Saints – Page 4

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.

St Joseph

Icon painted Marek Czarnecki for the parish of St Thomas More, Yale University New Haven, 2019.

Today’s the feast of St Joseph, “a righteous man” (Matthew 1:19).

Prayer of Pope Leo XIII to St Joseph:

In our tribulations we turn to thee, O Blessed Joseph; and after imploring the help of thy most holy Spouse we ask with confidence for thy patronage. By the affection which united thee to the Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, and the paternal love with which thou didst embrace the Child Jesus, we beseech thee to look kindly upon the inheritance which Jesus Christ acquired by His precious blood, and by thy powerful aid to help us in our needs.

Protect, most careful Guardian of the Holy Family, the chosen people of Jesus Christ. Keep us, most loving Father, from all pestilence of error and corruption. Be merciful to us, most powerful protector, from thy place in heaven, in this warfare with the powers of darkness; and, as thou didst snatch the Child Jesus from the danger of death, so now defend the holy Church of God from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity. Guard each of us by the perpetual patronage, so that, sustained by thy example and help, we may live in holiness, die a holy death, and obtain the everlasting happiness of heaven. Amen.

St Gregory of Narek: the Word that Heals

St Gregory of Narek, Doctor of the Church

This is the first time I am highlighting the life of St Gregory of Narek, a saint venerated by the Armenian Orthodox, the Armenian Catholic and the Latin Catholic Churches. Gregory was canonized and recognized as a Doctor of the Church by Pope Francis in 2015.

Many don’t know the 10th century Armenian monk but he’s most known for his “Book of Lamentations”, the “Book of Prayers” of depth and scope; scholars will say it is timeless piece of Armenian literature. Gregory himself said this work was an “encyclopedia of prayer for all nations” and as his final testament, “Its letters like my body, its message like my soul.” The Armenian Church calls Gregory her greatest poet and mystic.

Here is a beautifully insightful video on St Gregory of Narek written and narrated by Robert Ervine, professor at the Armenian Seminary in New York.

While the Church has not yet established his patronage it is widely accepted that St Gregory of Narek is the patron saint who works against the diseases of the mind, including schizophrenia, stress symptoms, depression, Hepatitis C, and periodic unexplained disease of the body.

Let’s leave the final word today on Gregory with St John Paul II who wrote in a 2001 apostolic letter marking the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity in Armenia, praising St. Gregory of Narek as one who “probed the dark depths of human desperation and glimpsed the blazing light of grace that shines even there for believers.”

St Gregory of Narek, pray for us.

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.