St Gregory of Narek

Doubtful that most Catholics will note who the Doctors of the Church are among the saints, but perhaps we ought to attend to the small group much more than we do. Today, St. Gregory of Narek is liturgically remembered by the Church. Gregory is revered as a saint, a man who served as a priest, gifted by the Spirit as a mystic, and shared his talents as a composer, astronomer, theologian and poet; he is honored as the first poet of Armenia and revered by Armenians as a “watchful angel in human form.” He is also the 36th Doctor of the Church and, one of very small group of Eastern Fathers with the title.

Matthew Bunson wrote a good biography of St Gregory of Narek that will give you a wider perspective.

St Lucy

Today we pray for the gift to see. Not only seeing light, color and people/things, but seeing deeply things of God –in the spiritual life — through the intercession of Saint Lucy of Syracuse (283–304). It is a fervent pray of mine that Saint Lucy will open the eyes of us all to see truth, beauty and goodness; I also pray for my friend Ken whose birthday is celebrated today, and for those who live eye problems.

The feast of St. Lucy whose name from the Latin lux, for “light”, reminds us who dwell in the still darkening northern hemisphere that our days will soon be getting longer again.

One her biographers say “Some accounts have Lucy slain by having her throat thrust through with sword.

“Other accounts say that to protect her virginity she disfigured herself by cutting her own eyes out and sending them to her suitor, a plot likely to discourage him.

“St. Lucy is therefore the patroness of sight.

“St. Lucy shows up fairly often in Dante’s great Divine Comedy. She is first in the Inferno. It is Lucy who asked Beatrice to help Dante. In Purgatory the eagle that bears Dante upward in a dream is actually Lucy who is bearing him to the gate of Purgatory. Eagles, of course, are “eagle-eyed” and see very well. In the Paradiso she is placed directly across from Adam in the Heaven of the Rose. She can gaze directly at God.

The photo, above, is from the Church of St. Lucy in Rome taken by Fr JZ.

All Saints

 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1.

“It is a great good to think that if we try we can become saints with God’s help. And have no fear that He will fail if we don’t fail. Since we have not come here for any other thing, let us put our hands to the task.”

St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

Blessed Theodore Romzha

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. … No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18.20)

Bishop Kallistos Ware [+2022] said that today is truly the age of martyrs. More people are giving witness to Christ than ever before.

Today, the Byzantine Catholic Church remembers Blessed Theodore Romzha, who was killed by the Communists as he performed his pastoral duties. In the epistle read today, St. Paul reflects on what Christians have always had to do to follow Christ, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)” This, St. Paul, comes from the great mystery of the Church: Christ in us, our hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) We do not give up our lives for our own purposes, but because we know that our life is in Christ. We die not only for some ideal, but in witness to a person -the Jesus Christ, our Lord, “light from light, true God from true God.” This is why in history Christians have been persecuted by all kinds of organizations and ideologies and economic systems which perceive Jesus, the Giver of Life, as a threat.

Sadly, even in our history, Christians have persecuted other Christians. However, today we proclaim the glory of all those who proclaim Jesus as Lord. Indeed, the feast is ecumenical, celebrating the Byzantine Catholic bishop who died for Christ in 1947, Theodore Romzha, and the Russian Orthodox priest, John Kochurev, who had served as a pastor in Chicago, but was the first Orthodox priest to be martyred by the Communists in Russia in 1917. Both Catholic and Orthodox therefore bear united witness to the one Lord Jesus Christ in the face of his enemies.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Saint Remi

The Church recalls the French saint who very evangelical in the face of pagan belief arguing for the worship of the One, Triune God. He was a persuasive preacher and teacher.

ST REMI

Remi was elected bishop of Rheims in 459 when he was only 22 years old, and guided his flock for more than 70 years. Clovis ruled northern Gaul in those days and despite the constant urgings of his wife, St Clotilde, whose father was the Christian king of Burgundy, he refused to abandon his tribal gods. When bishop Remi joined his power of argument to the efforts of the queen, and after an impressive military victory, the king finally agreed to be baptized. But as St Remi led Clovis into the font, he warned him to be humble and “worship what you have burned and burn what you have worshipped!” Following this event Remi was quick to spread the good news among the Franks, and tradition relates many miracles that accompanied his preaching.

