MARIANNA POPIEŁUSZKO, mother of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, priest and martyr, DIED TODAY in the City Hospital in Białystok in Poland at the age of 93.
The funeral will take place on Saturday, 23 November 2013 in Suchowola.
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.
Today we have two feasts that may not immediately be perceived as connected: the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul and the liturgical memorial of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne (1769-1852), who had the desire to live a life of contemplation.
To make a little sense of what we have today let’s step back nearly ten days ago to the liturgical memorial of the Dedication of Lateran Basilica. On that feast we noted that the church was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and it recalls for us the ministry of the bishop of Rome to lead, teach and sanctify. Key in that feast is not the praise of architecture but what John the Baptist said: I must decrease and He [Jesus] must increase. If we forget these words then we’re lost. The petition in the Prayer after Communion asked God to use the earthly sign of the Church as an instrument of sacramentality that would transform us into a new temple bestowing a new humanity upon for the purpose of being in glory with the Trinity.
With the liturgical memorial of the two basilicas of Peter and Paul —another liturgical day on which we do not merely honor bricks and mortar— we have another aspect of the Christian life being brought forward: having knowledge of divine things which lead to a life of grace. The feast, therefore, is a reminder that our faith has a genealogy —it is rooted in the apostolic witness of Peter and Paul. We follow an experience; we are lead to Jesus by those who knew Him.
The anniversary of the dedication of the two basilicas keeps our hearts on the source of our Christian life: the proclamation of the Word and the consumption of the Eucharistic Sacrifice for our eventual life in heaven but also to do what Jesus did. What the Apostles did for us so long ago continues to happen today. From the dual altars of the ambo and altar we are nourished and in turn we are sent out, like Peter and Paul, to cooperate with the action of the Holy Spirit.
Pope Leo the Great on the Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul once said:
“From this field [the Church] those two famous shoots of the divine seed burst forth into a great progeny, witnessed by thousands of blessed martyrs. To emulate the apostles’ triumph, these martyrs have adorned our city far and wide with people clothed in purple and shining brilliantly, and they have crowned it with a diadem fashioned by the glory of many precious stones….
Our experience has shown, as our predecessors have proved, that we may believe and hope that in all the labors of the present life, by the mercy of God, we shall always be helped by the prayers of our special patrons. Just as we are humbled by our own sins, so we shall be raised up by the merits of these apostles.”
Where does Saint Rose Philippine fit? This wise virgin who, while waiting for Jesus lit the lamp by a life of charity and missionary zeal making her Bridegroom known to a world unfamiliar with His word of Life. She was a light in darkness.
Remember, Saint Rose is an American saint buried in Saint Charles, Missouri. She is known for her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, an intense prayer life, and being a missionary. If you are listening to the talks being given in Mexico these days by the bishops and the Pope (via satellite) being a person of prayer and being missionary is the existential vocation of the Church as she is living and proposing what has been left to us by Jesus.
Hence, our Christian lives in the American context is framed by the Baptist’s exhortation to mature in the Paschal Mystery all the while being formed by the Cross and following the Jesus, and living what’s been given: mercy in the world in which we find ourselves AND by the missionary zeal of an American nun.
Today, on the Church’s liturgical calendar is the memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, the first non-martyr that we have, and on the secular calendar is Veterans’ Day.
As a Catholic community of faith holy Mother Church sincerely prays for those who gave their lives in service of this country. May God grant them health, life, peace, and all good things and preserving them for many years.
May we take this opportunity to also remember the “veterans” of our Church, those men and women who have tirelessly supported their faith, who sustained their families and friends, who labored hard to build our churches when they arrived from their homelands, and who, in some cases, gave their lives to for their faith.
Personally, I pray and am grateful for the service of my father Edward who served in the US Air Force.
May Saint Martin of Tours, Saint George and all the saints sustain through holy intercession all Veterans before God the Father.
I am convinced, after reading Benedict XVI letter to the archbishop of Milan on Saint Charles Borromeo, that this saint and churchman is one of the pivotal keys of my own conversion, and that of all Catholics. I always seem to go back to the former Pope’s guidance for some obvious reasons. Benedict is such a clear writer and thinker; he gives the key points to our life in Jesus Christ through the witness of this great saint of Milan! Perhaps you will think the same. Listen to Benedict XVI; follow the good example of Saint Charles. You will have to conclude that Borromeo cannot go unnoticed or unheeded.
