Franciscan saints and blesseds – Page 12

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

With the Church we pray, “Father, You helped Elizabeth of Hungary to recognize and honor Christ in the poor of this world. Let her prayers help us to serve our brothers and sisters in time of trouble and need.”

This prayer says it all! How much more encouragement do we need to live the gospel and the sacraments of the Church?

Saint Nicholas Tavelic and companions

The salvation of the just comes from the Lord. He is their strength in time of need.

Almighty God, You glorified Saint Nicholas and companions by their zeal in spreading the faith and their crown of martyrdom. Through their prayers and example help us to run the way of Your commandments and to receive the crown of eternal life.

More on Saint Nicholas Tavelic is found here.

The essence and undivided nature of charity by John Duns Scotus

The second reading in the Office of Readings from today’s liturgical memorial [even though it is Sunday in 2009 and Sunday takes precedence over saints’ memorials] of Blessed John Duns Scotus bears posting here. What appears to be vague really is dead-on in thinking about charity and justice. Emphasis mine.

Charity is defined as the habit by which God becomes the object of our love. However, God could become the object of a kind of private love, such as that of a lover intolerant of any other lovers besides himself (as for example in the case of a jealous man in love with a woman). But a habit of this kind would be both inordinate and imperfect.

It would be inordinate because God, the good of all, does not want to be the private good of any one person, not does right reason allow one person to appropriate to himself this common good. It follows that a love that tends to regard this common good exclusively as its own property, neither to be loved nor possessed by any other, is an inordinate love.

It would also be imperfect because a person who loves perfectly wants his beloved to be loved. Therefore God, in infusing the habit of charity by which the soul tends towards Him in an orderly and perfect way, gives a habit by which He is loved as the common good to be co-loved by others as well. And thus this habit which is of God, leads an individual to want God to be held dear and to be loved also by others.

Therefore, just as this habit leads a person to love God in Himself in an orderly and perfect way, so also it leads him to want God to be loved not only by the person himself but also by anyone else whose friendship is pleasing to Him.

It is clear from this how the habit of charity must be single and undivided, because it does not concern itself in the first instance with a plurality of objects, but with God alone as the primary object and as the first good. Secondarily it then wants God to be loved and to possessed in love by everyone else to the utmost of his power, because it is in this that a perfect and orderly love of God consists. And in willing this, I love both myself and my neighbor in charity, willing, that is, for both of us the desire and the possession of God in Himself through love.

Hence it is evident that it is by one and the same act that I want God and that I want you to want God. And in this my love is a love of charity, because out this love I desire a good for you which is due to you in justice.

For this reason, my neighbor is not to be regarded as a second object of charity but rather as an object that is entirely incidental, because he is someone who is capable of co-loving the Beloved with me in a perfect and orderly way; and I love him precisely so that he can become a co-lover. In this I love him as it were incidentally, not for himself, but because of the object which I want to be co-loved by him. And in wanting that object to be co-loved by him, I implicitly want what is good for him because it is due to him in justice.

Blessed John Duns Scotus

The learned will shine like the brilliance of the firmament, and those who train many in the way of justice will sparkle like the stars for all eternity. Heavenly Father, You filled John Duns Scotus with wisdom, and through his life and teaching gave us a witness of Your Incarnate love. May we come to understand more deeply what he taught so that we may live in ever growing charity.

Prayer for the Canonization of

Blessed John Duns Scotus

O Most High, Almightily and gracious Lord, Who exalts the humble and confounds the proud of heart, grant us the great joy of seeing Blessed John Duns Scotus canonized. He honored Your Son with the most sublime praises; he was the first to successfully defend the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary; he lived in heroic obedience to the Holy Father, to the Church and to the Seraphic Order. O most holy Father, God of infinite love, hear, we beseech You, our humble prayer, thorough the merits of Your Only-Begotten Son and His Mother, the Gate of Heaven and Spouse of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Didacus (Diego) of Alcalá

He humbled himself in all things and found favor with God. Great is the power of God; he is glorified by the humble.

Almighty, eternal God, in Your marvelous ordering of things You single out the weak of this world to shame the strong. Grant that by imitating the humility of Saint Didacus here on earth we may be raised up to eternal glory with him in heaven.

The liturgical memorial for Saint Didacus seems to have been moved around through the years for one reason or another. The Roman Martyrology indeed lists him on November 12. However, since I am following the Franciscan supplement to the Roman Missal, today his feast is observed on this blog in communion with the Capuchins.

Saint Didacus is the San Diego, for whom the city in California is named.

Blessed Angelo of Acri

Seek the Lord, and you will be blessed.

Loving Father, we give You thanks for Your servant Blessed Angelo of Acri. You made him a gift preacher and graced him with the ability to bring sinners back to You. Inspired by his example, and helped by his intercession, may Your power work in and through us and bring You glory.

On the life of Blessed Angelo

Blessed Bonaventure of Potenza

Lord, Your strength gives joy to the just. They greatly delight in Your saving help. You have granted them their heart’s desire.

Almighty God, You have made blessed Bonaventure Illustrious in the virtue of obedience and in love for neighbor. Through his prayers and example grant us to comply with Your precepts, to rejoice in spirit, and to advance on the way of perfection.

Blessed Bonaventure’s bio

Saint John of Capistrano

They sang, O Lord, Your holy name and praised in unison Your conquering hand.

God, our Father, You raised up in Saint John to strengthen the faithful in a time of stress. Establish us in Your safe protection and keep Your Church in lasting peace.

Poor Saint John gets associated with the migration of the swallows. How unfortunate to have your life and life’s project get linked with the fowl. There is always a back story. He studied law, a civil servant, was married but the marriage was annulled with the wife’s permission because as it was never consummated, a priest, a very effective preacher, healer and reformer and ecclesial servant. A disciple of Saint Bernardine of Siena and therefore had a devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus and promoted it. See the Wiki article on Saint John and Catholic encyclopedia article on him is here. A Franciscan hagiographical piece on the saint is noted here. Reading all this I’d say the birds didn’t reveal the saint’s importance.

Saint Peter of Alcantara

May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through it the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Almighty God, You were pleased to distinguish Saint Peter with the gift of remarkable penance and lofty contemplation. May his merits help us to mortify our bodies so that we may deserve to share in the gifts of heaven.

He did what we are encouraged to do today: preach on the Prophets and Wisdom books of the Bible. The Catholic encyclopedia’s entry on Saint Peter may be found here and the Wiki article may be read here.

Blessed Josephine Leroux

God our Father, You give us joy each year in honoring the memory of blessed Josephine. May her prayers be a source of help for us, and may her example and chastity be our inspiration.

The 18th century was a nasty time in history, it is also the time in which Blessed Josephine gave her life for Christ and the Church because of her call to the monastic life. A note on her background.