Saints – Page 4

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac generates spiritual fruitfulness

This post on the Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, was written for another social media outlet for other members of the EOHSJ.

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, am oil painting used at the Mass for the 57 anniversary of his death.
(public domain image)

Today is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac (8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960), served as the Cardinal-Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death. Among the many things he did was to join the Third Order Franciscans which gave him a framework to be an effective minister of the Gospel. Though he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, Stepinac only served five at Lepoglava Prison before being transferred to house arrest with his movements confined to his home parish of Krašić. He died as the result of poisoning by his Communist captors. Pope John Paul II beatified Stepinac and named him a martyr.

When Pope John Paul beatified our brother Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, he quoted a well known Scripture line saying that it’s the heart of the Mystery of the life, ministry and death of Croatia’s famous bishop:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

Our Catholic faith reveals to us that the “mystery of death and life also comes about in the earthly existence of Christ’s followers: for them too, being cast into the earth to die remains the condition for all authentic spiritual fruitfulness.”

While Stepinac did not shed his blood as martyrs typically do, his martyrdom was one of bearing witness to the Good News and the virtue of the Church under considerable personal suffering. We are told to seek the saints; we are to follow the saints; our faithfulness to the Church means abiding in the mystery of Communion of Saints. Concretely, what does that mean to us in light of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac? What does he give us Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre to follow?

Just as this brother Knight of the Holy Sepulchre Blessed Aloysius was a compass pointing to the realities of faith, charity and virtue, we current Knights and Dames are to be a compass for the same.

Knight and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre are to have “…faith in God, respect for man, love towards all even to the offer of forgiveness, and unity with the Church guided by the Successor of Peter.” The objectivity of truth was a non-negotiable for Blessed Aloysius: his personal suffering generated a life of virtue that refused to betray his conscience and love for Jesus.

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, pray for us.

Saint Maron

Today we liturgically recall the witness of the great church father, Saint Maron. Monk and founder. The Sedro for the saint is noted below tells us the importance Maron has for us and why we remember and follow him. The accent has to be on following, that is, seeking, Christ through the witness of the saints.

Blessed are you, Saint Maron, for you fought the good fight on Mount Cyrrhus, and the faithful from everywhere came to you. Your prayers healed the sick, guided those gone astray, and brought back sinners to righteousness and salvation.

Blessed are you, Saint Maron, for you became a prayer on the lips of the faithful, and a living example for the people who bear your name and will be known as Maronites to the end of the age.

Sedro, Liturgy of the Word for the Feast of Saint Maron

Blessed Pius IX

Published in another place, this brief reflection on Pius IX is meant to bring to light the importance of Pius’ papacy and his role in re-founding the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Today, the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem together with the Church liturgically recall the memory of Blessed Pius IX, the Roman Pontiff who re-founded and showed great concern for our Order.

John Maria Mastai Ferretti was born at Senigallia (Italy) on 13 May 1792. After he was ordained priest in 1819, he spent two years as a missionary in Chile. By 35 years of age he was appointed Archbishop of Spoleto, and then moved in 1832 to Imola. In 1840 he was created Cardinal (but was really created cardinal In Pectore in 1839) and on 16 June 1846 was elected Supreme Pontiff at only 54 years of age! He took the name Pius to honor a previous pope who inspired his vocation.

Pius served the Church as Pope for 32 years.The papacy of Pius IX was decisively marked by a history that gave us very notable events which continue to impact us today:

On 8 December 1854, he defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception;

In 1847, re-established the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and re-founded and modernized the EOHSJ;

In 1864, published the Syllabus of Errors which condemn liberalism, modernism, moral relativism, secularization, separation of church and state, and other Enlightenment ideas.

In 1869, he called the First Vatican Council, which precisely defined the Infallibility;

On 8 December 1870, he declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church;

On 16 June 1875, he consecrated the Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In more subtle ways, Pope Pius’ friendship with St John Bosco helped to develop the Salesian Society. He’s recalled for giving the Marian title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the Redemptorist Congregation, and showed concern for the souls purgatory by giving us a prayer to pray for them on Good Friday, and was the last sovereign of the Papal States when the territory was incorporated differently as the Italian Republic.

Of all the things Blessed Pius IX did for the Church, and the one that stands out for us as members of the EOHSJ, is the 1847 restoration of the Latin Patriarchate and his re-founding and modernizing of the Order. Pius was instrumental in issuing a new Constitution and placing the Order under the direct protection of the Holy See and assigning its government to the Latin Patriarch. Pius, moreover, added to the Order’s fundamental role: to uphold the works of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, while preserving the spiritual duty of defending and propagating Catholic Faith.

After 32 years of an intense period of leadership he made his transitus to the Lord of Life on 7 February 1878. John Paul II proclaimed him Blessed on 3 September 2000.

With the Church we pray:

O God, who gave your servant, Blessed Pius IX, Pope, the spirit of fortitude in adversity, and enabled him to enter more deeply into the pure faith of the Church, grant through his intercession, that we may be filled with the same spirit and live with the same devotion.