Blessed feast to the the Church in Milan and to the Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo.
With the Church, we pray,
Preserve in the midst of your people, we ask, O Lord, the spirit with which you filled the Bishop Saint Charles Borromeo, that your Church may be constantly renewed and, by conforming herself to the likeness of Christ, may show his face to the world.
The Pope emeritus writes:
Lumen caritatis. The light of charity of St Charles Borromeo has illumined the whole Church and, by renewing the miracles of the love of Christ, our Supreme and Eternal Pastor, has brought new life and new youthfulness to God’s flock, which was going through sorrowful and difficult times. For this reason I join with all my heart in the joy of the Ambrogian Archdiocese in commemorating the fourth centenary of the Canonization of this great Pastor on 1 November 1610.
1. The time in which Charles Borromeo lived was very delicate for Christianity. In it the Archbishop of Milan gave a splendid example of what it means to work for the reform of the Church. There were many disorders to sanction, many errors to correct and many structures to renew; yet St Charles strove for a profound reform of the Church, starting with his own life. It was in himself, in fact, that the young Borromeo promoted the first and most radical work of renewal. His career had begun promisingly in accordance with the canons of that time: for the younger son of the noble family Borromeo, a future of prosperity and success lay in store, an ecclesiastical life full of honours but without any ministerial responsibilities; he also had the possibility of assuming the direction of the family after the unexpected death of his brother Federico.
Yet Charles Borromeo, illumined by Grace, was attentive to the call with which the Lord was attracting him and desiring him to dedicate the whole of himself to the service of his people. Thus he was capable of making a clear and heroic detachment from the lifestyle characterised by his worldly dignity and dedication without reserve to the service of God and of the Church. In times that were darkened by numerous trials for the Christian community, with divisions and confusions of doctrine, with the clouding of the purity of the faith and of morals and with the bad example of various sacred ministries, Charles Borromeo neither limited himself to deploring or condemning nor merely to hoping that others would change, but rather set about reforming his own life which, after he had abandoned wealth and ease, he filled with prayer, penance and loving dedication to his people. St Charles lived heroically the evangelical virtues of poverty, humility and chastity, in a continuous process of ascetic purification and Christian perfection.
He was aware that a serious and credible reform had to begin precisely with Pastors if it was to have beneficial and lasting effects on the whole People of God. In this action of reform he was able to draw from the traditional and ever living sources of the Catholic Church: the centrality of the Eucharist, in which he recognized and proposed anew the adorable presence of the Lord Jesus and of his Sacrifice of love for our salvation; the spirituality of the Cross as a force of renewal, capable of inspiring the daily exercise of the evangelical virtues; assiduous reception of the Sacraments in which to accept with faith the action of Christ who saves and purifies his Church; the word of God, meditated upon, read and interpreted in the channel of Tradition; love for and devotion to the Supreme Pontiff in prompt and filial obedience to his instructions as a guarantee of full ecclesial communion.
The extraordinary reform that St Charles carried out in the structures of the Church in total fidelity to the mandate of the Council of Trent was also born from his holy life, ever more closely conformed to Christ. His work in guiding the People of God, as a meticulous legislator and a brilliant organizer was marvellous. All this, however, found strength and fruitfulness in his personal commitment to penance and holiness. Indeed this is the Church’s primary and most urgent need in every epoch: that each and every one of her members should be converted to God. Nor does the ecclesial community lack trials and suffering in our day and it shows that it stands in need of purification and reform. May St Charles’ example always spur us to start from a serious commitment of personal and community conversion to transform hearts, believing with steadfast certainty in the power of prayer and penance. I encourage sacred ministers, priests and deacons in particular to make their life a courageous journey of holiness, not to fear being drunk with that trusting love for Christ that made Bishop Charles ready to forget himself and to leave everything. Dear brothers in the ministry, may the Ambrogian Church always find in you a clear faith and a sober and pure life that can renew the apostolic zeal which St Ambrose, St Charles and many of your holy Pastors possessed!
