saint – Page 7 – Communio

Saint Ambrose

O God, who made the Bishop Saint Ambrose a teacher of the Catholic faith and a model of apostolic courage, raise up in your Church men after your own heart to govern her with courage and wisdom.

The prayers for todays Mass that honors the ecclesial memory of one of the famous saints are key to pinpointing what the Church most revers about the man who was concerned about right-thinking and right-praying Christians. Who was Ambrose? The Collects tells us that he was a bishop, saint teacher, model of courage seen in the apostles and capable of good governance, that is, he had courage and wisdom. What moved Ambrose? Again, the collects tell us he was constantly inspired by the light of faith.

The Church recalls Saint Ambrose of Milan (340?-397), bishop and Doctor of the Church. Ambrose was born in Trier to a Roman family: his father was praetorian prefect of Gaul and educated in Rome In about 372 he began his public service as prefect of Liguria and Emilia, whose capital was Milan.

Let’s recall that the ecclesial tradition indicates that the gospel was brought to Milan by Saint Barnabas and that the city’s first bishop was Saint Anathalon. In 374 the bishopric of Milan became vacant. An astute Ambrose tried to work with the conflict between orthodox Catholics and Arians over the appointment of a new bishop. His words were convincing and hopeful that the people demanded –not the pope– that he become the bishop of Milan.

Ambrose’s personal holiness was such that he gave his material belongs to the poor and to the Church. We attentive to the prayerful reading of the Scriptures and praying the Liturgy. He was a very attentive bishop as the Good Shepherd. Works of charity and clear teaching was attractive to many. As bishop he defended the rights of the Church and tried to correct the errors of the Arian heresy with learning, firmness and gentleness.

The Divine Office that we pray today is still peppered with Ambrose’s hymns.

Saints beget saints. Ambrose was central to the conversion of St Augustine to Catholicism.

Pope Benedict gave his own catechesis on this great saint today. Ambrose is the “Icon of Christ.”

Saint John Damascene

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that we may be helped by the prayers of the Priest Saint John Damascene, so that the true faith, which he excelled in teaching, may always be our light and our strength.

Saint John of Damascus (c. 676-749) is a pretty amazing man, priest, and Father of the Church; noted as the last of the Greek Fathers. He’s known as the “golden speaker” and while he was not an original or brilliant theologian, his gift is his ability to compile what the Church believed in his era. In many ways Avery Dulles was the same.

Much of his preaching and teaching was a defense of the faith in the face of severe opposition, particularly with the rise of Islam.

The Damascene is revered as a saint by the Churches of East and West.

From The Statement of Faith by Saint John Damascene:

O Lord, you led me from my father’s loins and formed me in my mother’s womb. You brought me, a naked babe, into the light of day, for nature’s laws always obey your commands.

By the blessing of the Holy Spirit, you prepared my creation and my existence, not because man willed it or flesh desired it, but by your ineffable grace. The birth you prepared for me was such that it surpassed the laws of our nature. You sent me forth into the light by adopting me as your son and you enrolled me among the children of your holy and spotless Church.

You nursed me with the spiritual milk of your divine utterances. You kept me alive with the solid food of the body of Jesus Christ, your only-begotten Son for our redemption. And he undertook the task willingly and did not shrink from it. Indeed, he applied himself to it as though destined for sacrifice, like an innocent lamb. Although he was God, he became man, and in his human will, became obedient to you, God his Father, unto death, even death on a cross.

In this way you have humbled yourself, Christ my God, so that you might carry me, your stray sheep, on your shoulders. You let me graze in green pastures, refreshing me with the waters of orthodox teaching at the hands of your shepherds. You pastured these shepherds, and now they in turn tend your chosen and special flock. Now you have called me, Lord, by the hand of your bishop to minister to your people. I do not know why you have done so, for you alone know that. Lord, lighten the heavy burden of the sins through which I have seriously transgressed. Purify my mind and heart. Like a shining lamp, lead me along the straight path. When I open my mouth, tell me what I should say. By the fiery tongue of your Spirit make my own tongue ready. Stay with me always and keep me in your sight.

Lead me to pastures, Lord, and graze there with me. Do not let my heart lean either to the right or to the left, but let your good Spirit guide me along the straight path. Whatever I do, let it be in accordance with your will, now until the end.

And you, O Church, are a most excellent assembly, the noble summit of perfect purity, whose assistance comes from God. You in whom God lives, receive from us an exposition of the faith that is free from error, to strengthen the Church, just as our Fathers handed it down to us.

Blessed Charles Eugene de Foucauld

God our Father, you called Blessed Charles to live through your love in intimacy with your Son, Jesus of Nazareth. Grant that we may find in the Gospel the foundation of a more and more luminous Christian life and in the Eucharist, the source of universal kinship.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld (15 September 1858-1 December 1916) the French priest killed as a result of hatred for the faith in Algeria. Hence, he is identified as a martyr.

He made a few attempts at following a religious vocation, first with the Trappist monk, then as a priest and then as a hermit. Charles was inspired to found a manner of living that entailed a fraternal life with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and hospitality. It was only following Charles’ death did this fraternity get formally accepted by the Church in the form of a religious congregation called the Little Brothers of Jesus.

Benedict XVI beatified Charles on 13 November 2005.

Saint Cecilia

O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of your handmaid Saint Cecilia, grant we pray, that what has been devoutly handed concerning her may offer us examples to imitate and proclaim the wonders worked in his servants by Christ your Son.

