SAINTS AUGUST

Daily Saints – 4 August.
Feast of St. John Maria Vianney.
He is the patron saint of confessors, priests and parish priests.
Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney was born May 8, 1786 in Dardilly, France and was baptized the same day. He was the fourth of six children born to Matthieu and Marie Vianney.
John was raised in a Catholic home and the family often helped the poor. As a youth, John shepherded sheep on his father’s farm.
John Vianney’s mother was a woman of great piety, and she led him into the way of religion at an early age. “I owe a debt to my mother,” he said, and added, “virtues go easily from mothers into the hearts of their children, who willingly do what they see being done.”
In 1790, when the anticlerical Terror phase of the French Revolution forced priests to work in secrecy or face execution and it was illegal for Catholics to attend Mass at the time. But the Vianney family traveled distances every Sunday to worship and pray in secret.
Because of this, young John saw priests as particularly heroic to the people. Vianney received his first communion when he was 13 years old in a private home conducted by two nuns whose communities had been dissolved during the Revolution.
John was allowed to leave the family farm to learn at a “presbytery-school” in Écully. There he learned math, history, geography and Latin.
As his education had been disrupted by the French Revolution, he struggled in his studies, particularly with Latin, but worked hard to learn.
In 1802, the Catholic Church was reestablished in France and religious freedom and peace spread throughout the country. Unfortunately, in 1809, John was drafted into Napoleon Bonaparte’s armies.
He had been studying as an ecclesiastical student, which was a protected title and would normally have excepted him from military services, but Napoleon had withdrawn the exemption in some dioceses as he required more soldiers.
Two days into his service, John fell ill and required hospitalization. As his troop continued, he stopped in at a church where he prayed. There he met a young man who volunteered to return him to his group, but instead led him deep into the mountains where military deserters met.
John lived with them for one year and two months. He used the name Jerome Vincent and opened a school for the nearby village of Les Noes’ children.
John remained in Les Noes and hid when gendarmes came in search of deserters until 1810, when deserters were granted amnesty.
Now free, John returned to Écully and resumed his ecclesiastic studies. He attended a minor seminary, Abbe Balley, in 1812. He was having great difficulty in his studies for the priesthood.
Mathias Loras, perhaps the most intelligent of Jean-Marie’s fellow seminarians, who was assigned to help him in his lessons, was of a nervous and excitable temperament.
One day his patience was exhausted by the sheer incapacity of the big young man, and he boxed his ears before all the others. Jean-Marie was also excitable, but he knelt down before the boy of twelve who had treated him so outrageously and humbly asked his forgiveness.
Mathias had a golden heart. Suddenly he felt smitten with grief and, his face bathed in tears, he threw himself into the arms of Jean-Marie who was still on his knees.
He was eventually ordained a deacon in June 1815. It took several years of study – he had little education, was not a very good student, and his Latin was terrible.
However, the bishop, seeing John’s goodness, went ahead and ordained him in 1815. He was assigned as a parochial vicar to Ecully, France.
In 1818 he was assigned to the parish of Ars-sur-Formans, France, a tiny village near Lyons, which suffered from very lax attendance.
Fr. Vianney realized many were either ignorant or indifferent to religion as a result of the French Revolution. Many danced and drank on Sundays or worked in their fields.
He began visiting his parishioners, especially the sick and poor, spent days in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, did penance for his parishioners, and leading his people by example.
Dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament, he spent much time in prayer and practiced much mortification. He lived on little food and sleep, while working without rest in unfailing humility, gentleness, patience and cheerfulness.
Fr. Vianney strived to transform his town spiritually. He vehemently preached against blasphemy and paganic dancing and refused to give absolution to parishioners who did not obey.
Since he considered that his self-mortification was all too inadequate, he had a special penitential garment made, which he wore next to his skin, and which, by reason of the constant friction against his body, was soon stained a reddish brown.
For the most part he slept on a bare mattress when he was not sleeping on a bundle of wood down in the cellar.
John began a home and school for deserted and orphaned children. He was concerned that in the wake of war, many people in France had no true religious education, and he used his homilies to try to teach about the faith.
It took St. Vianney 10 years to bring spiritual renewal to Ars but his perseverance resulted in greater attendance in his church and the people turning away from their vices. The town taverns started closing down and domestic quarrels became less.
He had the gifts of discernment of spirits, prophecy, hidden knowledge, and of working miracles. He was tormented by evil spirits, especially when he tried to get his 2-3 hours of sleep each night.
Crowds came to hear him preach, and to make their reconciliation because of his reputation with penitents.
Fr. Vianney read much and often the lives of the saints, and became so impressed by their holy lives that he wanted for himself and others to follow their wonderful examples. The ideal of holiness enchanted him. This was the theme which underlay his sermons
He was deeply devoted to St. Philomena and erected a chapel and shrine in her honor. When he later became deathly ill but miraculously recovered, he attributed his health to St. Philomena’s intercession.
