Don’t let your life be barren. Be useful. Make yourself felt. Shine forth with the torch of your faith and your love…Don’t flutter around like a hen, when you can soar to the heights of an eagle!
Saint Josemaría Escrivá, The Way
Category: Saints
Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
O God, who raised up Saint John the Baptist to make ready a nation fit for Christ the Lord, give your people, we pray, the grace of spiritual joys and direct the hearts of all the faithful into the way of salvation and peace.
The key to understanding today’s feast (on a Sunday no less) is the place John the Baptist has in the economy of salvation: making a nation fit for Christ the Lord. Not only was the Baptist a cousin of Jesus’, he opened the doors of salvation by introducing us to His Lord and ours. His encounter with the Messiah is also ours; his dependence on God for everything is also ours. The challenge for us, therefore, is to live as the Baptist lived –with total, unreserved dependence upon God. In Catholic theology and the history of salvation, the Baptist is second only to Mary, the Mother of God in unlocking the door of salvation: Jesus Christ.
The Church celebrates as a feast day few birthdays. They are: the Nativity of Mary, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and of course the Nativity of the Lord. Note, too, that we celebrate each of these peoples entrances into heaven.
Saints Thomas More and John Fisher
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.The feast of Saint Thomas More and John Fisher gains more popularity today than it would otherwise with the Fortnight for Freedom being observed here in the USA. The US Bishops have proposed these two English saints –men who faced the persecution of a government over matters of conscience and liberty– to help us focus our prayer and advocacy aright. The Mass prayer is really insightful.
The events of today require us to seek divine assistance. Actually the events of every day require us to seek divine assistance. Here’s a prayer of Saint Thomas More
Give me the grace good Lord, to set the world at
naught; to set my mind fast upon Thee and not to hang upon the blast of men’s
mouths. Gladly to be thinking of God, piteously to call for His help, to lean
unto the comfort of God, busily to labor to love Him. Gladly to bear my
purgatory here, to be joyful of tribulations, to walk the narrow way that
leadeth to life.
St Norbert
Saint Norbert is often overlooked in this country, perhaps because he lived so long ago that he hardly matters today, or because meeting his spiritual sons and daughters is a rarity unless you live in Paoli, PA, DePere, WI or Silverado, CA, New Mexico (or a handful of other places places) where you might encounter the Canon Regular, aka Norbertines. BUT I would submit that Saint Norbert cannot be dismissed because he lived in the 11th nor because you have neither met the Canons nor the Canoness.
Saint Norbert is a saint of the Eucharist. AND that ought to be enough of an enticement to know Norbert.
Christians: Let us be neither dogs that do not bark
Today’s first reading from the First Letter of Peter offers an exhortation to his hearers who are facing difficult times: be eager to stand firm. As the people who heard Peter so we too, today, need to remember that the Lord has an infinite amount of patience; in fact He never tires, but His adopted children need to recall that only He’s the matrix of the covenant’s fulfillment. God is present, stand firm.
Saint Boniface, the Englishman monk who became the Apostle to Germany, whose memory we commemorate today, also exhorted those of his time to stand firm because God is present. In the Office of Readings this morning I reacquainted myself with a rather curious set of images that Boniface delivered to the bishops of his time and place make connects very nicely with the Scriptures. Saint Boniface said, “Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to the powerful and to the humble, to rich and to poor, to men of every rank and age, as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season, as Saint Gregory writes in his book of Pastoral Instruction.”
Indeed, let the bark be heard.
Two new Doctors of the Church: The Lord’s effective witnesses in the world
Reminding us that the Holy Spirit “continues to inspire women and men who engage in the pursuit of truth” Pope Benedict announced that on October 7, at the beginning of the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, he would proclaim St. John of Avila and St. Hildegard of Bingen as Doctors of the Church. “These two great witnesses of the faith lived in very different historical periods and came from different cultural backgrounds,” he said. “But the sanctity of life and depth of teaching makes them perpetually present: the grace of the Holy Spirit, in fact, projected them into that experience of penetrating understanding of divine revelation and intelligent dialogue with the world that constitutes the horizon of permanent life and action of the Church.”
