A Mother Directed by her Daughter

I found this about St Juliana Falconieri (1270-1341, feast day today), a tertiary like us, though not in Carmel.  ‘At 15 Juliana refused her family’s plans for her to marry and soon after became a Servite tertiary. She continued to live with her mother and followed the rule given her by the prior general of the Servites, St. Philip Benizi, practising charity, chastity, mortification, penance, and prayer.  Her mother was so impressed with her conduct that she eventually also placed herself under her daughter’s direction and spent the last 20 years of her life living a quiet, austere life of prayer and good works. Other young women of Florence had become tertiaries and formed a community. Juliana found a place for them at the Grifoni Palace in Florence.’  [Courtesy of catholicireland.net] There are other stories of saints who converted or deeply inspired their parents but this – the mother putting herself under her daughter’s direction – is truly astonishing and deeply moving – a tribute both to daughter and to mother, though in different ways.

Intercessons

RIP Mervyn Leach, father of two Secular Carmelites

Cancer: Brian Davis, Bernard (and wife Angela caring for him), Jacqui, Fr Jon Bielowski (Plymouth Diocese), Catherine, Alex (43 with five children), Sister Daranee Teapthong, Theresa K

Ivy – sick child

Brian (recovering from Pneumonia)

Kevin (heart attack)

William Gove (recovering from stroke)

Illness:  Katy Keeling

Siena, Elara – sick children

David OCDS – housebound

Grace – troubling ailments, job difficulties, family (deceased mother and health of father)

Mark – brain infection

Michael, Kira – vulnerable youngsters

Defence of the unborn and the elderly

We are asked to pray for the Diocese of Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand, as the Northern Mission celebrates its centenary. The process of selecting a new bishop continues.