Blessed Pius IX, pray for us.

St Hilary of Poitiers

This post was written for members of the Order the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and posted on FB.

Today the Church gives us the feast of a great Father and Doctor of the Church of the West: St Hilary of Poitiers (315-368), one of the important figures of the fourth century. He was a convert to the faith. At the time of his election as bishop of Poitiers by the lay faithful and clergy, he was married with one daughter (who became a nun known for her charity and later a saint). Our saint was known as the “Hammer of the Arians” (Malleus Arianorum) and the “Athanasius of the West.”

In the controversy with the Arians, Hilary devoted his energy defending and teaching orthodox Christian faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God as the Father who begot him from eternity; by comparison the Arians considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but only human. You might remember that Arian “theology” spread through music. Opposing the Arian hymns, Hilary wrote hymns to foster Catholic faith. St Hilary’s method for his theological reflection began in baptismal faith. The starting point of Christian life is and has always been the sacrament of Baptism, and it is a point that members of the EOHSJ take as critical in living our vocation.

In his famous work, De Trinitate, Hilary writes: Jesus “has commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the confession of the Author, of the Only-Begotten One and of the Gift.

The Author of all things is one alone, for one alone is God the Father, from whom all things proceed. And one alone is Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, and one alone is the Spirit, a gift in all…. In nothing can be found to be lacking so great a fullness, in which the immensity in the Eternal One, the revelation in the Image, joy in the Gift, converge in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.”

God the Father, being wholly love, is able to communicate his divinity to his Son in its fullness. Particularly beautiful and insightful is the formula of St Hilary composed to understand the Mystery: “God knows not how to be anything other than love, he knows not how to be anyone other than the Father. Those who love are not envious and the one who is the Father is so in his totality. This name admits no compromise, as if God were father in some aspects and not in others.”

St Hilary of Poitiers is the patron saint fighting against snake bites. As his name suggests, Knights and Ladies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ought to be people of good cheer as we give good witness to the truth of Jesus Christ.

St Hilary, pray for us.

Synaxis of the Baptist

The Greek Church honors the Lord’s forerunner today. It is one of six times the Church recalls the liturgical memory of the Forerunner. St John the Baptist has achieved quite a place in our theology. We recall that John is the cousin of the Lord (Elizabeth’s cherished son); he was a member of an ascetic group; he’s known as a prophet; he preached the coming of the Messiah; he “spoke truth to power”, and lost his head as a consequence.

“The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner. You were shown in truth to be the most honorable of the prophets, for you were deemed worthy to baptize in the streams of the Jordan Him whom they foretold. Therefore, having suffered for the truth with joy, you proclaimed to those in hell God who appeared in the flesh, who takes away the sin of the world, and grants us great mercy.” (Troparion, Tone 2)

While the Roman Church has a different way of honoring the saints, the Byzantine Church has its own and immediately following the Theophany, the commemoration of Jesus’ baptism, we have John the Baptist, the holy man inextricably connected with the Theophany. And this is a critical point: saints, especially the prophets, need to be located on the liturgical calendar that closely relate to the Paschal Mystery or to the season preparing for a great feast.

What is the message of the Baptist? Why must we attend to his announcement? St. John the Baptist announces the coming of the one who would baptize with fire and the Spirit, proclaiming a new life for humanity. We believe that the Baptist precedes Jesus into Hades, the Kingdom of Death, to announce liberation to the souls held there. He is, therefore, the model of sanctity manifesting not his own glory. The controlling idea: the Son of God is the center of our attention. As a parenthetical idea, John’s image was always painted in scenes where the artist would be trying to communicate the virtues of religious life. So, at point in art history you would not see a St Pachomius or a John Cassian or a Francis of Assisi without the Baptist nearby.

John tells us three important points:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me’” (John 1:29-30). “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). AND “He [Jesus] must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30).

The Church proposes the Holy Forerunner to us today as a paradigm of what we need to do: we must “prepare the way of the Lord,” by a similar ascetical struggle John engaged in. This ascetically struggle is possible for all of us, even in small ways. The Church as a good parent that the discipline of our souls and bodies can be filled with Jesus Christ. Here we believe that to be a faithful Christian also means imitating John the Baptist. To venerate John in body and spirit is not an easy task, yet must be undertaken if we are to be in heaven with the Holy Trinity.

St John the Baptist, pray for us.

St. André Bessette

Today is the feast day of St. André Bessette. The holy brother who, as he said, was shown the door, and there he stayed.

Br. André Bessette, C.S.C., more commonly known as Brother André, or since his canonization as Saint André of Montreal, was a Brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross. He was credited with thousands of healings associated with his devotion to Saint Joseph.

On October 17, 2010, André Bessette became the first saint of the Congregation of Holy Cross when he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. On this day, the Church recognized that God chose a very simple man for a remarkable life of service to the Church. He had previously been beatified by Blessed John Paul II on May 23, 1982.