2. During St Charles’ episcopate, the whole of his vast diocese felt infected with a current of holiness that spread to the entire people. How did this Bishop, so demanding and strict, manage to fascinate and to win over the Christian people? The answer is easy: St Charles enlightened the people and enticed them with the ardour of his love. “Deus caritas est”, and where there is a living experience of love the profound Face of God who attracts us and makes us his own is revealed.
The love of St Charles Borromeo was first and foremost the love of the Good Shepherd who is ready to give his whole life for the flock entrusted to his care, putting the demands and duties of his ministry before any form of personal interest, amenity or advantage. Thus the Archbishop of Milan, faithful to the Tridentine directives, visited several times his immense Diocese even the most remote localities, and took care of his people, nourishing them ceaselessly with the Sacraments and with the word of God through his rich and effective preaching; he was never afraid to face adversities and dangers to defend the faith of the simple and the rights of the poor.
St Charles, moreover, was recognized as a true and loving father of the poor. Love impelled him to empty his home and to give away his possessions in order to provide for the needy, to support the hungry, to clothe and relieve the sick. He set up institutions that aimed to provide social assistance and to rescue people in need; but his charity for the poor and the suffering shone out in an extraordinary way during the plague of 1576 when the holy Archbishop chose to stay in the midst of his people to encourage them, serve them and defend them with the weapons of prayer, penance and love.
Furthermore it was charity that spurred Borromeo to become an authentic and enterprising educator: for his people with schools of Christian doctrine; for the clergy with the establishment of seminaries; for children and young people with special initiatives for them and by encouraging the foundation of religious congregations and confraternities dedicated to the formation of children and young people.
Charity was always the deep motive of the severity with which St Charles practiced fasting, penance and mortification. For the holy Bishop it was not only a matter of ascetic practices aiming for his own spiritual perfection but rather of a true ministerial means for expiating sins, for invoking the conversion of sinners and for interceding for his children’s needs.
Throughout his life, therefore, we may contemplate the light of evangelical charity, of forbearing, patient and strong love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor 13:7). I thank God that the Church of Milan has always had a wealth of vocations especially dedicated to charity; I praise the Lord for the splendid fruits of love for the poor, of service to the suffering and of attention to youth of which it can be proud. May St Charles’ example of prayer obtain that you may be faithful to this heritage, so that every baptized person can live out in contemporary society that fascinating prophecy which, in every epoch, is the love of Christ alive in us.
3. However it is impossible to understand the charity of St Charles Borromeo without knowing his relationship of passionate love with the Lord Jesus. He contemplated this love in the holy mysteries of the Eucharist and of the Cross, venerated in very close union with the mystery of the Church. The Eucharist and the Crucified One immersed St Charles in Christ’s love and this transfigured and kindled fervour in his entire life, filled his nights spent in prayer, motivated his every action, inspired the solemn Liturgies he celebrated with the people and touched his heart so deeply that he was often moved to tears.
His contemplative gaze at the holy Mystery of the Altar and at the Crucified one stirred within him feelings of compassion for the miseries of humankind and kindled in his heart the apostolic yearning to proclaim the Gospel to all. On the other hand we know well that there is no mission in the Church which does not stem from “abiding” in the love of the Lord Jesus, made present within us in the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Let us learn from this great Mystery! Let us make the Eucharist the true centre of our communities and allow ourselves to be educated and moulded by this abyss of love! Every apostolic and charitable deed will draw strength and fruitfulness from this source!
4. The splendid figure of St Charles suggests to me a final reflection which I address to young people in particular. The history of this great Bishop was in fact totally determined by some courageous “yeses”, spoken when he was still very young. When he was only 24 years old he decided to give up being head of the family to respond generously to the Lord’s call; the following year he accepted priestly and episcopal Ordination. At the age of 27 he took possession of the Ambrogian Diocese and gave himself entirely to pastoral ministry. In the years of his youth St Charles realized that holiness was possible and that the conversion of his life could overcome every bad habit. Thus he made his whole youth a gift of love to Christ and to the Church, becoming an all-time giant of holiness.
