Saint Pantaleon

The Church has many stellar men and women who consciously served God and their neighbor. The Church, from the time of Jesus, cared for the health of people. Recall the miracles of cure that Jesus did for his hearers; the miracles were carried over to the Apostles who healed people in the Holy Name of Jesus. Then, several people come to mind who have special patronage either on the spiritual plane or the physical or both: Saint Luke, Saint Agatha, Saint Blase, Saint Peregrine, the 14 Holy Helpers and today’s saint, Pantaleon (the Eastern Church spells his name as Panteleimon, meaning “holy compassionate one”). The artists have rendered Pantaleon healing a child or  being in the middle of his execution for being a Christian.

The hagiography of Panteleon reveals that he was from a wealthy pagan father and a Christian mother, well-educated, a physician who was martyred in the fourth century. His cult was alive and well in the Middle Ages.

Saint Pantaleon, pray for us.

New Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia

Today, PoGregory XXpe Francis responded to the letter of the new Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia, His Beatitude, Grégoire Pierre XX Ghabroyan, requesting ecclesiastical communion with him, and See of Rome. With this letter of the Holy Father communion between the two churches is confirmed.

In history, the patriarch was known as Bishop Krikor Ghabroyan (emeritus bishop of the Eparchy of France having retired in 2013). As with the bishop of Rome, the new Patriarch has assumed a new name. A new name and office bears a new title: Grégoire will carry the title of “Catholicos-Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians” and the patriarchal headquarters is located in the convent of Bzommar and his residence in Beirut.

Pope Francis’ letter indicates his joy at the Patriarch’s election with the hope that his new ministry will bear many fruits for the Kingdom. One line worth noting: “illuminated by the light of faith in the risen Christ, our vision of the world is full of hope and mercy, because we are certain that the Cross of Jesus is the tree that gives life.”

His Beatitude Grégoire Pierre XX succeeds Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni who died on June 25, 2015.

The Armenian Catholic Patriarch of Cilicia has jurisdiction over 18 eparchies world-wide.

His Beatitude Grégoire Pierre was born on November 15, 1934 in Aleppo, Syria, ordained a priest March 28, 1959, and consecrated bishop 13 February 1977. At his next birthday the Catholicos will be 81.

Saint Sharbel Makhlouf

Today is the feast of Saint Sharbel Makhlouf, the great Lebanese Saint (1828-1898). He is the first Lebanese Ssaint to be canonized formally by the Church of Rome. Most of Sharable’s life was marked chaos in the world, in particular with the Ottoman empire. The war destroyed 40 Lebanese villages and killed over 22,000 Maronites in Lebanon and Cyprus.

The monastic life of Sharbel was that of being a hermit: a life of penance, prayer and supplication before the Lord. His reputation spoke of him as a Miracle Worker of the East. He is an apostle of peace.

Saint Mary Magdalen

Mary Magdalene and the Risen LordSaint Mary Magdalen is honored today on our liturgical calendar. We know her for a variety of reasons but the most important one is that she is the first to encounter the Risen Christ. This meeting gave her the duty and responsibility to announce the Risen Lord to the Apostles. According to the Gospel of Saint John Mary is thus honored as the Apostle to the Apostles.

Pious tradition speaks of Saint Mary Magdalen being dedicated to prayer, and solitude. Saint Mary is the patron saint of those religious and laity committed to the contemplative life. The Order of Preachers have Mary as a co-patron, also as the patron of preachers.

Saint Mary Magdalen calls us to rejoice in the Risen Christ, to witness Him to the world, and to re-dedicate ourselves to prayer.

Saint Camillus de Lellis

DeLellisCamillus went to Rome for medical treatment on his leg and he met Saint Philip Neri, the great apostle to Rome. Because he lacked an education, Camillus began to study with children when he was 32 years old. Sounds like he followed in the footsteps of Ignatius of Loyola.