By 1853, Fr. Vianney had attempted to run away from Ars four times, each attempt with the intention of becoming a monk but decided after the final time that it was not to be.
Vianney started drawing pilgrims who sought his advice. By 1855, about 20,000 people would visit him, seeking his counsel. In the last ten years of his life, he would spend 16 to 18 hours per day in the confessional.
He would often weep in the confessional and when he was asked why he wept, he would reply: “My friend, I weep because you do not weep.”
One day, under the pretext of sending him on an errand, the Baronne de Belvey dispatched to Fr. Vianney a hardened sinner, who only set foot in the church at Christmas and Easter.
It would seem that he had not been to confession since his first Communion. “How long is it since you were last at Confession?”, Fr. Vianney asked. “Oh, forty years.” “Forty-four,” the saint replied.
The man took a pencil and made a hasty calculation on the plastering of the wall. “Yes, it is quite true,” he admitted, overcome with amazement. The sinner was converted and died a good death.
Towards the end those who heard him preach admitted that they could hardly decipher a word, so inaudible was his speech. Yet they knew that God loved them because they saw this in his eyes.
To a priest who complained about the indifference of people in his parish, St. John Vianney answered: “You have preached, you have prayed, but have you fasted? Have you taken the discipline (a self imposed scourge)? Have you slept on the floor? So long as you have done none of these things, you have no right to complain.”
To a mother of a large family, who was expecting another child, he said with fatherly kindness and consideration: “Be comforted, my child. If you only knew the women who will go to Hell because they did not bring into the world the children they should have given to it.”
Claudine Venet, of Viregneux, was taken to Ars on February 1, 1850. In consequence of an attack of brain fever, she had become completely deaf and blind. Fr. Vianney had never seen her; no one had introduced her to him.
On that February 1, she happened to be standing outside the church as he went by. Without speaking a word, he took her hand, led her into the sacristy and made her kneel down in the confessional. He had hardly given her his blessing when her sight and hearing returned. It seemed to her that she had awakened from a long dream.
After her confession, Fr. Vianney made the following amazing prophecy: “Your eyes are healed, but you will become deaf for another twelve years. It is God’s will that it should be so!” On leaving the sacristy, Claudine Venet felt her ears closing once more. As a matter of fact, she could no longer hear anything.
The infirmity lasted twelve years as foretold on this February 1, 1850. Calm and resigned, enjoying the sight that had been restored to her, the stricken woman awaited the day of her deliverance. Great was her emotion when, on January 18, 1862, she felt perfectly cured.
In 1854, a girl of Montchanin of the name of Farnier, came to Ars to beg from Fr. Vianney the cure of her paralyzed leg.
“My child,” the saint told her, “you disobey your mother far too often, and answer her back in a disrespectful manner. If you wish the good God to cure you, you must correct that ugly defect. Oh! what a task lies before you! But remember one thing: you will indeed get well, but by degrees, according as you try to correct that defect.”
As soon as Farnier returned home she endeavored to show more obedience and respect to her mother. Her crippled leg, which had been four inches shorter than the other, insensibly grew longer, and at the end of a few years her infirmity had wholly vanished.
His cousin, Marguerite Humbert, came one day to beg his prayers for one of her little daughters who was dangerously ill. “She is ripe for heaven,” he said without hesitation. “As for you, my cousin, you need crosses to make you think of God.”
Françoise Lebeau, a poor girl of Saint-Martin-de-Commune in the Saoneet-Loire, had become quite blind. She went with her mother on a pilgrimage to Ars. They begged their bread the whole way and slept in stables or sheds.
To this poor girl Fr. Vianney did not fear to disclose something of the divine mystery of suffering, for his inspired gaze had fathomed her valiant spirit.
“My child,” he said, “you can be cured, but if the good God restores your sight, your salvation will be less assured; if, on the contrary, you consent to keep your infirmity, you will go to heaven, and I even guarantee that you will have a high place there.” The blind girl understood; she no longer asked for a cure and left Ars in a state of perfect resignation to God’s will.
Nor had Fr. Vianney the courage to pity the mothers whose children died in infancy. This is what Fr. Vianney replied to the brother-in-law who brought the news to him: “Happy mother, happy child! What a grace for both of them! How is it that this innocent little one has merited that its time of probation should have been shortened, to enable it to enter so soon into eternal bliss?”
Fr. Vianney could never speak of sin and sinners without shedding tears. He sobbed all the time he was making the Stations of the Cross. When he distributed Holy Communion, tears would often trickle down upon his chasuble.
In the last years of his life in particular, he could never preach about the Eucharist, the goodness and love of God, the happiness of heaven – those were his favorite topics – without being stopped by his tears.
For 41 years, John served the tiny parish of Ars. The strain was becoming too much and on 29 July he retired to bed for the last time. Then on August 4, 1859, at the age of 73, he died.
