St. Stephen
Protomartyr for the Christian Faith

That St. Stephen was a Jew is unquestionable, himself owning that relation in his apology to the people. But whether he was of Hebrew extraction and descended of the stock of Abraham, or whether he was of foreign parents incorporated and brought into that nation by the gate of proselytism, is uncertain. The name Stephen, which signifies a crown, is evidently Greek; but the priest Lucian, in the history of the discovery of his relics, and Basil of Seleucia, inform us, that the name Cheliel, which in modern Hebrew signifies a crown, was engraved on his tomb at Caphragamala. It is generally allowed that he was one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord; for immediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost, we find him perfectly instructed in the law of the gospel, endowed with extraordinary measures, both of the interior and exterior gifts of that divine Spirit which was but lately shed upon the church, and incomparably furnished with miraculous powers. The church of Christ then increased daily, and was illustrious for the spirit and practice of all virtues, but especially for charity. The faithful lived and loved one another as brethren, and were of one heart and one soul.

St. Stephen, First Martyr

St. Stephen is the first of the witnesses of Christ; it is only right that he could appear first in the glorious processions of Saints who surround the cradle of the Savior.

Yesterday, the Lord of the universe filled us with wonder, whereas today the disciple of the Lord fills us with wonder.  In what manner the former, and in what manner the latter?  The former (i.e. Christ), for our sakes assumed human nature, while the latter (i.e., St. Stephen) for the sake of the Lord rid himself of human nature.  The martyr’s death of St. Stephen is truly singular, as is his cult, which is enjoyed in the Church of Christ since apostolic times.

St. John Chrysostom numbers St. Stephen among the apostles:  “Tell me truthfully,” he says, “what did he lack to be equal to the Apostles?  Did he not also work miracles?  Did he not also manifest fortitude?” (Sermon 15)

Accused before the Synhedrion – the Jewish Council – by false witnesses, St. Stephen bravely professed the Holy Faith.  For this they led him out of the city and stoned him to death.  This occurred in the year 34 or 35 (A.D.) after Christ.  Like Christ, St. Stephen too prayed for his enemies at his death.  Saul, a young man who later became the Apostle Paul, took part in his martyrdom.  St. Agustine ascribes the conversion of Saul to the martyrdom of St. Stephen.  “If Stephen had not prayed,” he says, “the Chruch would not now have Paul.”  St. Stephen was the first to shed his blood and give up his life after the Ascension of Our Lord.

St. John Chrysostom begins his sermon on St. Stephen with the words:  “All the Martyrs are given glory, and the heroic deeds of the Just are everywhere an object of admiration; but at the meniton of the most famous heroic deed of the first-martyr Stephen, even the mute tongue begins to praise him.  Whom is Blessed Stephen not able to invite to praise (him)?  His very name, which in Greek means “crown”, already indicates his merits.  His very name suggests that he received the honor of victory!  Here the name of the Martyr already implies struggle, victory, and honor!”

Another sermon on St. Stephen says:  “We crown Stephen with flowers of praise, and we shower upon him roses of laudatory songs.  He already crowned himself with victorious prizes . . . .  Who among mortals can give worthy praise to the fighter?  Who of us is able to weave a wreath fitting his heroic deed?  What tongue is able to expound the glory of the victor?  What lips shall speak in praise of the heroic deeds of St. Stephen?  What mouth is able to express the fortitude of the first Martyr?”

St. Stephen was first among the seven deacons chosen to take care of the poor.  He is the first-martyr and prototype of all martyrs and so his cult is the oldest of all the martyrs.  The Holy Church linked his memory with the feast of the Nativity of Our Lord for, as the first-martyr of Christ, he bore a very close relation with Christ.

The Feast of St. Stephen was already generally known in the fourth century and was celebrated on an equal footing with those of the Apostles.  The Apostolic Constitutions of the fourth century say:  “Let them celebrate on the day of the first-martyr Stephen.”  The Holy Fathers of the fourth century, such as St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom and St. Augustine, preached sermons in honor of St. Stephen.  In the fourth and fifth centuries, churches were built in his honor.

