Saint Barnabas

St BarnabasWhen he converted to Christ from being a Cypriot Jew, Joseph changed his name to Barnabas, a name that means “son of encouragement.” Barnabas seems to be the cousin of John Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark.

Barnabas’ conversion was total:  all of his money and property were given to the Church (Acts 4:32); he completely and unreservedly gave his life to Jesus. Like Paul, Barnabas was an apostle without being part of the 12. The Lord sent (the meaning of the word ‘apostle’) him as a powerful missionary and preacher; he worked with Saint Paul. Barnabas’ concern was to advocate that pagans (unbelievers) could be baptized as Christians without being circumcised. “The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch…for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11).

The Episcopal and Lutheran liturgical calendars note Barnabas as an Apostle and a martyr. Biblically, Barnabas is mentioned 27 times in the New Testament. He exhorted the Antioch community: “With steadfast purpose of heart remain with the Lord.” Good advice for all Christians.

Some will say that Barnabas was the first bishop of Milan and is credited with bringing Clement to Christian faith (who later became the 4th bishop of Rome). Saint Barnabas was martyred by stoning.

Blessed Anna Marie Taigi

Blessed Anna Marie TaigiToday’s saint was unknown to me until now: Blessed Anna Marie Taigi (1769-1837). She was known as a mystic, wife, mother, and  penitent.  She was a tertiary member of the Trinitarian order.

The beatus’ remains are interred in the Church of Saint Crisogono,  Trastevere, Rome, Italy, the neighborhood where she lived. Until about 1920 Taigi’s body was incorrupt but since then a wax face and hands have been in-place to cover for what nature destines us.

Anne was married on 7 January 1789 to Dominico Taigi, a butler to the noble family of Chigi. Together they were married for 48 years, and the parents of seven, two of whom died very young. Marriage was a crown she bore.

Blessed Anna Marie was fortunate to have found holy spiritual directors who directed her spiritual life that ultimately put her on the path to real sanctity. She was a woman of Matthew 25: gave all she could to the poor, visited the sick, and counselled many of the patients at the hospital of San Giacomo of the Incurables;  worked hard to evangelize her own family, changing her husband’s demeanor, and they all regularly assembled in a small personal chapel to pray together.

Anne Marie devoted herself to a life of prayer as a lay woman and God richly blessed her with mystical gifts, particularly the gifts of prophecy and reading hearts. One ought not to underestimate the power of asking the Holy Spirit for gifts necessary to do the Father’s will: you may just get what you ask for.  It is recorded that she went into ecstacies, and received heavenly and prophetic visions. The gift of counsel allowed her to be a counsellor to cardinals, royalty and to three popes.

As a person in-touch with the need for forgiveness, Blessed Anna Marie is especially important for those who think their past sins cannot be forgiven!

The charismatic gifts, and her lack of concern about worldly matters, Anne was often the topic of gossip and sander, but she was the recipient of public veneration soon after her death, and her Cause for sainthood began in 1863.

The recorded acts that has encouraged the Church to study the life of Anna Marie has now given us Blessed Anna Marie Taigi, a woman who had a simple presence and a powerful effect on many –she was instrumental with many conversions. It was Pope Benedict XV on May 30, 1920, who declared Anna Marie a blessed of the Church. More of her life can be read here.

Saint Norbert

St Norbert detailBrian Fitzgerald’s 2014 essay, “Teaching by Word and Example: St Norbert of Xanten”(Crisis Magazine online) gives an insightful glimpse into a man we in the USA don’t know too much about but who continues to impact the way we live our common Catholic faith in communio. In some ways, the 11th century Norbert was a new “St Paul.” His contemporary Saint Bernard of Clairvaulx called Norbert “heavenly water pipe” yet no word of this text survives these centuries. Norbert founded a community of canons who followed the Rule of St Augustine which adhered to the idea: “docere verbo et exemplo” (to teach by word and example).

Several things that we ought to clue-in on from Norbert:

1. the centrality of preaching and Liturgy to the apostolic life;
2. the unity of the active and contemplative lives, the “mixed life”
3. Christians are to be “imitators of Christ’s disciples”
4. the Christian faith makes sense only in the communal aspect.

Saint Norbert, pray for us.

Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs of Uganda

The group of saints we have today are commonly called the Martyrs of Uganda, led by Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions. They met their destiny in 1886. In this era of ours we tend to look for witnesses that are coherent in their Christian following. The story of Saint Charles is the story of so many people today. Attend to the narrative:

King Mwanga of the Baganda in Uganda was a cruel and capricious ruler. One of his first acts, after becoming king at the age of eighteen, was to order the murder of James Hannington, the newly appointed Anglican bishop. The Christian missionaries, he believed, were the advance guard of encroaching European powers; they were tempting his people to abandon their traditional ways and thus posed a threat to his own rule. What is more, they also reproached him for demanding sexual favors from the young men who served as his pages.

In May 1886 Mwanga summoned all his pages and ordered the Christians among them to step forward. Fifteen of them approached, including the eldest, twenty-four-year-old catechist Charles Lwanga, as well as the youngest, a boy of thirteen whom Charles had baptized only the night before. After declaring that they were Christians and intended to remain so, the king ordered them put to death.

The group was marched to an execution spot on Lake Victoria, more than sixteen miles away. There they were wrapped in reeds, stacked on a pyre, and set aflame. The martyrs offered no protest, but simply murmured their prayers. Lwanga’s last words were “My God.”

Reports of these deaths, and many more in succeeding weeks, spread quickly, resulting in many conversions. The martyrs were canonized in 1964 by Pope Paul VI, who made a pilgrimage to their shrine.

St. Charles Lwanga said, “Poor, foolish man . . . you are burning me, but it is as if you were pouring water on my body.”

Credit: Give us our daily bread

Saint Justin, martyr

justin martyrAmong the many saints honored today, Justin the martyr is one that needs to be invoked due to his reasonableness in the approach he took regarding the faith on all levels. He met his destiny in being beheaded in AD 165 at Rome. This second century saint and philosopher is know for his defense of the faith by using the gift of reason. Today we could use a good dose of Justin in making the reasons for being Christian known and understandable. One of the famous interchanges he had went like this: “Rusticus said: ‘What system of teaching do you profess?’ Justin said: ‘I have tried to learn about every system, but I have accepted the true doctrines of the Christians, though these are not approved by those who are held fast by error.'”

In Justin’s First Apology sacramental and liturgical theologians look to Justin because of the rigor he had for being consistent with divine revelation; in the work just named Justin takes on the followers of Mithras for the mimicking of the Eucharist and confusing the faithful and distracting the proper defense of the faith. Justin’s eucharistic faith is something for us today to understand. Justin’s use of language is stunning:

But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced and has assented to our teaching, bring him to the place where those who are called brethren are assembled, in order that we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and for the baptized [illuminated] person, and for all others in every place, that we may be counted worthy, now that we have learned the truth, by our works also to be found good citizens and keepers of the commandments, so that we may be saved with an everlasting salvation.

Having ended the prayers, we salute one another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of the brethren bread and a cup of wine mixed with water; and he taking them, gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and offers thanks at considerable length for our being counted worthy to receive these things at His hands.

And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all the people present express their assent by saying Amen. This word Amen answers in the Hebrew language to ge’noito [so be it].

And when the president has given thanks, and all the people have expressed their assent, those who are called by us deacons give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine mixed with water over which the thanksgiving was pronounced, and to those who are absent they carry away a portion (ch. 65).

and

“And this food is called among us Eucharistia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” – (First Apology, 66)

Visitation of Holy Mary

VisitationThe feast of the Visitation fell on  Trinity Sunday, the feast is transferred in many places to today.  The Responsory for the Office reads:

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out:

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
— and who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For when your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
— and who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

 

Saint Bede points us to the importance of Mary and the model of the Christian she is.

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.” With these words Mary first acknowledges the special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal favours, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.

When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness always at heart. His spirit rejoices in God his saviour and delights in the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal salvation.

These words are often for all God’s creations, but especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her saviour, for she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.

“For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small and the weak who believe in him.

She did well to add: “and holy is his name,” to warn those who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: “and it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is the name she spoke of earlier: “and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.”

Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer. By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation.

A sermon by St Bede the Venerable

Let us pray for the Visitation Order.

Most Holy Trinity

Henrik van Balen, detail, The Holy Trinity (1620)Today, following the great feast of the Pentecost, we celebrate the feast of the Most Holy Trinity. The proposes this feast day to remind us that God-Head has revealed Himself to us through Jesus Christ. On Pentecost day the Apostles spoke in many tongues when the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus as He ascended to heaven, descended upon them in the cenacle.

