Pope Saint Leo the Great

Pope St Leo the Great.jpgThe Church offers us today the life of someone salvation history has determined to be a significant figure in the proclamation of the Gospel. Pope Saint Leo the Great, a doctor of the Church helped the Church of his era develop orthodox thinking on the person of Jesus Christ that is standard theology today. He defended the two natures of Jesus Christ at the Council of Chalcedon. The Fathers of Chalcedon said, “Peter has spoken through Leo!”

Saint Leo is one of three popes to be given the title “the Great” acknowledging his work as a father of the faithful. 

This text is a hymn based on a text taken from the Office of Readings for Matins for Christmas. This text captures Leo and his keeping belief in Christ correct.
God truly is come down from heaven,
begotten of the Father,
and has entered into the womb of the Virgin
and has appeared visibly to us,
clothed in human flesh
received from our first parent:
and He who is both God and man,
Light and Life,
the Creator of the world,
has passed through the closed portal.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Saint Charles Borromeo


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Saint Charles  Borromeo’s intercession is as much needed today as ever we needed it. He was an unexpected gift of God to his family and to the Church and we ask him to intercede for us. Some interesting points about the legacy of Saint Charles Borromeo, whose feast we celebrate today.


  • His nephew,
    Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), was archbishop of Milan from 1595 and,
    furthering Charles’ support for Catholic learning, in 1609 founded the
    Ambrosian Library in that city. He donated a tremendous collection of art and
    literature to the library.
  • Borromeo’s emblem is the Latin
    word humilitas (humility), which is a portion of the Borromeo shield.
    He is usually represented in art in his robes, barefoot, carrying the cross as archbishop; a rope round his neck, one hand raised in blessing, thus recalling his
    work during the plague.
  • Borromeo is one of only four people mentioned at the
    beginning of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing them as responsible
    for the Council of Trent, which gave way to the modern day catechism. The
    others mentioned are St. Peter Canisius, St. Turibius of Mongrovejo and St.
    Robert Bellarmine.
  • The city and county of St. Charles, Missouri are named for
    Borromeo.

Talking about Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop2.jpgA record number of Australians flocked to Rome last week to attend to the Mass and rites of canonization celebrated by Pope Benedict of 6 people, among them was Australia’s first saint, Sister Mary of the Cross MacKillop. While many will make her the patron saint of the former ex-communicate, she is for me an example of staying faithful to Christ even when ecclesiastics are unusually harsh in their pastoral judgment. For Saint Mary of the Cross for us too, Jesus told us that upon Peter is the Church built; and that’s how we follow Christ: by remaining on that Rock. As her own religious name indicates, “of the Cross,” we ought to carry our cross but with Christ helping us. We don’t go through life alone!!!! The Lord is there with us, right now.

Religion & Ethics Newsweekly has a story on Saint Mary of the Cross which notes the response of people generally unaffected by the practice of faith.
Saint Mary of the Cross, remember Australia at the Throne of Grace and us, too.

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop

The Church in Australia has a her first native born
saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop. 
The canonized Saint Mary of the Cross with 5 others earlier today. The feast day of Saint Mary of the Cross is August 8.


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“She
dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the
difficult and demanding terrain of rural Australia, inspiring other women to
join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of that country.
She attended to the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard
for station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation.
Despite many challenges, her prayers to Saint Joseph and her unflagging
devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new
congregation, gave this holy woman the graces needed to remain faithful to God
and to the Church. Through her intercession, may her followers today continue
to serve God and the Church with faith and humility! She dedicated herself as a
young woman to the education of the poor in the difficult and demanding terrain
of rural Australia, inspiring other women to join her in the first women’s
community of religious sisters of that country. She attended to the needs of
each young person entrusted to her, without regard for station or wealth,
providing both intellectual and spiritual formation. Despite many challenges,
her prayers to Saint Joseph and her unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new congregation, gave this holy woman the
graces needed to remain faithful to God and to the Church. Through her
intercession, may her followers today continue to serve God and the Church with
faith and humility!”

(Pope Benedict XVI, 17 October 2010, canonization
homily)

Saint Edward the Confessor

St Edward the Confessor.jpgHail to You, Christ, Prince of Peace!

Your great reign shall never cease!
Model of each Christian king,
Hear the song of praise we bring
For Saint Edward, strong and true,
Ever faithful, Lord, to You!
On this day we sing his fame,
And proclaim Your holy Name!
Steadfast in his nation’s care,
Fervent with the poor to share,
Just to great and small, they say;
His good deeds we sing this day!
Give us grace, like him to strive,
That our faith might be alive,
Full of mercy, love, and grace
That the world may see Your face!
Glory to the Father bring!
Glory to the Son, our King!
Glory to the Spirit blest!
Three-in-One, in heaven’s rest!
With St. Edward joined as one,
May we pray, “Thy will be done!”
Till we there in heav’n may be
Joined with You, forever free!
77.77D
suggested tune: St George’s Windsor

Blessed John XXIII

Pope John XIII.jpgToday we are given Blessed John XXIII as a model of holiness. Pope Blessed John’s liturgical memorial is not the date of his death but the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