To learn more about St. André visit https://www.saint-joseph.org/en/

St Elizabeth Ann Seton

We have in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) the first native born American saint today.

In her own words:

“We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him.”

“The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will.”

“The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.”

“And in every disappointment, great or small, let your heart fly directly to your dear Savior, throwing yourself in those arms for refuge against every pain and sorrow. Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.”

“God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross.”

St Thomas Becket

And specially, from euery shires ende
Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
The holy blissful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

( Chaucer – Canterbury Tales – Prologue).
29 December St Thomas of Canterbury
Patron of the English Pastoral Clergy

St Ambrose –the saint we need, and want

Saint Ambrose presenting to God the letter of Emperor Theodore, Louis Lagrenée 1764, Paris, St. Marguerite Church

We have the liturgical memorial of Saint Ambrose, bishop, confessor and doctor of the Church.

Ambrose is quite an interesting person and one we ought to think about more often. His personal history is daunting to wrap the mind around: a convert, a motivating speaker, a provocative thinker, a reformer of civil and ecclesiastical works, an author, a composer (the Te Deum), a zealous preacher and valiant defender of the Christian Faith, a worker of miracles, a man of virtue, and a man of the people. He is the saint the Holy Trinity has given us, he is the saint I want and the one I need.

As said before in this forum that saints beget saints, one great example is that Ambrose baptized Augustine.

He was fast-tracked to the ministry of bishop. I merely point this fact out because he was acclaimed to be bishop of Milan prior to be baptized. One biographer noted that “He accepted holy Baptism from an Orthodox priest and, passing through all the ranks of the Church clergy in just seven days, on December 7, 374 he was consecrated Bishop of Mediolanum [Milan].” Today’s feast, hence, doesn’t commemorate a saint’s death as most often happens saint’s memorials, but Ambrose’s feast is on the day he was consecrated to the episcopal order.

Reading up on St Ambrose I realized that I hope this happens to me: St Ambrose, who departed to the Lord on the night of Holy Pascha. What better day than to make one’s transitus to the Lord of Life than that of the day we celebrate Easter! His death on Pascha encapsulated all that he believed, preacher and loved.

The Church’s liturgical hymns are key in our forming our own theological heart and mind. Below the Troparion and Kontakion tells us what the faithful and the magisterial church believe when thinking of Saint Ambrose.

In truth you were revealed to your flock as a rule of faith,an image of humility and a teacher of abstinence; your humility exalted you; your poverty enriched you.Hierarch Father Ambrose, entreat Christ our God that our souls may be saved. (Troparion)

You shone forth with divine doctrine eclipsing the deception of Arius, shepherd and initiate of the mysteries, Ambrose.you worked miracles through the power of the Spirit, healing various passions; righteous father, entreat Christ our God to grant us His great mercy. (Kontakion)

Today I am praying for two monk-friends named for Ambrose, the Parish of St Ambrose and its pastor in North Branford, Connecticut, the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation whose origins is that of the Diocese of Milan and the Benedictine monks who colonized just outside the City of Milan. AND I am praying for my honey bees and fellow CT beekeepers.

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker

Today is the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, archbishop of Myra in Lycia.

The Byzantine Church honors Nicholas in several beautiful texts. This one taken from the sticheron from the Lamp-Lighting Psalms, teaches us:

“What crowns of praise shall we confer upon the saintly Nicholas? Once present in the flesh in Myra, he is present in spirit to all who love him purely. He is the leader and defender of everyone, a comforter in distress, and a haven of all in danger, a pillar of piety and conqueror for believers. For his sake, Christ overcame enemies and shows us great mercy!”

Nicholas has captured the imagination of many through the years because of charity which morphed into gift-giving. He’s not remembered in popular culture as a teacher of the Christian Gospel, or the holy bishop who faithfully served the Divine Mysteries, or for saving the innocent from death, or calming storms, nor challenging the false teachers. And yet, he’s more than all these things. He allowed the Lord to speak eloquently through his life and thus comes to us in 2021 as a friend and disciple of the Lord Jesus.

Would that we could live and act as Nicholas did in the face of false teaching by a life of virtue and charity, by listening to sacred Scripture, and by worthily receiving the Divine Mysteries (the sacraments)? We prayerfully ask St. Nicholas to beg Jesus Christ to save us.

As Knights and Dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre it seems that to be renewed for mission we have to consider what one of St. Nicholas’ biographers wrote of him:

“In serving the Lord the youth was fervent of spirit, and in his proficiency with questions of faith he was like an Elder, who aroused the wonder and deep respect of believers. Constantly at work and vivacious, in unceasing prayer, the priest Nicholas displayed great kind-heartedness towards the flock, and towards the afflicted who came to him for help, and he distributed all his inheritance to the poor.”

What more can be said of our eucharistic vocation and mission as members of the EOHSJ? What more can asked of us than to be keen witnesses of St. Nicholas in the world today? May we, in fact, have our sins forgiven and be brought one day into perfect communion with the most holy Trinity.

St. Nicholas, pray for us.