The feast of Saint Cecilia is most known for being the patroness of church musicians. But what ought to bring us closer to reality is that her fame and veneration across the world is because of her joy in facing death because of her intense love for her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The dates of her existence are difficult to pinpoint but history tells us that her body was discovered in AD 822. Liturgical legend places her death along that with her husband Saint Valerian and her brother-in-law Saint Tiburtius during the reign of Pope Urban I (r. 222-230). Therefore, Emperor Alexander Severus would responsible for her death.

Cecilia, though married, remained a virgin, that is, singularly focussed on Christ’s love as opposed to human love. At the time of her marriage her husband was not a Christian, but due to an act of the Spirit, Valerian accepted Christ in baptism.

Two saints arrived

Two saints arrived today. Actually, their relics arrived and with their papers. A friend sent me the relics of Saint Casimir and Saint Pius X.

What is a relic? The word “relic” comes from the Latin “relinquo” meaning “I leave” or “I abandon.” Typically a relic of a saint is a bone or piece of hair if it is a first class relic. Something owned by the saint, like clothing or a piece of a desk, is a second class relic and something touched by the relic is a third class relic.

We only adore Jesus Christ. We honor, that is, venerate, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. There is a difference. The distinction is shown in the fact that we don’t pray to a crucifix or a statue or a relic. Our prayer is directed to the one whom the crucifix, statue or relic indicates. The power to do miracles rests with God alone, Mary and the saints intercede on our behalf.

Continue reading Two saints arrived

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Mother Frances Cabrini, the first US citizen to be canonized by the Church spent a night with the
Benedictine sisters at Mount Saint Scholastica in Atchison, Kansas.

Recorded: “In the
winter of 1902 the new convent and the new chapel had a special visitor. Mother
Frances Xavier Cabrini, traveling west, stopped over night. Sister Barbara
loved to recall: ‘She was a very nice ordinary Sister. She liked coffee.'”

from The Meaning of the Mountain, by Sr. M. Faith Schuster, O.S.B.

(Mother Cabrini was on
her way to Denver to care for the Italian immigrants.)

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini once said, “We must pray
without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material
success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on
arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone.”

Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Today, with the feast of Saint Josaphat (c. 1580-1623), we ought to mourn the sad division of the Church that exists between East and West.

The Church prays,

Stir up in your Church, we pray, O Lord, the Spirit that filled Saint Josaphat as he laid down his life for the sheep, so that through his intercession we, too, may be strengthened by the same Spirit and not be afraid to lay down our life for others.

Notice that the prayer calls to our attention that we too, are called to be witnesses to the work of unity, even to the point of laying down our lives for others. Here the use of the word ‘witness’ is used in two ways: giving testimony by word and deed and dying, if need be, with our own lives. Here’s the dual meaning of the martyr (witness).

Continue reading Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Saint Martin of Tours

Sundays are not
days on which the Church observes the liturgical memorial of saints. It happens
periodically, but today’s feast of Saint Martin of Tours (AD 316-397) is not
one them, at least not in the USA. Perhaps in Tours where the saint lived there
is a festive celebration of Martin, I am uncertain of such. But that today is
Veterans’ Day here and that the liturgical calendar recalls Martin, it seems
silly not to think of this most famous saint as we pray for Veterans.

The Church prays,

O God, who are glorified in the Bishop Saint Martin both by his life and death, make new, we pray, the wonders of your grace in our hearts, that neither death nor life may separate us from your love.

Martin
was widely honored for his holiness and witness to Jesus Christ; through his
intercession God performed many miracles and many came to Christian faith. It
is said that saints beget saints. Martin was a disciple of the famed Saint Hilary of Poitiers
and Saint Lidorius desired that Martin succeed him as bishop of Tours and his
successors were Saint Britius and Saint Perpetuus; and Saint Benedict had a significant
devotion to Martin.

One of the famous stories of Martin is the one of the
cloak. As the narrative goes, Martin was approaching Amiens meeting a
poorly attired beggar who was obviously in need: cold, hungry and homeless. That he was a virtuous man, Martin cut his cloak in half and
gave half to the beggar. That night, in a dream, Jesus appeared to Martin wearing the cloak given to the
“beggar.” As Martin recounted, he heard Jesus say to the angels: “Here is
Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized [a catechumen] and has clad me” (Sulpicius
Severus, ch 2). One version of the story tells of the cloak being restored in
full to Martin.

A friend of Saint Martin, Sulpicius Severus wrote in his Vita of Martin that,

The body being laid out in public was being honored by the last sad offices on the part of the mourning brethren, when Martin hurries up to them with tears and lamentations. But then laying hold; as it were, of the Holy Spirit, with the whole powers of his mind, he orders the others to quit the cell in which the body was lying; and bolting the door, he stretches himself at full length on the dead limbs of the departed brother. Having given himself for some time to earnest prayer, and perceiving by means of the Spirit of God that power was present, he then rose up for a little, and gazing on the countenance of the deceased, he waited without misgiving for the result of his prayer and of the mercy of the Lord. And scarcely had the space of two hours elapsed, when he saw the dead man begin to move a little in all his members, and to tremble with his eyes opened for the practice of sight. Then indeed, turning to the Lord with a loud voice and giving thanks, he filled the cell with his ejaculations.

Saint Martin is not only the patron saint for the military but he’s also asked to intercede for those battling alcoholism.

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.

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.