St Remi was also a supporter of Nicaean Orthodoxy and was vigorous in opposing Arianism. France honors this saint on October 1. (NS)

IMAGE BY FR LAWRENCE LEW, OP

Saint Helen, Empress, Mother, Pilgrim

In Rome and Jerusalem especially, and especially for me in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, we celebrate today Saint Helen (d. 327 A.D.), empress, mother, pilgrim of the Holy Land, who made worship places and relics of the history, the mystery of salvation.

Several years ago I was privileged to live at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome where the relics of the Lord’s passion reside. It was a beautiful thing to have some daily prayer in this holy place.

Let us pray for the Church and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Image of St Helena at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome.

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

O God, who in martyrdom have brought true faith to its highest expression, graciously grant, that, strengthened through the intercession of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, we may confirm by the witness of our life, the faith we profess with our lips. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Fisher and More are key models of holiness for our time of weirdness of politics and civil and ecclesial life. As we all know we are pressured to compromise our faith and virtue even in Church life. All the more that we need these two saints because of their clear witness to Jesus Christ when others pressure us to reject the sovereignty of the Lord in all things. Belief in one’s mind and heart needs to coordinated with one’s lips. Can’t believe one thing and say another, and vice versa.

St Ephrem

That today on the Latin liturgical calendar St Ephrem is commemorated. Many don’t have a clue about St Ephrem and his theological force of influence. Here is selection from a sermon of St Ephrem for our edification. Happy feast.

The divine ordering of the world is an image of the spiritual world

O Lord, drive away the darkness from our minds with the light of your wisdom, so that enlightened in this way we may serve you with renewed purity.

The beginning of the sun’s passage through the sky marks the beginning of the working day for us mortals: we ask you, Lord, to prepare in our minds a place where the day that knows no end may give its light. Grant that we may have within us this light, the life of the resurrection, and that nothing may take away our delight in you. Mark us with the sign of that day that does not begin with the movement and the course of the sun, by keeping our minds fixed on you.In your sacraments we welcome you every day and receive you in our bodies.

Make us worthy to experience within us the resurrection for which we hope. By the grace of baptism we conceal within our bodies the treasure of your divine life. This treasure increases as we eat at the table of your sacraments. Let us rejoice in your grace. We have within us, Lord, a memorial of you, which we receive at your spiritual table; may we possess the full reality in the life to come.

Let us appreciate the great beauty that is ours through the spiritual beauty that your immortal will arouses in our mortal nature.Your crucifixion, Lord, was the end of your bodily life: help us to crucify our will to give birth to the spiritual life. May your resurrection, Jesus, fill our spirits with greatness: may we see in your sacraments a mirror in which we may be able to recognise the resurrection.

Your divine ordering of the world, O Saviour, is the image of the spiritual world: let us live in it as truly spiritual men. Do not take away from our minds, Lord, the signs of your spiritual presence and do not withdraw from our bodies the warmth and delight of your presence. The mortal nature of our bodies is a source of corruption within us: let the outpouring of the spirit of your love wipe away the effect of mortality from our hearts.

Grant, Lord, that we may hasten to our true home, and, like Moses on the mountain-top, let us have a glimpse of it.

St Isaiah, the Prophet

One of the things I try to do with this blog is educate myself (and others) on the liturgical traditions of the Holy Church –East and West– and one of those traditions is the saints. Many people of the Eastern and Western Churches don’t know that some Old Testament figures are honored as saints with their own feast days. In part, a Catholic of the Latin Church may not realize this because they don’t celebrate the the OT people at the altar; sometimes the logic is: not celebrated at the altar there’s no feast day. That’s faulty logic. The Eastern Christians know that the OT prophets are saints because they are celebrated at the altar.

Today, we have as our saint, Isaiah the Prophet. He from the the 8th c. BC.

History reveals to us that the Holy Prophet Isaiah lived 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, who was of royal lineage. Isaiah’s father Amos raised him in the fear of God and in the law of the Lord. Having attained the age of maturity, the Prophet married a pious prophetess (Is 8:3) and had a son Jashub (Is 8:18).

The Martyrologium Romanum has this entry for him.

1. Commemoratio sancti Isaiae, prophetae, qui, in diebus Oziae, Iotham, Achaz et Ezechiae, regum Iudae, missus est ut populo infideli et peccatori Dominum fidelem et salvatorem revelaret, ad implementum promissionis David a Deo iuratae. Apud Iudaeos sub Manasse rege martyr occubuisse traditur.