Dear young people, let yourselves be renewed by this appeal that I have very much at heart: God wants you to be holy, for he knows you in your depths and loves you with a love that exceeds all human understanding. God knows what is in your hearts and is waiting to see the marvellous gift he has planted within you blossom and bear fruit. Like St Charles, you too can make your youth an offering to Christ and to your brethren. Like him you can decide, in this season of life, “to put your stakes” on God and on the Gospel. Dear young people, you are not only the hope of the Church; you are already part of her present! And if you dare to believe in holiness you will be the greatest treasure of your Ambrogian Church which is founded on Saints.
Venerable Brother, I joyfully entrust these reflections to you and as I invoke the heavenly intercession of St Charles Borromeo and the constant protection of Mary Most Holy, I warmly impart to you and to the entire Archdiocese a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 1 November 2010, the fourth centenary of the canonization of St Charles Borromeo.
Pope Benedict XVI
This letter addressed Dionigi Cardinal Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan, on the occasion of the 400th Anniversary of the Canonization of Saint Charles Borromeo.
I love the feast of All Saints and All Souls the following day. I happen to find holiness attractive. Saints make the journey of being Christian reasonable. On the eve of All Saints we do indeed need to reflect on what it means to be saints, to venerate —not worship— the saints. We owe worship to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone; Catholics honor, venerate the Mother of God and the saints. We need witnesses; I follow the experience of another, and not the person himself. There are distinctions here. In his weekly column for CatholicPhilly.com Archbishop Charles J. Chaput penned, “The meaning of sainthood: To be fully alive in Jesus Christ,” where he reflects on the Catholic teaching and experience of holiness. I always have to remind myself that saints are not plastic people; they are sinner who the love of God, who show us that the promises of Jesus Christ are true and that each one of can live the Gospel. As the Chaput notes so well, sainthood is experience, not the theory of,“the high adventure of Christian discipleship.”
The Archbishop writes,
Some years ago a friend told me that she secretly thought of the saints as boring. They smile at us sweetly from holy cards. Their lives can seem implausible compared to people more famous for their vices. And who would really want to be a saint, anyway? As Billy Joel once said, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners are much more fun.”
But when we come to understand holiness rightly, we see that it’s anything but boring. Sanctity isn’t a matter of sentimental posturing or being nice. Sanctity is about being passionately in love with Jesus Christ.
The saints are men and women who glowed white-hot with the Holy Spirit. They lived fully what Father Richard John Neuhaus once called “the high adventure of Christian discipleship.” And that’s truly what the heart of sainthood is: not a life of legalistic drudgery, but a high adventure.
Think about the women and men we venerate as saintly: Mother Teresa, Francis Xavier, King Louis IX of France, Gianna Beretta Molla, Pier Giorgio Frassati, Catherine of Siena. They lived some of the most compelling lives in history. Their roads were hard. They endured great sacrifices and self-denial. But those sacrifices led to greater love and joy than many in the world have ever known.
If we think about sainthood like that, it can seem like the saints are a special class of people. Sainthood is for people like them, we think, not everyday people like us. And how do you live like a saint if you’re just an ordinary worker, a father or a mother? The good news is that the saints were ordinary people like us. Their “secret” was not something they possessed, but Someone who possessed them.
The saints were men and women whom Jesus Christ made his own. As baptized Catholics, we too have been made Christ’s own. We receive Jesus Christ’s healing mercy and forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation. We eat his body and drink his blood in the Eucharist. We speak with him in moments of quiet prayer.
This love that we receive from Jesus should break out into the rest of our lives. St. Josemaria Escriva put it this way: “When a Christian carries out with love the most insignificant everyday action, that action overflows with the transcendence of God.” This means that even when we fix another family’s plumbing, or fill out their legal paperwork, or drive our kids to soccer practice, we can act with the love of Jesus Christ in the same way that the saints did.
The great second century bishop, Irenaeus of Lyons, once said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” First and foremost, this refers to Jesus Christ. Jesus shows us what it looks like for a human being to live life abundantly. This means that the closer we are to Jesus, the more intensely alive we become. And the saints are examples of men and women who have lived their lives to the fullest. Because of the love of Jesus, they glow with the glory of God. Because of the love of Jesus, they’re fully alive.
