Author Archives: Steve Benner

Fannie Lou HamerFannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was born in Mississippi in 1917. Starting at the age of six, Hamer, the youngest child of a sharecropper family, picked cotton. She was only able to attend school until the age of 13 because her family needed her labor. She married Perry Hamer at the age of 27,Continue reading “Oremus for Thursday, March 14, 2024”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/4m8ka32t I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me,sing psalms to the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 13 Eternal God, our judge and redeemer,we confess that we have tried to hide from you,for we have done wrong.We have lived for ourselves,and apart from you.We have turned from ourContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, March 13, 2024”

Gregory the GreatGregory was born about 540 and became pope in a turbulent era. He used his great ability as an organiser to defend Italy against the Lombard invasions and to arrange extensive relief for the poor. He was responsible for sending Augustine to Britain, and wrote a text-book for the episcopate on pastoral care.Continue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, March 12, 2024”

You must rejoice, my son,for your brother was dead and has come to life;he was lost and is found. Luke 15 O Lord our God,you call us to work for a worldwhere all will be fed and have dignity,but we find ourselves distracted by our own desires.You call us to seek justice and peace,but weContinue reading “Oremus for Monday, March 11, 2024”

Antiphon1 Ant. Rejoice, O Jerusalem; and gather round, all you who love her;*rejoice in gladness, after having been in sorrow;exult and be replenished with the consolationflowing from her motherly bosom.V. I rejoiced when they said to me, *“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”And now our feet are standing *within your gates, O Jerusalem. Isaiah 66;Continue reading “Oremus for Sunday, March 10, 2024”

Gregory of NyssaGregory of Nyssa was born at Caesarea in what is now Turkey around the year 330, the child of an aristocratic Christian family. Unlike his elder brother Basil, he was academically undistinguished, but ultimately proved to be the most original of the group of the theologians known as the Cappadocian Fathers. He wasContinue reading “Oremus for Saturday, March 9, 2024”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/y74x99eu Within your will, O Lord, all things are established,and there is none that can resist your will.For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth,and all that is held within the circle of heaven;you are the Lord of all. Esther 4 Gracious God,our sins are too heavy to carry,too real toContinue reading “Oremus for Friday, March 8, 2024”

Perpetua and Her CompanionsPerpetua, a young woman of twenty-two, her slave Felicity, and three men, all recently baptised, were thrown to the beasts in the arena in Carthage in 203. A contemporary diary details the events of their sufferings and witnesses to their willingness to die in order to fulfil their following of Jesus. TheContinue reading “Oremus for Thursday, March 7, 2024”

Antiphon https://tinyurl.com/kstdbwh2 Look toward the Lord and be radiant;let your faces not be abashed. Psalm 34 Eternal God, our judge and redeemer,we confess that we have tried to hide from you,for we have done wrong.We have lived for ourselves,and apart from you.We have turned from our neighbors,and refused to bear the burdens of others.We have ignoredContinue reading “Oremus for Wednesday, March 6, 2024”

Jean-Pierre de CaussadeJean-Pierre de Caussade (born 1675) was a French Jesuit who died on this day in 1751. He was appointed spiritual director of a community of nuns and decided to share with them his ideas on the spiritual life. The material was published a century after his death as Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence. The bookContinue reading “Oremus for Tuesday, March 5, 2024”