I can’t believe that we are already in September and thus a new school year is upon us. As we unpack our new school supplies and possibly fill our shelves with new books many of us are, sadly, packing away the swim suits and getting as many days out of our shorts and tees as we can before the cooler temps force us to pack those away too.
With a new month upon us this also meant that Quick Take Seven was looming just around the corner and thus I needed to think of something interesting to “quick take” to the press!
I toyed with the idea to showcase first day of school pictures from around the country but one, I figured we will see a bunch of cute preschoolers, adorable “betweens” and handsome freshmen in our various newsfeeds! And secondly, for my first two quick takes my fellow scribblers were more than generous in sharing photos, favorite books and authors, therefore l decided it was time to do one all by myself.
There was just one problem, I pulled a complete blank when I searched my imagination for something interesting to write about. So I reached out to Kerri for some ideas. We bounced a few ideas back and forth, resulting in my pocketing a really fun one for November. You have my permission to wait with bated breath for it! In the meantime, I will share with you another great idea we came up with- few great feasts, along with some really neat Saints found in the month of September!
Quick Take One
September 3rd- St Gregory the Great, now tell me what could be more appropriate than a patron saint of teachers in September. I certainly didn’t realize he favored teachers and with our school semester starting this coming Monday, I think l might be calling on him – a lot! Read more about this great saint here.
Quick Take Two
Quick take two is a beautiful feast,that of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, which falls on September eighth and is one of the only three birthdays our church celebrates. We just celebrated one of them at the beginning of summer- John the Baptist‘s birthday and the one we ALL know about, the Nativity, is much closer than many of us want to acknowledge. Where does the time go?
This is an Icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God, egg tempera on wood, Central Russia, mid-1800’s.
Quick Take Three
September 13th brings us to St John Chrysostom. Chrysostom is greek for golden mouth and he was thus nicknamed due to his eloquence of speech. Born in Antioch at about 347 AD he lived an incredibly fruitful life with great zeal for preaching the truth. This led to his death after being exiled by the Empress Eudoxia in 407 AD.
Quick Take Four
This quick take brings us to Sept 14th and the Exaltation of the Cross. This feast day is celebrated on the anniversary of the dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher. According to an eyewitness of the fourth century, during an observation of Good Friday “the wood was taken out of its silver container and placed on a table together with the inscription Pilate ordered place over Jesus’ head.” You can read more about this feast day here.
Quick Take Five
Immediately following the Exaltation of the Cross we celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15th. This feast day was at one time celebrated on the Sunday following September 14th but finally Pope Pius the tenth fixed it permanently to the Roman Calendar on the 15th.
Quick Take Six
I think the feast day of the Archangels must be a favorite one for so many people. I know it’s a special day in our family, given we have two children bearing the name of two of these great angels and one child was actually born on this date. On this day we celebrate the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
Quick Take Seven
Given this is the month in which we recall the archangels I thought it would be fitting to end with the history of the St Michael prayer. On October 18th of 1884, Pope Leo XIII fainted during a consultation with the Cardinals. At first it was thought that he been taken ill but in a very short time the pope revived and shared something of the terrible vision he had experienced of the spiritual attack the church was soon to undergo. He had also seen how the Archangel Michael was prevailing against the evil spirits that were in warfare against the church. It was shortly after that that he composed the Prayer of Protection of St Michael. This prayer until very recently was evoked after every Mass and, in some churches, this practice is coming back.
In preparing for September’s quick takes I examined a few different calendars of saints and feast days and thought I would thought I would share one of them on the chance you might like to be able to read and learn about the many various saints that our church recalls during the month of September.
I would like to close with the prayer to Saint Michael before bidding you adieu.
See you next month…
Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting 7 Quick Takes!! Check out her post and the many, many links at the end for lots of 7 Quick Takes posts from all over the blogosphere.