# Saturday, December 26, 2026 *Today’s Prayer for Saint Stephen, first martyr.* [[#☀️ Morning Offering|Morning Offering]] | [[#🕰️ Liturgy of the Hours|Liturgy of the Hours]] | [[#📖 Daily Readings & Verse|Daily Readings]] | [[#🕊️ Today's Meditation|Today's Meditation]] > ***[[day-26-daily-prayer-for-seminarians-and-priests|Day 26 - Let us pray for seminarians Fernando Francisco Santos and Alex Lopez]]*** # ☀️ Morning Offering > [!quote] Carmelite Morning Offering (St. Thérèse) > O my God, I offer You all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its merciful love. O my God, I ask of You for myself and for those whom I hold dear the grace to know You, and to know and fulfill perfectly Your holy will, to accept for love of You the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in Heaven for all eternity. Amen. [[20261227-morning-offering|Next →]] ## 🕰️ Liturgy of the Hours > [!links] Universalis & Office > - [Office of Readings](http://www.universalis.com/20261226/readings.htm) | [Morning Prayer (Lauds)](http://www.universalis.com/20261226/lauds.htm) > - [Evening Prayer (Vespers)](http://www.universalis.com/20261226/vespers.htm) | [Night Prayer (Compline)](http://www.universalis.com/20261226/compline.htm) ## 📖 Daily Readings & Verse > [!cite] Daily Readings > **Verse:** "But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed but glorify God because of the name."1 Peter 4:16 > > **Resources:** [USCCB Readings](http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/122626.cfm) | [Daily Reflections (Evangeli.net)](https://evangeli.net/gospel) ## 🕊️ Today's Meditation > [!abstract]- Daily Reflection > "In a world gone astray from God there is no peace, but it also lacks charity, which is true and perfect love... Nothing is more beautiful than love. Indeed, faith and hope will end when we die, whereas love, that is, charity, will last for eternity."Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati > > “We might say the whole mystery of our redemption in Christ, by his incarnation, his death and his resurrection, consists of this marvelous exchange: in the heart of Christ, God has loved us humanly, so as to render our human hearts capable of loving divinely. God became man so that man might become God—might love as only God is capable of loving, with the purity, intensity, power, tenderness, and inexhaustible patience that belong to the divine love. It is an extraordinary source of hope and a great consolation to know that, by virtue of God’s grace working in us (if we remain open to it by persevering in faith, prayer, and the sacraments), the Holy Spirit will transform and expand our hearts to the point of one day making them capable of loving as God loves.”—Fr. Jacques Philippe, p. 67-68 > [!abstract]- Divine Intimacy Meditation > [[30-believing-in-love|Meditation #30, Believing in Love - O most sweet Infant Jesus, permit me to enter into the abyss of Your infinite love, so that I may believe in it with all my strength]] ## 🏛️ Saint of the Day: St. Stephen > [!info]+ The Cloud of Witnesses > > > St. Stephen (1st. c.) was one of the Church's first deacons in Jerusalem and an eloquent preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Sacred Scripture he was "a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost" and "full of grace and fortitude." The account of his martyrdom is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. After boldly preaching against the Jewish leaders for their rejection of the promised Messiah, he was accused of blasphemy and stoned to death by an angry mob. The man who would later become St. Paul the Apostle, while he was persecuting the Church before his conversion, was among the mob as an approving witness. St. Stephen's name comes from the Greek word meaning 'crown,' fitting as he was the first Christian to earn the martyr's crown. St. Stephen’s feast day is celebrated on December 26th. ## 🕯️ Monthly Devotion: Month of The Immaculate Conception > [!attention]- Focus: Month of The Immaculate Conception > > > Prayer to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception:Most holy Virgin, who wast pleasing to the Lord and became His Mother, immaculate in body and spirit, in faith and in love, look kindly on the wretched who implore thy powerful patronage. The wicked serpent, against whom was hurled the first curse, continues fiercely to attack and ensnare the unhappy children of Eve. Do thou, then, O Blessed Mother, our queen and advocate, who from the first instant of thy conception didst crush the head of the enemy, receive the prayers which, united with thee in our single heart, we implore thee to present at the throne of God, that we may never fall into the snares which are laid out for us, and may all arrive at the port of salvation; and, in so many dangers, may the Church and Christian society sing once again the hymn of deliverance and of victory and of peace.Amen. ## 🙏 Daily Prayers > [!todo]- Daily Prayers > **Spiritual Communion:** My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. > > **Prayer for the Dead:** In Your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our brothers and sisters. In this life You embraced them with Your tender love; deliver them now from every evil and bid them eternal rest. > > **For the Holy Father:** Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon Thy servant, our Supreme Pontiff, and direct him, according to Thy loving kindness, in the way of eternal salvation. --- [[20261225-morning-offering|← Previous]] | [[Calendar|Liturgical Calendar]] | [[20261227-morning-offering|Next →]]