We know from the biblical narrative that Jesus revealed to His disciples the face of the Father and the power of the Spirit. The Pentecost experience reveals the complete revelation of the persons of the Trinity with the outpouring of  the Holy Spirit –manifestation of the love between God the Father and God the Son. This loves pours into the world.

With this feast we are keenly reminded that the Trinity is petitioned in our spiritual life each time we pray. Most of the time we begin and conclude our prayer with the Sign of the Cross and a Glory be. Also, I think it is right to recall that God deeply loves us first before we love Him. It is His initiative of love that makes great sense to the Church Fathers and I am pretty sure we can verify this experience.

What is it that we receive from God? What does the Church believe? The gift we receive from Jesus is “grace”; from the Father “love”; and from the Holy Spirit “communio.” The Pentecost teaches us that we are now members of God’s household, part of His family not by nature but by grace, this is what it means to be a part of  the Church; we are the divinely adopted children of God through Christ; his Spirit dwells in us; now we are “temples of his holy Name!”

Blessed Margaret Pole

Blessed Margaret PoleBlessed Margaret Pole, daughter of the Duke of Clarence and niece of King Edward IV and King Richard III of England. Margaret was married to Sir Richard Pole in 1491 and the mother of five, one of whom became a cardinal. As her guardian, King Henry VIII, granted her the title of Countess of Salisbury and governess to his daughter, Princess Mary.

Margaret opposed King Henry‘s plan to marry Ann Boleyn and as a consequence was driven from his court in disfavor. Her son, Cardinal Reginald Pole, wrote against Henry‘s presumptions to spiritual supremacy which led the king to reject the family. Margaret’s two sons were executed in 1538 for the crime of being the brothers of the Cardinal.

In 1539, falsely arrested and charged with plotting revolution and was sent to the Tower of London for nearly two years before in 1541 had a weak trial and was martyred by beheading. The axman could not lop off her head and she had suffered greatly.

Pope Leo XIII declared Margaret blessed on 29 December 1886.

Clergy we’ve put our confidence in…

Some sectors of the Church’s leadership is trying to understand the pastoral care of people by wrestling with how to minister without being connected with lavish and flagrant lifestyles. We are still not finished with the sexual abuse perpetuated by clergy as new cases still surface; there’s been the lack of transparency with regard to finances, the abuse of pastoral and personal authority and now we dealing with bishops and other priests living “high on the hog.” Think of the real or imagine problems of the bishop of Limburg of last year, but now we have the archbishop of Atlanta coming clean about his insensitivities regarding a good use of real estate following the criticisms of the archbishop of Newark spending outrageously on his future retirement home. It remains to be seen what some newly installed bishops will do with their episcopal palaces supported by diocesan monies (Hartford, Bridgeport, Albany, Chicago, et al).

Clearly, Pope Francis’ perceived simpler living arrangements is causing a much needed review of current practices. His insistence on a simpler approach is better received by the laity than the clergy. Is this real issue? Some sneer at the Pope standing in the coffee line, meeting people at the front door, and talking with common person (read: riffraff). But  the questioning of lifestyle didn’t start with Pope Francis; the desire for the clergy, high and low, to live in a simple manner, can be pointed to in recent memory to Pope John Paul II and carried on by Pope Benedict XVI, and to many, many saints.

So, it’s no surprise that Catholics in the USA, and in some other places have been questioning the clergy’s use of their pastoral authority, their use of money –the church’s and their own, and the clergy’s ability to be chaste, their use of alcohol, their good relationship with men and women (so many seem to hate women) and the their ability to be true spiritual fathers. Catholics are exhausted by having to rehearse with the higher clergy that over-the-top attitudes on just about everything concerning the Church militant is tiresome and resulting in departures from the parish. It is no exaggeration to say that the faithful have been offended by clericalism, the arrogance of the clergy who preach one thing and do another, clergy who live and act like members of royalty and who lacked the virtue chastity (i.e., not been sexually continent –this problem is in addition to the criminal behavior of sexual abuse of minors).

What we have are zombie priests. Men ordained to the order of priest but have little concern for their own soul, their intellect, the care of souls (especially the people they don’t particularly like), who can’t celebrate rites or preach very well and who prefer to watch soap operas and drink. Is the priesthood promised us by Christ? made know by the saints? taught by the Magisterium? NO. We need a new Saint John Vianney for substantive renewal.