bernard of ClairvauxBernard was born at Fontaines, near Dijon, in France in the year 1090. He entered the Benedictine abbey at Cîteaux in 1112, taking with him many of his young companions, some of whom were his own brothers. He was a leader of the reform within Benedictinism at this time and in 1115 wasContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, August 20, 2025”