Saturday 26 March 2016

A Valiant Woman - Saint Margaret Clitherow - reading for 25th March, Elizabethan, Catholic, Mother, executed 25 March 1586

A VALIANT WOMAN
Saint Margaret Clitherow, English Martyr, Recusant Catholic, Elizabethan, Mother, Saint.
 
 
Margaret Middleton married John Clitherow, butcher and grazier, a freeman of the city of York, in 1571, and shortly afterwards became a Catholic. During the following twelve years her house was a refuge for priests, whom she received at her own peril, and she brought up her children in the faith; her husband was not a Catholic, but seems not to have hampered his wife’s activities. For her persistent recusancy, Margaret was several times put in prison, even for two years together, but her sufferings only increased her fervour. “Were it not,” she said, “for my husband and children I would rather stay there always, apart from the world with God.” She was most attentive to the care of her house, witty, cheerful and good-looking, and her constancy and patience never failed. Her husband was later to say of her, “Let them take all I have and save her, for she is the best wife in all England, and the best Catholic.” She has, he said, only two faults, fasting too much and refusing to go to church.

On 10 March 1586 Mr Clitherow was summoned before the council at York, and in his absence his house was searched. The priest in hiding there escaped, but Margaret and her children were taken. Enraged at their failure, the searchers terrorized a Flemish boy of twelve years, staying in the house, till he showed them the priest’s room and where the church stuff was kept. At her trial, lest her children might be forced by evidence to be guilty of her blood, Margaret refused to plead, on the ground that she had committed no offence. At her second examination she again refused to plead, saying there was no evidence against her save that of children, whom you can make say anything by a stick or an apple. An Anglican clergyman who was present boldly protested to the bench against the iniquity of the proceedings.

The judge urged her to demand a jury, but in vain, and she was sentenced to be pressed to death, the ancient penalty for standing mute to a charge of felony. Margaret told the judge that, if this was his conscientious judgement, she prayed God to give him a better judgement in future. Forbidden to see husband or child, pestered by people who tried to shake her resolution, Margaret yet thanked God for all that was befalling her. The judge unwillingly issued an order for the execution on the following Friday (25th March 1586). Margaret had prepared herself by fasting and prayer; but she begged for a woman to be with her during the night, for, “though death is comfort,” she said, “the flesh is frail.” As no one could be admitted, the keeper’s wife sat with her for a while.

The first hours of the night Margaret passed on her knees in prayer, clothed in a linen habit made by herself for her passion. At three she laid herself flat on the stones for a quarter of an hour, then rested on her bed. At eight the sheriff and his officers came, and with them she walked barefoot, going along through the crowd to the Tolbooth. There, turning from those present, she knelt and prayed by herself. Then she laid herself on the ground clothed only in the linen habit, her face covered with a handkerchief, her hands outstretched and bound as if on a cross. The weighted door was laid on her; at the first crushing pain she cried, “Jesu, Jesu, Jesu have mercy on me,” and after a quarter of an hour passed to God. So died Saint Margaret Clitherow, of whom it was said that “everybody loved her.”

Reading from Mementoes of the Confessors and Martyrs of England and Wales by Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory. (Imaged used in the post taken from the DVDs ‘Saint Margaret Clitherow’ and ‘The Shining Pearl of York’ by Mary’s Dowry Productions)
 
Our DVDs about Saint Margaret Clitherow are available worldwide, region free, from our online shop: www.marysdowryproductions.org
 

Sunday 13 March 2016

FIRST LOOK - Saint David of Wales - New DVD, St. David, Monk, Bishop, Founder, Catholic - Mary's Dowry Productions

FIRST LOOK
Saint David of Wales by Mary's Dowry Productions - NEW DVD
 
 
We will be making our new film about Saint David of Wales available from:
this week, which offers a prayerful and spiritually uplifting look at the life and mission of one of our great British Saints.
 
The film runs for 25 minutes and is packed with historical information and facts in an atmosphere of devotion, making it both an interesting and prayerful encounter with Saint David.
Many of our films are used in schools and parishes as well as for family or private viewing.
 
All of our DVDs are available Region Free and ship worldwide.
 
Saint David of Wales will be available over the next few days from our online shop.
 
In 2007 Mary’s Dowry productions created a new form of film media to present the lives of the Saints. Mary’s Dowry Productions recreates original silent visuals, informative, devotional narration, and original contemplative music that touches your spirit to draw you into a spiritual encounter with the Saint.
Watch with your spiritual eye, listen with your spiritual ear.
Our films seek to offer a window into the lives of the Saints. 
Using your spiritual senses we invite you to shut out the world, sit prayerfully and peacefully and go on a journey of faith, history and prayer.
 
