Saints – Page 46

All Saints

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honor of all the Saints, at whose festival the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God. (Entrance Antiphon for Mass)

With the Church we pray,

Almighty ever-living God, by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of all the Saints, bestow on us, we pray, through the prayers of so many intercessors, an abundance of the reconciliation with you for which we earnestly long.

The history of living the Gospel is filled with saints known and unknown: you might say anonymous saints who lend their witness to the symphony of those we have known to live and die for Christ. It is this feast of All Saints that the Church acknowledges the presence of those who are not venerated at the altar but nonetheless are making intercession before the throne of Grace. All the saints, known and unknown are those who lived a life of faith, hope and charity and therefore give us hope that in following the path given by Jesus is reasonable and worthy. These people who struggled and strove to live the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

Blessed John Paul II

The Holy See has approved today as the liturgical memorial for Blessed Pope John Paul II. The opening collect, below, is the only prayer for the memorial and it does not appear in the Roman Missal.

O God, who are rich in mercy and who willed that the
blessed John Paul the Second should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching, we may open our hearts to the
saving grace of Christ, the sole Redeemer of mankind.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

The Church, through the ministry of Pope Benedict XVI, canonized the first Native American woman today. The Church made an infallible statement in proclaiming before the world that Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1677), from the Mohawk Indian tribe,

Kateri Tekakwitha (Photo: razzumitos)

is in fact with God, a saint. Also canonized was Marianne Cope.

Hers was a common Catholic spirituality. Her way of living the Christian life is what is expected of all the baptized is the clearest link to Christ for us today. Saint Kateri was known to be a contemplative; a woman concerned to live the virtuous life; faithful to the Truth she received through Baptism and nourished by the reception of Confession and Holy Communion. Saint Kateri was recognized to be close to Jesus, a fact that was only possible because she spent time with the Eucharistic Lord in Adoration of the Blessed. Further, she was never without the Rosary. And she fasted for her own sins and the sins of her people. Penance was not uncommon to Saint Kateri.

At her intercession, God healed a boy from Washington state who had acquired a flesh eating bacteria. This was the miracle that allowed the Church to discern Kateri’s sanctity. On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the validity of the Congregation for Saints’ findings. Curious to note, Pope John Paul II didn’t require a miracle for Kateri to be beatified.

As a subtle point of clarification, in the Americas, Saint Juan Diego is the first Native person to be canonized and Kateri is the second. The current thinking is that in the USA, Kateri is the first Native person raised to the altars.

The National Shrine is in Fonda, NY.

Two new Doctors of the Church

Today, the Holy Father proclaimed two new Doctors of the Church, the highest honor for saints because of their exemplary lives and insightful doctrine.

Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is the fourth woman Doctor of the Church. Saint Hildegard was a 12th century German Benedictine nun, writer, composer, philosopher, polymath, and mystic. The sainted abbess was also the founder of several monasteries. On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict formally proclaimed her a saint by an equivalent of canonization, and therefore added her to the Church’s roster of saints (Roman Martyrology) extending her liturgical feast throughout the world.

Pope Benedict also proclaimed Saint John of Avila (1500-1569), a Doctor of the Church. He’s known as the Apostle of Andalusia, priest, reformer, educator, mystic, author, and patron of the early Carmelite Reform and the Jesuits.

May Saints Hildegard and John of Avila bless the work of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization.

Saint Bruno

O God, who called Saint Bruno to serve you in
solitude, grant, through his intercession that amid the changes of this world
we may constantly look to you alone.

In the USA, there is only one monastery for men that lives under the Rule of Saint Bruno. The Charterhouse of the Holy Transfiguration (Arlington, VT). A friend recently began his novitiate there, so let’s pray for Father Ignatius as he transitions into his new vocation.

But there is another group in the USA, of women, who follow the Rule of Saint Bruno but are not aggregated to the Carthusian Order, called The Monastic Family of Bethlehem and of the Assumption of the Virgin (Livingston Manor, NY). Founded in 1950, the Order has had tremendous growth.

Guardian Angels

Come, let us worship the Lord, whom the angels serve.

