Daybreak

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time Optional Memorial of St. Peter Damian, 988-1072; became a professor, but left his teaching to devote full-time prayer with the Benedictines; Peter succeeded the abbot, and founded five additional hermitages; Pope Stephen IX made Peter the cardinal-bishop of Ostia; he worked to combat simony, and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and to live together, observing scheduled times of prayer and religious observance; after retiring as cardinal-bishop, he was still called upon as a papal legate; on one such mission to Ravenna, he developed a fever, and died with his monks surrounding him, praying the Divine Office Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 2/21/25 Gospel: Mark 8:34-9:1