Mgr. Mermod, who was Curé of Gex at the time, relates the following incident: “One day the good man called at the priest’s residence; he was quite well, yet he wished to go to confession, giving as his reason that he was going to die. As he persisted in his request, I gave him absolution and Holy Communion. An hour later he was dead.”
“Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire, it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.”
“What does Jesus Christ do in the Eucharist? It is God who, as our Savior, offers himself each day for us to his Father’s justice. If you are in difficulties and sorrows, he will comfort and relieve you. If you are sick, he will either cure you or give you strength to suffer so as to merit Heaven. If the devil, the world, and the flesh are making war upon you, he will give you the weapons with which to fight, to resist, and to win victory. If you are poor, he will enrich you with all sorts of riches for time and eternity. Let us open the door of his sacred and adorable Heart, and be wrapped about for an instant by the flames of his love, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do.”
“I throw myself at the foot of the Tabernacle like a dog at the foot of his Master.”
“All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.”
“Every Consecrated Host is made to burn Itself up with love in a human heart.”
“Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His Love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river — he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure — he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated.”
“To serve the Queen of Heaven is already to reign there, and to live under her commands is more than to govern.”
“The soul hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore He came to dwell on earth and assumed a Body in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls.”
“Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.”
“All our religion is but a false religion, and all our virtues are mere illusions and we ourselves are only hypocrites in the sight of God, if we have not that universal charity for everyone – for the good, and for the bad, for the poor and for the rich, and for all those who do us harm as much as those who do us good.”
“O, how great is the priest! … If he realized what he is, he would die.”
“Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains.”
“You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions.”
“Only after the Last Judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.”
“If we really loved the good God, we should make it our joy and happiness to come and spend a few moments to adore Him, and ask Him for the grace of forgiveness; and we should regard those moments as the happiest of our lives.”
“The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell; the difference between them is that the fire of Purgatory is not everlasting.”
“We should consider those moments spent before the Blessed Sacrament as the happiest of our lives.”
“So, you will ask me, who then are the people most tempted? They are these, my friends; note them carefully. The people most tempted are those who are ready, with the grace of God, to sacrifice everything for the salvation of their poor souls, who renounce all those things which most people eagerly seek. It is not one devil only who tempts them, but millions seek to entrap them.”
“Jesus Christ, after having given us all he could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, his sufferings, and bitter death; after having given us his adorable body and blood to be the food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing he had let, which was his holy Mother.”
“The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus. When you see a priest, think of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.”
“I tell you that you have less to suffer in following the cross than in serving the world and its pleasures.”
“We must say many prayers for the souls of the faithful departed, for one must be so pure to enter heaven.”
“To be a Christian and to live in sin is a monstrous contradiction. A Christian must be holy.”
“If we are not now saints, it is a great misfortune for us: therefore we must be so. As long as we have no love in our hearts, we shall never be Saints.”
“My friend, the devil is not greatly afraid of the discipline and other instruments of penance. That which beats him is the curtailment of one’s food, drink and sleep. There is nothing the devil fears more, consequently, nothing is more pleasing to God. Oh! How often have I experienced it! Whilst I was alone – and I was alone during eight or nine years, and therefore quite free to yield to my attraction – it happened at times that I refrained from food for entire days. On those occasions I obtained, both for myself and for others, whatsoever I asked of Almighty God.”
“If a priest is determined not to lose his soul, so soon as any disorder arises in the parish, he must trample underfoot all human considerations as well as the fear of the contempt and hatred of his people. He must not allow anything to bar his way in the discharge of duty, even were he certain of being murdered on coming down from the pulpit. A pastor who wants to do his duty must keep his sword in hand at all times. Did not St. Paul himself write to the faithful of Corinth: ‘I most gladly will spend and be spent myself for your souls, although loving you more, I be loved less.’”
“My good friend, I write these lines in haste to tell you not to leave, in spite of all the trials that the good God wishes you to endure. Take courage! Heaven is rich enough to reward you. Remember that the evils of this world are the lot of good Christians. You are going through a kind of martyrdom. But what a happiness for you to be a martyr of charity! Do not lose so beautiful a crown. ‘Blessed are they that suffer persecution for my sake,’ says Jesus Christ, our model. Farewell, my most dear friend. Persevere along the way on which you have so happily entered and we shall see each other again in heaven….”
“Oh, how senseless we are! the good God calls us to Him, and we fly from Him! He wishes to make us happy, and we will not have His happiness. He commands us to love Him, and we give our hearts to the devil. We employ in ruining ourselves the time He gives us to save our souls. We make war upon Him with the means He gave us to serve Him.”
Prayer of St. John Vianney:
“I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life.
I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You.
I love You, Lord and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally…
My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath.”

Daily Saint 5 August
Feast of Saint Oswald
Saint Oswald of Northumbria (c 604-642) Martyr and King, apostle of prayer and charity, diplomat – born in c 604 in Northumbria, England and was killed in battle with invading pagan Welsh and Mercian forces on 5 August 642 at Maserfield, Shropshire, England. Patronage – Zug, Switzerland.