A further mote for the cult of St. Stephen was the finding of his relics in 415.  It was then that according to tradition the teacher of the Apostle Paul, who died believing in Christ, appeared three times to a priest of Jerusalem, Lucianus.  He told Lucianus that, after the stoning of Stephen, he buried Stephen’s body in his own tomb, where it now rests together with the remains of his son, Avivus, and near them Nicodemus – the secret disciple of Christ.  The discovered relics of St. Stephen were transferred to the church on Sion, in Jerusalem.  Sometime afterwards they were again transferred to the Church of the Stoning, north of Jerusalem.  The wife of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, Eudokia, in the year 460, at the place of the original Church of the Stoning, built a beautiful basilica which was later destroyed.  The ruins of this basilica were discovered in 1812, and upon the old foundation the present day church of St. Stephen was erected.

In the year 560 part of the relics of St. Stephen were transferred to Constantinople and deposited, first in the church of St. Lawrence, and later in the newly built church of St. Stephen.  Just as at the finding, so too, at the translate of the relics of St. Stephen, various miracles took place.  St. Augustine, the great venerator of St. Stephen, speaks of these miracles.

This Blessing may be made by a Catholic Priest:

Verse.  Our help is in the name of the Lord.

Response.  Who hath made heaven and earth.

All say the antiphon:

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He is come.

PSALM 95

Sing unto the Lord a new song; * Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.

Sing unto the Lord, bless His name, * Proclaim His salvation from day to day.

Declare His glory among the Gentiles, * His marvelous works among all the peoples.

For great is the Lord, and highly to be praised; * He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, * But the Lord made the heavens.

Honor and majesty are before Him: * Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Give to the Lord, ye kindreds of the peoples, * Give to the Lord glory and strength.  * Give to the Lord the glory due unto His name.

Offer sacrifice, and come into His courts. * O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Tremble before Him, all the earth. * Say among the heathen: ‘The Lord Reigneth.’

The world also is established that it cannot be moved; * He will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice; * Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; * Let the field exult, and all that is therein.

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy; *

Before the Lord, for He is come; * For He is come to judge the earth.

He will judge the world with righteousness, * And the peoples in His truth.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be; * world without end.  Amen

The antiphon is repeated:

Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for He is come.

A member of the family reads the following Lesson from the Prophet Ezechiel (xvii, 22-24):

Thus saith the Lord God:  I Myself will take the top of the high cedar, and will set it:  I will crop off a tender twig from the top of the branches thereof,

and I will plant it on a mountain high and eminent.  On the high mountains of Israel will I plant it, and it shall shoot forth into branches, and shall bear fruit,

and it shall become a great cedar; and all birds shall dwell under it, and every fowl shall make its nest under the shadow of the branches thereof.

And all the trees of the country shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, and exalted the low tree; and have dried up the green tree,

and have caused the dry tree to flourish.  I the Lord have spoken and have done it.

R.  Thanks be to God.

V.  And there shall come forth a shoot.

R.  Out of the root of Jesse.

V.  In Him was life.

R.  And the life was the light of men.

V.  O Lord hear my prayer.

R.  And let my cry come unto Thee.

V.  The Lord be with you.

R.  And with thy spirit.

Let us pray:

Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God, who hast caused Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be planted like a tree of life

in Thy Church by being born of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, bless, we beseech Thee, this tree that all who see it may be filled

with a holy desire to be ingrafted as living branches into the same Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.

R.  Amen.

Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem

The Season of Advent has made us long for the coming of the Word.  the Season of Christmas helps us to assist at His coming into this world.  “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” says St. John (John 1:14)  

The Church at this period of the year deals exclusively with the mysteries of the Infancy of Christ.  She reminds us of the manifestation to the Jewish race (the Nativity:  December 5th) and to the heathen world (the Epiphany:  January 6th) of the great Mystery of the Incarnation, which consists in the union in Jesus of the Word begotten of the substance of the Father before all the ages with the humanity engendered of the substance of His Mother in the world.  And this mystery is made complete by the union of our souls with Christ, who causes us to be born to the Divine Life:  “But as many as received Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in His name.” (John 1:12)

This is the declaration of the triple birth of the Word, who from all Eternity derives His Divine nature from the Father, who takes up humanity unto Himself given to Him in time by the Virgin, and who unites our souls to Him in the course of the centuries.

Book of Heaven
12/8/38 – Vol. 36

My flight in the Divine Will continues.  It seems to me that It can be found in all things, natural and spiritual, saying with Unspeakable Love:  “I am here, let’s act together—do not do it by yourself. Without Me you wouldn’t know how to do it the way I would.  I would remain with the Pain of having been put aside, while you would remain with the sorrow of not having in your acts the Value of one single Act of a Divine Will.”