(Inv. antiphon)

Last evening at Vespers at the Monastery of the Glorious Cross, a monastery of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified (where I attend the prayer and Mass regularly with the nuns) the Office book had the hymn noted below that made me think of what we believe as Catholics and why we believe that the Guardian Angels exist. From the Liturgy we hear prayed that God sent the “holy Angels to guard us” and to accompany us in earthly journey and in praise of God.

We know what Saint Basil the Great taught about the guardian angels: that “each and every member of the faithful has a Guardian Angel to protect, guard, and guide them through life.” Our spiritual tradition however, delves deep into the Jewish spiritual tradition with Moses, David, Ezekiel, Daniel, Eusebius but we have Saints Matthew, Jerome, Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Thomas, Josemaria who are clear voices that verify the place and and role of the Guardian Angels. Angels, though, aren’t a Catholic belief; it is a deeply Jewish belief. Check your bible. You can also read Mike Aquilina’s Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts for more information.

The detail of the picture above by Andrea da Firenze, “Way of Salvation,” shows Saint Peter leading with the help of the angels. Do we in our humility of being rely on the angels to do help us on our way toward salvation?

We thank you Father for your guardian angels,
Sent as protectors for weak human nature.
Our foes are many, ev’rywhere in ambush.
Angels defend us.

Satan has fallen from his place of honor.
He and his angels burn with jealous envy.
They try to tempt us souls whom God has chosen,
Rob us of heaven.

Come, guardian angel of our own dear country,
Land God once gave you to be our defender.
Keep from it evils both of soul and body,
Peace reign within it!

Praise to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
One God for ever ruling all creation,
Things seen and unseen governing in glory,
Thru all the ages. Amen.

Translation: Kenneth Tomkins, OSB
1992 Quarr Abbey, Ryde, Island of Wight, England

A previous post on the Guardian Angels is here.

Saint Vincent de Paul

I want to remember the Vincentian community in here in Connecticut, and particularly at Saint Stanislaus Church in New Haven.

My prayer is that the Vincentian priests and brothers fulfill what the Church prays in the Mass Collect (see below) so that their witness be bold and clear for the faithful following of Jesus Christ. We need the witness of Saint Vincent de Paul and his sons and daughters through the vowed life of the Vincentian Society today more than ever. In an age of diminishment in vocations, the love with which the Vincentians live their vocation needs to be extroverted.

With the Church we pray,

O God, who for
the relief of the poor and the formation of the clergy endowed the Priest Saint
Vincent de Paul with apostolic
virtues, grant, we pray, that, afire with that same spirit, we may love
what he loved and put into practice what he taught.

Continue reading Saint Vincent de Paul

Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of doctors and pharmacists

May you be magnified, O Lord, by the revered memory of
your Saints Cosmas and Damian, for with providence beyond words you have
conferred on them everlasting glory, and on us, your unfailing help.

Today, the
Holy Church celebrates the liturgical Memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
They were twins who were known to be doctors and/or pharmacists in the Roman
province of Syria but born in what is known as Turkey. According to their biographers, the saints accepted no
payment for their medical services; they were given the title of “Unmercenary” for loving God and man. The gospel line comes to mind: freely you have received, freely give. The brothers paid very close attention to the gospel as
it was a light for their feet.

Continue reading Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of doctors and pharmacists

Saint Matthew

O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as
an Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his
example and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you.

Pope Benedict said today,

Matthew,
the author of the first of the four Gospels, was a publican – a tax-collector –
and the story of his call to become an Apostle reminds us that Christ excludes
no one from his friendship. Tax-collectors were considered public sinners, and
we can hear an echo of the scandal caused by the Lord’s decision to associate
with such men in his declaration that he came “not to call the just but
sinners” (Mt 2:17).

This is
the heart of the “good news” which Jesus came to bring: the offer of
God’s grace to sinners! The parable of the publican in the Temple makes this
same point: by humbly acknowledging their sins and accepting God’s mercy, even
those who seem farthest from holiness can become first in the Kingdom of
Heaven.

So, there’s hope for me (us).

Saint John Chrysostom

Those who are wise will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars for ever.

O God, strength of those who hope in you, who willed that the Bishop Saint John Chrysostom should be illustrious by his experience of suffering, grant us, we pray, that, instructed by his teachings, we may be strengthened through example of his invincible patience.

The entrance antiphon and the Collect are enough to pray with today.

We pray for the Church in the East.