The saints aren’t just our models, though. They form what Paul called “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1). The saints in heaven pray for us on earth, urging us on as we run the race of faith. They offer us hope in two ways. First, they show us that, by God’s grace, heroic Christian lives are possible. Second, they remind us of the destiny God has in store for those he loves. This life is a preparation for eternal union with God in heaven. That doesn’t mean sitting around forever with a pious halo, strumming a harp. Heaven is an eternity of the greatest love we have ever tasted in this life – growing deeper and stronger without end.
This All Saints’ Day, November 1, let’s reflect on what the saints really mean for us. Let’s remember the holy men and women whom we can emulate and to whom we can pray for help and guidance. Jesus said that he came so that we would have life, and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10).
Let’s pray that we find the courage to seek out that abundant life with the saints. Let’s be women and men of love, witnesses of the glory of the God who makes us fully alive in Jesus Christ. There is no greater joy, no greater vocation.
A little known young blessed of our Church, Chiara “Luce” Badano, is gaining popularity. You may remember seeing her name among 18 people revered as saints and blesseds chosen by Pope Benedict as intercessors for the 2013 World Youth Day in Brazil. A commentator said, “she was chosen because Luce is a model of sainthood that is simple, and not someone spectacular.”
Known among family and friends as Luce, she died of bone cancer in 1990 at the age of 18.
Luce was a member of the Focolare movement since she 9 years old.
Pope Benedict XVI declared her “Blessed” in 2010 he said “Only Love with a capital L gives true happiness, and that’s what Blessed Badano showed her family, her friends and her fellow members of the Focolare movement.” When Cardinal Angelo Amato offered Mass at which Chiara was beatified he spoke of her as having “a crystalline heart, like water from the source.”
Blessed Chiara Badano said, “What a free and immense gift life is and how important it is to live every instant in the fullness of God. I feel so little and the road ahead is so arduous that I often feel overwhelmed with pain! But that’s the Spouse coming to meet me. Yes, I repeat it: ‘If you want it Jesus, so do I.’”
Through the intercession of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano may we live more closely with Christ crucified and may we all, including those who follow Focolare, be blessed.
The Martyrology notes that today the Church venerates liturgically the memory of Saint Tabitha the Widow, who was raised from the dead by the Saint Peter. Most associate the name Tabitha with the TV character on “Bewitched.” However, let’s not just relate a biblical figure with TV fiction. The sacred Scriptures reveal in Acts 9:36 that the dead Tabitha was raised from the dead. Remarkable. Like Lazarus, and others, a follower of the Lord was given life on earth again. She was known to be a virtuous Christian woman belonging to the Christian community situated in Joppa. She was also a widow.
What do we learn from the biblical narrative? “Ask and you shall receive,” the Lord to us. Do we actually believe these words?
Hence, on a bended knee, Peter prayed that the Lord would restore Tabitha to life. After prayer, Peter went to the bed and called out, “Tabitha, get up!” She arose, completely healed.
Saint Tabitha is the patron saint of tailors and seamstresses because she was known for sewing coats and other garments (Acts 9:39). Let’s live this pericope.
The love of Christ arouses us, urges us to run, and to fly, lifted on the wings of holy zeal. The zealous man desires and achieve all great things and he labors strenuously so that God may always be better known, loved and served in this world and in the life to come, for this holy love is without end.
We have in Saint Luke a man concerned to communicate the mercy of God.
With the Church we pray,
Lord God, who chose Saint Luke to reveal by his preaching and writings the mystery of your love for the poor, grant that those who already glory in your name may persevere as one heart and one soul and that all nations may merit to see your salvation.
Let’s offer a prayer today, do a charitable act, spend quality time with another on this feast of Saint Luke. As one of the Evangelists, Luke is known for his devotion to the Mother of God, to the poor and to evangelization. Saint Luke’s gospel and the sequel, The Acts, are works of hope and fidelity to the Lord’s promises. He is the patron of artists, students, doctors and butchers. His concern is ours.
For our liturgical memory of Saint Ignatius of Antioch a portion of the saint’s Letter to the Romans is helpful for our lectio.
I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.
No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.
The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being. Give me the privilege of imitating the passion of my God. If you have him in your heart, you will understand what I wish. You will sympathize with me because you will know what urges me on.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Office of Readings from a Letter to the Romans
Thursday, 28th Week Through the Year