While I was thinking this, my sweet Jesus, repeating His short little visit, all Goodness told me: “My blessed daughter, My Most Holy Humanity was the depository of My Divine Will.  There was no act, little or great, even the breathing and the motion, that My Humanity, like a veil, did not hide completely in My Divine Fiat.  Even more, I would not have been capable of a breath or a movement if I did not enclose It within Me.  Therefore, My Humanity served as the veil in which to hide My Divinity as well as the Great Prodigy of the Work of My Will in all My Acts.  Otherwise, no one could have come close to Me.  My Majesty and the shining Light of My Divinity would have eclipsed him and would just have floored him—all would have run away from Me.  Who would have dared to cause Me the smallest Pain?  But I Loved the creature and I came on earth not to show off My Divinity, but My Love.  So I wanted to hide Myself inside the veil of My Humanity to get acquainted with man, to do what he did, reaching the point of letting him give Me Unheard-of Pains and even Death.

“The soul that unites with My Humanity in all her acts and pains, by wanting to find My Will and make It her own, breaks the veil of My Humanity, finding in My Acts the fruit, the Life, the Prodigies that My Humanity did within Me, and receiving all that I did within Me as her own Life.  My Humanity will serve to help and guide her, showing her how to Live within It.  In this way, I will still be on earth, continuing to be the veil hiding what My Will wants to do.  But if creatures will look for Me without My Will, they will find only My veil, not the Life of My Will.  They will not be able to produce the Prodigies that It Operated in the hiding place of My Humanity.  It is always My Will that knows how to place inside the creature the Greatest Prodigies—the brightest Suns; Wonders never before seen—as if inside each of My Humanities on earth.  But, alas, I search them and I cannot find them because no one, in Total Firmness, is looking for My Will.” . . .

Volume 26; 4/7/29

…And Jesus resumed His speaking:  “My daughter (Luisa), even from the breath is one who lives in my Will recognized by all Creation, because each created thing feels in that creature the power of the Fiat, and the supremacy which God gave her over the whole Creation.  Look and listen, my daughter:  in the beginning, when Adam and Eve were created, Eden was given to them as their dwelling, in which they were happy and holy.  This garden is a simile of that Eden, though it is not as beautiful and flowery.  Now, know that I have permitted your coming to this house, which is surrounded by a garden, for you to be the new Eve; not Eve the tempter, who deserved to be put out of happy Eden, but Eve the reformer and the restorer, who will call again the Kingdom of my Divine Will upon earth.  Ah! yes, you will be the seed, the cement on the woodworm that the human will has; you will be the beginning of a new happy era, and this is why I centralize in you the joy, the goods, the happiness of the beginning of Creation, and I love to repeat the conversations, the lessons, the instructions which I would have given if man had not withdrawn from Our Divine Will.  Therefore, be attentive, and let your flight in It be continuous.”

The Nuptuals of Our Lady and St. Joseph

Volume 12; 1/24/21
…Now, my sweet Jesus came back and told me:  “My daughter, calm yourself – I choose whomever I please.  Know, however, that I begin all of my works between Myself and one single creature; and then they are diffused.  In fact, who was the first spectator of the Fiat of my Creation?  Adam, and then Eve.  It surely wasn’t a multitude of people; only after years and years did crowds and multitudes of people become spectators of It.  And in the second Fiat my Mama was the only spectator; not even Saint Joseph knew anything, and my Mama found Herself more than in your condition:  the greatness of the creative force of my work which She felt within Herself was such that, confounded, She did not feel the strength to breathe a word to anyone.  And if Saint Joseph then knew it, it was because I manifested it to him. So, this Fiat germinated like seed inside Her virginal womb; the ear of grain was formed in order to multiply It, and then It came out to daylight.  But who were the spectators?  Very few; and in the room of Nazareth the only spectators were my dear Mama and Saint Joseph.  Then, when my Most Holy Humanity grew up, I went out and I made Myself known – but not to all.  Then, It diffused more, and It will still diffuse.

So it will be for the third Fiat.  It will germinate in you; the ear of grain will form; only the priest will have knowledge of It.  Then, a few souls – and then It will diffuse.  It will diffuse, and will do the same course as Creation and Redemption.  The more crushed you feel, the more the ear of the third Fiat grows in you and is fecundated.  Therefore, be attentive and faithful.”