As one example of his holy inclinations I recently read his 1962 letter to women religious, “Il Tempio Massimo.” It is remains a beautiful testament to a great man filled with the Holy Spirit lived as a man of the Church. In this letter the Pope talks about the place of spiritual renewal in religious life; he’s got the grace of a new Pentecost in mind: an old person can be born again.
The new Pentecost in Blessed John’s mind is evidenced in a life of prayer, a life of example and a life in the apostolate, whether active or in the cloister. Of course, this letter to the women religious has a specific structure and emphasis but one that ought not be lost to the rest of the Church today; the Pope encourages us “to cultivate a holy enthusiasm” in life in Christ aiming to a more complete and full vocation first introduced to us in the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation & Eucharist) and then in the call to serve the Lord and the Church in a particular manner (the vowed life, priesthood for those given that vocation, the married state and single life).
 Blessed John’s points on prayer could be summarized as follows:
1. “…more rigid mortification and penance is intended to affirm once again the pre-eminence of the duties of worship and of complete consecration of life to prayer over any other form of apostolate…;
2. “…conform more perfectly to the call of the Divine Master…in the contemplative life”;
3. “…the only foundations and soul of the apostolate is the interior life”;
4. without a life of prayer can “…fall into that ‘heresy of action’;
5. a life of prayer “…entails not a mechanical repetition of formulas but is rather the irreplaceable means by which one enters into intimacy with the Lord, to better understand the dignity of being daughters of of God and spouses of the Holy Spirit, the ‘sweet guest of the soul’ Who speaks to those who know how to listen in recollection”;
6. “holy Mass should be the center of your day, so much so that every action converges on it as a preparation or as a thanksgiving. Let Holy Communion be the daily food which sustains, comforts and strengthens you”;
7. 3 recommended and fundamental devotions: “Nothing is better for enlightening and encouraging the adoration of Jesus than to meditate upon Him and invoke Him in the threefold light of the Name, the Heart and the Blood.
I’d recommend reading the rest of the letter because Pope John talks about honoring poverty, radiating chastity, a life of sweet obedience and the apostolic and contemplative life.

Saint Faustina Kowalska


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Clued-in Catholics know the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. They are, however, unlikely to know the person who made this devotion known to the world and who was instrumental in getting the work of divine mercy known in the world today. Today, the Church gives us the woman who made the Lord’s mercy known to men and women of today. 


Sr Faustina
Kowalska wrote in her Diary:  “I feel tremendous pain when I see the
sufferings of my neighbours. All my neighbours’ sufferings reverberate in my
own heart; I carry their anguish in my heart in such a way that it even
physically destroys me. I would like all their sorrows to fall upon me, in
order to relieve my neighbour” (Diary, p. 365). This is the degree of
compassion to which love leads, when it takes the love of God as its
measure!

It is this love which must inspire humanity today, if it is to face
the crisis of the meaning of life, the challenges of the most diverse needs
and, especially, the duty to defend the dignity of every human person. Thus the
message of divine mercy is also implicitly a message about the value of every
human being. Each person is precious in God’s eyes; Christ gave his life for
each one; to everyone the Father gives his Spirit and offers intimacy. (Pope John Paul II, Canonization homily, April 30, 2000).

Saint Vincent de Paul

St Vincent de Paul framed.jpgIn honoring Saint Vincent de Paul today let’s call to mind the myriad of ways he and his spiritual sons and daughters have served, and continue to serve, the Gospel by serving the poor and uneducated. Have you got your copy of the video “Charity’s Saint: St Vincent de Paul“? I pray in thanksgiving for the Vincentian priests in New Haven who were my spiritual guides as a child.

With glowing light sent from above,     

O Vincent, how you guide our way!     

Your virtues and example pure     

Show us the path to heaven’s day.

 

With self-effacing modesty,     

You made yourself of little state;     

Your gentleness and simple life     

Made you revered by small and great.

 

Amidst the graces of your life     

Your charity sheds brightest fire:     

How many of the poor it fed,     

Filled many hearts with Christ’s desire.

 

Urged on by zeal and charity,     

You preached in town and countryside,     

Proclaiming all God’s mysteries     

To poor and rich, both far and wide.

 

Beneath your wings you gathered those     

Who longed to share both work and strife.     

By word and deed you taught them well;     

You formed and taught them by your life.

 

To God, the holy Three-in-One,     

All praise and glory be addressed,     

Whose life divine is best reward,     

And light eternal for the blessed.

 

J. Michael Thompson

Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications

 

LM; WINCHESTER NEW, HAMBURG, ST. VINCENT 

Don Bosco’s relic comes to New York City

A relic of Saint John Bosco, patron of youth, is visiting New York City on Friday, October 1. The relic’s pilgrimage is in preparation for the saint’s 200th anniversary of birth. Being in the USA is only one of 130 nations that the relic is visiting.

Don Bosco’s relic will be at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, NYC. Veneration of the relic will be 10 am until 11 pm. Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at 7 pm.

More info can be found here (this is an excellent website!)

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Saint John Bosco
born 1815
died 1888
canonized a saint 1934
the Salesians of Don Bosco, the religious order founded by the saint can be seen here.