Happy Feast of St. Blaise!

Today is the feast of the patron saint of throat ailments - a bishop and martyr of the early Church.

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We enjoy celebrating this feast by getting our throats blessed after daily Mass and after this year's auspicious beginning (three illnesses in three weeks!), you can bet we'll be first in line this year.

This feast always brings up one of my fondest college memories. Senior year of college, I had a little apartment with a living room and some hideous, uncomfortable furniture. Every week, we'd host our Newman Club's evening rosary at 7PM (or 7:15, or 7:30 or 7:45, depending on how late people were and how long we gabbed before.) That year, we always invited our campus priest because he was a) super holy and full of wonder and awe, 2) super holy and wore a cassock and c) super holy and awesome.

What can I say, we loved him!

He normally didn't come to evening things because he went to bed early or did priesty things, or somesuch. But that night, without being asked, we got a knock at the door at the end of rosary and there Father stood, cassocked, with the book of blessings and two candles.

We were so excited he came and then! The icing! We realized he had come to bless our throats for the feast of St. Blaise! Without being asked (none of us had realized that rosary that week hit that feast day), without any promptings or reminders, he came because he knew how much we would absolutely. l.o.v.e. the chance for this special blessing tradition.

And, now, I have this wonderful memory of looking around that cramped, hideous living room, full of many people I still call very, very dear friends, watching in candle light as Father blessed all our throats.

And, it warms my little catholic heart.



The best part? This same priest married us 11 months (minus 2 days) later. Oh holy priests, how I love them!