Welcome to the traditional Catholic daily devotional for Saturday, May 17th, 2025.

It's the Feast of St. Pascal Baylon, third class with the color of white.

In this episode, today's news from the church, for whom did you vote, your eminence,

as well as centenary anniversary of the canonization

of St. Therese, and today's thought from Archbishop Marcel Lefev.

But first the collect of today's Mass.

O God, who endowed Blessed Paschal, thy confessor, with a wondrous love for the sacred mysteries

of thy body and blood, mercifully grant that we may be found

worthy to share in the same spiritual abundance he received in this divine banquet.

Pascal Baylon never set out to be famous. In fact, he spent most of his early life in the

hills of Spain, tending sheep. Born in 1540 to a poor but devout family, Pascal grew up during Spain's so-called golden

age of the church, a time that also produced saints like Ignatius of Loyola and Teresa

of Avila. But Pascal's path was quieter. From the age of seven to his early twenties, he worked

as a shepherd, using the long hours in the fields to pray, fast, and deepen his

love for God. He was so tuned in to the rhythm of the church that he would pause and kneel every

time he heard the bells ringing for Mass, even if he was out in the pasture. Eventually, he joined

the Franciscans, not as a priest, but as a lay brother. He humbly took on the lowest

jobs, cook, porter, gardener, beggar for the poor, and he took the vow of poverty seriously.

When he was a porter, people knew they could count on him for generosity, even if the friars

sometimes had to rein him in from giving away too much

of their own food. Pascal's great love, though, was the Eucharist. He spent as much time as he could

in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. His holiness became so well known that people came to him

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