St Oswald was the son of Ethelfrith, king of Northumbria. When Edwin seized the kingdom in 616, he fled to Scotland with his family and became a Christian at Iona. When Edwin died in 633, the royal exiles returned to Northumbria. Oswald’s brothers, Osric and Eanfrid, were killed by the tyrannical British king Cadwalla. Subsequently, Oswald, at the head of a small army (possibly with the aid of allies from the north, the Scots and/or the Picts, met Cadwallon in battle at Heavenfield, near Hexham. Before the battle, Oswald had a wooden cross erected, he knelt down, holding the cross in position until enough earth had been thrown in the hole to make it stand firm. He then prayed and asked his army to join in.
Adomnán in his Life of Saint Columba offers a longer account, which Abbot Ségéne had heard from Oswald himself. Oswald, he says, had a vision of Columba the night before the battle, in which he was told:
“Be strong and act manfully. Behold, I will be with thee. This coming night go out from your camp into battle, for the Lord has granted me that at this time, your foes shall be put to flight and Cadwallon your enemy shall be delivered into your hands and you shall return victorious after battle and reign happily.’
Oswald described his vision to his council and all agreed that they would be baptised and accept Christianity after the battle. In the battle that followed, the British were routed despite their superior numbers; Cadwallon himself was killed.
When peace was restored, he sent for a bishop to preach the Gospel. The first man who came was critical and strict and made no headway. He was soon replaced by the kindly St Aidan of Lindisfarne (c 590-651). Oswald interpreted his sermons and gave him the island of Lindisfarne for a monastery and episcopal seat near the royal residence of Bamburgh. As this was not far from 0swald’s main “palace” at Bamburgh, the king and the new bishop could work together for the conversion of the people.
Under St Oswald’s rule peace was restored in Northumbria and good relations developed with the Anglo Saxon kings. He married Cyneburga, daughter of the King of Wessex. But his reign did not last long. After only eight years St Oswald was killed by the pagan king Penda of Mercia at the battle of Maserfield. He was just 38. As he was dying, he prayed for the souls of his bodyguards who died with him. His body was dismembered and sacrificed to the god Woden in a pagan ritual.
Like all Anglo-Saxon kings Oswald was a warrior. Like other kings he expected to die on the battlefield and so indeed in the end he did. But unlike other kings, before he died Oswald had won for himself the reputation of being a saint and his death in battle against Penda the heathen king of Mercia was seen as a martyr’s death.
His remains and relics were moved many times around the country. His skull was said to have been discovered in the tomb of St Cuthbert in 1827. Many miracles were attributed to them. Seventy churches are dedicated to him in England and there are many in Portugal, Bohemia, Holland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. St Oswald was celebrated for his heroism, his generosity and his piety.

Daily Saints – 9 August.
Feast of St. Edith Stein also known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
She is the patron saint of loss of parents; converted Jews; martyrs.
Edith Stein was born into an observant Jewish family on October 12, 1891 – a date that coincided with her family’s celebration of Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement.”
Edith’s father ran a timber business. Her mother was a very devout, hard-working, and a strong-willed woman.
Her father died when she had only just turned two. Now her mother had to fend for herself and to look after the family and their large business. However, she did not succeed in keeping up a living faith in her children.
Edith lost her faith in God. “I consciously decided, of my own volition, to give up praying,” she said.
As a young woman with profound intellectual gifts, Edith gravitated toward the study of philosophy and became a pupil of the renowned professor Edmund Husserl in 1913.
Through her studies, the non-religious Edith met several Christians whose intellectual and spiritual lives she admired. In Gottingen Edith Stein also met the philosopher Max Scheler, who directed her attention to Roman Catholicism.
After earning her degree with the highest honors from Gottingen University in 1915, she served as a nurse in an Austrian field hospital during World War I.
This was a hard time for her, during which she looked after the sick in the typhus ward, worked in an operating theatre, and saw young people die.
When the hospital was dissolved, in 1916, she followed Husserl as his assistant to the German city of Freiburg, where she passed her doctorate summa cum laude (with the utmost distinction) in 1917, after writing a thesis on “The Problem of Empathy.”
During this period she went to Frankfurt Cathedral and saw a woman with a shopping basket going in to kneel for a brief prayer.
“This was something totally new to me. In the synagogues and Protestant churches I had visited people simply went to the services. Here, however, I saw someone coming straight from the busy marketplace into this empty church, as if she was going to have an intimate conversation. It was something I never forgot.”
She remained interested in the idea of religious commitment, but had not yet made such a commitment herself.
Edith Stein had been good friends with Husserl’s Göttingen assistant, Adolf Reinach, and his wife. When Reinach fell in Flanders in November 1917, Edith went to Göttingen to visit his widow.
The Reinachs had converted to Protestantism. Edith felt uneasy about meeting the young widow at first, but was surprised when she actually met with a woman of faith.