 



LAST WORDS (2) - Blessed William Hart to the Oppressed Catholics of Elizabethan England - Reading for 13th March - English Martyr

LAST WORDS (2)
Blessed William Hart to the Oppressed Catholics of Elizabethan England
Reading for 13th March
 
 
"This is the first, the last, the only request I make, and have yet made or ever shall.
Fulfil these my desires, hear my voice, keep to my counsel.
But why do I, a miserable and unhappy sinner, beg of you that, in this age, most poisoned and most dangerous to the good, you should persevere firm and constant in your confession, where angels, archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, the whole world beseech it, when the salvation of your souls and the good God Himself make the same entreaty, that you should remain firm in the faith you have once received and in your confession of the Truth?
May God of His infinite Mercy help you to do so, and I, your spiritual father, though weak and loaded with sins innumerable, will never cease to pray for you, both in this life and the next.
Wherefore I entreat you, in every way I can, to be mindful of me as often as you offer your devout prayers to God, lest I be like a melting candle, which giveth light to others and itself consumeth.
Again and againt farewell, my much desired ones. The servant of all and every one of you."
 
- Blessed William Hart - martyred 15th March 1583.
 
"Lest, perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway." - 1 Cor. 9, 27.
 
Reading for 13th March
The Mementoes of the Martyrs and Confessors of England and Wales
by Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory
 
For DVDs about the English Martyrs:
 
In 2007 Mary’s Dowry productions created a new form of film media to present the lives of the saints. Mary’s Dowry Productions recreates silent visuals, informative, devotional narration, and original contemplative music that touches your spirit to draw you into a spiritual encounter with the saint. Watch with your spiritual eye, listen with your spiritual ear. Our films seek to offer a window into the lives of our saints. Using your spiritual senses we invite you to shut out the world, sit prayerfully and peacefully and go on a journey of faith, history and prayer with the Saints and English Martyrs.




Saturday 12 March 2016

LAST WORDS (1) - Blessed William Hart (English Martyr) to the Oppressed Catholics - Hanged March 15th

LAST WORDS (1)
Reading for 12th March
Blessed William Hart to the Oppressed Catholics.
 
"Stand fast, brethren, stand steadfast, I say, in that faith which Christ planted, the apostles preached, the martyrs confirmed, the whole world approved and embraced.
Stand firm in that faith which, as it is the oldest, is also the truest and most sure, and which is most in harmony with the Holy Scriptures and with all antiquity.
Stand constant in that faith which has a worship worthy of all honour and reverence, Sacraments most holy, abounding in spiritual consolation.
For it ye have remained constant in this faith, that is, in the Catholic Church, the Ark of Noe, in the house of Rahab, with what joy and consolation of the soul will ye not be flooded: yours will be the Sacrament of Penance for the cleansing of your souls; yours the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour for the refreshing of your souls; you will be partakers of all the satisfaction and merits of Christ, of the fellowship of the Saints, of the suffrages, prayers, fasts and almsdeeds of all the just whom the Catholic Church throughout the world holds in her bosom.
O blessed they, yea, and thrice blessed, who in this deplorable world stand firm in the faith of Christ."
 
-Blessed William Hart - English Martyr 15th March 1583.
 
 
 
"Your adversary the devil...goeth about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist ye strong in faith." - 1 Peter 5, 8-9
 
Reading from
The Mementoes of the Martyrs and Confessor of England and Wales
by Henry Sebastian Bowden of the Oratory.
 
 
For films about the English Martyrs:


Monday 7 March 2016

NEW DVD release - Blessed Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite Dutch priest who gave a moving witness to Christ in Nazi occupied Holland

 
March 2016
 
New from Mary's Dowry Productions - Blessed Titus Brandsma - a 30 minute film of his life and powerful witness for the Catholic Church during Nazi occupied Holland in WW2.
In this film we take a spiritual and prayerful look at this Carmelite priest who spoke out against the evils of the Nazis and was eventually martyred at Dachau Concentration Camp.
We reflect upon some of his prayers and writings, especially some of those that were penned during his imprisonment.
We also look at the reasons why Blessed Titus Brandsma was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis and what his message and witness is to us today.
Blessed Titus Brandsma is the Patron Saint of Journalists.
 
This DVD is now available worldwide in all region formats from: