Franciscan saints and blesseds – Page 6

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

Praise to the holy woman whose home is built on faithful love and whose pathway leads to God.

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.

Saint Elizabeth is the patroness of the Third Order Franciscans (the laity and secular priests). Her example of patience and holiness modeled on the good example of the Franciscan friars leads us to be attentive to the poor in our midst.

In an October address, the Holy Father spoke of today’s saint:

She behaved to her subjects in the same way that she behaved to God. Among the Sayings of the four maids, we find this testimony: “She did not eat any food before ascertaining that it came from her husband’s property or legitimate possessions. While she abstained from goods procured illegally, she also did her utmost to provide compensation to those who had suffered violence.”

She is a true example for all who have roles of leadership: the exercise of authority, at every level, must be lived as a service to justice and charity, in the constant search for the common good. Elizabeth diligently practiced works of mercy…

Read the entire address Pope Benedict gave on Saint Elizabeth of Hungary on October 20, 2010.

Blessed John Duns Scotus

The Preface for the Mass of Blessed John Duns Scotus

Father, all-powerful and everliving God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You give the Church great joy as she celebrates the memory of John Duns Scotus, in whom the spirit and ideals of our seraphic father Francis burned brightly and came to light and life.

You led him to see that virtue was of greater value than learning, and taught him the pre-eminence of love over all worldly knowledge.

You chose him to be the subtle unravler of reality, enabling his sharp mind to penetrate more deeply into the mystery of the depths of your love for us.

He acclaimed the universal primacy of your Son, the masterpiece and perfect manifestation of your eternal love enfleshed in Christ the New Adam, the King of all creation.

You taught him to praise Mary, conceived without sin, untarnished and resplendent in her immaculate beauty, your intended Model for creating us in dignity and goodness.

You instruct us by his teaching and by the holiness of his life, and give protection in answer to his prayers. Therefore, with the angels and all the saints we join in their unending hymn of praise.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis seems to be a model of holiness for many, many people. Protestants of all flavors, the Muslims and Jews honor dear Francis for a variety of reasons. They’ve met Francis in as many ways as I have.

This morning I am pondering why I love Francis. Preparing for my reception of the sacrament of Confirmation I chose as my “confirmation name” Francis of Assisi because he not only seemed to reasonable guide for life, especially the spiritual life, but I was drawn to him through the stained glass in the parish church, the secular Franciscans were present but more important, the narrative of Saint Francis’ life was verifiably compelling.

Over time I’ve come to know Francis as not only poor, humble, loving, faithful, guru of the human condition but also that he preached what he received from the Lord Himself: the mercy of Christ crucified is real, the truth of faith, hope and love in Christ is the path to salvation, that he preached the reality of knowing who in fact God is (that is, Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and not what he thought, guessed about God. Saint Francis emblematic of the Catholic second chance, that is, one can be given another chance for happiness. So, the real Saint Francis is not the personage hijacked by the lefty-looines who use him to justify all sort of liberalities of theology, Liturgy, social concern and life in the public order. Francis is not the stereotypical garden statue nor is he a man unconcerned with true conversion of life. He’s quite the opposite: he life was a life in Christ firmly rooted in the Mystical Body of Christ –the Church– nourished by the sacraments, most especially the Holy Eucharist.

Friar Charles, OFMCap had this to say about Saint Francis.

The Transitus of Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Francis died during the evening of October 3/4. The Church observes the death of Saint Francis on October 4.

As he lay dying, Francis prayed Psalm 142 and during the closing verse he died. This human and liturgical event is solemnly remembered each year by Franciscans to honor their holy
Father’s entrance into the joy of being the Most Blessed Trinity be prayerfully remembering the passage –a transitus– of Francis from life to Life today, October 3.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Francis, poor and humble, enters
heaven rich and is welcomed with celestial hymns. Alleluia.

Psalm 142

I cried to the Lord with my voice; with my voice to the Lord did I make my supplication.

I poured out my complaint before him; I showed before him trouble.

When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then he knew my path.

In the way where I walked have they secretly laid a snare for me.

I looked on right hand, and held, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

I cried to You, O Lord: I said, You are my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

Attend to my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name: the righteous shall compass me about; for You shall deal bountifully with me.

Glory to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and
will be forever. Amen.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Francis, poor and humble, enters
heaven rich and is welcomed with celestial hymns. Alleluia.

O God, you granted
our blessed Father Francis the reward of everlasting joy: grant that we, who
celebrate the memory of his death, may at last come to the same eternal joy;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina’s relics to be at the Attleboro Shrine

An email friend, Patty in CT, just told me that Saint Pio’s relics will be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette, Attleboro, MA.

St Padre Pio Pilgrimage Day

Saturday, September 25

the day begins at 10:00 am, there are 2 talks, lunch, confessions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The day concludes with a 4:30 pm Mass & veneration of Saint Pio’s relics.

Thanks Patty!

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

The Church honors the life and ministry of Saint “Padre” Pio today. Immediate memories of the saint bring me back to my youth when Clara and Joe Tomaso, the backbone of the morning Mass community at Our Lady of Pompeii Church (East Haven, CT), would passionately speak of Pio and gifts. These many years later a devotion to Saint Pio has grown in my heart, and perhaps you can relate. He’s been a true spiritual father.

Earlier this spring I was taken by the recent film on Padre Pio because of the spiritual battle against evil, personally and for the Church. Plus, I’ve always been wonderfully (and sometime fearfully) surprised by his ability to read souls. Imagine going to confession to Padre Pio thinking you’ve made a good examination of conscience and being told that there are even more sins on your soul than you are aware of or even you’ve dismissed as inconsequential. Padre Pio as a servant of the Lord as a priest is keenly aware of how hard our hearts are hardened by sin. NOTHING beats a good and holy confession of sins. Confession of sin is a matter of true humanity and the healthy heart. The mere thought of Padre Pio makes me want to run to confession.

All saints have spiritual fathers who form the heart and mind. Padre Pio was no exception. His spiritual father Father Benedict said this to Pio on the desire for sanctity:

“It is one thing to say ‘I am a saint’ and another to say ‘I want to become a saint.’ You can tell everyone that you want to become a saint without fear of pride because, after all, holiness is nothing else but divine love and the love of God is a sacred, absolute and essential duty ordered to everyone and required from all. Where is pride when protesting to observe a principal and elementary duty? Humility consists in being persuaded that one does not have this love to an eminent degree or even sufficiently, but humility does not prevent one from aspiring to it.”

How much do you think Pio took these words to heart? Probably he lived them with all his strength. What you and me?

Last year’s post –with the Mass prayer– on Saint Pio is still helpful, see it here.

Visit the Padre Pio Foundation of America and the official site for Saint Pio here.

Saint Francis received the stigmata

While the rest of the Church honors the memory of the great Jesuit theologian, bishop and cardinal, Saint Robert Bellarmine, the Franciscans remember Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the gift of the holy stigmata, the 5 visible wounds of Our Lord. The following text is a piece of chant done by the Monks of New Skete (Cambridge, NY):

What gift could you possible offer the Trinity, O holy Father, when you possessed but a tunic, breech and cord? What else could you offer the Lord but the triune gift of yourself: the gold of evangelical poverty, the incense of perfect of obedience, and the sweet-smelling myrrh of chastity. In return, out of love for all mankind, the Lord Christ granted you the grace to know His saving Passion in your own flesh. Beg Him to save our souls!

What a terrific piece of liturgical theology to meditate on today. The sentiment is not left to those who live the Franciscan charism but for all of us baptized Christians who take faith in the Word made flesh as salvific.

I am leaving today for Washington and Baltimore to attend the first vow profession of a friend of mine, Gabriel Scasino, as a Conventual Franciscan. Gabriel is from New Haven, went to Notre Dame High School (West Haven, CT) and is now following the Franciscan charism for his salvation in Christ. He will, as the hymn-writer said above, offer himself to God by giving his whole life to the Lord in “the gold of evangelical poverty, the incense of perfect obedience, and the sweet-smelling myrrh of chastity.” Pray for Gabriel and the Conventual Franciscans to follow Christ more closely today and in the years to come.

The Mass prayer for today’s liturgical memorial may be found here.

Saint Maximillian Mary Kolbe

August is truly a Marian month with the recollection and liturgical observances of such feasts Our Lady of the Angels (Aug. 2), the Assumption (Aug. 15) and Our Lady of Czestochowa (Aug. 26). Why does this matter today? Because Saint Maximillian Mary Kolbe was devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and he tirelessly worked to make the Mother of God known to the world. Two of Kolbe’s sentiment are important for us today:

1. Let us totally consecrate ourselves to the Immaculate, in order that she may deign to use us as instruments to save and sanctify souls. Let us conquer hearts for her, because wherever she enters, there also penetrates divine grace and from this follows salvation and sanctification (SK, 164).