“This was my first encounter with the Cross and the divine power it imparts to those who bear it … it was the moment when my unbelief collapsed and Christ began to shine his light on me – Christ in the mystery of the Cross.”
In 1921, while visiting friends, Edith spent an entire night reading the autobiography of the 16th century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Avila.
“When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.” She was baptized on 1 January 1922 into the Roman Catholic Church.
Edith intended to join the Carmelites immediately after her conversion, but would ultimately have to wait another 11 years before taking this step.
Instead, she taught at a Dominican school, and gave numerous public lectures on women’s issues. She spent 1931 writing a study of St. Thomas Aquinas, and took a university teaching position in 1932.
In 1933, the rise of Nazism, combined with Edith’s Jewish ethnicity, put an end to her teaching career.
Edith Stein went to Breslau for the last time, to say good-bye to her mother and her family. Her last day at home was her birthday, 12 October, which was also the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Edith went to the synagogue with her mother. It was a hard day for the two women. Edith’s mother cried. The following day Edith was on the train to Cologne.
“I did not feel any passionate joy. What I had just experienced was too terrible. But I felt a profound peace – in the safe haven of God’s will.”
From now on she wrote to her mother every week, though she never received any replies. Instead, her sister Rosa sent her news from Breslau.
Edith joined the Carmelite Convent of Cologne on 14 October, and her investiture took place on 15 April, 1934. She received the name “Teresa Benedicta of the Cross” as a symbol of her acceptance of suffering.
“I felt,” she wrote, “that those who understood the Cross of Christ should take upon themselves on everybody’s behalf.”
She saw it as her vocation “to intercede with God for everyone,” but she prayed especially for the Jews of Germany whose tragic fate was becoming clear.
In 1938, she and her sister Rosa, by then also a convert and an extern sister (tertiaries of the Order, who would handle the community′s needs outside the monastery), were sent to the Carmelite monastery in Echt, Netherlands, for their safety.
“I ask the Lord to accept my life and my death,” she wrote in 1939, “so that the Lord will be accepted by his people and that his kingdom may come in glory, for the salvation of Germany and the peace of the world.”
After completing her final work, a study of St. John of the Cross entitled “The Science of the Cross,” Teresa Benedicta was arrested along with her sister Rosa and the members of her religious community, on August 7, 1942.
The arrests came in retaliation against a protest letter by the Dutch Bishops, decrying the Nazi treatment of Jews. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.
“Do not accept anything as truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth.”
“The nation… doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are.”
“One cannot desire freedom from the cross when one is especially chosen for the cross.”
“In the heart of Jesus, which was pierced, the kingdom of heaven and the land of earth are bound together. Here is for us the source of life. This heart is the heart of the Triune Divinity, and the center of all human hearts… It draws us to itself with secret power, it conceals us in itself in the Father’s bosom and floods us with the Holy Spirit. This heart, it beats for us in a small tabernacle where it remains mysteriously hidden in that still, white host.”
“Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God.”
“Whatever did not fit in with my plan did lie within the plan of God. I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God, that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me in the plan of Divine Providence and has a completely coherent meaning in God’s all-seeing eyes. And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me.”
“For by doing what God demands of us with total surrender of our innermost being, we cause the divine life to become our own inner life. Entering into ourselves, we find God in our own selves.”
“Those who join the ……….. Order are not lost to their near and dear ones, but have been won for them, because it is our vocation to intercede to God for everyone.”
“God is there in these moments of rest and can give us in a single instant exactly what we need. Then the rest of the day can take its course, under the same effort and strain, perhaps, but in peace. And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the rasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with Him. Then you will be able to rest in Him – really rest – and start the next day as a new life.”
“The limitless loving devotion to God, and the gift God makes of Himself to you, are the highest elevation of which the heart is capable; it is the highest degree of prayer. The souls that have reached this point are truly the heart of the Church.”
“On the question of relating to our fellowman — our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love.”
“In order to be an image of God, the spirit must turn to what is eternal, hold it in spirit, keep it in memory, and by loving it, embrace it in the will.”
“There is a state of resting in God, an absolute break from all intellectual activity, when one forms no plans, makes no decisions and for the first time really ceases to act, when one simply hands over the future to God’s will and ‘surrenders himself to fate’.”
“Since Mary is the prototype of pure womanhood, the imitation of Mary must be the goal of girls’ education.”
“The walls of our monasteries enclose a narrow space. To erect the structure of holiness in it, one must dig deep and build high, must descend into the depths of the dark night of one’s own nothingness in order to be raised up high into the sunlight of divine love and compassion.”

Daily Saints – 11 August
Feast St. Clare of Assisi.
She is the patron saint of embroiderers, needle workers, eyes, against eye disease, for good weather, gilders, gold workers, goldsmiths, laundry workers, telegraphs, telephones, television, television writers.
Clare was born in Assisi on July 16, 1194, as Chiara Offreduccio, the beautiful eldest daughter of Favorino Sciffi, Count of Sasso-Rosso and his wife Ortolana.
