calendarium ordinis praedicatorum

CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR: MEMORY OF OUR LADY OF CHINA Today is the liturgical feastday of the BVM Our Lady of China which we celebrate during the conventual mass as it was the custom of the Diocese of Macau; though in Taiwan and in the mainland well as Hong Kong, it is celebrated on the Saturday prior to Mother's day (Second week of May). With the recent imposition of the Feast of Maria Auxilium Christianorum as a day of prayer for the Church in China, this memory seem to have been overshadowed by the latter. ORIGIN OF THIS TITLE According to popular tradition, during the height of the Boxer rebellion in northern China, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Donglu, Hebei province. The mother of Christ appeared to the Christians as protector and consoler, defender for helpless and the righteous. During the historic Council of Shanghai in 1924, the Apostolic Nuncio Celso Constantini led all the Bishops of China to make a collegial act of consecration of China to the Blessed Virgin Mary

4 January SAINT ZEDISLAVA OF LEMBERK Lay Dominican and Wife Memoria Saint Zedislava was born in Krizanov, in western Moravia (today the Czech Republic) around the year 1220. Havel of Jablonné, the Count of Lemberk who ruled northern Bohemia took her as his wife when she was aged 20. In her new homeland, Zdislava poured out her love and the customs of her native land, dedicating herself totally to the service of the poor, but never neglecting her duties as a wife and mother. To foster the evangelization of Bohemia, she promoted the spread of the Order of Preachers whose habit and mission she assumed, and begged her husband to construct priories at Jablonné and Turnov. She died in Jablonné in 1252. Known as “the Lady of holy life”, from time immemorial in Bohemia, her cult had been approved by Pope Saint Pius X on 28 August, 1907; she was inscribed into the list of saints by Blessed John Paul II in 1995, at Olmmuoc in Moravia. From the Common of Holy Women: for those who Performed Works

January 3 THE MOST HOLY NAME OF JESUS THE OFFICE OF READINGS The Second Reading: From the treatise of Saint Thomas Aquinas «On the Humanity of Jesus Christ our Lord». This name Jesus is of great and varied power. And he was called Jesus. It must be noted that the names of individuals are always bestowed because of a certain fittingness in the person on whom the name is bestowed. This is done either because of the time – as the names of saints are often bestowed on those who are born on their feast days – or because of a relationship, or because of some other characteristic. However, the names that are divinely bestowed always signify some gratuitous gift divinely given to those on whom the names are imposed. So it was said to Abraham: You shall be called Abraham for I have made you the ancestor of many nations. And it was said to Peter: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. Therefore, because of the man Christ, the gift of grace was bestowed that through him all might

The Church celebrates the optional memorial of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. In the liturgical revisions of Vatican II, the feast was removed, though a votive Mass to the Holy Name of Jesus had been retained for devotional use. With the release of the revised Roman Missal in March 2002, the feast was restored as an optional memorial in the Ordinary Form on January 3. The Church reveals to us the wonders of the Incarnate Word by singing the glories of His name. The name of Jesus means Savior; it had been shown in a dream to Joseph together with its meaning and to Our Lady at the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel. Devotion to the Holy Name is deeply rooted in the Sacred Scriptures, especially in the Acts of the Apostles. It was officially promoted by the Council of Lyons and was entrusted to the Order of Preachers. The Dominican Master of the Order, Blessed John Garbella of Vercelli, on the forth of November following issued instructions to the whole Order, urging its members, and pri

Epiphany Proclamation 2012 Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us, and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return. Through the rhythms of times and seasons let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation. Let us recall the year's culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord: his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising celebrated between the evening of the Fifth day of April and the evening of the Seventh day of April, Easter Sunday being on the Eighth day of April. Each Easter -- as on each Sunday -- the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death. From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the Twenty-Second day of February. The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the Seventeenth day of May. Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the Twenty-Seventh day of May

JANUARY 03 JANUARY Most Holy Name of Jesus Since the beginnings of the Order, many friars are remembered for their special love shown to the most beloved Name of the Savior. After the Council of Lyons II (1274) Pope Gregory X himself specially entrusted the promotion of the praise and veneration of the Most Holy Name of Jesus to the Order under the leadership of Blessed John of Vercelli (1283), then Master of the Order. This devotion was further popularized through the preaching and spiritual writings of the Dominican Blessed Henry Suso (1366) and the Franciscan Saint Bernardine of Siena (1444) and the spread of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name. Because of the special mandate of the Supreme Pontiffs beginning with Pius IV, our Order has labored hard for the institution of this Confraternity along with the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary. Proper liturgical formularies were widely used in liturgy and were incorporated into the Dominican rite in the XVII century. By 1720 it