Day 26 -- Saint Jerome

What is your favorite Scripture passage? I have many...
"Perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18)
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor 3:16)
"You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)
"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)
"I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew." (Psalm 139:15)


Saint Jerome was friend and teacher with our saint from yesterday, Eustochium. Jerome was born to a rich pagan family in the year 347. He studied law in Rome. He was baptized in 365 and then studied theology. He lived as a hermit as a monk for years in the Syrian deserts. It was there that it was reported that he took out a thorn from a lion's paw and then the lion stayed loyal to him for years. He then became a student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen and become a priest and became the secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned him to revise the Latin text of the Bible. He worked for 30 years on the Vulgate translation of the Bible which is still in use. His friendship with Saint Eustochium lead to much gossip so he left Rome and spend the last 34 years of his life in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse in the desert. He died in 419 and his relics are in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. He is a Doctor of the Church and Father of the Church.

Prayer Christ's Mercy
O Lord, show your mercy to me and gladden my heart. I am like the man on the way to Jericho who was overtaken by robbers, wounded and left for dead. O Good Samaritan, come to my aid, I am like the sheep that went astray. O Good Shepherd, seek me out and bring me home in accord with your will. Let me dwell in your house all the days of my life and praise you for ever and ever with those who are there.

At the last meeting with my spiritual director she said I should pray for God's mercy. I have always loved singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet, but I wanted to find a prayer to pray too.

"Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you." Saint Jerome