Saints of the Day & More

Saint Simon Stock was born of one of the most illustrious Christian families of England, at the castle of Harford in 1164. Certain prodigies marked him, while an infant in the cradle, as a soul chosen by the Mother of God for Her own. Not yet one year old, he was heard to say the Angelic Salutation distinctly, before he had reached the age to learn it. As soon as he could read he began to recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, and he would never cease to do so daily. He read Holy Scripture on his knees at the age of six. He became the object of the jealous persecution of one of his brothers, and at the age of twelve determined to leave and go to live in a forest. He found a very large hollow tree which became his oratory; and there Simon Stock lived like an angel of the desert. There he triumphed over the demon, as he would later tell his religious, only by the assistance of the Most Holy Virgin. When, deprived in his retreat of the Sacraments, he suffered sharp remorse and fe...

"On the fortieth day after the resurrection, he ascended into heaven with his body, in which he had risen, and his soul, and took his seat at the right hand of the Father; thence on the tenth day he sent the Holy Spirit" (Profession of Faith by Pope St. Leo IX, 1053). Jesus ascended into heaven body and soul, by His own power. He now sits at the right hand of His Father, enthroned, even insofar as He is man, as King of the Universe. From heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to assist His Church, and there He pleads for us as our Mediator and Advocate with the Father. He remains present in His Church through the Mass and the sacraments, the liturgy, the Gospels, and especially through His real presence, body, blood, soul and divinity, in the Holy Eucharist.