saint – Page 8 – Communio

Guardian Angels

Come, let us worship the Lord, whom the angels serve.

(Inv. antiphon)

Last evening at Vespers at the Monastery of the Glorious Cross, a monastery of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified (where I attend the prayer and Mass regularly with the nuns) the Office book had the hymn noted below that made me think of what we believe as Catholics and why we believe that the Guardian Angels exist. From the Liturgy we hear prayed that God sent the “holy Angels to guard us” and to accompany us in earthly journey and in praise of God.

We know what Saint Basil the Great taught about the guardian angels: that “each and every member of the faithful has a Guardian Angel to protect, guard, and guide them through life.” Our spiritual tradition however, delves deep into the Jewish spiritual tradition with Moses, David, Ezekiel, Daniel, Eusebius but we have Saints Matthew, Jerome, Benedict, Bernard of Clairvaux, Francis of Assisi, Thomas, Josemaria who are clear voices that verify the place and and role of the Guardian Angels. Angels, though, aren’t a Catholic belief; it is a deeply Jewish belief. Check your bible. You can also read Mike Aquilina’s Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts for more information.

The detail of the picture above by Andrea da Firenze, “Way of Salvation,” shows Saint Peter leading with the help of the angels. Do we in our humility of being rely on the angels to do help us on our way toward salvation?

We thank you Father for your guardian angels,
Sent as protectors for weak human nature.
Our foes are many, ev’rywhere in ambush.
Angels defend us.

Satan has fallen from his place of honor.
He and his angels burn with jealous envy.
They try to tempt us souls whom God has chosen,
Rob us of heaven.

Come, guardian angel of our own dear country,
Land God once gave you to be our defender.
Keep from it evils both of soul and body,
Peace reign within it!

Praise to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
One God for ever ruling all creation,
Things seen and unseen governing in glory,
Thru all the ages. Amen.

Translation: Kenneth Tomkins, OSB
1992 Quarr Abbey, Ryde, Island of Wight, England

A previous post on the Guardian Angels is here.

Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of doctors and pharmacists

May you be magnified, O Lord, by the revered memory of
your Saints Cosmas and Damian, for with providence beyond words you have
conferred on them everlasting glory, and on us, your unfailing help.

Today, the
Holy Church celebrates the liturgical Memorial of Saints Cosmas and Damian.
They were twins who were known to be doctors and/or pharmacists in the Roman
province of Syria but born in what is known as Turkey. According to their biographers, the saints accepted no
payment for their medical services; they were given the title of “Unmercenary” for loving God and man. The gospel line comes to mind: freely you have received, freely give. The brothers paid very close attention to the gospel as
it was a light for their feet.

Continue reading Saints Cosmas and Damian, patrons of doctors and pharmacists

Saint Matthew

O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as
an Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his
example and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you.

Pope Benedict said today,

Matthew,
the author of the first of the four Gospels, was a publican – a tax-collector –
and the story of his call to become an Apostle reminds us that Christ excludes
no one from his friendship. Tax-collectors were considered public sinners, and
we can hear an echo of the scandal caused by the Lord’s decision to associate
with such men in his declaration that he came “not to call the just but
sinners” (Mt 2:17).

This is
the heart of the “good news” which Jesus came to bring: the offer of
God’s grace to sinners! The parable of the publican in the Temple makes this
same point: by humbly acknowledging their sins and accepting God’s mercy, even
those who seem farthest from holiness can become first in the Kingdom of
Heaven.

So, there’s hope for me (us).

Saint John Chrysostom

Those who are wise will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars for ever.

O God, strength of those who hope in you, who willed that the Bishop Saint John Chrysostom should be illustrious by his experience of suffering, grant us, we pray, that, instructed by his teachings, we may be strengthened through example of his invincible patience.

The entrance antiphon and the Collect are enough to pray with today.

We pray for the Church in the East.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

The most well-known face of 20th century Catholicism and care for the human person after Pope John Paul is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her life and work is incomparable as well as her relationship with God even if there was distance between the two. Nothing is more beautiful in the spiritual life than an honest relationship, especially with God. Mother Teresa died on this date in 1997. Soon after her death, the Church waived the waiting period before a cause for canonization could be submitted to the Holy See. She was beatified on October 19, 2003.

The Church prays

O God, who
called blessed Teresa, Virgin, to respond to the love of your Son thirsting on
the cross with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, grant us, we
beseech you, by her intercession, to minister to Christ in his suffering
brothers.

You may want to listen to Veronica Scarisbrick’s interview with Monsignor Leo Maasburg, a close friend of Mother, posted at Vatican Radio. He recently published a book, Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait, 50 Inspiring Stories Never before Told (Ignatius, 2011).

A prior post on Blessed Teresa and Divine Mercy

Saint Moses

The Kontakian of the Byzantine Liturgy the Church prays,

With the divine and righteous Moses and Aaron, the Prophets’ choir today rejoices with gladness, seeing their prophecy fulfilled now in our midst; for Your Cross, O Christ our God, whereby You have redeemed us,, shine in the sight of all as the end and fulfillment of that which they foretold in ancient times. By their entreaties, have mercy upon all of us.