Traditional accounts say that Clare’s father was a wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family and her mother was a very devout woman belonging to the noble family of Fiumi. As a child, Clare was devoted to prayer.
Clare was taught to read and write as well as spin yarn and do needlework. She had little interest in her luxurious surroundings (she lived in a palace). Influenced by her mother’s religious devotion, Clare dedicated her life to God at an early age.
She also showed early on that her calling would involve helping the poor, as she set aside food from her family table to give to the needy on the streets.
Having refused to marry at 15, Clare was moved by the dynamic preaching of Francis. He became her lifelong friend and spiritual guide.
Inspired by his words, Clare asked Francis to help her in dedicating her life to God, and he vowed to do so. The following year (1211), Clare’s parents chose a wealthy young man for Clare to marry, but she pointedly refused.
At 18, Clare escaped from her father’s home one night, was met on the road by friars carrying torches. In the poor little chapel called the Portiuncula she received a rough woolen habit, exchanged her jeweled belt for a common rope with knots in it, and sacrificed her long tresses to Francis’ scissors.
Francis placed her in a Benedictine convent, which her father and uncles immediately stormed in rage. Clare clung to the altar of the church, threw aside her veil to show her cropped hair, and remained adamant.
Sixteen days later her sister Agnes joined her. They moved to the Church of San Damiano, recently rebuilt by Francis. It wasn’t long before other women joined them, and San Damiano’s residents, known for their ascetic lifestyle, became known as the “Poor Ladies.”
They lived a simple life of great poverty, austerity, and complete seclusion from the world, according to a Rule which Francis gave them as a Second Order.
The Poor Ladies went barefoot, slept on the ground, ate no meat, and observed almost complete silence. Later Clare, like Francis, persuaded her sisters to moderate this rigor: “Our bodies are not made of brass.”
Clare had the joy not only of seeing her younger sister, Agnes ( St. Agnes of Assisi) join the Order but also her youngest sister Beatrix (Blessed), her mother Ortolana (Blessed) and her faithful Aunt Bianca.
At age 21, Francis obliged Clare under obedience to accept the office of abbess, one she exercised until her death.
She had a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and to increase her love for Christ crucified, she learned by heart the Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis.
Clare is credited with saving Assisi on two occasions.
In 1224, the army of Frederick II came to plunder Assisi. Although very sick, Clare had herself carried to the wall and right there, where the enemies could see it, she had the Blessed Sacrament placed.
Then on her knees, she begged God to save the Sisters. “Does it please you, O God, to deliver into the hands of these beasts the defenseless children I have nourished with your love? I beseech you, dear Lord, protect these whom I am now unable to protect.”
A voice seemed to answer: “I will keep them always in My care.” To her sisters she said, “Don’t be afraid. Trust in Jesus.” Suddenly a mysterious terror seized the enemies, who fled without harming anybody.
In the second instance, Assisi was again under attack. Clare and her nuns prayed for the safety of their town, and a storm swept in and scattered the attackers.
Not the least important part of Clare’s work was the help and encouragement she gave to her spiritual father, Francis. It was to her that he turned when in doubt and it was she who urged him to continue his mission in preaching when he thought his vocation lay in becoming a hermit.
After receiving the Stigmata, blind, ill and dying, Francis came for the last time to San Damiano. Clare built a little reed hut for him outside the cloister and tended him. It was there that he composed his magnificent “Canticle of the Creatures”, in the spring of 1225.
Francis always remained her great friend and inspiration. Clare was always obedient to his will and to the great ideal of gospel life which he was making real. Clare cared for Francis toward the end of his life and was with him when he died in 1226.
In 1228, when Gregory IX offered Clare a dispensation from the vow of strict poverty, she replied: “I need to be absolved from my sins, but not from the obligation of following Christ.”
Clare served the sick and washed the feet of the begging nuns. She came from prayer, it was said, with her face so shining it dazzled those about her.
Clare became sick and suffered great pains for many years, but she expressed that no pain could trouble her.
So great was her joy in serving the Lord that she once exclaimed: “They say that we are too poor, but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor?”
She suffered serious illness for the last 27 years of her life. Her influence was such that popes, cardinals, and bishops often came to consult her—Clare herself never left the walls of San Damiano.
Clare died on August 11, 1253 at the age of 59. Her last words as reported to have been, “Blessed be You, O God, for having created me.”
There are traditions of bringing offerings of eggs to the Poor Clares for their intercessions for good weather, particularly for weddings.
Her patronage of eyes and against their problems may have developed from her name which has overtones from clearness, brightness, brilliance – like healthy eyes.
Clare was designated as the patron saint of television in 1958 by Pope Pius XII, because when St. Clare was very ill, she could not attend mass and was reportedly able to see and hear it on the wall in her room.
“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.”
“Love God, serve God: everything is in that.”
“Love Him totally, who gave Himself totally for your love.”