2. Be calm, love one another, bearing with one another’s defects, so that your interior serenity may draw the souls of the pagans [unbelievers] to the Immaculate. In fact, with the help of the Immaculate, not only can we do all things, but we can also endure all things (SK, 678).

No Christian can claim to be such without following Mary’s lead to Christ!

Saint Maximillian learned from the school of Mary how to be integrated human being, a better priest and to be as Pope John Paul said of him, a martyr of charity.

Raymond Kolbe was born January 8, 1894. In 1910, called by the Holy Spirit, he gained entrance to the Conventual Franciscans where he took the religious name “Maximillian”; besides formation in Poland, he studied in Rome and was ordained priest in 1918. Under the Nazi ideology Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz where he eventually gave up his life for a fellow prisoner on August 14, 1941.

Father Maxmillian’s advanced the Kingdom of God by centering his work around a devotion to the Virgin Mother of God and evangelization projects. In 1917, a year prior to his ordination, he established a Marian movement whose members consecrate themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The movement continues today known as the Militia of the Immaculate. By 1927, Kolbe founded the City of the Immaculata, a center of evangelization near Warsaw, where contemporary instruments of communication were utilized to produce and distribute catechetical and devotional materials; the friars had a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a radio program. Records show that in 1939 center numbered 650 friars working to share the gospel with the world.

Historians of theology say that Saint Maximillian Kolbe’s Marian theology pre-dated the Vatican II teachings on the Blessed Virgin, namely, he spoke of Mary as a mediatrix and advocate of all the graces that the Most Holy Trinity uses for our salvation.

The post from 2008 can be read here.

Saint Clare of Assisi

… for at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, O Father, You mystically espoused Your Son to Your servant Clare, whom Blessed Francis had inspired with the desire of a higher life; You raised her to the summit of seraphic perfection, and chose her to become the mother of a family of virgins … (Franciscan Preface, feast of St Clare)

O Light from Light, all splendor’s Source, Whose clear beams shine with heaven’s joy, We give you thanks for Mother Clare, And ev’ry form of praise employ.

Enticed by Francis’ preaching sweet, Christ Crucified became her spouse; She gathered sisters to her side Where poverty would grace their house.

She left behind all earthly gain
That riches true might be her all;
In poverty, obedience,
And chastity she heard Christ’s call.

As mother to her flock, she lived
And modeled Christ to ev’ryone;
In loving service spent herself
In toil from dawn to setting sun.

As she has shown us, Lord, your way,
So give us grace like her to be,
That we may turn from self to you
And in your way be truly free.

Most high, omnipotent, good God,
O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
With Mother Clare and all your saints
Bring us, your Church, to endless rest.

Saint Bonavenure

The feast of the great theologian and Doctor of the Church, Saint Bonaventure, is observed today. A theologian points us toward what is revealed by God, and so a thought of his helpful for us today.

We have been brought to life through Christ. The apostle makes this known in [the] passage when he says: “He has brought us to life together with Christ.” The apostle says this because God brings is to life in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and according to Christ.

In the first place, God has brought us to life in Christ, because he has shared our mortality of life in his person, according to that passage in John: “As the Father has life in himself, even so he has given to the Son as life in himself” (5:26). Therefore, if the Son has life in himself, while he has taken to himself our mortality, he has joined us to the true and immortal life, and through this he has brought us to life in himself.

He has brought us to life with Christ, while Christ himself, who was life, lived among mortal men… So while he was seen on earth and lived among men (Bar 3:28), God brought us to life with Christ, when he made us live with him.

He also brought us to life through Christ, when he snatched us from death through his death, according to that passage of the First Epistle of Peter: “Christ also died once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us back to God. Put to death indeed in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit” (3:18). When Christ laid down his life for us, God brought the dead human race to life through him.

Finally, he brought us to life according to Christ when he guided us through the path of life according to his example, according to that passage of the psalmist: “You have known to me the paths of life when he gave us faith, hope, charity, and the gifts of grace. To these he added the commands according to which Christ himself walked and in which the path of life consists. It is according to these that Christ has taught us to walk. God has brought us to life according to Christ because he guides his imitators to life.

Saint Bonaventure (+1274)