The Church honors Old Testament figures liturgically, and today we recall Moses, a Holy Forefather. However, these Old Testament people do not appear on the Roman Calendar but they do in the Eastern Calendar. In the Roman Martyrology (an official liturgical book that catalogues the cult of saints, including the ecclesial acts of beatification and canonization) we find Saint Moses.

It is to Moses, whom we call a holy prophet and lawgiver. He was chosen by God to lead the oppressed people out of Egypt to the Promised Land. To Moses we learn that God has revealed Himself through the burning but unconsumed bush and it is on Mount Sinai through Moses that we learn God’s name, “I Am Who I Am.” It is through Moses that we receive the Law and “at a ripe old age” Moses died before entering the Promised Land and designed by God.

According to Catholic theology, Moses is an Old Testament type of Jesus, who in the Gospel of Matthew, is known as the “new Moses” and and is said to be Elias on Tabor at the Lord’s Transfiguration.

Moses is a particular appropriate saint for Benedictines to know, follow, and imitate. His life and vocation to be a prophet –that is, a witness, to the encounter with God, ought to motivate us to a deeper call to seek the face of God. The Benedictine vocation to be present to the Divine Mystery in front of us.

So, yes, Catholics call Moses “saint.”

Saint Augustine

LET me speak of
another celebrated conquest of God’s grace in an after age, and you will see
how it pleases Him to make a Confessor, a Saint, Doctor of His Church, out of
sin and heresy both together. It was not enough that the Father of the Western
Schools, the author of a thousand works, the triumphant controversialist, the
especial champion of grace, should have been once a poor slave of the flesh,
but he was the victim of a perverted intellect also. He who, of all others, was
to extol the grace of God, was left more than others to experience the
helplessness of nature. The great St Augustine (I am not speaking of the holy
missionary of the same name, who came to England and converted our pagan
forefathers, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, but of the great
African Bishop, two centuries before him)–Augustine, I say, not being in
earnest about his soul, not asking himself the question, how was sin to be
washed away, but rather being desirous, while youth and strength lasted, to
enjoy the flesh and the world, ambitious and sensual, judged of truth and
falsehood by his private judgment and his private fancy; despised the Catholic
Church because it spoke so much of faith and subjection, thought to make his
own reason the measure of all things, and accordingly joined a far-spread sect,
which affected to be philosophical and enlightened, to take large views of
things, and to correct the vulgar, that is, the Catholic notions of God and
Christ, of sin, and of the way to heaven. In this sect of his he remained for
some years; yet what he was taught there did not satisfy him. It pleased him
for a time, and then he found he had been eating for food what had no
nourishment in it; he became hungry and thirsty after something more
substantial, he knew not what; he despised himself for being a slave to the
flesh, and he found his religion did not help him to overcome it; thus he
understood that he had not gained the truth, and he cried out, “Oh, who
will tell me where to seek it, and who will bring me into it?”

Continue reading Saint Augustine

Saint Louis

Saints come from all walks of life. We’ve got every group represented in the group of canonized. Today is the feast of a saint of a rare group –a king. The Church honors King Saint Louis IX.

The Church prays

O God, who brought Saint Louis from the cares of earthly rule to the glory of a heavenly realm, grant, we pray, through his intercession, that, by fulling our duties on earth, we may seek out your eternal Kingdom.

Please keep in your prayers the Connecticut native who made his solemn profession of vows as a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Louis today.

Dom Dunstan Holms is now a permanent member of Saint Louis Abbey; Abbot Thomas has assigned him the work of being the chair of the classics department; he’s a well respected Latin teacher at the Priory School. May God richly bless Dom Dunstan as he moves more and more toward the Paschal Mystery.

Likewise, say a prayer for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis on their feast day.

Saint Pius X

O God, who to safeguard the Catholic faith and to
restore all things in Christ, filled Pope Saint Pius the Tenth with heavenly
wisdom and apostolic fortitude, graciously grant that, following his teaching
and example, we may gain an eternal prize.

Saint Pius was known as an ardent defender
of the purity of Christian doctrine. He’s one of those popes that really got
what it means follow the 5th century Saint Prosper of Aquitaine’s emphasis on the Liturgy as the heart of our faith, that is, to be “liturgical.” Pius knew the full value of the sacred Liturgy
as it forms our worship, believe system and life as Christians. He’s credited for
the renewal of our worship, the promotion of plainchant and beauty public
prayer. Most people will recall that Pius established the practice of early,
frequent and daily communion.

Pope Pius X was born in 1835, known as an intelligent, industrious and pious priest and bishop, died August 20, 1914 and canonized on
May 29, 1954.

Saint Maximillian Kolbe

Come, you blessed of my Father, says the Lord. Amen I say to you: Whatever you did for one of the least of my brethren, you did it for me.

O God, who filled the Priest and Martyr Saint Maximilian Kolbe with a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary and with zeal for souls and love of neighbor, graciously grant, through his intercession, that, striving for your glory by eagerly serving others, we may be conformed, even until death.

Saint Maximilian is clearly one of the 20th centuries most notable martyrs we have. I can think of anyone who has really followed so closely the entrance antiphon (noted above) than Kolbe.

Earlier today I had a visit from a friend, Brother Maximilian of Newark Abbey, who was visiting family. I am also reminded of Brother Maximilian of St Louis Abbey today, especially as he prepares to go to studies for the priesthood.