Universalis
Sunday 29 January 2023    (other days)
Saint Ansgar (Oscar), Bishop 
Solemnity

Using calendar: Denmark. You can pick a diocese or region.

Christ is the chief shepherd, the leader of his flock: come, let us adore him.

Year: A(I). Psalm week: 4. Liturgical Colour: White.

St Ansgar or Oscar (- 865)

He was born in Amiens at the start of the ninth century and educated at the monastery of Corbie in Picardy. He went as a missionary to Denmark in 826 but had little success; but in Sweden he did better. He was elected Bishop of Hamburg (this was at that time a missionary see dedicated to evangelizing the North) and appointed papal legate to Denmark and Sweden by Pope Gregory IV. He encountered huge difficulties in his work of evangelization but he overcame them. He died in Bremen on 3 February 865.
  He is known as “the apostle of the North.” His diaries are an important documentary source for early Scandinavian history. See also the articles in Wikipedia and the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Other saints: Bl Archangela Girlani (1460-1495)

29 Jan (where celebrated)
Blessed Archangela Girlani was born Eleanor Girlani in 1460 at Trino, in northern Italy, to a noble family. At age seventeen, she, along with her two sisters, Maria and Frances, took the Carmelite habit in the monastery at Parma. Eleanor took the religious name Archangela. She later become prioress of the monastery at Parma, and then prioress at a new foundation at Mantua in 1492. She died at Mantua in January 1495 in her third year as prioress there. Apart from her role of service to the monasteries in which she was prioress, Archangela’s Carmelite life is remembered as one permeated by strivings in the mystical life of prayer. Her frequent prayer was “Jesus, my Love.”
MT

Other saints: Bl. Villana de' Botti OP (1332 - 1361)

29 Jan (where celebrated)
Lay Dominican and Wife.
  Blessed Villana, the daughter of a rich merchant, was born at Florence in 1332. She married the wealthy Pietro Benitendo and together with her husband lived a worldly life which their wealth sustained. Realizing the emptiness of her life, Villana went to the friars of Santa Maria Novella to confess her sins and ask for the habit of the sisters of Penance of St. Dominic. She took up the study of scripture and the contemplation of Christ crucified and drew other women to follow her example. She died on January 29, 1361.

Liturgical colour: white

White is the colour of heaven. Liturgically, it is used to celebrate feasts of the Lord; Christmas and Easter, the great seasons of the Lord; and the saints. Not that you will always see white in church, because if something more splendid, such as gold, is available, that can and should be used instead. We are, after all, celebrating.
  In the earliest centuries all vestments were white – the white of baptismal purity and of the robes worn by the armies of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, washed white in the blood of the Lamb. As the Church grew secure enough to be able to plan her liturgy, she began to use colour so that our sense of sight could deepen our experience of the mysteries of salvation, just as incense recruits our sense of smell and music that of hearing. Over the centuries various schemes of colour for feasts and seasons were worked out, and it is only as late as the 19th century that they were harmonized into their present form.

Mid-morning reading (Terce)1 Timothy 4:16 ©
Take great care about what you do and what you teach; always do this, and in this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

Noon reading (Sext)1 Timothy 1:12 ©
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, and who judged me faithful enough to call me into his service.

Afternoon reading (None)1 Timothy 3:13 ©
Those who carry out their duties well as deacons will earn a high standing for themselves and be rewarded with great assurance in their work for the faith in Christ Jesus.

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Scripture readings taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.
 
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