“Love that cannot suffer is not worthy of that name.”
“For, I am sure that you know that the kingdom of heaven is promised and given by the Lord only to the poor, because as long as something temporal is the object of love, the fruit of charity is lost.”
“Cling to His most sweet Mother, who carried a Son whom the heavens could not contain; and yet she carried Him in the little enclosure of her holy womb and held Him on her virginal lap.”
“They say that we are too poor but can a heart which possesses the infinite God be truly called poor? We should remember this miracle of the Blessed Sacrament when in Church. Then we will pray with great Faith to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist: ‘Save me, O Lord, from every evil”
“Our body is not made of iron. Our strength is not that of stone. Live and hope in the Lord, and let your service be according to reason.”
“Our labor here is brief, but the reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes like a shadow. Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.”
“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.”
“Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.”

August 15
Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the death of Mary and her bodily assumption into Heaven, before her body could begin to decay—a foretaste of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time.
It is one of the oldest holy days in the Church, with accounts of celebrations going back to the sixth century. Christians in the East, both Catholic and Orthodox refer to it as the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, or “the falling asleep of the Mother of God.”
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII, exercising papal infallibility, declared in an Apostolic constitution known as the ‘Munificentissimus Deus’ that it is a dogma of the Church “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” As a dogma, the Assumption is a required belief of all Catholics.
Pope Pius XII, in the text explaining his definition of the dogma of the Assumption, refers repeatedly to the Blessed Virgin’s death before her Assumption, and the consistent tradition in both the East and the West holds that Mary did die before she was assumed into Heaven.
For Mary, death, in consequence of her freedom from original sin and from personal sin, was not a consequence of punishment of sin. However, it seems fitting that Mary’s body, which was by nature mortal, should be, in conformity with that of her Divine Son, subject to the general law of death.
At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol.
The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that “Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.”
We believe that the bodies of both Jesus and Mary are now in heaven. There is, however, this difference: Jesus arose from the tomb and ascended into heaven by his own power, whereas Mary’s body was taken up to heaven by the power of her Son. For that reason we use two different words: the Ascension of Christ and the Assumption of Mary.
According to legend, while preaching the Gospel in India, Saint Thomas the Apostle received the inner call to return to the West for the impending departure of the Virgin Mary from this earthly life.
Just as he had been separated from his brother apostles for a special mission, so he was in the final hour of the Virgin’s life. For he did not reach Gethsemane in time to be present at her going forth from the body, but only came there on foot the third day after her burial.
As he was approaching her tomb unawares, he was astounded to see her radiant living body emerge from the stone sepulchre and ascend. Realizing that she had finished her span of life without his being present, and fearing that he would never see her divine form again, he cried out to her in anguish of heart, imploring her not to leave him desolate.
Looking upon him with loving tenderness, the Virgin took from her waist the belt she habitually wore and threw it down to him with words of blessing.
Carrying the precious relic of her belt, Saint Thomas hastened and announced to the grieving apostles and all those gathered in the Mother’s house that she, too, was risen from the dead.
Whereas he had doubted the good news of Jesus’ resurrection and had received proof of its reality by touching the resurrected body of his Lord, now it was Thomas who gave physical evidence that Mary, too, was “alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:18).
“It was fitting,” St. John of Damascus wrote in a sermon on the assumption, “that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death,” and “that she, who had carried the creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles.”
Pope Pius XII pointed to several passages that have been legitimately used in a “rather free” manner to explain belief in the Assumption (meaning: these passages resonate with it in various ways, but they don’t provide explicit proof): Often there are theologians and preachers who, following in the footsteps of the holy Fathers, have been rather free in their use of events and expressions taken from Sacred Scripture to explain their belief in the Assumption.
Thus, to mention only a few of the texts rather frequently cited in this fashion, some have employed the words of the psalmist: “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified” (Ps. 131:8); and have looked upon the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord’s temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.
Treating of this subject, they also describe her as the Queen entering triumphantly into the royal halls of heaven and sitting at the right hand of the divine Redeemer(Ps. 44:10-14ff).
Likewise they mention the Spouse of the Canticles “that goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense” to be crowned (Song 3:6; cf. also 4:8, 6:9).
These are proposed as depicting that heavenly Queen and heavenly Spouse who has been lifted up to the courts of heaven with the divine Bridegroom [Munificentissimus Deus 26].
Moreover, the scholastic Doctors have recognized the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God as something signified, not only in various figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos (Rev. 12:1ff).
Similarly they have given special attention to these words of the New Testament: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women”(Luke 1:28), since they saw, in the mystery of the Assumption, the fulfillment of that most perfect grace granted to the Blessed Virgin and the special blessing that countered the curse of Eve [Munificentissimus Deus 27].
Therefore, there are several implicit revelations of the Assumption in the Bible. The most important texts are: Gen. 3:15; Lk. 1:28; Apoc. 12:1-2.