At particular point Camillus founded the Congregation of the Servants of the Sick (known as the Camillians or Fathers of a Good Death) whose charism was to care for the sick both in the hospital and at home. The Congregation expanded to several countries. Gospel clarity of Matthew 25 gave Camillus honored the sick as living images of Christ. The service to the sick allowed Camillus to hope that he did sufficient penance for the sins of his youth.

What does Saint Camillus teach us? The answer comes from the opening prayer for the Mass of the saint. We ask for the grace that allows us to have the perspective and desire to service with “charity towards the sick,” because in serving God in our neighbor, we may enter into beatitude when it is our time –at the hour of our death. What we saw in Christ passes now over to the Mystical Body of Christ.

Georges Lemaître remembered at birthday

Lemaitre and EinsteinToday is the birthday of Father Georges Lemaître, born in 1894 in Charleroi, Belgium.

Father Lemaître studied civil engineering at the Catholic University of Louvain before serving in the Belgian army during World War I. After the war he trained to become a priest and a cosmologist. He succeeded in both endeavors. He is a great witness to work of faith and reason and faith and science.

In 1923, he was ordained a Catholic priest for the Archdiocese of Malines. He was a secular a priest and not a Jesuit as some assume. Father received his PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1960 Saint John XXIII bestowed the title of Monsignor on Lemaître. Also in 1960, Lemaître became the presidentof the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences.

A biographer writes: In 1927 he published his most famous paper, “A Homogeneous Universe of Constant Mass and Growing Radius Accounting for the Radial Velocity of Extragalactic Nebulae,” in which he applied Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity to the entire universe. According to Lemaître’s analysis, the universe was in a state of constant expansion, having begun at a specific point in time. Two years later, Edwin Hubble published his observations of distant galaxies that supported the idea. Although Lemaître remained a devout Catholic, he opposed efforts to link the creation and expansion of the universe to divine action.”

“He successfully persuaded Pope Pius XII to refrain from making proclamations about cosmology. Lemaître died on 20 June 1966, two years after the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation provided experimental evidence in favor of his bold idea.”

Monsignor died at the age of 71 on June 20, 1966 in Leuven, Belgium.

Venerable Andrey Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky

Andrey SheptytskyThe Stamford Eparchy writes, “In the afternoon of 16 July 2015, Pope Francis received in a private audience the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato. During the audience, the Holy Father approved decrees recognizing the heroic virtues of several Servants of God. The first among these was Andrey Roman Alexander Maria Sheptytsky (1865–1944), Metropolitan-Archbishop of Lviv-Halych.

This formal declaration represents one of the penultimate stages in the beatification process. Once a miracle attributed to the intercession of Sheptytsky is formally recognized, Kyr Andrey will be declared a Blessed of the Universal Church.

The cause for his beatification had been introduced in 1958. With this declaration, the “Servant of God” becomes “Venerable” Andrey.

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The new Venerable Servant of God was born Roman Aleksander Maria Sheptytsky on July 29, 1865, in Prylbychi near Lviv. When he entered the Basilian Order took the name Andrey. Father Andrey was elected the major archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church at the age of 36 and he known to have quickly recognized as a social and cultural leader in a period of great political uncertainty. He died November 1, 1944, just four months after the Soviets took control of Lviv. Paris-based Bishop Borys Gudziak said,  “His social teaching, his fine, subtle and prophetic voice allowed the church to survive.” He also said, “Born into an aristocratic family, the archbishop used his resources to create a free clinic, provide countless scholarships and help victims of famine, flooding and war. He personally lived a life of poverty.”

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Prayer for Beatification of Servant of God Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky

O My God, I adore Your infinite Majesty with all the powers of my soul. I thank You for the graces and gifts which You did bestow upon Your faithful Servant Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky. I ask You to glorify him also on earth with evident proofs and miracles.  For this end I beseech You to give me the favor [mention the intention], which I humbly ask from Your Fatherly mercy. O Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Your Mother grant that Your faithful Servant Metropolitan Sheptytsky be proclaimed a saint for the greater glory of God, for the salvation of souls and the good of our Catholic Church. Amen.