The Pope continued: “Especially in light of the project of the New Evangelization, to which the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be dedicated, and on the vigil of the Year of Faith, these two figures of saints and doctors are of considerable importance and relevance.”
Saint Pachomius
The Church gives us Saint Pachomius (+346), the Egyptian monk and abbot famous for being the “founder” of community-focussed monasticism (cenobitic) thus offering an new pattern of following Christ as a monk that up until Pachomius, one did alone. 200 years later Saint Benedict brought this version of monastic life in general acceptance in the west, drawing on what this sainted abbot first done. He’s known, too, for his writings titled “Koinonia” (in Latin, Communio). He wrote:
“Brothers, as long as you have breath
in your bodies, strive for your salvation. Before the hour comes in which we
shall weep for ourselves, let us practice virtue eagerly.”
The Church prays…
O God, Who didst raise
the blessed abbot Pachomius to the heights of doctrine and of virtue, grant that
we, by following his example, may seek before all else the bread of Thy Word: light
for our minds, and stillness for our hearts.
the blessed abbot Pachomius to the heights of doctrine and of virtue, grant that
we, by following his example, may seek before all else the bread of Thy Word: light
for our minds, and stillness for our hearts.
Saint Peter’s prayer is accompanied by immense joy
In our catechesis on Christian prayer, we now consider Saint Peter’s miraculous liberation from imprisonment on the eve of his trial in Jerusalem. Saint Luke tells us that as “the Church prayed fervently to God for him” (Acts 12:5), Peter was led forth from the prison by an Angel of light. The account of Peter’s rescue recalls both Israel’s hasty exodus from bondage in Egypt and the glory of Christ’s resurrection. Peter was sleeping, a sign of his surrender to the Lord and his trust in the prayers of the Christian community. The fulfillment of this prayer is accompanied by immense joy, as Peter rejoins the community and bears witness to the Risen Lord’s saving power. Peter’s liberation reminds us that, especially at moments of trial, our perseverance in prayer, and the prayerful solidarity of all our brothers and sisters in Christ, sustains us in faith. As Peter’s Successor, I thank all of you for the support of your prayers and I pray that, united in constant prayer, we will all draw ever closer to the Lord and to one another.
Pope Benedict XVI
10 May 2012
Do we have perseverance in prayer?
Are we in prayerful solidarity with others?
What really sustains our prayer?
Saint Joseph the Work: the model of holiness through working
Work is often treated as a four letter word; something to be avoided. Understanding what the value of work is today is rather complex due to the ideology we’ve been subjected to since at least the 19th century as a result of industrialism, Communism and Socialism.
One of the many beautiful things John Paul II wrote about is the human person and how the person is meant to thrive, not just exist. His ideas about what and who the person is understood in what he taught about subjectivity, meaning that there is “the ground on which the dynamic relation, or rather inter-relation, between the person and the action is actualized. The failure to recognize man´s subjectivity would deprive us of the level on which can be grasped all the aspects of this interrelation.”
Continue reading Saint Joseph the Work: the model of holiness through working
Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort
The Church gives us an inspired, perhaps even truly brilliant preacher, as a model of grace. Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort was ordained a priest in 1700; proficient in the thinking of the Church Fathers on the Virgin Mary, Montfort’s mission was to preach on Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, in a period of time of great theological error in France. He’s famous for preaching on the Rosary and he created a series of meditations that led to a Consecration to the Blessed Mother. His preaching of Mary was really a work of preaching on the Paschal Mystery. The collect for the Mass tells us that Louis-Marie ‘walked the way of salvation and the love of Christ” by “meditating on the mysteries [God’s] love” which led to “the building up of [God’s] Church.”
Montfort was a Third Order Dominican and held a papally given title Missionary Apostolic. He was also a founder of three congregations, one of men and two of women. For some time now there’s been movement to have Louis-Marie to named a Doctor of the Church.
We are more aware of Montfort through John Paul’s adoption of one of Montfort’s phrases, Totus Tuus (totally yours).