According to Pope Benedict XVI: “By contemplating Mary in heavenly glory, we understand that the earth is not the definitive homeland for us either, and that if we live with our gaze fixed on eternal goods we will one day share in this same glory and the earth will become more beautiful. Consequently, we must not lose our serenity and peace even amid the thousands of daily difficulties. The luminous sign of Our Lady taken up into Heaven shines out even more brightly when sad shadows of suffering and violence seem to loom on the horizon. We may be sure of it: from on high, Mary follows our footsteps with gentle concern, dispels the gloom in moments of darkness and distress, reassures us with her motherly hand. Supported by awareness of this, let us continue confidently on our path of Christian commitment wherever Providence may lead us. Let us forge ahead in our lives under Mary’s guidance.” [General Audience, August 16, 2006].

Daily Saints – 29 August.
Feast of St. Euphrasia Eluvathingal.(1877 – 1952)
Carmelite nun from Kerala , also known as the “Praying Mother”.
The daughter of Anthony and Kunjethy of Eluvathingal Cherpukaran, Rose Eluvathingal was born on 17 October 1877 in the village of Kattoor, in the Diocese of Trichur, India. Her mother’s deep devoutness to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, had a strong influence on her from her childhood. During her early years she began to isolate herself from earthly possessions and pleasures and took a great interest in spiritual matters.
This got deeply rooted in her at the age of 9 due to an apparition of the Blessed Mother, after which the young girl offered herself totally to the Lord.
Notwithstanding the strong opposition of her father, who wanted Rose to marry into a rich family, she wanted to become a religious Sister. Her intense prayer life, which included the rosary, fasting and abstinence, as well as the rather sudden death of her younger sister, brought about a change of heart in her father, Anthony, who granted Rose permission to enter the convent. She joined the convent of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel at Koonammavu, the first indigenous Congregation for women in the Syro-Malabar Church. She had a special talent in needlework and drawing and her handwriting was beautiful.
But even with her desire to be a Religious, Rose was often afflicted with various illnesses which caused her intense suffering. Once, during a particularly painful attack, the Sisters were resolved to send her away for ever, but through an apparition of the Holy Family she received a miraculous healing that permitted her to continue following God’s call.
On 10 May 1897 she became a postulant and took the name Sr Euphrasia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and on 10 January 1898 she received the Holy Habit of Carmel. She practised the virtues of humility, charity and renunciation and grew steadily in holiness with the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary. For the periods of grave illness and the trails of the powers of darkness that she endured, she was rewarded with intense spiritual joys.
From 1904 to 1913 Sr Euphrasia was entrusted with the duty of Novice Mistress. Sustained by the gifts and power of Holy Spirit, she formed the future members of her Congregation. She was then chosen as Superior of the Convent of St Mary at Ollur. After an internal inspiration she acquired a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, placed it in the centre of the convent and entrusted the duty of Mother Superior to his Sacred Heart.
For almost 48 years the convent of St Mary was home to Mother Euphrasia. She was an example to her daughters in prayer, zeal, keeping the rules, silent suffering and hard labour. She desired that no one should be slack in virtue. Mother was thoughtful of the needs and weariness of the sisters. Often God used to grant her desire through the help of generous people. Prayer was her life breath wherever she was and the local people called her “The Praying Mother”. Her Sisters in the community referred to her as the “The Mobile Tabernacle”, because the divine presence she kept within her radiated to everyone she encountered.
Mother Euphrasia spent much of her day in the convent chapel before the Blessed Sacrament and she also nourished a great love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary; as a result, she was naturally an apostle of the Eucharist and of the Rosary.
She was totally dedicated to love and was continually consoled by the Crucified Lord. She was the first to humble herself and to accept suffering, misunderstandings and rejection for love of Christ. Her strength came from Jesus, who had become her betrothed in spiritual matrimony as her letters testify.
From her profound union with the Lord Jesus came her capacity to give herself to others. She adhered fully to the motto of her Congregation: “Remain united to me in contemplation and consecrated to me in action” (Jn 15:5). Mother Euphrasia had a profound sense of Church and she personally felt the sorrows and problems of the Church of her day. She offered her mortifications and penances for the conversion of schismatics and asked the novices and children to pray for them.
She prayed ardently before the Blessed Sacrament for the Holy Father, for Bishops, priests and Religious. She submitted herself to His will and finally joined Him in the heavenly embrace at her holy death on 29 August 1952. Mother Euphrasia grew in humility, poverty and holiness as she completely obeyed the will of God every moment. The whole life of this virgin was full of continuous prayer, penance and reparation. Her tomb at the convent has become a pilgrimage site as miracles have been reported by some of the faithful.
On Sunday, 3 December 2006, she became the fifth Blessed of Kerala (India) and the sixth in the whole of India and she was canonized on 23 November 2014. She is regarded as the patron saint of people with tumours because she miraculously healed a child of a neck tumour which led to her being canonised.
St. Euphrasia, pray for us.