Born in Aytona, Lerida, on December 29, 1811, Blessed
Francis Palau y Quer entered the Carmelite Order in 1832 and was ordained priest
in 1836. Civil turmoil forced him to live in exile and outside his community. On
his return to Spain in 1851, he founded his “School of Virtue” — which was a
model of catechetical teaching — at Barcelona. The school was suppressed and he
was unjustly exiled to Ibiza (1854-1860) where he lived at El Vedra in solitude
and experienced mystically the vicissitudes of the Church. While in the Balearic
Islands he founded the Congregations of Carmelite Brothers and Carmelite Sisters
(1860-1861). He preached popular missions and spread love of Our Lady wherever
he went. He died at Tarragona on March 20, 1872, and was beatified by Pope John
Paul II on April 24, 1980.
Entrance Antiphon: How beautiful on the
mountains are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings
happiness, proclaims salvation.
Opening Prayer: O God, through your Spirit you filled
Blessed Francis your Priest with singular gifts of prayer and apostolic charity.
Through his intercession grant that Christ’s beloved Church, refulgent with the
beauty of the Virgin Mother Mary, may be an ever more effective universal
sacrament of salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit one God, for ever and ever.
Prayer over the Gifts: Almighty God, look upon the gifts we bring on
this feast in honour of Blessed Francis. May we who celebrate the mystery of the
death of the Lord imitate the love we celebrate. Grant this through Christ our
Lord.
Communion Antiphon: It makes me happy to suffer for you,
as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that
has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the
Church.
Prayer after Communion: Lord God, Blessed Francis loved
you and gave himself completely in the service of your Church. May the eucharist
awaken in us that same love. Grant this through Christ our
Lord
